selective indie 4+ assessment... I don't need to TUTOR DD, do I???!!

[DuchessOfWeaseltown]

We love a particular indie not far from us and though I don't care for the idea of assessing 3 year olds, as it's a selective school we do need to put DD up for the assessment.

From what it's possible to tell at her age (just 3) she seems very bright, she picks things up fast, asks lots and lots of very good and left-field questions, she is interested hugely in the world around her and is terrifically verbal.

But with ratio of applicants to places somewhere around 5 to 1, I don't know if she will neccessarily get through any assessment! Surely some of it is just luck of the draw at a certain point?

Aaaaaanyway, my general question is what, if anything at all, we should do to help maximise her chances of doing well at assessment. I have this horrible fear that, despite the advice of the school, there might be a lot of tutoring going on - maybe not actual tutors being hired for 3 year olds but certainly a good deal of prep work done at home in terms of reading/writing etc.

I guess we have sort of been planning to just wing it and hope that DD's natural brightness shines through but is this just wildly unrealistic?!

Though she is starting (just since turning 3 actually) to show more interest in the letters etc she is learning at nursery, she certainly isn't the sort of child to happily sit down and let us 'educate' her even if we wanted to. Since she has shown more interest in letters, I do take every passing opportunity I can to chuck in a bit of "oooh, look, there's the letter b, remember your grandad's name starts with that' etc, and she really gets a kick out of this, but this is as close as I think we'll get to 'teaching' her anything ourselves.

Do parents drill their kids with letters, counting etc for these sorts of assessments, and are we going to put DD at a big disadvantage if we don't? Or can these types of schools really see past a lot of preparation/ even the dreaded formal Tutoring? At age 3, when they assess them...?

Ive always maintained that parents that are able to support their Chn through the preparation towards the assessments is better than working with a tutor once/twice a week.

I think what also needs to be considered here is the vocabulary - when an external adult helps a child learn shapes etc it's tutoring but if a parent ^"looks at shapes, colours, numbers and letters on a day to day environment"^ it's 'we didn't tutor'.

What you really mean is as parents we did some research, we had some time during the course of the week and helped our child in the preparation.

Parents can and should be able to assist their children without constant external support, but some don't have the time or know- how.

Please don't be naive, very very very few rock up with a 'let's just see how this goes' attitude because come on let's face if the 3/4+ works out in your favour it could mean no 7/11+ entry and almost a guarantee to senior school (if the school has one).

I agree wholeheartedly with Mumteacher.

I'd add that, whether you use a tutor or not, it's useful to make use of adults who are less familiar to your child with whom you can safely ask to have your child over for half an hour to carry out a 'not seen before activity' (jigsaw, reading a book and answering questions on a simple story, etc.). This will help to acclimatise your child to following instructions with a lesser-known adult and in a different environment. Common sense prevails here - I'm certainly not suggesting you seek out strangers and get your child used to going off with them. On the contrary, becoming used to going with the adult mummy/ daddy are placing you in charge of is quite a different matter.

I find that many parents appreciate insights into their child's strengths and weaknesses alongside guidance on 'next steps' to carry out at home to support their development. Ultimately, I don't believe a child of this age can be tutored (so much depends on personality and development at this stage). However, most children I work with have not reached their potential in the areas that most assessments will be looking at. Being able to see these areas objectively and individually allows me to demonstrate clearly to a parent what and how to carry out fun, simple tasks at home in order to support their progress. Sadly, many nurseries restrict themselves with the 'learn through play' approach fostered by OFSTED. while play is indisputably essential to development, there is still room for guidance on how to hold a pencil, letter sounds, numbers (and what they mean), etc.

With clear guidance of activities to carry out during the week, parents are able to make remarkable changes to the learning and confidence of their children's approach to assessment tasks.