Private girls schools, North London

[traintracks]

My daughter is will be 4 in December and will be doing assessments for private schools over the next few months - South Hampstead, Channing, Habs and NLCS. The nursery she is at isn't a traditional "crammer" for such schools.

I have some idea about what sort of thing I can do with her at home to help her prepare (using a pencil and scissors, puzzles etc) but would really appreciate tips on what other people's children were asked to do in the assessments, or what they are practising at preschools.

No comments please on the nonsense of assessing at this age, I fully agree but with very limited state provision locally feel that I have little option.

Thanks in advance

For the record mumteacher my daughter has been at Habs a while now - yes she did get in at 4+ and began in Rainbow. Traintracks is talking about the 4+ assessment so my comments are relevant to that. Yes it's true it does change at 5+ where there are a few children that come from certain prep schools and girl schools but there are still a large percentage that come from all over and that's fact!

It is quite clear you have your job to protect and I can't blame you for that but whether you want to believe it or not many girls do get through on their natural ability not from being tutored!

From what I understand Traintracks is looking for some reassurance about the assessments and not a lecture on putting your child through them - I am not criticising the assessment process as at this age it really is not as bad as you like to make out. Most children see it no different as going to play (albeit in a different environment).

You can believe all you want but yes my daughter went to nursery, yes it is quite small & lesser known but it doesn't detract from they did their job and my daughter happily picked up the skills required there was no pushing.

What I will say is that my daughter is very confident and determined and the reason we chose the school we did is because we felt it would suit her character!

"The school knows that a parent who is prepared to tutor a for the 4+ will always be willing to tutor in the future if required so that their child never falls behind, because a child who shows some level of intelligence at 4 may or may not continue to shine throughout their schooling life but a parent who is willing to do whatever it takes is always a safer bet to keep league tables looking good."

Sadly, I think there is truth in this statement - plenty of anecdotes from parents with children at school in New York, London and Paris make me, somewhat sadly, conclude that many top-rated schools rely on parents supplementing teaching one way or another.

Vesela read the thread properly - if I was "drumming up business" I wouldn't put up a list of things to cover in order to help parents prepare their own Chn for these assessments.

I never said the assessment are impossible to succeed in without the assistance of a tutor. Just that the assessment are massively competitive and that someone needs to help a child acquire some of the required skill set to stand a good chance to succeed.

The original post high lighted the difficulties of these assessment not I.

I just get a little annoyed when a post goes up like this where someone is just asking for help and a parent comings along saying they did nothing with their child and their child got into every school. A child who didn't have an adult in their life assisting them with the assessment preparation gets into 1 or 2 schools NOT all the schools. We all know each of these schools look for different things and that no one child is good at everything.

Anyway I think the op has had their inquiry answered, so excuse me while I take my kids to go look for fairies at the bottom of the garden. ;)

I actually think mumteacher's post was very helpful as it answered the actual question I asked

Based on my experience with kids from diplomats etc:

• you DO need to prepare you child for the assessment, lots of good advice has been given re what type of stuff your child may be expected to do;

• tutoring may help, because as has been pointed out it shows a commitment from the parent to the education process (eg ultimately school), if you tutor now, you will also tutor in future if necessary. It shows how much you are committed.

Good luck, hope you get her in the school you want.

I take your point, whimsy, but as it happens I went to a similar school and felt that it was good for me and I certainly had a childhood. It is sad that your husband feels otherwise, clearly different schools are right or wrong for different people and you have to be on the lookout for a child being unhappy whatever school they are at, state or private,selective or non.

mumteacher - it was on the basis of that list, plus the way you phrased "without a shadow of doubt she will have to do all these things and be able to do them extremely well" and the hint that they might now looking for reading ability that I felt you were playing up the difficulty of the assessments. It seemed to me designed to make someone reading it think "I'm not going to be able to do this myself - I'd better get a tutor."

Vesela again read the post carefully I said the child would have to do these activities because these are the activities that have come up in the past 3/4 years. Also I said the child would have to do them well based on the fact that the child is born early in the academic year.

I wasn't hinting schools are looking for reading I was telling the op it has been tested for in recent years.

My classes are full and I have a waiting list. I wouldn't waste my time scouting for business on MN but if I can help a parent by sharing information I have is that so terrible?!!

Mumteacher - I did read the post carefully. I did see that you were talking about expectations of a child born early in the academic year. It was the words you used - "beyond a shadow of a doubt" - that caused me to doubt whether you were painting an accurate picture.

sorry - "without a shadow of doubt" etc.

Just to be clear - I'm not against teaching children things at an early age, or tutoring. I don't subscribe to the "let them climb trees till they're 7" philosophy. The only thing I'm against is this snowballing of stress. I understand that figures are figures, though, and I hope free schools end up taking some of the pressure off.

I have a god-daughter at one of the schools mentioned above - she loves it, but I do know that the time around the assessments was a stressful one for them and I remember thinking - I wish they didn't have to deal with this!

p.s. Why aren't more private schools opening in London, though, given the demand? Is it a space issue?

vesela - space is a huge issue when it comes to opening schools in expensive inner cities. London, New York, Paris etc all have major accommodation issues and land/property prices are sky high. Schools that have been around for ages have space, but finding equivalent new space is really hard.