11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi all,

We are looking to send my daughter to Alpha prep nursery in September and she will need to undergo and assessment in June.

Does anyone have any experience with their assessment or nursery Admission assessments in general?

Thanks in advance.

Assessment for nursery? Seriously, I despair.....

A copy of the latest Tax Return?
What can you do for fund raising?

DS had a half-day assessment for an indie nursery place (not at Alpha Prep in Harrow) at the age of 3 and basically the school was trying to judge, in a very broad sense, how ready the child was for nursery school. They were looking to answer questions such as, could the child be separated from the parent and be around other children? Could s/he cut paper, hold a pencil or paintbrush, sit and listen to a story or play on the playground equipment? Not really something that one could spend time prepping for, though, rather sadly, his friend wasn't offered a place as he cried quite a lot during the morning.

If my child had had to do this she'd have "failed" everything. She was selectively mute at this stage and would not have spoken in this scenario for anything. She probably would also not have performed a task on being requested by someone she didn't know (or quite possibly someone she did know ). By 4.5 she was totally different.
I know someone (and I swear this is true) whose dd did not get into the most sought after N London indie at 3 but did get into the second most sought after which many people strive for, who took a year out of work when that dd was 5/6 in order to prep her extensively for the next entrance at 7. I never heard what happened though.

Sorry to hijack your post op. I hope your DC gets a place if that's what you want but I suspect you can't really plan for it. Your DC will just be whatever they feel like being on that day!

tiffinboys wrote:A copy of the latest Tax Return?
What can you do for fund raising?

Are there not VR and NVR books and mock exams available for 3 year olds? Looks like someone's missing a trick here.

Seriously though OP, any nursery assessment is just to see if the child likes engaging with other people and if they like playing with toys etc. IQ and academic potential has nowt to do with it (at least I hope it doesn't)

From what I know it's not as daunting as you expect. Absolutely no preparation is required. I'd be really shocked if there a tutor that deals with 4+ entries.

In general, they are interested to see how the child interacts with other children, be able to participate in games such as identifying letters, his/her name, primary colours, different shapes, drawing a picture of himself/family/anything, listen in to a story and answer questions related to the story.
Something any good nursery would be already doing as part of the EYFS curriculum.

It doesn’t seem like an assessment, but they make it fun and interesting for the child to engage it. They call in children that are of similar age – for example, sept – dec, june – aug as there can be a major difference between a child that is Sept born compared to August born.

masari_pirates wrote: I'd be really shocked if there a tutor that deals with 4+ entries.

Prepare to be shocked. A quick google reveals that there are indeed such people. I will not advertise by posting here.

masari_pirates wrote:identifying letters, his/her name, primary colours, different shapes, drawing a picture of himself/family/anything, listen in to a story and answer questions related to the story.

Oh dear. Yes, I suppose we do expect this of our toddlers now, don't we? How sad.

masari_pirates wrote:
In general, they are interested to see how the child interacts with other children, be able to participate in games such as identifying letters, his/her name, primary colours, different shapes, drawing a picture of himself/family/anything, listen in to a story and answer questions related to the story.
Something any good nursery would be already doing as part of the EYFS curriculum.

I think this is the sort of thing my DD went through many years ago, for a different school. Not entirely sure as she couldn't really remember when I asked her at pickup time - she just said that she played and drew pictures. I have no idea how they can assess any child at that age - it was just a hoop we had to jump through for a place. I certainly gave no thought to 'preparing' for it

Hi there, our 3yr old son just had an assessment at Alpha prep alphabets nursery and we were called this morning to hear he has got a place for September. Surprised your assessment is in June???