What your autumn/winter born child should be able to do by now if they are sitting their 4+ (2026 entry)
/I have just as high of an expectation for my summer born students as I do for my autumn/winter born students but it is obvious (and logical) to understand that your autumn born child should be able to do certain things by now (June 2025) if you are preparing them for their 4+ Assessments (for 2026 entry).
When I speak about autumn born children, I am speaking about children born September - February.
If you don’t know the expectations in these 4+ Assessments, how will you ever prepare your child to go in and pass?
You see, many parents don’t even scratch the surface when it comes to preparing their child for their 4+ Assessments and yet they are surprised, shocked, devastated and heart broken when their child is not offered a place at any of their target schools.
Listen up! Your child is up against hundreds and hundreds of other children all competing for the few places that the schools have available!
If your child doesn’t pass their 4+ Assessments it’s because of two reasons…
They were not ready.
They did something in the Assessment that the Assessors did not like.
I’m going to take each area of the EYFS Curriculum and tell you briefly what exactly your child should be able to do by now if they are autumn born and sitting a 4+ Assessment in the next few months.
Communication and Language - Your child will answer questions to a very high standard and quality. They will be able to answer ‘why’ questions and ‘how’ questions very well. Your child will be able to predict what will happen next and have a vast a broad vocabulary (compared to peers of the same age).
Personal, Social and Emotional Development - Your child will know how to sit calmly and focus for long periods of time (remember that the assessments are 40-90 minutes long!) Your child will demonstrate maturity, give eye contact and always be polite and kind.
Personal Development - Your child will be strong physically and have strong gross and fine motor skills. Your child will be able to cut to a very high quality by this point, make play doh sculptures which are accurate and precise and be exceptional with their lego (eg. making a structure). Your child will most likely already have an interest in a particular sport.
Literacy - Your child will at the very minimum know all of their phase 2 and phase 3 single sounds. By this point they will be moving onto blending and learning their digraphs. Your child will hold their pencil ‘correctly’ and will be able to write numbers 1-10 correctly and will have started to learn how to write the letters of the alphabet.
Maths - Your child will have covered a broad mathematical curriculum and be strong with place value, addition, shape, length, capacity, weight and position and direction.
Understanding of the World - Your child will be curious about the world and want to know more and more.
Art and Design - Your child will be drawing with accuracy, they will be colouring in with precision and they will have started to make things (junk modelling).
If this feels overwhelming to you, our Sumer Massive Action Challenge month is just for you. Join us in July and August for one full month of Massive Action. Launching tomorrow.
