Dealing with 4+ rejection

[SlothHouse]

Just got a letter from JAGS. My DD didnt get a place, despite taking part in all activities.

What could have gone wrong?

Was us as parents? We don't have elite/respectful jobs. DP owns a few properties which is how we would have paid for schooling. And he works in public sector. I'm in a menial job.

What are reasons why these schools would reject a 4 year old?

@SlothHouse I wouldn’t worry too much. We also received the same letter on Saturday. It is heart wrenching when you first open and read the letter. Luckily for us JAGS was a backup option. Our first was WHS GDST where our DD already had an offered however we couldn’t help but feel disappointed DD was also not offered a place at JAGS. For us we knew it was 50/50 whether DD would be offered a place. Our DD is hesitant with men she does not know. Unfortunately during the assessment one of the activities was being led by a male assessor. Our DD was hesitant and did not want to interact with him. It took one of the female assessors to entice our DD to complete the activity which DD did successfully. We believe DD was not offered a place because of her reaction to the male assessor. Anyway I would despair. What they do is rank all the candidates according to performance and select the top X. Your DD could have performed well but others may have performed better. Try again for the 7+ and fingers crossed you get your preferred state primary school.

How can some girls get in based on their nursery?

Some nurseries/ pre-schools know how to play the 4+ game and 'feed' particular selective schools. You would need inside information as to which nurseries had a high 4+ pass rate.

Ridiculous, but that's how it is.

Honestly OP this is not about accent or class or anything going “wrong”. It’s just that there are more girls applying than the school can accommodate.

A similar thing happened to friends of mine. They had mega City salaries to throw at education and bought a massive house specifically for its proximity to the desired London school. The grand plan was that DC1 would get in at 4+ and then it would be a breeze for DC2 under the sibling policy.

DC1 didn’t get in. No particular reason, just not offered.

She went to the lovely local primary instead, and they started thinking about 7+. In the end, though, both DC were so happy at the state primary that 7+ was forgotten about. They stayed at the primary and saved ££££ in fees.

Your DD will be fine - better than fine - because you care about and support her education and development. I hope the state allocations go your way.

Some nurseries/ pre-schools know how to play the 4+ game and 'feed' particular selective schools.

Definitely true in some areas but not sure that is the case for the Dulwich schools. The only exception perhaps is Dulwich Prep London, a boys school, which has girls in the nursery who then have to go to another school for reception, so may be better at getting the girls "assessment ready".