4+ assessments and summer born children....

[angelpuffs]

Can anyone tell me anything encouraging about getting their summer born daughter into any of the north London prep schools? I have been told by all the schools we are applying to (NLCS, Habs, SHHS etc) that they don't expect as much from summer born children at assessments and they are assessed with other children of similar age, but one headmistress told me that there are still more winter born children taken in at 4.
My DD1 is May born and I'm feeling pretty disillusioned at the moment
Thanks in advance!

I am always a bit suspicious about why in DS2's class of 29 children, 10 had birthdays before Christmas....

At my DDs' selective primary, there weren't many summer born children, but there were some.

(My DDs were born in April and May.)

TBH, it was very unscientific. They didn't use proper intelligence testing, and in fact, I think proper tests only really work from about 7. So, I'm not surprised if they don't get a proper spread of ages over the year.

We were told the local selective school (S London) only took winter born girls, and that our pre-school didn't know of any summer-borns accepted. We gave it a punt, and dd1 did get a place (which we didn't accept, in the end, as we got a state primary place which at the time seemed unlikely as we were in a catchment black hole).

DD is a July baby who is just finishing at NLCS. There were 5 July and August in her reception year (one was August 31st). They see the girls at assessment by age and choose a spread. The age difference is mostly irrelevant by the time they are 7.

Plenty of birthday parties still to come in my DD's class at Habs.

Michael - sounds right. September - December is one third of the year so it makes sense that 10 out of 30 will have birthdays before Christmas.

they see them by month. I know quite a few August borns who get into NLCS, they are not at a disadvantage. My DD is at a highly selective girls prep and they seem to have 1-2 girls from each month, no bias towards autumn borns.

In my experience, shy children are at a much bigger disadvantage in assessments than summer borns. I know some August borns who walk up to any stranger and say "hello, look, I've got new shoes" etc. and schools seem to love these kids because they are much easier to assess. If you have a bright but thoughtful, introvert autumn born who doesn't like to talk to strangers, you can have a really hard time.

So don't worry too much about it, just do what you can do to prepare her, make sure she socialises and is used to interacting with adults and other kids, the rest will just be down to her form on the day / luck / her fit with the school etc..

I'm not changing- it was 10 out of a class of 20, not 30!

I evidently can't type properly'

Thanks everyone who has replied with positive comments! I'm overanalysing, i know. I was just discouraged when the head at South Hampstead openly said that they take more winter born girls. What will be will be, I guess....

angelpuffs are you stressing already?;) Don't! We all want to get our DDs into a good school, but you can't in any way predict an outcome at such a tender age. However, it won't definitely hurt your little one if you play with her, talk to her about various things, etc. If it's her day of luck and school finds her suitable, great! If not, you can try next time. But it's worth trying anyway. Also I would assume there will be more Autumn/Winter borns being accepted simply for the reason they are able to show more knowledge and skills as they are more developed in every possible way. Being 3.5 and 4-4.5 at the time of assessments is a big difference. My DD couldn't do many things a month ago, and now she's just a pro at those, so literally every day is counted here. Also it's a lot down to personality of a girl - I can now see the difference myself when I look at girls on the playground we go to with my DD. Some are just born to study at those schools. So, to sum up - stop thinking too much, keep playing and talking to your DD, go to all schools you wanted to, and we'll see next Feb!Good luck to all of us!!! Amen!

Ofelia-I have good days and bad
What month is your daughters birthday...?

Angelpuffs, don't worry - you're not the only one ;) Sometimes I think she's on track, some days I think "no way!", but, to be honest, it's already a sign of OCD :))) They are only little, and they supposed to have fun with us, and not watch us going crazy about schools. My DD is June born, so we're not too far away from you ;) I'm July born, and believe me, it never got in my way :)) - I was always good at school and uni.
By the way, on the schools subject, are there any independent Montessori schools in London? Would you be able to rexommend any?

Hi Ofelia
I don't know of any independent Montessori schools I'm afraid- it's not something we are looking into. But start a separate thread about it and I'm sure someone will be able to help

Most schools will use standardised tests which take the child's raw score for a task and convert it into a standardised score taking into account their age in years & months. Therefore a summer born might have a lower raw score on a test but once it is converted may well score higher than an older child. A school that doesn't do this would have a very skewed intake and would overlook very bright summer borns.

Arabella- is this true at the 4+ assessments as well as for older children?

Slightly off thread. My DS failed to get on the waiting list of the local popular, very academic, super selective pre-prep's waiting list as you could only go on it once the child was born and it was full by Christmas.

Then in the middle of reception year the local 7 to 18 school opened a pre-prep, which destroyed demand for the school I couldn't get on the waiting list for.
They wrote to us and offered August born DS an assessment, he aced it (he's generally performing 2 years ahead of his age group). I have never had so much smug pleasure in turning an offer down.

Hang in there OP.

Yes, I know this for a fact.

judging by the NLCS parties that I attend, May should be fine. but if born in June/July/August, then forget about it. Unless your DD is very exceptional and has that "star sparkle confidence". I've talked to some other nlcs parents and found out most of the girls started to speak simple sentences early on (age 2 plus) and freely spoke with a inquisitive mind, confidence, and correct meaning. Like others have said at 7+ and 11+ the month they are born makes no difference at these stages. good luck, but please note it's not the end of the world if she doesn't get in. i see the grass is greener on the other side.