Parents of little one's at Alleyn's from age 5+....

[Bionic_Dave]

What pre-prep / early years school (nursery) was your little one at and did you privately tutor to prep for the Reception entrance assessment?

Thank you in advance for any responses.

Dave

[keane]

Privately tutor to prepare for reception entrance - is this necessary?! Do any four year olds need to be privately tutored to enter reception? Reception is mostly play based with phonics & beginning to read & write, I cant see the need for tutoring at this age? But then again my children were very happy in a state primary but I don't know much about the private sector, just think it seems very young to be privately tutoring..

[Pugwash]

I have friends who have children in Dulwich private schools from 4 onwards and they have never had private tuition.

They had a choice of 2 schools ( were offered both) and chose one where there is emphasis on learning through activities within classroom or after school classes/groups.

[Parkrunner]

This may be a stupid question, but you do realise reception entry is 4+, not 5+? Important for two reasons -

1. That you apply at the correct time!

2. That means your LO is just three when they are assessed and so what the school is looking for is not absolute knowledge (ie. the sort of stuff you can tutor, although good luck with that at age three!), but rather whether they can sit still and listen; concentrate on a task for a long enough period of time; absorb information and then use it (eg. listen to a story then ask or answer a question about what they have heard).

Having recently gone through the whole school decision-making process that you're now going through, I know the stress you're feeling and the fact there's no way of knowing whether you're making the right decision for your child. But reading your and your wife's increasingly frantic posts about Alleyn's on here over the last week, I'm starting to feel like the best advice I or any other poster can give you is RELAX.

You say your child is not yet three. S/he is going to change and develop a lot between now and 4+ assessment time and then again between the assessments and actually starting school. It's impossible to know right now whether Alleyn's is the right school for them, but if you set them on a hot-housing path from the age of two because for YOU it MUST be Alleyn's, you could risk killing off their love of learning, irrespective of how academically able they are or aren't - not just because you can't possibly know at age two whether they're as gifted as you would like, but also because at two, they do their learning through play (for which Montessori is great) and not through tutoring.

Sorry that this is unlikely to be what you wanted to hear, but the short answer is that there is no silver bullet way of getting them in to Alleyn's. And in the meantime, your repeated posts on here looking for one were making me stressed for your child!

[scareyt]

I think the reception assessments are looking more at personality, confidence and "teachability" than anything else, and I agree, it's not possible to pay a tutor to fill a 3 year old with those qualities. They are looking for children who will happily go off with a person they have never met before and spend an hour impressing that person. We did the Alleyn's 4+ assessment this year as it's one of the schools that's walking distance from us and didn't get in. For what it's worth, my son told me they asked him to draw a picture of himself, draw some shapes, write his name and do a puzzle. But given the ratio of applicants to places, any typical slightly shy and/or stroppy three year old who refuses to speak if they're not in the mood has no chance!

I agree with Parkrunner, it's a school with a very particular style - a reception teacher there told me they spend around 70% of their time sitting down doing lessons in reception which goes against a lot of research about the value of play at that age and really put me off.

(I also suspect that the vast majority of Alleyns parents don't live in East Dulwich and aren't on the EDF which would explain why you're not getting the answers you were hoping for!) Good luck, it is a very stressful decision and it's also a very strange adjustment I found - in most settings in adult life you are a consumer and can pay to get what you want, but with school entry, state or private, you suddenly become a supplicant with no power and it's very discombobulating. But once you come to terms with that and realise everyone's in the same boat it becomes less stressful. There are loads of great schools around here and your child will get into one of them.

[edd]

Try asking on http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk , Bionic_Dave; there is not infrequently discussion of SW and SE London preps and private schools, including AJS.

[Adam]

We have a child who started at Alleyns last year in Reception. We are in ED (not clapham, battersea etc) and a number of the other kids also live nearby. We are very happy with the early years provision which includes plenty of running around time, woodland school outdoors and other fun.

I second the comments above - you cannot tutor (and would not want to). It helps though that your child is used to sitting and listening to a story, holding a conversation, following instructions, mark making etc - all things they would be doing in a decent nursery. Being active is also important as apparently gross motor skills help with learning, and so may form part of the assessment.

Different schools have different styles. Alleyns seem to focus more on communication skills in assessing at the earliest stages whereas some other schools seem to be looking at writing etc. - which seemed wrong to us aged 4.

If thinking about nurseries/ pre prep you could ask Alleyns (or whichever other schools you look at) where they take kids from at age 7, 9 or 11 - at that age it probably makes more of a difference. I think Herne Hill school sends a lot to Alleyns and the other foundation schools at age 7.

I hope your child will be very happy wherever they go - I am sure they will be given the thought you are already putting into this.