Should I bother doing the 4+ private assessments for my summer born?

[theotherplace]

And if you did and and were successful what traits did they show a year earlier to make you think it was worth it?

not sure if it’s worth the pain

Just do the assessments - don't overthink it. Kids are assessed 'against' others born at similar times. many schools group assessments by month of birth.

Yes you should give it a go. We know a couple of summer girls who got all their offers - NLCS, SHHS, Highgate, St C - their parents thought the same but decided to give it a go

I would give it a go. I would obviously have backups because there’s no guarantee and I would apply for several. We did 3 different assessments that were over 6 weeks so when DD came back from the first and told us what she had done, I practised things I thought DD would have found more tricky. I don’t think you will see all the traits that will give you signs they will do well now, they change so much and learning new skills/communication all the time. I would also say there are so many factors that come into play; how they’re feeling on the day, whether they had a good sleep, ate well, the time of the assessment and your journey there- there are so many variables you need luck on your side!

If you really want to send your child to a specific school / schools with a 4+ entry point then that is much better than doing the 7+ or 11+.

Can you make the process more about the journey than the destination. even if not successful you will likely have given your child a big boost for when they start school as long as the process has been fun and enjoyable rather than overly stressful for the child.

fwiw we had a May born DS who didn’t get into schools that had an autumn assessment but got into 3 in theory much more competitive schools that had a Dec/Jan assessment and the progress in those 2-3 months between was remarkable. He went from not sitting still to being able to focus for extensive periods and had a sudden burst in vocabulary and general understanding of the world (which shows how uneven progress is at that age)

Definitely worth it. The schools know they’re dealing with 3/4 year olds, and are used to comparing like with like.

DD1 is in reception in a competitive school, and there’s a real spread of birthdays.

All the schools I know of take birth month into account, so definitely don’t let that put you off. There are lots of good reasons not to do the 4+ assessment IMO but that isn’t one of them.

I've had two go through schools that Educationpony mentioned above. Both year groups were definitely skewed, something like 50% September/October/November vs 15% June/July/August birthdays. And most of the summer borns had older siblings at the schools.

But I agree that it's worth a go if they're able to sit still, listen to a teacher, and follow simple instructions.

I went to the first of those schools and that definitely wasn’t true back then. Girls were even grouped by birth month for the assessments. Obviously that was quite a while ago but I don’t know why it would have changed.

@NW3Lady

DD2 joined that school in reception at a time when they still shared the birth dates and parent contact details with the entire year (they changed that policy several years ago). Of the 40 girls who started that year, 18 were born in September/October/November vs 5 born in June/July/August. I believe that the school still assesses girls in groups by birth month. However, in DD2's year group at least, they didn't seem to make much effort to take a similar number from each quarter, let alone each month.

That’s really disappointing to hear. I can think of several girls from my year with July or August birthdays who went on to do very well indeed, including Oxbridge and medicine offers.

my brother's kids, both born mid July. boy is at highgate, got into UCS, the hall and habs too. The girl is also at highgate, but got into SHHS, Channing and NLCS.

July birthday here - they adjust expectations for summer born children. Go for.it.