4+ assessment guidance

[mumv1]

Hi mammas

We are a family moving to the UK this year and looking to put our little one through the 4+ assessment for schools in London. I have read on here that it does not require tutoring but I am keen to get her some exposure to what the process could look like for her on the day. Especially as we bring her in from a place with far less structure than what I gather here about some of the feeder nurseries or even any British nursery. We are working on her English language as she’s currently in a bilingual nursery with less exposure to it.

is anyone aware of any form “experience” providers who could help us give her some exposure to the type of things that come up in the assessment. Call it tutoring if you may but really someone who can give us a flavour of how we can support her at home for the assessments.

thanks a lot in advance for all the 4+ insights you’ve already shared on here. It’s been my go-to so far.

I've just been through the 4+ for the second time recently. Tutoring as far as I know doesn't really exist. Get them into a good pre-school (even a state nursery) to ensure she has all of her school readiness skills- gross and fine motor skills, preliteracy skills and basic numeracy. You practice these skills little and often at this age and in a play based way.

At home just do things like:

1. Read a wide variety books together and discuss vocab and ask questions about the stories
2. Draw pictures
3. Do puzzles
4. Work on phonics - Teach your Monster is great
5. Work on numeracy-- Numberblocks is great but then just practice noticing numbers and counting etc in everyday life
6. For girls, recognising and potentially depending on the school being able to write your name can be helpful

If you mention which schools you are targeting there may be other specific insights you can garner about what the assessments involve. For many schools though, they are looking for mental acuity rather than specific tested skills.

We just finished the process across south London, and I’d say they were all fairly similar. Would be helpful to know which schools you’re looking at, as some are more academic/competitive then others and will be looking for particular abilities