Phoenix School (NW3) - can someone tell me a bit more?

[zzlondongirlzz]

Hi. My DD is on the waiting list for entry into reception next year and I found out today that she will be invited to an 'assessment'. My DD currently attends a very cosy nursery but it's not academic at all, she is a summer birthday too so needless to say I'm a tad worried that we might have bitten off more than we can chew going for UCS. Anyway, I just wondered if anyone could give me a steer here as to what they might be looking for and what she might be asked to do? I do find the whole 'assessing' 3 year olds slightly ridiculous and can hardly believe we've fallen into this game but with the oversubcription problem at all the state primaries in nw3/nw6 we felt compelled to at least look at private options.
Any advice appreciated!

My eldest starts Reception next year too and we've been doing a bit of research into this recently.
It seems to vary from school to school but as a general rule it seems to be things like;

-Can they write their name?
-Can they draw a picture of themselves?
-Can they draw a picture of their immediate family and say who is who?
-Can they use scissors and colouring pencils appropriately?
-Some sort of pretend play/role play
-Can they sit and listen to a story and talk about it afterwards? (with prompts)
-Do they interact well with other children? Often the assessments are in small groups of 3 or 4.
-Sometimes they are given a jigsaw.

Some of the more over-subscribed schools or those more pushy academically may look at number/letter recognision but I think this is rare as they are looking for potential rather than what they've been taught at home.

If you do a mumsnet search on 4+ assessments I think there's quite a bit.

Oh and I think they adjust for summer born babies.

Hope this helps a little.

thanks so much thats really helpful and I'll do some more research on mumsnet too!
cheers

Hi there, I would love some feedback on the pheonix if you did go in the end...my son has an assessment soon, but the school did seem to be a bit lacking on outside space...? Any feedback welcomed. many thanks,

DD was assessed at a different school at 3. She told me afterwards that they asked if they could pick her name card out from a number of others, she was asked to do a painting of anything she liked, asked to do a jigsaw with one of the pupils already there and asked if she could sing or say her favourite nursery rhyme and then asked to say why it was her favourite. She also joined in a playtime session and had milk and biscuits. She may have done other things as well but that was all she told me.

I don't think they are looking for massive academic skills at this age but for lively, interested children with potentialnwho can cope for a while without mummy and daddy and interact with other children

whoops sorry just seen the age of this thread

Not an academic school