The 90 Day 4+ Challenge - Proof that assessment preparation can lead to extraordinary results.

Day 1/90

Why starting at 18 months old matters. 

If you know with certainty that your child will be going to a 4+ assessment, the best time to start is from 18 months with a bespoke and tailored programme of study. 

It’s NOT too early! 

Your child is NOT ‘too young’! 

Your child will NOT ‘just going be doing worksheets all day!’

You are NOT ‘ruining their childhood!’ 

In fact, I knew at 18 months of age that my son would NOT be going to a 4+ assessment but I decided that this was the age to begin with his own bespoke and tailored curriculum and I have never looked back. It was the best thing that I ever did for him and I continue to do it for him. 

Starting at 18 months old matters because you have so much more time to enjoy the learning experience with your child. 

It matters because your child will soak up everything you are teaching them. 

It matters because what is the alternative? 

I have no idea what else I would have been doing with my son if I didn’t have his curriculum programme. 

Yes, we would go to the park and we would spend countless hours each day outside and in nature. This was and still is of vital importance for me. But if I didn’t have his structured curriculum what would we do instead? 

Play? 

We did that all the time as part of his curriculum programme! 

It feels so good to have a structured plan and to watch your child make such incredible progress. 

For today’s challenge, I would like you to simply write down three new things that you would love to do with your child this week. It could be as simple as a new lego set or a new play doh set or a new puzzle. Then open up your calendar or your diary and schedule 5 minutes of your time to do these activities with your child. 

Book your Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today and find out how we can support you every step of the way to have tremendous success in the 4+ assessments or support your child with their very own Curriculum Acceleration Programme. 

One of the hardest schools to pass at 4+ for our girls.

Notoriously, parents that we come across anyway don’t tend to prepare their daughters for this school or they start preparing very late. 

Typically JAGS parents will contact us in the autumn term to prepare for JAGS. 

With only 36 places available and hundreds of girls applying for this school, what will set apart your daughter from the crowd? 

Well, your daughter will be very strong and capable academically (and if you don’t know what this means or what this looks like, work with teachers that do!). 

I know that there are very mixed messages out there about the JAGS 4+ Assessments with parents telling other parents ‘not to bother preparing’ and that they sent their own daughters to this 4+ assessment ‘completely unprepared’ and ‘still managed to get them in.’

Well, those people are lying to your faces and if you believe them that is up to you. 

Sadly, you won’t know if you should have believed them or not until after the 4+ assessments have completed will you? And by that point it will be too late.

Preparing for Jags for 2027 entry and beyond? 

Book your Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today and find out how we can support you every step of the way to have tremendous success in this 4+ assessment. 

The 2 lies about 'being ready' for 4+ assessment success.

There's are 2 lies that keep smart, capable parents from ever preparing their children for having the highest possible chances for success in their 4+ assessments.

It sounds like this:

"They are just too little! Now is just not the right time.”

It sounds responsible. Humble, even. Like you're being honest about where you and your child are.

But let's look at it.

Is your child really too little?

Is now really not the right time?

If you’ve sat and wondered for even a few minutes if you should be doing more to support your child with their assessment preparations then guess what?

You've done something most people never do.

A part of you believes that it is up to you to prepare your child for success in their assessments. A part of you knows deep down that it isn’t just the school’s responsibility to prepare your child to be successful in their assessments.

I truly believe that no one, hear me carefully, no one will ever care about the success of your child more than you do. Ever.

If you truly want to ensure that your child is ready - really ready to go into any 4+ assessment and have the highest possible chances for success, give yourself the opportunity to explore that thought further.

Your child being ‘too little’ and the ‘time not being right!’ are just lies.

Read that again: Your child being ‘too little’ and the ‘time not being right!’ are just lies.

Perhaps you fear what your friends and family will think of you when you tell them that you are teaching your 2/3/4 year old?

Perhaps you believe what these schools are telling you when they tell you that you shouldn’t prepare your child?

Perhaps you haven’t got this all figured out and perhaps you are doing your child a huge disservice by not exploring all of the options available to you.

You most likely don’t have it all figured out when it comes to preparing for the 4+ assessments because most likely this process is completely new to you. And like any new process in this life, we all need guidance and we all need support. And it’s absolutely fine to ask for help.

Nobody is asking you to be the perfect parent with everything figured out. That’s impossible and doesn’t exist just FYI.

The 4+ Emerald Curriculum asks you to truly take full ownership of your child’s 4+ assessment preparation and ultimately your child’s 4+ assessment success! It asks you to dedicate 3.5 hours per week of learning with your child. It asks you to cover a broad and vast curriculum with your child that will challenge them in ways you most likely never ever thought was even possible.

We take care of the rest.

You don’t need to be perfect but you do need to be willing. Willing to feel uncomfortable along this journey and willing to dedicate time, effort and energy to your child’s ultimate 4+ Assessment success

The Emerald Curriculum is £300 per month with our Company Director and £260 per month with one of our exceptional Senior Teachers and there are very few spaces remaining for support with 2027 entry.

With our programme, you have ongoing access to your teacher to have all of the support you need to support your child to the best of your ability to have tremendous success in their assessments.

Book your Sample Lesson and Sample Week today.

The reality of the UCS 4+ assessment.

A very popular and over subscribed school at 4+. 

If you plan to send your son into the 4+ assessment at UCS you will know and deeply understand that he will need to be thoroughly prepared. 

By far, this is the school where we get the angriest clients. 

Let me tell you why. 

Typically the clients who are preparing their sons for UCS will start way too late. Typically around the summer to autumn time. This leaves them with about three to five months to prepare.

Even though I will always be super honest will all clients that work with us here at CMT, many of these clients seem to be surprised when their sons do not pass this 4+ assessment. 

They seem to then get angry with us. 

It is certainly not our fault! 

Although I fully understand it’s easier to blame someone else than to take responsibility for your own actions! 

UCS needs 12 months of focused assessment prep. And if you start later than this, take responsibility for this. And don’t be shocked if you will start preparing for the 7+ instead. 

Book your Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today and find out how we can support you every step of the way to have tremendous success in this 4+ assessment. 

The reality of the Habs Boys 4+ Assessment.

Do you dream of Habs Boys for your son? 

This is not an ‘easy’ assessment to pass. And if people tell you that it is, I would suggest you turn the other way and leave these people alone!

Countless boys will not pass this 4+ assessment. 

Our boys were prepared to a very high standard. Our boys were able to go in and show the Habs 4+ Assessors exactly what they were looking for. They covered a broad and vast early years curriculum with our exceptional team of teachers. 

Having 12 months of assessment prep will undoubtedly put your son ahead of the game when it comes to this 4+ assessment. It will most certainly set your son apart from the boys who had little to no assessment preparation. It is so obvious to me. To many of you it is not. 

The expectations of Habs’ Boys’ will be incredibly high and you must prepare your son to the best of your ability to truly go in and shine. 

Book your Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today and find out how we can support you every step of the way to have tremendous success in this 4+ assessment. 

The reality of the Guildford High 4+ Assessment.

A very popular school we prepare for. 

A very misunderstood 4+ Assessment. 

Why do parents have such a sense of certainty that their daughter will just go into this 4+ assessment and be offered a place?

This is simply not the case. 

Many, many girls each and every single year do not pass this 4+ assessment. 

If you’re going to uproot your whole life for a school, I suggest you dedicate at least 12 months of time to prepare your daughter for this assessment. 

Contrary to what other people will tell you, your daughter is not guaranteed entry to Guildford High at 4+ Assessment. You do realise that this is why they have a 4+ assessment in the first place, right? 

If every single girl was guaranteed entry, why bother with a 4+ assessment? 

So many girls will be applying for very few places at 4+. 

So be laser sharp aware of the expectations. Be laser sharp aware that you must prepare your daughter for this 4+ assessment and then go all in to ensure that she is in the best possible place to go in and have the highest chance for passing tis 4+ assessment. 

Our girls who have historically (over the last 20 years) passed this 4+ assessment are the girls who are highly academic. Are the girls who have mastered all areas of the EYFS curriculum before going into this 4+ assessment. Are the girls who can read and who can write. 

People will tell you that this is not the case. People will tell you that their daughters were not able to do such things? I do not believe them and you shouldn’t either. 

Book your Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today and find out how we can support you every step of the way to have tremendous success in this 4+ assessment.

The reality of the Manor Lodge 4+ assessment.

Why is ML so misunderstood by parents applying to send their sons to the 4+ assessment? 

Why do parents feel so secure within themselves when they apply to this school? 

Why do parents assume that their child will just be offered a place to study at this school? 

Do not see this school as a ‘back up’ school.

It is not a back up school.

Let’s be crystal clear on that.

The reality of the Manor Lodge assessment is that on the assessment day, you will see many, many children going in to be assessed. Your child will be ‘collected’ by one of the assessors and taken to be assessed on a 1:1 basis. Ensure your child is aware of that before you take them to this assessment! Expectations will be just as high as any other 4+ school that you will be applying to. 

It will be challenging to be offered a place at ML based on the sheer number of children applying for a place here. 

Will your children be ready for their 4+ Assessment at ML? 

Book your Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today and find out how we can support you every step of the way to have tremendous success in this 4+ assessment. 

The reality of the Falkner House (boys) 4+ assessment.

Being ‘teachable’ is something that is very easy to spot in a 4+ assessment. Imagine a group of 20-30 boys and imagine looking for the boys who would be easiest to teach! 

What would you see? 

In one corner you will see boys who are concentrating and focusing on the tasks provided for them. In the other corner, you would see boys not at all interested in the tasks and trying their best to do anything else but the task that they have been asked to do. 

In one corner you will see boys fully engaged in conversation with the teacher/s and answering their questions to a very high level. In the other corner, you will see boys not really answering the teacher’s questions or not communicating to the level expected. You will see boys answering questions in a simplistic manner or even just giving yes or no answers. 

Communication and language are two key components at FH. Parents of boys who did not pass were often given this feedback…

That their sons did not communicate the level expected. 

Will your son be ready for his 4+ Assessment at FH? Book your Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today and find out how we can support you every step of the way to have tremendous success in this 4+ assessment.

Do you expect learning in the early years to be linear?

When we first start working with some of our clients, they have this belief that learning is linear.

That their child will ‘just get it’. It’s so easy after all? Well, to you it is! To 2 and 3 year olds it won’t be.

What you need to expect is for learning to be bumpy.

It will be up and down. It will have twists and turns.

Your child will get something instantly and will not get something else so easily.

Your child will love certain areas of learning and they will not like others at all. Nothing has gone wrong. As soon as you make it mean that something has gone wrong, guess what will happen? You will just give up.

You will say to yourself things like:

‘Well what’s even the point?’

‘Why am I bothering?’

‘He will just get it nearer the time of the assessment!’ (that’s a sneaky thought which is a complete lie by the way). 

Learning is never linear.

Even when your child does go to school, do not expect learning to be linear.

Do not expect for your child to just make progress in a linear manner. They will not.

And expecting them to will just lead to disappointment and comparison to others who you just assume ‘get it!’ but that is most certainly never the case. 

Our most successful clients are the clients who know that learning will not follow a linear pattern.

Our most successful clients are the clients who don’t get discouraged when their children do not learn their phonics as quickly as they expect that they should.

Our most successful clients are the ones who know that it might take their child a long, long time to recognise numbers and even when they don’t recognise numbers, they will relentlessly continue to show them.

Our most successful clients are the clients who continue to ask their children a variety of different questions even though their children don’t answer in the manner that they would like them to.

Our most successful clients are the  ones who are willing to be disappointed and know that success will only come to them if they carry on and persevere. 

Ready to accelerate your child’s learning? Book your Sample Lesson today. Final 4 times with me before I close the programme for a while.

3 mindset hacks that will support you to have 4+ success

If you are embarking on your 4+ assessment preparation journey, here are 3 mindset hacks that will support you to have 4+ success.

1. Understand that your child is not ‘too young!’

It seems like such a pretty and factual thought. But what does it mean anyway? If you are enquiring about the 3+ and the 4+ then of course your child is ‘young’. I know this already by looking at your enquiry! But your child is definitely not ‘too young’. 

‘Too young’ for what? 

‘Too young’ to learn new things? 

‘Too young’ to take part in fun and exciting activities with you?’

‘Too young to sit for extended periods of times?’ 

I will agree with you on that last one. But I don’t agree with you on the others. 

2. Know that your child will absorb what you teach them like a sponge. 

Whether they demonstrate it to you or not, they are absorbing literally everything that you teach them like a sponge. And everything that you teach them and especially if you teach them regularly will remain in their memory and will eventually come out! 

3. Know that you are setting them up for future success. 

Regardless of going to an assessment or not, learning with  your child is simply the most beautiful thing that you can do. Yes, it is an investment but I am always delighted to spend money on my son’s learning and development and I know so many of you are too! 

Preparing for the 4+ assessment for 2027 entry and beyond? Book your Sample Lesson today!

Our successful 4+ clients historically have had these 3 traits in common.

Just like any other business out there, we have our successes and we have our failures. Businesses who make it look like they only have successes are liars. They want to portray themselves in a way that is simply not reality. Because life simply doesn’t work that way. 

One of my friends and also the CEO of a business that I look up to told me the other day that how a business portrays themselves is how they get their clients. That’s all well and good. But the truth always comes out eventually and I’d always rather choose to be completely honest to the parents that I speak to. Because after all, we are talking about children here. And I would never intentionally choose to deceive anyone especially when it comes to their children. 

So to be completely transparent and honest with you, we have clients who are wildly successful with their children’s assessments and we also have clients who are not. We have clients who begin when I suggest they do to prepare their children for their assessments and we have clients who do not. 

No Tutoring Company can guarantee success. Just as no top pre- school can guarantee success.

What I can guarantee however is this. 

If you work with Creative Minds Tutors you 100% will have the highest possible chances for success in whatever assessment you are preparing for. 

I went off tangent a little!

Here are the 3 traits that our successful 4+ clients historically have in common. 

1. They stay humble throughout the process. 

Our successful clients are the most humble. 

2. They start at least 12 months before the 4+ assessments are scheduled to take place. 

They always have a realistic timeframe. 

3. They apply to a selection of schools and often they are offered their choice of schools with many of our clients being offered at least 6/7 schools that they applied to.

Our most successful clients are never the ones who apply to just one or two schools, they apply to 5-7. 

We have a lot of success here at CMT. We also have clients who don’t get offered their choice of schools (as do all of the other Tutoring Companies out there even though they will tell you that they have 97% or 98% success rate). I would ignore any company giving you percentages. I would only wish to see how many children applied and how many children were offered a place. Anyone can write a silly percentage amount!

It typically comes down to this:

They did not start early enough preparing their children therefore they didn’t have the time needed to cover a broad and vast curriculum. 

They didn’t have a selection of 4+ schools and perhaps only apply to one or two schools. 

They didn’t take the process seriously enough. After all their child is only 3 or 4 at the time of the 4+ assessments, how much could they really ask of these babies? 

A lot actually. 

'We became aware later' is a thought that will hold you back when it comes to assessment success.

I hear this one all the time in our enquiries and in conversations that we have with parents every single day.

It seems like an innocent thought and it is.

But it will hold you back when it comes to future assessment success.

You see, if you want to have success in any assessment at a top, elite inner or outer London school, you need to start preparing your child early.

Whether you like this or not.

It is a fact.

Becoming aware of something later means that it wasn’t on your mind earlier on. It means that perhaps you were thinking something like…

‘He/she is only 2/3/4/insert whatever age you want!’

‘He/she should just be a child!’

‘What more can they do than just play?’

‘When the time is right, he/she will just get it!’

Well, I’m here to tell you that learning doesn’t work that way.

I believe that all children would benefit from our amazing bespoke and tailored curriculum programmes regardless of whether or not they will be attending an assessment.

My son has been studying his very own curriculum programme since he was 17 months old. I have no intention of sending him to one of these schools. Not yet anyway. It doesn’t mean that I might not change my mind at 7/10/11/13/16. Whatever. Who know what life will throw at us? Who knows if I will want him in a school like St. Paul’s or Westminster later down the line.

And if I choose to, guess what?

He’d better be prepared.

That’s the way I like to think about it anyway.

So if you did ‘become aware later’, please don’t be hard on yourself. Just make a decision. Make a decision to simply start.

Get started and support your child every step of the way with their learning.

Watch them grow. Watch them laugh. Watch them explore. Watch them engage.

It really is a beautiful thing.

Curious about what we offer?

Book your Assessment Consultation Discover Call Today.

Unrealistic expectations and the 4+ assessment prep process

As we are working with more and more clients, we are experiencing quite a few unrealistic expectations from certain parents.

Perhaps because most of our clients don’t have anything to compare their child’s process to.

Perhaps because they enter this process thinking that their child will ‘just get it!’. That their child is a natural born genius. Well, I don’t believe in that. I don’t believe that any child is born a ‘natural born genius’.

I fully believe that we are all born into this world with the same natural abilities. We all learn how to walk. We all learn how to talk. We all learn how to communicate. Everything else beyond this will come down to our upbringing.

How we are brought up.

When I was in secondary school in particular, I would see my friends be labelled as ‘gifted and talented’ and I would think to myself that they were just born that way. They were born with a gift. I now know that this isn’t the case at all. 

They were actually nurtured, taught and challenged by their parents (or whoever was raising them!) and that is how they were able to develop their gifts and their talents. 

I see this every single day with the children that we teach and support here at CMT. They develop these ‘gifts’ and they develop these ‘talents’. But these are not quick wins. These are not instant results. These are months and months and years and years of my clients, my teachers and myself supporting their children.

Of my clients, my teachers and mylsef dedicating countless hours on their children’s education and learning.

Of my clients investing in the best possible tuition for their children.

Of my clients investing in high quality extra curricular activities for their children that will support them to be gifted and talented in whatever areas of their lives that they choose to be gifted and talented in. 

So please do not embark on this 4+ assessment prep process with unrealistic expectations.

Expect it to be hard.

Expect is to be beautiful.

Expect it to be challenging.

Expect it to be empowering.

Expect it to be emotional.

Expect it to be filled with joy.

The full 50/50 spectrum of emotions will come up for all of us involved in this process.

Preparing your child for their 4+ ? Book your FREE Assessment Consultation Discovery Call Today and speak to an expert about how you can get started to support your child to have incredible success in their 4+ assessments.

My raw, honest thoughts about 7+ intensive courses.

Really I am speaking about any intensive courses for any assessment.

Here are my thoughts just for you.

It’s like rolling down your window in your car and throwing money onto the ground. Literally.

It shows short term and quick fix thinking.

I also shows me that you’ve really not understood the 7+ assessment prep process at all.

Parents that we speak to daily often tell me this one sentence.

‘We just didn’t really know the expectations!’

It seems like such a pretty little thought. But it’s not.

If you are applying for an assessment (any assessment!), you need to inform yourself about that assessment. You must learn everything you possibly can about the assessments in order to have the highest possible chances for success. Otherwise what really is the point?

I certainly wouldn’t send my son into any assessment, cross my fingers and hope for the best. Yet so many of you are doing this.

You now have about 6-8 months until your child’s 7+ assessments and you’re panicking. You’re freaking out. You search for 7+ intensive courses and I’m here to tell you this.

They will not help your child.

In fact they will probably only be a hindrance. Who on earth wants to spend their precious summer break going to a learning centre and studying for 8 hours a day with strangers?

I’ve never met one child who has told me they went to an intensive course and enjoyed it.

That’s because learning takes time. Learning only comes when there is pleasure associated with it. Learning takes courage. Learning takes dedication. Learning takes perseverance.

There is no quick fix here. So please stop searching for it.

7+ needs 2 years of focused prep (even earlier is better!).

7+ needs learning to happen every day and not just in the 6 weeks over the summer break.

Book your FREE Assessment Consultation Discovery Call and speak to an expert who can support and guide you with at the very least understanding what to expect.

A nursery or pre- prep alone is not responsible for the success of your child in their 4+.

Those of you who believe that a nursery or pre- prep should take the full responsibility of preparing your child for their 4+ assessments have a deep misunderstanding of what a nursery is.

A deep misunderstanding of the amount of children that need to be looked after by one human being.

A deep misunderstanding about the role of the EYFS practitioner.

Do you realise they have a ratio of 1:5 in the over 2’s category and a ratio of 1:13 in the over 3’s category. Look at those ratios again!

So if your child is over 3, their ratio will be 1:13. Unless you have a qualified teacher working in your setting and in that case it will be a 1:8 ratio.

I don’t know about you but that’s a huge ask on one human being.

To prepare your child to be ready for their 4+ Assessments when they have your child plus another 12 to be teaching/ looking after.

Have a look at just some of the expectations of an early years practitioner. There was a full two pages of expectations in the job specification that I analysed.

• Provide care and support to all students and parents

• Take responsibility for the health and safety of all pupils

• Plan activities and assess all children

• Aid with the overall development of all pupils

• Take groups of children on educational visits

• Setting out equipment in interesting ways and clearing away after use

• Write weekly lessons plans and evaluate them each week

• Carry out play ground and lunch time duties

All for a starting salary of 24k-30k (if you’re lucky!).

And yet, the majority of you continue to tell me that it is up to your child’s nursery to prepare your child to go in and pass their 4+ Assessment. Well, it isn’t! Understand that well. Or you will be deeply disappointed.

Choose a nursery or pre-prep that you love. Then you take on the full responsibility of teaching your child. I don’t really care how you do it. But understand this well. It is on you to prepare your child for the 4+. No one else. Why should anyone else care more about the success of your child than you? They won’t. Ever.

Are you ready to re-think this? I hope so! 

Do you know how many parents I’ve spoken to after the 4+ whose children were not successful and who blamed it on their child’s nursery or pre-prep. Can you guess what I told them? 

Book your FREE Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today.

Don’t do these 3 things if you are preparing for the 4+ at top, elite schools.

If you want to have true success in your child’s 4+ assessments you will avoid doing these three things. 

1. Starting late 

Anything less than 1 full year is starting late.

Can you still have success in your child’s 4+ assessments? Of course you can. But you are taking a massive risk. You see, it will all depend on where your child is academically and behaviourally at the point of starting. If you are starting from scratch (as most parents are when they start working with us), then starting late will be very risky. If you’re willing to take that risk, do so. If you’re not, start with at least 12 months of assessment preparation time. 

2. Believe that the nursery or pre-prep alone will prepare your child for their 4+ assessments. 

Believe me - They will not be the ones responsible for your child’s success. 

I’ve worked with a handful of parents who send their children to ultra pricey pre-preps who have worked with me for 1-3 months and then quickly given up. As in abruptly made the decision to stop working with me. They rarely share their real reasons with me so I can’t comment on their reasons but I can of course speculate and imagine why!

You see these clients pay 10-15k per term to send their children to these top pre-preps. So why should they spend an additional 1k per term to prepare their children at home? 

3. Expect learning to be linear. 

When we first start working with some of our clients, they have this irrational belief that learning is linear. That their child will ‘just get it’. It’s so easy after all? Well, to you it is! To 2 and 3 year olds it won’t be. What you need to expect is for learning to be bumpy. It will be up and down.

It will have twists and turns. Your child will get something instantly and will not get something else so quickly. Your child will love certain areas of learning and they will not like others.

Nothing has gone wrong. As soon as you make it mean that something has gone wrong, guess what will happen? You will just give up. You will say to yourself things like ‘Well what’s even the point?’ ‘Why am I bothering?’ ‘He will just get it nearer the time of the assessment!’ (that’s a sneaky thought which is a complete lie by the way). 

Learning is never linear. Even when your child does go to school, do not expect learning to be linear. Do not expect for your child to just make progress in a linear manner. They will not. And expecting them to will just lead to disappointment and comparison to others who you just assume ‘get it!’ but that is most certainly never the case. 

Our most successful clients are the clients who know that learning will not follow a linear pattern. Our most successful clients are the clients who don’t get discouraged when their children do not learn their phonics as quickly as they expect that they should. Our most successful clients are the ones who know that it might take their child a long, long time to recognise numbers and even when they don’t recognise numbers, they will relentlessly continue to show them. Our most successful clients are the clients who continue to ask their children a variety of different questions even though their children don’t answer in the manner that they would like them to. Our most successful clients are the  ones who are willing to be disappointed and know that success will only come to them if they carry on and persevere. 

The ‘microwave mindset’ that will destroy your 4+ assessment prep.

A ‘microwave mindset’ is the desire for immediate results and quick fixes in an area of life that naturally requires time, effort and patience. I experience this frequently as we now work with more and more parents. Here is a pattern that I see happen in about 5% of clients currently working with us or who have perhaps now stopped working with us…

• Impatience with the 4+ process 

Preparing for the 4+ assessments is a process that requires time, perseverance and dedication. It is not for everyone! I speak with some parents who get incredibly frustrated with the process. They don’t see ‘instant results’ and therefore believe that what they are doing is a ‘waste of time’ and a ‘waste of money’ and it is simply not true. 4+ assessment preparation is definitely not an ‘overnight success’ kind of thing! And if you think it is, I’m sure you’ll find some ‘amazing’ agencies out there willing to give you some ‘quick fixes’ at an exorbitant rate.

• Shortcut seeking 

Some parents seek to find shortcuts to ‘help’ prepare their children for their 4+ assessments and these simply do not exist. You’ll have countless tutoring companies (no doubt!) telling you that they do offer you shortcuts but believe me when I tell you that they do not. Commit to consistent and daily working with your child. 

There are no shortcuts to 4+ assessment success. 

Recognise that slow, daily attitudes will give you the best results when it comes to preparing your child for their 4+ assessments. If you want significant long term results (which you should when it comes to your child!) , you will know that you will need to put in a lot of work. You will need to put in hours and hours of work to support your child with their 4+ assessment preparation and with their ultimate 4+ assessment success. 

Focus on building solid foundations rather than just moving fast. You won’t get anywhere moving fast in this process. You will only frustrate yourself and most likely your child! You cannot rush this! 

I always say to my clients that they have to trust in the process. 95% of them do. I will always find the 5% who do not and who will choose to give up before the true results show up. This is the saddest thing for me in this amazing business. But something that I must accept! 

The parents with this ‘microwave mindset’ will never have the results that my clients have who choose to have a lifelong vision for their children’s learning and who choose to commit to the process. 

The parents with this ‘microwave mindset’ will never become long term clients of ours here at CMT! 

If you are unsure about where to even start when it comes to preparing your child for their 4+ assessments book your Assessment Consultation Discovery Call Today and speak to an expert who can support and guide you and answer all of your questions!

Obsess with 4+ Success at NLCS

First of all know this with certainty and a sense of absolute clarity. Your daughter will need thorough and bespoke tuition for NLCS. You absolutely must only work with a teacher who has real and actual experience with this school.

NLCS is one of the hardest schools to get into at 4+ (and 7+!) but today I am talking about the 4+.

Don’t ever underestimate how hard it will be to get into this school. Don’t for one second even think that you are ‘just sending your daughter in to play!’

This school is so overly subscribed each year. Hundreds of parents want their daughters to go to North London Collegiate School. I get it. The school is stunning.

Having visited it several times myself and even having lunch there once with the teachers (when I worked in a pre-prep in Hampstead), I have seen exactly what it is like to be at this school. Their facilities are exceptional and the grounds are just divine. So I get it!

We have prepared hundreds of girls for the 4+ Assessment at NLCS over the last 15 years and what I’ve learnt is this. 

Passing the first round is very challenging. As in, it’s very hard to pass! As in, if your daughter passes the first round it means that she has done exceptionally well. As in, scored highly. 

If your daughter does pass, passing the second round is also challenging but not as challenging as the first round.

If your daughter makes it to the second round, it’s because NLCS have seen that she is the right fit for their school. They have seen through assessing her that she will be able to thrive at their school. In the second round, they will be assessing her further. Just to make sure that they were right! 

NLCS have a very specific assessment criteria in the sense of what they are looking for. Do you know what this assessment criteria is? 

Well, we do! And we will support our clients every step of the way to truly understand what NLCS are even looking for in their potential new girls at their school! 

Work with a teacher who knows this well and who can actually support your daughter to gain entry into this school.

Book your Sample Lesson today.

The 4+ school where expectations are high and places are low - Merchant Taylors

Expectations are high and places are low.

And also because most places are offered to boys already in the Nursery (those who got in at 3+)

Your son will have to be one of the ‘strongest applicants’ in order to even be considered for a place at Merchant Taylors. It is a group assessment with 10-15 other boys however your son will also be assessed on a 1:1 basis.

MT’s write that their assessments are ‘not challenging’ but I firmly disagree. They are challenging and a lot will be expected of your son.

MT’s are looking for ‘teachability’ and ‘sociability’ so basically how easy your son will be to teach and how they are socially (with both adults and children). MT’s are looking for children who are very focused and alert and who have the capacity to answer all questions asked to a very high standard. The nursery report will be very important for this assessment too.

I personally think MT’s is very hard to pass because most parents do not understand that they need to start preparing their children at least 12 months before the assessment. By leaving it too late, you simply will not have time to cover all of the curriculum that needs to be covered. Therefore, it will be very hard for your son to pass. Remember that they will be given an overall percentage based on the assessment criteria. You need to know what the criteria will be in order to be in with a chance of them passing. If you don’t know the criteria, it’s up to you to either educate yourself and learn the criteria or to work with someone who knows it like the back of their hand!

If you are preparing for MT’s, we have incredible success every single year. Each year we prepare at least 1-2 students and each year at least one of our students is offered a place to study at this school. Typically all of the students we prepare will be offered a place to study at MT’s (if they have the full 12 months of assessment prep that I personally recommend).

Preparing for the 4+ at Merchant Taylors for 2027 entry? 

Book your Sample Lesson today. 

Preparing for 2028 entry and beyond? 

Join our Waiting List today.

Prepare for the 4+ like a boss at Westminster (2027 entry and beyond)

If Westminster is the school you truly desire for your son or daughter from Reception, go all in and ensure that your child will have the highest possible chances for success!

Do not go into this blindly. After all, you’re paying £300 for your registration fee. I’m sure you want to ensure that your child is as well prepared as they possibly can be.

Yes, Westminster are most certainly looking for potential in their new boys and girls. And your son or daughter will 100% need to demonstrate this potential in their 4+ assessments! But how is potential shown? Is it just something one child has and something another child doesn’t have? Absolutely not! Potential is 100% taught. Potential is practised daily. Potential is nurtured daily.

Yes, Westminster are looking for ‘natural ability’. But again. Is a child simply born with natural ability? Absolutely not. Even though parents will try to make you believe that their child is just ‘naturally clever’! Sure they are!.

They write that in round one, they create an informal and welcoming environment. If you prepared for round 1 last year, I’ll let you comment on this one if you’d like to. It’s not my place to comment here! If you choose to work with me, I will tell you the absolute truth. 

Remember that  500 children will be assessed in Round 1. Out of those 500, 100 will be called for Round 2. So 400 children will be unsuccessful. Just important information for you to be aware of.

Westminster give nothing away about Round 2 on their Website. We know exactly what went down in Round 2! Nothing very different to your usual top 4+ Assessment schools. Very similar. With a few harder elements of learning added.

To prepare like a BOSS for the Westminster 4+ Assessment - know this…

Your child will 100% need to be highly academic.

Your child will 100% need to demonstrate exceptional behaviour. 

Your child will 100% need to demonstrate beautiful listening.

These are just 3 out of 100 other things that your child will need to demonstrate!

If you want to prepare your child for their 4+ Assessment at Westminster (2027 entry and beyond) with confidence and clarity book your FREE Assessment Consultation Discovery Call today and speak with an expert in the 4+ assessments at Westminster. 

4 of our students were offered a place this year to study at Westminster! Have the success you deserve to have! Prepare for the 4+ at Westminster like a BOSS.