Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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Entrance 4+ or 7+

3 replies

UeserITmum123 · 26/02/2025 11:58

Hi all,
as a family, we are thinking on moving back to London after a couple of years abroad. Expecting to move back this year, we have already enrolled our daughter to sit the 4+ assessment in a number of private schools in Jan 2026. The schools we have selected (Ken Prep, Glendower, Falkner, etc..) are all very academic. If we go ahead with this plan, we will move to the UK in a couple of months to give DD time to settle in a UK nursery and get ready for the assessment.

NOW :) ... we are debating postponing the move by a a few years and come over once she has to sit the assessment for the 7+. DD will be attending a british school (following the british curriculum) abroad. I would hope to target the same caliber of school but appreciate the competition at that stage will be fierce plus, keeping in mind we are not english native speakers, her language skills may not be up to par with kids who grew up in the UK.

Are we crazy to forgo the chance to sit the 4+ which will arguably be easier than the 7+?
Does anyone have experience of successfully passing the 7+ to a strongly academic school coming from abroad? If yes, what advise would you have to prepare for that and/or what schools to target? I am just trying to balance a good education for DD without putting unnecessary stress on a kid that will be only 6 by the time she has to sit an exam in another country.

Thank you!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
ChelseaLDN · 26/02/2025 21:30

i've done both 4+ and 7+, and would prefer the 4+ route everyday

quite simply you have far better odds at 4+ as it is the main intake for girls.

not many schools (and none you mention) run a 7+ for girls in SW london (not sure about North London), so you would most likely be needing an occasional place, and you'd need a bit of luck in terms of timing. girls do move so it's not impossible, but because of that I would suggest the 4+ is a more solid route to take.

Rocknrollstar · 26/02/2025 21:32

If you can you should follow the 4+ route. It’s so much easier to get them in when they are younger.

Educationpony · 05/03/2025 21:18

The main intake for the schools you mentioned is 4+. For 7+ it will be different schools (Bute, City, Leh etc)

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