4+ assesements 2024

[tps123]

Hello

I thought I'd set up a new thread for those sitting 4+ in 2024 for September 2025 start date.

Any tips for prepping?

What schools are people considering?

Thank you both for your replies!
@Melabela10 yeah thats the thing..as soon as a school has outdoor/extra facilities, it gets really tough to get in!

Have you looked into Mill Hill School? Incredible grounds and facilities

for inner (ish) London its Highgate that will fit the criteria (decent central location plus good grounds/well rounded school) but its selective.
as a poster above suggested Mill Hill schools are good in terms of facilities but they are further away (and they are not selective so you will get mixed intake),

with VAT and falling birth rates/reduced pupil population id think small schools are struggling to survive so will offer less in terms of extra curricular, big schools cam cope better thanks to scale

Thank you, @Tiredmumofthreekids and @Blacklabsonly, gives me couple of options.
Can I also ask if there is any hope for a child that takes time to get comfortable in new places/with new people? DD is an observer and does not like to jump into things right at the start. Are we being stupid by hoping that these schools will be able to look beyond her shy nature?

I wouldn’t worry at all—both schools (MH and Highgate) accommodate a diverse range of pupils (including shy ones) and are very nurturing at the junior stage. Highgate, of course, is a step above as it is more selective, so id certainly choose it (if you pass the selection!) providing the location is suitable.

@Nishmum our daughter is very similar, in addition to being an August baby. I did initially have the same concerns as you. However the way we see it now, if a school is assessing for just outgoing kids, then it shows the type of children that school wants to teach, and hence (at least at this age) it wouldn't be the right environment for our daughter. I'm sure your daughter will find the most suitable place.

@Blacklabsonly thats a great way of looking at it! and agree with your perspective!

We're not doing the assessments this year but can anyone share what is coming up?

@Nishmum the assessors seem to know how to get the best out of children and to help those that are shy. That being said I think it depends on the school, my LO is quite shy some school assessments had a good 5-10min warmup as in they were in a room with other kids and parents before they went off for their assessment giving them a chance to be comfortable, but another school literally took our child straight away. It's a tough one as they have a set time for the assessment and a number of activities they need to get through. Although I would say schools do tend to pick mixed personalities shy and outgoing kids so I would worry.

@KimchiLaLa would love to help but my child is June born and I barely get an answer when I ask what they did. Sometimes the odd word such as colouring and cutting. Perhaps older children can give more detailed description!

Hi Mums! Can anyone help with tips for UCS or the Hall 4+ assessments?

Our DS is in a lovely pre-school at the moment, but not getting prepped there. I do think he’s bright so I want to do what I can to help him over Christmas break if it’s not already too late.

Hello! Anyone here applying to Habs boys?

@SleeplessinLondon00 we got through the first round of Habs Boys. Glad because we didn’t get through Highgate so we had really low hopes. Any clue how many boys go to round 2?

lol makes sense. Thanks tho

Habs results for round 1 are out.

Does anyone know how many applicants were there for habs 4+? I think UCS mentioned 400 applicants last year for 40 spot but my memory is not great!

Oh boy, 400 is a lot of applications. For some reason I thought UCS was 250 applications for 32 spots? Slightly better odds albeit still terrible, considering how few spaces there will be after siblings.

I’m not sure how many applicants there were for Habs. We didn’t manage to visit the school prior and I didn’t see it written on any of their correspondence but I’m also curious to know!

Did anyone else go to the Nlcs assessments? How did your little ones find it? Anyone know when and how they’re releasing the results for the second stage?

They said they would notify by latest next week Tuesday.

We thought it was a nice warm friendly process but no idea what they did during assessment our LO didn't say anything!

I believe Habs boys and girls second round is soon and I think Habs girls second round dates do potentially overlap with NLCS second round. Thankfully we’re only doing NLCS. But for those doing both hope you get seperate days

Yes our little one just said yes when we asked her did you do xyz and couldn’t come up with much! But she came out happy, as did most of the children to be fair!

Do you know if they’re emailing or posting out results?

I'm assuming email as most correspondence has been like this.

Good luck for the upcoming second rounds! What’s the second round of habs like? Think they’ve mentioned that there is an opp for parents to ask questions as “a group”. What does that mean?

Is that for boys or girls?

Anyone got Channing 1st round results yet? They promised to email by this evening.