Fear of judgement and the 4+ assessments

Do you fear judgement? 

Do you fear people will judge you for your choice to support your child to prepare for their 4+ assessments?

If you do, you need to do some work on that because it will hold you back. It will make you doubt yourself. It will make you want to believe what this other person is saying to you. 

Here are some of the ways my clients have been judged in the past and are currently being judged today. 

Perhaps my clients will tell their friends that they are planning to send their child to a 4+ assessment at the likes of Westminster, Highgate or Haberdashers for example. Their friends will say something like…

‘You’re preparing your child for a 4+ assessment? What’s wrong with you?’ 

‘Your child is only 1/2/3/4? What do you think you can really teach them at that age?’ 

‘That’s ridiculous!’ 

‘The schools will know who has been tutored and your child will fail!’ 

‘Your child should be out playing not learning how to read/write/count etc etc!’

These comments, first of all make zero sense. Second of all if you believe them, they will stall your progress - and your child’s progress!

In this people pleasing society that we live in, we will want to listen to these friends and we will want to show them that we will stop doing what they are judging us about - which is insanity by the way! 

We will always be judged no matter what we do and no matter what we say. 

Hear the judgements and carry on. 

Make a choice. Be happy about your choice. And go all in. 

Book your FREE Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today. 

Why some of our clients stop after just 1-3 months of Assessment preparation.

Obviously they would never admit this to me but I’m here to tell you my thoughts about why some of our clients stop after just 1-3 months of Assessment preparation.

It is important for you to understand that most of our clients will stay with us for the full 12 months of my programme and most of our clients will continue well after those 12 months have completed. This is because the clients that we wish to work with are the clients who know that learning is lifelong. Learning is not just to prepare for an entrance exam.

Our ideal clients are the clients who are willing to fully dedicate their time, focus and attention to their children’s learning. That’s exactly why even once the assessments are over, most of our clients will continue. We’ve had clients who have worked with us for 6+ years.

But as we work with more and more clients each year, there is a pattern that I’m finding fascinating. Here it is for you…

I will speak with clients who are delighted to work with me. Delighted to work with Creative Minds Tutors. But when they see that their children are not instantly making the progress that they believe that they should be making, they make the decision to simply stop. I hear a multitude of excuses ranging from ‘We don’t have the time any more!’ to ‘We’ve decided to not send them to the assessment anymore!’ to ‘He/she is too young!’ to ‘We don’t have the money to invest into their learning!’. These are just a few. I don’t believe any of these reasons.

Now ultimately, parents can decide to start and stop whatever they like. And that’s the beauty of the world we live in. We are free to make our own choices. But I think this is quite devastating actually. Not for me.

The reason they choose to stop after just 1-3 months of assessment preparation is because their children are not making the progress that they think they should be making.

In their minds they have some glorified idea that their child should just know their phonics after just two weeks of being exposed to them! That their children should just know how to count to 10 and identify numbers to 10 after just 2 weeks of being taught numbers to 10! That their children should just love reading after just 2 weeks of consistently reading to them! That their child should be able to answer complex comprehensions after just 2 weeks of exposure to them. That their child should know how to calculate algebraic equations after being exposed to them two or three times.

That’s not how learning works. Hear me carefully.

Learning is not linear.

And that’s important for you to understand so that you don’t make this mistake. I really don’t see the point in wasting your time, your teacher’s time and your child’s time signing up to something for 1-3 months and then simply walking away.

Fully understand that learning progress will fluctuate. It will go up and down. Children are not robots and they do not learn on demand - much like you by the way!

So if you’re going to invest in something. At least give it a chance. At least give your child a chance to make the progress that you would like to see them making. And by giving it a chance, I do not mean giving it 1-3 months. This is not enough time to see anywhere near the progress you imagine you should be seeing.

And if you think that’s how learning works, you are very, very mistaken.

The 'Dystopian World' of the 4+ assessments.

Here is the meaning of a ‘Dystopian World’ for you:

A dystopian world is a fictional, imagined society characterised by oppressive control, dehumanisation, and widespread misery, functioning as the opposite of a utopia.

I’ve had people comment that the 4+ Assessments are like a ‘Dystopian World’! According to the definition that doesn’t really make sense does it?

But I know what these people are getting at.

There are people out there who think 4+ Assessments are just wrong.

There are people out there who think you shouldn’t teach a child until they are in Reception.

There are people out there who think that if you teach your 1/2/3 year old that there is something wrong with you.

And that’s just their opinion.

There is nothing dystopian about the 4+ assessments.

People will look down at you for a variety of different reasons. Perhaps because they are comparing their child’s progress to your child’s progress (something you must never do just FYI). Perhaps they don’t understand the immense benefits of teaching your child in the early years. Perhaps they are disappointed that they can’t afford a private school education for their own children. Whatever it is, never let people look down on you. Ever.

We are all equal as far as I’m concerned.

And people who look down on us and what we do are clearly lacking something in their own lives which is certainly none of my business.

If you are preparing your child for their 4+ assessments, be proud of your decision. Be delighted that you are supporting your child to make incredible progress. And know that the learning doesn’t end just because the 4+ assessments have ended. 80% of our clients continue with us long after the assessments have completed.

Are you scared of what people will think of you?

I’m not.

I used to be.

For years I worried about what others thought about me and I obsessed over it. Now, I really couldn’t care less.

The only opinion I care about is my own.

And if you truly are scared of what other people will think of you, it is so important that you understand why that is. Because it will hold you back in so many ways that you are probably completely unaware of.

People will always judge you no matter what you do. So you might as well choose to do something that you love doing. People will always judge you for how you raise your child so you might as well raise your child how you wish to raise your child.

When I was a little girl, I remember my mother being obsessed about other people’s opinions and I never understood it. I still don’t. She’s definitely got better of this through many conversations with me about it. But I remember as a little girl, my mother saying things to me like, ‘What will so and so think about you doing that?’ And ‘Oh you shouldn’t do that/say that so and so won’t like it!’.

She was always putting other people’s thoughts and opinions first and I always thought that it was very odd. It was always about appearances rather than reality.

Now I am fully true to myself. True to my family and true to what matters most to me.

I’m not scared about what people will think about me. They can think what they want. They can think negatively about me or they can thin positively about me. Either way - it doesn’t matter to me. I was not put on this earth to please anyone but myself!

It’s so freeing, it’s so liberating.

Yet, I work with so many of you who are absolutely petrified about what others will think of what you do. Many of you even hide it from others. You hide the fact that you are teaching your child because you are terrified of what others will think about you?

Do what is true to you.

Don’t care about what others think.

Not everyone will like you and that’s okay.

Always put your child’s well being about anyone else’s. Always. Your child comes first. No one else matters - really do they?

Preparing for assessments for 2027 entry? Book your Ultimate Emerald Curriculum Sample Week today.

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3 common reasons boys 'failed' the 4+ at Habs' Boys' School.

This year 9 of our boys passed their 4+ assessment at Habs. We actually prepared an impressive number of boys last year for the Habs’ Boys’ 4+ assessment. 10 boys last year. In my results, you will see that I’ve mentioned 9 boys. This is because the 10th client that we prepared did not reply to my messages and did not let me know if her son passed or not. I will assume he did not but as she did not let me know, he will not be counted.

Perhaps you’re asking yourself - ‘Well how on earth does she know the common traits of the children who ‘failed’ the 4+ at Habs’ Boys’ School if all of the boys that her and her team prepared passed?’

It’s simple. We have spoken to at least 20 parents whose boys did not pass this assessment. Many of these parents are now our clients and we are preparing their boys for the 7+ at Habs (amongst other schools of course).

Here are 3 common reasons children were not offered a place to study at Habs’ Boys’ at 4+.

1. They were not at the intellectual level of their peers who were offered a place.

I do not mean this in a negative way at all so please do not read it in that way. What I mean is simply this.

They were not able to do many of the things that the assessors asked them to do in the two assessments at Habs boys whereas the boys who passed were able to do these things.

2. They were not prepared to the standard expected at Habs boys.

Surprisingly, many of these boys were actually prepared by other Tutoring agencies or private teachers. So why were they not prepared to the standard? Simple. The teachers they were working with were unaware of the standards as they had never prepared boys for Habs. How on earth would they know?

3. They were not able to demonstrate the behavioural traits Habs’ Boys’ School expects to see in their boys at the 4+ assessments.

Simple things like following instructions, exceptional listening and being polite, kind and caring at all times.

If these boys were not told the behavioural expectations expected of them, how would you expect them to go in and demonstrate them?

If you are preparing for Habs’ Boys’ School simply sending them to a ‘feeder nursery’ is not enough. I don’t believe this is even a thing for this school to be completely blunt with you.

If you are preparing for Habs’ Boys’ working with a teacher who has no experience with this assessment is not enough. Don’t just work with someone because they will save you money. Invest in proper tuition for your child and the highest quality tuition available.

I know that we are the best out there to prepare for Habs’ Boys’ School and I know that we will continue to get exceptional results.

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Why did so many children children 'fail' the 4+ at Highgate?

Many failed at 7+ too but that’s not what I’m speaking about today. 

Today, we are speaking about the 4+ at Highgate. 

When you look at our 2025 results, you will see that we prepared 8 children for Highgate. You will also see that only 3 were offered a place. 

Perhaps parents stumbling upon my results will think that those results are really not that great. Well, let me tell you something…

My results are real and honest. And they are exceptional. 

I’ve seen other tutors’ results who claim that they prepared 10 students and all 10 passed. Well, first of all they are lying to your faces. And second of all if you believe them, you are delusional. 

Unless all 10 of those children had siblings at Highgate, there is no way all 10 passed. 

I would run in the opposite direction from people spouting such nonsense and lies.

For 2026 entry to Highgate and for the first year in a very long time, Highgate did not hold their famous ballot for the 4+. They claimed that they had fewer applicants than usual. Perhaps. However they still assessed close to 500 children for 60 places. 

Many of our students who did not pass the Highgate 4+ assessment, passed at the likes of Westminster, Haberdashers, Glendower and Falkner House to name a few. Therefore they clearly did not pass because they weren’t intelligent enough! Trust me- they are! 

So why did so many children fail to be offered a place at Highgate this year at 4+?

I believe Highgate clearly over offered to siblings first of all. Second of all I believe in the assessments, they already had their eyes on who they wanted to come to their school and focused mostly on those children compared to the others. 

Was it a fair assessment? 

Is anything fair in this world that we live in?

Prepare your child and prepare them well for this 4+ assessment. 

Do not only apply to Highgate and make sure that you have a variety of schools that you are applying to. 

And if Highgate is the only school that you want for your child, understand this. You are taking a huge risk. You risk not having a school for your child. And no one wants to be in this stressful position do they? 

If you are confused, worried and anxious about what to do, book your FREE Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today and speak to an expert who can support and guide you to make the best possible decisions for your child. 

Preparing for the 4+ and don’t know who to turn to?

Decide that you will be sending your child into a 4+ assessment and be delighted with your decision. Decide that you want to apply to a top school at 4+ and be delighted with your decision. 

Decide. 

Choose. 

It is your choice. No one else’s. This is your child. No one else’. People are free to make their own decisions about their own children. That’s up to them to decide! It’s their child. 

No one else’s opinion matters but yours. Not even mine! 

Stay in your lane. Don’t deviate. Just know and be okay with the fact that people will come at you with their thoughts, with their opinions, with their negativity. Oh trust me when I tell you that there will be so much negativity towards what you have chosen to do for your child - insane I know but I’m just pre-warning you so that you are laser sharp aware about this!

People will tell you that you are doing it all wrong. You’re not doing anything wrong. 

Just remember this. You want the best of your child. If the best of these is sending your child to an exceptional school then stay in your lane. Keep going. 

Focus.Drown out all of the negative noise and opinions of others. They are not the ones paying your bills. They are not the ones responsible for raising your children. 

Book your FREE Assessment Consultation Discovery call today and speak to an expert who can support you with the 4+ assessments and with understanding exactly what will be involved and what to expect. We’ve been doing this for over 2 decades!

'I know my daughter will get into SHHS at 4+!'

How can you be so sure of yourself?

How do you know?

Do you have data?

Do you know how your daughter compares to the other girls applying to this school?

Don’t be so sure of yourself.

Stay humble during this 4+ process.

With only 24 places and at least 300 applicants, this is a tough 4+ assessment.

You have until Friday 9th October 2026 to apply for this 4+ assessment for 2027 entry.

Your daughter will then be invited for her first assessment which will be in early November. You therefore have about 6 months remaining until this 4+ assessment. 4 months if you factor in your holidays, your teacher’s holidays and sickness etc. Not long at all just FYI!

4 months is not enough time to prepare for this 4+ assessment. Let me be crystal clear about that.

If you are late to the game, I suggest you start preparing your daughter immediately and put in some serious work, effort and dedication to ensure that she is as prepared as she possibly can be for the first round - which is NOT a ‘playdate’. Let me be clear.

Our girls who have historically passed this 4+ assessment have gone in being able to read and write. And no I don’t care about what is written on their website. I’m simply telling you some FACTS about our girls who have historically passed.

If your daughter passes the first round, she will be invite back to the second round. I would assume about 144 girls for 24 places. So by this point your daughter will have about a 1:6 chance of passing. Also keep in mind that although they do not have a sibling policy that they will have a tendency to choose siblings. This doesn’t mean that if your daughter has a sibling that she will be guaranteed a place. I did not say that!

With only 24 places, I definitely wouldn’t be going around saying that ‘my child will definitely get into SHHS at 4+’. Your daughter has as much of a chance as all of the other girls who have been prepared to exceptional standards and who know exactly what is expected of them in this incredibly tough 4+ assessment.

Preparing for 2027 entry? Book your Ultimate Emerald Curriculum Sample Week.

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My child is guaranteed entry to Manor Lodge (2027)

Are you sure though?

Who on earth told you that?

Do you even know the sheer number of children who attend this very popular 4+ assessment?

This type of thinking can only lead to one thing… failure.

If you have this thought, get it out of your head. Because it is simply not true.

I can’t even tell you how many calls I received following the 4+ assessment at ML (2026 entry).

Parents who were completely shocked. Confused. ML was their back up! They just assumed their kid would pass. Well their child did not pass.

Many children do not pass this 4+ assessment. I guess people don’t really talk about it do they?

Is it ego?

My child didn’t get in so I will keep that to myself?

I think so.

After all failure is such a bad thing isn’t it?

No it isn’t. But people do not go around shouting from the rooftops that they received a letter telling them that their child failed this assessment.

Well, I’m here to tell you that it happens. It happens all the time. Your child is NOT guaranteed entry to Manor Lodge. Do not choose it as your back up school. It is not a back up school ok?

Book your Ultimate Emerald Curriculum Sample Week today (2027 entry)

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As a society why do 95% of us hate to fail?

Are you terrified of failure? 

Then you will struggle to support your child with the ability to fail. 

Failing is a skill. Failing on purpose is a skill. And it is a skill that we learn. And it is a skill that we must teach our children. 

Are you delighted when you fail? 

Are you delighted when things go wrong and you need to figure it out? 

Do you fail multiple times a day? 

Is not failing a problem to you? 

Why do we hate to fail as a society? 

I believe it’s down to social conditioning. Most of us have been taught that failing is bad. If you don’t get the top grades in your tests, you’ve done badly. We’ve been conditioned (and children still are just FYI) to see other children go up the behaviour chart because of their ability to not fail and those who go down the behaviour chart feel like they’ve done something terribly wrong! 

Probably failure was just unacceptable! 

Most of you hate to fail. 

You need to learn how to love to fail and then support your children to do the same. 

Schedule your FREE Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today. 

The main issue with children not wanting to fail.

How would your 3 year old handle it if they went into an assessment at the likes of Westminster or Haberdashers or NLCS and they were given a question that perhaps was impossible for them to answer? How would your 3 year old handle it if they were asked a question that was pitched at a high level and they were unable to answer it? What if questions are phrased in a difficult way or in a way that you child simply doesn’t understand? What would your child do in those circumstances? 

These questions are asked purposely in 4+ assessments. Everything is done with purpose and everything is done with intention. 

These top, elite schools are looking for how children will deal with difficult situations. They are not looking for children who will get everything right and who have memorised a bunch of stuff. Not at all. They are looking for how children will demonstrate skills such as resilience, perseverance, problem solving and maturity. 

So, currently how would your child handle a difficult question? A difficult situation? A difficult problem to solve? 

Will your child say ‘I don’t know?’

Will your child just run off? 

Or will your child pause and think. Will your child ask themselves how they could figure it out? How they could try their best and simply have a go? That is what they are looking for.

Schedule your FREE Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today. 

The top 3 reasons children failed the 4+ at Westminster (2026)

Last year we prepared an extraordinary 14 children for their 4+ assessments at Westminster.

I think because it was such a novelty- parents were rather intrigued.

However, most parents we personally prepared did not take the Westminster 4+ Assessment preparation process very seriously at all.

Out of the 14 children we prepared, 7 of these children’s parents completely vanished after 3 months of assessment prep. No explanation. I guess they decided they were done. 3 months was enough to prepare for Westminster! Mind Boggling.

Obviously I cannot tell you their reasons (or their logic) because I never heard from them again.

Did their children pass their 4+ Assessments?

I will find out in September! Several of the students we personally prepared will actually be going to Westminster to study in Reception from September 2026! It will be very easy to find out won’t it?

Out of the 7 remaining children that we prepared - 4 were offered a place. Absolutely exceptional (and real!) results.

So what were the top 3 reasons children failed the 4+ at Westminster? As in were not offered a firm offer to study there? Here they are for you!

1. Parents not taking the 4+ preparation process seriously.

   They were happy to pay the £300 registration fee. They were happy to send their kid into the first round fully knowing that 500 children would be assessed and only 100 would pass. But they were not fully happy to dedicate the time needed to actually take the process seriously!

2. Parents believing their children were able to do exactly what would be required.

   It often surprised me when parents would tell that their children ‘knew everything’ that needed to be known. This would rarely be the case.

3. Parents not investing a fraction of the price of what Westminster would have cost them each year to prepare their children to even stand a chance of being offered a place. Sending your child to Westminster will currently cost you around 30k per year. Preparing them for the 4+ with us for one year would cost around 4k per year. Read that again.

Out of 500 children assessed in round 1, 100 passed and were asked to attend the second round.

Out of the 100 children assessed in round 2, 32 were offered places and I believe about 30 children were placed on the reserve list.

You may be surprised to know that many of the children who were offered places to study at Westminster actually declined. So having a healthy reserve list was very important for Westminster this year!

Chances of passing round 2 are pretty high.

Chances of passing round 1 are pretty slim.

Prepare and prepare well.

I am opening one precious place in my Signature Programme (The Emerald Curriculum) Tuesdays at 5:30 which is available from immediately. If you’ve been on the fence for a while, now is your time to join!

The main reason girls fail the NLCS 4+ Assessment.

I have been preparing hundreds of girls to be incredibly successful at NLCS in their 4+ assessment for over 2 decades!

I know exactly what it takes for girls to pass this incredibly tough 4+ assessment.

Contrary to popular belief, NLCS are not looking for only the brightest and most intelligent girls to join their school. They are also looking for girls who have a strong ability to fail and be ok about it.

Girls who pass the 4+ assessment at NLCS historically are of course very bright. Are of course girls who have been prepared to exceptional standards. But the most important piece is this. The girls who have passed have had the ability to fail.

Here’s what I mean.

I’ve been analysing my data from the last three years and looking at the girls that we have prepared for NLCS. I’ve also been analysing the data from parents that I’ve spoken to who have called me to tell that their girls have not passed their 4+ assessment at NLCS.

And the reason is so obvious to me.

The girls who have ‘failed’ this assessment - as in have not been offered a place have been the girls who haven’t been strong at failing.

Perhaps they were asked to do something and simply told the assessor - ‘I don’t know!’

Perhaps they were asked to do something and simply told the assessor - ‘I don’t want to do that!’

Perhaps they gave up quickly when they were unable to do something the first time.

NLCS are looking for girls who are resilient, strong minded and have the ability to persevere when something is hard.

Girls who are unable to demonstrate that will not be successful in this assessment.

That is my opinion. If you disagree, feel free to comment and we can discuss further!

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To prepare or not to prepare?

The when to start dilemma? 

So you have your heart set on 2 or 3 elite schools. The creme de la creme when it comes to schools. The best of the best. Schools like Westminster, Habs, South Hampstead and NLCS to name a few popular schools that we are currently preparing many of our students for right this very moment. Daily parents ask us this same question:

When should we start preparing for their assessment? 

You can start when you like. However, I have very precise timing that I recommend to all of out clients and that I suggest to parents who call us to ask us for our advice. 

3+ 

One year before 

4+ 

One year before (slightly more if your child is summer born) 

7+ 

Two years before (To be precise, the autumn term of your child’s Reception Year). 

Occasional places 

As soon as you know that you are even just considering applying for an occasional place and definitely not when you’ve applied for an occasional place or even worse - once you have the date of said assessment. 

11+ 

3-4 years before (or longer if preparing for schools like St. Paul’s) 

These are my personal opinions and you will most certainly have your own. However, my opinions are based on facts and not feelings. Yours are most likely based on feelings. ANd making decisions based on feelings is usually not the best idea!

When children have the length of times given above to work with exceptional teachers like us, success is inevitable. 

You’re never ‘too early’ to start. 

You most certainly will be ‘too late’ if you start too late. 

If you’re truly serious about supporting your child to get a place at your dream schools, take the process seriously. Otherwise there really is no point.

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Preparing for Habs and don't know where to start?

You’d love your child to be offered a place at Habs but you don’t even know where to start?

I hear from parents and potential new clients every single week who had their hearts set on Habs (boys and girls) but their children were not successful in the assessments (this could be 4+, occasional places or 7+). I’ve never personally heard of a child not being successful at 11+ (not ones we’ve prepared anyway!) Parents don’t typically contact us after the 11+ . They typically contact us way before the 11+ if they know my principles! 

Last year, we prepared a record number of children for Haberdashers (boys and girls) 17 to be precise. 9 boys and 8 girls. All of the boys that we personally prepared were offered a place at Habs - Amazing! And 5 of our girls were offered a place at Habs - Exceptional! 

We have a bespoke, tailored curriculum for each individual student and we know exactly how to prepare for this school. We know exactly what is expected. We know exactly the calibre of students who have been successful at being offered a place at this school.

Do you? 

Do you know why boys and girls were unsuccessful at being offered a place at this school? 

Well, we do. And we support our clients every step of the way to ensure that their children are as ready as they possibly can be to go in and truly shine in their 4+, 7 + and 11+ assessment at this school. 

Last year, we prepared 5 children for their 7+ at Haberdashers. 4 boys and 1 girl. Out of the 4 boys, 2 were offered a place and my girl student was also successful. Again, exceptional results seeing as they offer such few places at 7+! 

If you don’t know where to start and are preparing for Haberdashers for your son or your daughter for 2027 entry book your Ultimate Emerald Curriculum Sample Week today. 

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Is it important to support our children to choose their A level subjects?

Yes I do.

Others will disagree with me vehemently.

That’s great.

Disagree with me all you want. It’s what I strongly believe.

Although my son will only be 4 in July this year, I already have this on the forefront of my mind.

People will tell me to ‘Stop it!’ and ‘He’s still so little!’ but if someone had thought so carefully about my A level subjects as I’m already thinking about his perhaps I wouldn’t have had to struggle so much between my 20’s and my 30’s!

I’ve been speaking a lot about this with my clients and on my social media and there are very mixed views.

I have parents telling me how important it is to support our children to choose their A level subjects and other parents telling me that children should follow their passions and only choose A levels that they are ‘enthusiastic about’.

Sure, you need to love what you study. But ultimately if the A levels you choose are not going to support you to get into the University that you will ultimately want to go to and study what you ultimately wish to study then is there even any point?

If you know you want to study medicine then you know you will need to be studying Chemistry, Biology, Maths and most likely Physics. If you know you want to study Law then you will need to be studying English Lit, History, perhaps languages and perhaps sciences.

If you know that to even be in with a chance to study at top universities you will need AAA then where you choose to send your child to school to study will be very important won’t it?

To me it is very important to support my son to choose his A level results and to steer him in the direction of ‘being passionate’ about the subjects that he will eventually need to study and support him to the best of my ability to achieve the grades that he will need to achieve.

This life is a competition. Most often not a fair one! We all know this already.

2027 4+ entry to Guildford High?

So you have your heart set on Guildford High?

Perhaps you’ve even moved house to make this a possibility!

Perhaps you plan to move house to make this a possibility?

Perhaps you’ve started preparing your daughter? Perhaps you have? I do hope it’s the latter!

I know exactly what GHS write on their website so you don’t need to tell me! Our girls who have historically passed this 4+ assessment have gone in being able to read and to write. By reading I mean reading cvc words with confidence and some digraph words and by writing I mean being able to write their name perfectly and write numbers 1-10 (at a minimum).

GHS have 2 45 minutes assessments at 4+. GHS say that they assess ‘readiness for learning’. Sure. Amongst hundreds of other things that they will be assessing.

At the point of writing this blog GHS haven’t yet updated their admissions guide for 2027 entry.

The 4+ assessments are super early for GHS (October 2026). So you have 6 months left to prepare. Factoring holidays and sickness (you, your child and your teacher), you have about 4 months left to prepare!

Starting now preparing for GHS for the 4+ is really not something I would ever advise you to do. But it’s better to start now if you haven’t yet started! Even better would be to start with 12 months of assessment preparation time for this school.

My opinion based on facts (ie. girls who have passed this assessment histrically).

Also, just because ‘assessments are reflective of the girls’ ages’ doesn’t mean that the assessment will be ‘easier’ for your summer born girls so do get that thought out of your heads!

Key take aways

• Prepare as early as possible (at least 12 months before).

• If you haven’t already started preparing, start now.

• Don’t listen to people telling you this is an ‘easy’ assessment to pass. Why would it be east? This is an exceptional school with exceptional results.

• Don’t listen to people who WILL tell you that their daughter just went in and ‘played’ and was offered a place.

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The pre- prep is 1% important. The level of prep is 99% important when it comes to the 4+.

Yet what do most of you do?

You fixate on choosing the ‘best’ nursery or pre-prep for your child.

It doesn’t exist.

You spend a small fortune sending your children to a ‘top pre- prep’ in the hope that they will do the job of preparing your child for their 4+ assessments at top, elite schools. Why should they?

Most of my clients are dissatisfied with the pre- preps or the nurseries they choose. Often they are deeply frustrated and often they don’t see their children making the progress that they believe they should be making.

Is this a fault of the nurseries or pre-preps?

No. Absolutely not!

And hear me carefully, I am not speaking negatively about these establishments. They just cannot provide the 1:1 attention that children need to have in order to truly be successful in their 4+ assessments at top, elite schools.

And if your child went to one of these ultra pricey nurseries or pre-schools and you did nothing with them at home and your child passed at the likes of Westminster, Notting Hill and Ealing, Habs or NLCS then you are the exception and not the rule. And I personally wouldn’t go around shouting about this either!

I personally worked at a ‘top pre-school’ for 3 years. They currently charge nearly 10k per term for the ‘privilege’ of sending your child there. The teachers are exhausted there. I would get to work at 7am and I wouldn’t leave until 7pm every single day. It was the lowest paid teaching job that I have ever had. To expect those teachers to be responsible for the success of each individual child is simply ludicrous.

Children who were successful from that school were the ones who had 1:1 support from home. And I know this as a fact. We are currently preparing 5 children who attend this particular pre-prep.

Do as you please. If you have 10k a term to spend - great! Do it! But be delighted with the pre-school or nursery you choose!

And invest in quality tuition and support alongside the thousands you’re spending on pre-school or nursery fees.

And don’t be so shocked, frustrated or annoyed if your child is not offered a place at the school or schools you desire. Remember that this is a competition. And it certainly is not a fair one!

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Over supporting your child will not give you the results you imagine.

I’ve taught at schools before where you would open children’s books and see the most immaculate, pristine learning. No mistakes just flawless. Senior Leadership would be delighted. I would not.

When I would ask the teachers if the work was independent or guided, they would tell me guided. Yet this was not written anywhere on the pages of pristine, immaculate learning.

When Senior Leaders would open my books, they would see a mixture of learning. Immaculate and pristine and raw. The raw learning was the learning where I would just leave my students to do their thing. This was the best type of learning in my eyes and it still is. This is the learning where I can truly see what my students can do and what they cannot do. This is the learning where I can make plans for how to support them better. But to them, this learning was ‘messy and unacceptable!’

One of the many reasons I left teaching!

In our lessons, we see this over supporting all the time. And it’s something we nip in the bud pretty quickly. I get it. But it’s not helpful. When I teach my students, I am only interested in their answers. Only theirs. We all want to support our children with their learning and we can. But we need to find the most effective way to do it.

Giving your child the answer is not helpful.

Telling them that they are ‘wrong’ is not helpful.

Telling them off when they get something ‘wrong’ is not helpful.

Getting frustrated and visibly showing them this frustration is not helpful.

Here is what you can do that will be incredibly helpful and will lead you to the results that you desire.

1. Let them be ‘wrong’. Say things like, ‘That’s ok, you tried your best now let’s try again. What else could the answer be?’

2. When your child gets something wrong, do not tell them that they are wrong. Let them figure it out for themselves.

3. See ‘failure’ as you see ‘success’. If my student doesn’t ‘fail’ multiple times in my lessons, my lessons are pitched incorrectly.

4. If your child gets upset or frustrated at getting something wrong, let them. Speak to them about it. Be curious about it. Do not tell them to stop it.

I want my students to be as delighted when they get something wrong as they are when they get something right.

A child getting something correct all the time could mean a multitude of things. Such as the lesson is simply far too easy for them or that the teacher is helping them far too much. Keep an eye on this.

We need to stop seeing failure as a negative. Without failure, none of us reading this blog would have had the success that we have had!

And keep in mind that many teachers out there see failure as a negative thing. I would stay as far away from these people as possible.

Support your child but do not over support your child. There is a subtle difference that will make a world of difference to your child’s future results.

Beware of fake Tutoring Agency Results.

I’m not here to talk badly about other Tutoring Companies at all. And obviously it’s up to you who you choose to work with. But let me tell you something. I do this because I actually want all children to be successful. Whatever that will eventually mean to them as individuals. Whatever it means to their families. No one knows what ‘success’ means for each individual parent. The meaning will be different for everyone.

And when I see families sabotaging their chances for success because they choose a Tutoring Company who charges less than me but that seemingly has ‘better’ results than me, it makes my blood boil.

Not because I’m not the one getting paid.

But because of the fact that they are lowering significantly the chances for their children to have the success that they deserve to have in their futures.

Going to the best schools possible is very important to my clients. They want the best of the best for their children. They know that having the best education possible will open doors for their children that perhaps they themselves didn’t have opened for them.

I know that’s exactly how I feel.

Amazing grades don’t define you as a human, sure.

Where you go to school will not define you as a human, sure.

But your grades and where you go to school will inevitably open doors for you that most likely would be held tightly closed if you were to have a different reality. Those are my thoughts.

So when I see lists of schools that certain Tutoring Agencies disclose that they have prepared for, I roll my eyes whilst some of you stand in awe. Those lists have been copied and pasted (in the exact order) from google. It’s very easy - just google ‘4+ list of schools in London’ and ‘7+ list of schools in London’. It’s the same list they used!

And when I read that you claim to have prepared 10 children for the 4+ at Westminster and all 10 got in, it literally makes my blood boil. You are lying. You are being dishonest. You are deceiving parents. Again, obviously it’s up to parents to see through these lies. But most parents are new to this. How would they know? So out of 36 students, 10 who passed were prepared by you? Total and utter BS.

And when I read that you claim to have prepared 10 children for NLCS and all 10 got in, I mean who on earth would believe you?

But people do.

Careful.

See past fake results.

Do your research on who to work with.

Sample 4-5 agencies/teachers before making your decision.

This decision is far too important.