5 TRUTHS about the Notting Hill and Ealing 4+ Assessment.
/1. The school 100% expects your daughter to have formal knowledge and education in her 4+ Assessment.
Sorry, but what else do you think they are looking for?
The school writes that they are looking for ‘potential and readiness’ rather than formal knowledge. Actually they are looking for all three and they all go hand in hand with each other. How can your daughter show her true potential and readiness without having formal knowledge (which essentially just means knowledge of the curriculum that they will be assessing!)?
The girls we have prepared historically for Notting Hill and Ealing (over the last 13 years) have all gone in at a very high academic standard with a very high level of knowledge. Not really sure what the school is implying by using the word ‘formal’.
2. Preparation is needed.
Sorry but why would you assume that it wouldn’t be needed?
I think that it’s just very unfair to send a girl into an assessment unprepared.
‘Oh but she’s only 3/4!’
Ok, well if you think like that - then please just don’t send her in to a 4+ Assessment and expect to have a positive outcome! And if you think like that, you are really undermining your daughter’s potential. I personally would never refer to my son as ‘only 3!’.
3. If tell your daughter that she is going in ‘to play’ with other girls - guess what? That is what she will do!
How about all of the other things you should tell her?
Here are just a few for you!
I would like you to go in and listen perfectly to all of the teachers.
I would like you to go in and show how well you share with the other children.
I would like you to go in and follow all of the instructions immediately.
But no, just tell your daughter she is going in for a ‘play’ and have the expectation that she will just be offered a place at this incredibly competitive school!
‘Just go in and play darling - have fun!’
That is not what we tell our students - just as a side note.
4. Our girls preparing for this school will be taught numeracy and literacy skills to a very high academic level.
So many of you want to prove me wrong on this - and in nearly 2 decades of doing this no one ever has. And even if you do prove me wrong, who really cares? We prepare our students to be able to read, write and have a high level of maths regardless of whether or not it is assessed!
And I know what the school write on their website before you try to prove your point.
5. Your daughter WILL need to go in happily and calmly in order to pass this assessment.
They say that if your daughter is upset that they will invite her on another date. Sure, that does happen. But on that second occasion she WILL need to go in happily and calmly in order to pass this assessment.
Let’s not overthink this.
