School assessment - Francis Holland

[onepoppet]

Good evening, Has anyone been through a reception year assessment at Francis Holland? What should we expect?

[chipmunkswhereareyou]

Not at Francis Holland but elsewhere....

Ds had to sit still whilst the teachers read a small group of children a story. They were then asked a question and had to wait for their turn. Played with some toys to see how they interact, were shown some pictures and had to talk about what they could see and were asked related questions. I think they also had to count to 10 and see if they could recognise their names on the name badges as they went in.

I think some of the more academic schools are more demanding than this. Ds's school is a 'mildly selective' pre-prep and from what I can tell the assessment was kept low key, informal and fun.

I suspect, with the current economic climate, there will be quite a few families not pursuing applications for places they registered for a while ago, so you might find entry 'requirements' have relaxed a bit.

[stickytape]

Yes. It is a longer assessment than other schools (8:30-12 in our case, I believe). I don't know everything they did, but I know they had a little lesson, and then later re-grouped to see what the children remembered. DD got in-- she loved all the assessments, but we didn't choose FH after all.
I think the long assessment is good for many girls who need more time to be drawn out.