4plus tutor for NCLS and Habs

[gabrielle2016]

Can anyone please recommend a tutor I can contact for the 4 plus assessments for NLCS and Habs? I do respect not everyone wants to go down this pathway but I would appreciate any recommendations from people who have/wish to. Many thanks.

Just burn £20 notes instead. If your DD is right for those schools and doesn't have a meltdown on the day, they'll spot it. If she isn't, no amount of 'tutoring' will help.

Bonkers.
Encourage your DC to follow instructions, take turns and sit quietly. And make sure the school knows you'll be very supportive but not demanding.
Here's a crazy idea! Choose a
school that doesn't select on entry but gets good results, because that indicates they're erm, I dunno, good at teaching.

search for mumteacher here and the 4+ / 5+ threads.

Thanks sanam2010

4+ admissions tests are not something you really need to get a tutor for. They look at your child's behaviour, ability to follow instructions, do they know their colours, shapes and numbers, do they seem interested in learning, are their social and emotional skills where they expect them to be? I know it's hard not to get caught up in it all and you want the very best for your daughter's education but a tutor for this entry point is a waste of money. If your daughter cannot pass the entry test at this stage without help then these schools are not right for her. Trust me, I have friends of friends who had to move their daughter from one of these schools aged seven as she just wasn't able to keep up. Save your tutor money for entry points higher up in her school life.

Thanks Zodlebud

And in a less prickly way than I posted before, really research non selective schools. It's a non exact science selecting at 4. The schools don't know what they're looking for, often get it wrong and why would you expose your child to the possibility of failure so young?

that logic works well until you find out that pretty much everyone who gets in at 4 has been tutored one way or another - either by attending a feeder nursery like Hampstead Hill (which is a tutor in nursery form) or by hours of practice at home with a keen parent or by hiring a tutor. All of these are tutoring.

Horsemadmom aren't your kids teenagers by now? And didn't they attend Hampstead Hill, so they were well tutored by them? Might you be a tiny bit out of date? What the schools say and what they actually do are two very different things.

Thanks Seriouslyffs will definitely be exploring all options

I agree that most children will come from private pre-preps where they will have been primed in some way.

Lots of good nursaries feed into NLCS and Habs. Hampstead Hill is only one of many. I certainly wouldn't call a good nursery 'tutoring'. Some of the girls in DD1's year didn't go to a nursery at all, some went to little playgroups. Only DD and one other from HHS (I think 10 sat for NLCS) got places. As long as they are getting stimulation and have inquisitive minds, they have a shot at those schools. I do advocate a good nursery which encourages early learning skills because it will get a bright child enthusiastic about learning.
Tutoring on top of this won't help. A DD is either bright and ready or not. ACTUALLY LISTEN to Mrs. Newman (and Habs Head). They aren't lying to you when they say that tutoring is a waste of money. They aren't playing a game with you. The tutoring arms race just makes their job harder because they spend the assessments unpicking what is natural intelligence from what a tutor has drilled into your child. When it turns out that your tutored child is not appropriate for the school and is miserable, you will just have invested in well-earned guilt.

And, yes, my DDs are teens now but there were idiot parents even then.

You cannot tutor for a 4+. I have been through it twice (with success both times). Sensible stuff at home (letters/phonics to reading, numbers, colours, jigsaws, shapes, tracing, writing own name) or at nursery. Things you/they would likely be doing anyway by this stage. Always good to avoid a meltdown and refusing to go in. Encouraging talking and confidence. Someone else mentioned cutting out shapes with scissors but don't think mine would have been up to that! But a tutor just isn't necessary, honestly, please it's madness with such a little one.