It went well, at least to me it did! Who knows how they actually select from those assessments. He was with a teacher for about 20mins, doing puzzles, drawing and general chit chat. Then he went off to another room to play with other children.

It was all very relaxed. Nothing to be nervous about.

Me too. I hope it all went well. Many, not all, of the schools here make a real 'industry' of selling how lucky parents are for their children to be accepted. Clearly adding unnecessary stress to an important process whilst forgetting exactly who the customer is. Rant over thank you.

OP: would love to know how this went? Any feedback?

Thank you everyone for replying to my post. We have a week to go before his assessment at NP but I'm trying not to get nervous about it. It's a lovely school but there's no way for me to figure out how they select the intake so I'll just cross my fingers and hope that he'll make the cut!

Good luck to the other parents.

Many thanks, Bubs, for taking the time to reply. That sounds very reassuring

We've had interviews at various schools and I must say, I never choose to prepare academically. I do sit and have a chat with my daughter, usually very close to the day (the day before) about what will happen, and try to allay any worries so she's nice and relaxed and just 'herself' as much as can be, nerves allowing.

Ours was for a place at their nursery, but I know from friends there they felt like they liked for a bit of a spark - you know, chatty, happy, engaged.

My daughter was a clinging, screaming, tantrumming ball of snot who was returned to me before the alloted 'play' time was up because she was so appallingly behaved that she was disrupting other children. She got a place.

We didn't take that place, then we re-considered it later on for year 3 - at this point she joined for a day (maybe two in fact) and they wanted to see her interact and partake in all school activities / lessons.

No personal experience of any other entrance point I'm afraid.

Hi Bubs,

as we also have an interview coming up at Newton Prep, I thought I ask you for your opinion on what the most important thing was that they based their decision on for offering your daugher a place (if you don't mind sharing)?

As it is only our second interview so far, I would be grateful to know what they asked of the child? Should I prepare my son for it and if so how? After the first one, he did not get offered a place, but I do not know if it was due to the interview or if they already had too many siblings born in that specific month.

Many thanks!

Just to further reassure you, my daughter was an absolute TERROR at her assessment day, dreadfully behaved, but still got a place at Newton Prep. So I'm sure a badly worded nusrery report won't be held against you.

I think our children might go to the same nursery. The quarterly reports we get are so shocking that I've been dreading what they'll send to NP ahead of our assessment next month...not because of the content itself but just how poorly written it is due to be. As you suggest, a simple proof read would make a huge difference.

Thank you for your response, Squinkie, that's really reassuring. As you suggest, I'm going to ask the nursery to look over the report and correct the errors before sending it to other schools.

I think it's certainly something you should make the nursery manager aware of, however in my experience it won't hinder your child's chances of getting a place in any way whatsoever. Schools ask to see nursery reports in order to ascertain what stage of development your child is at and to get as much information about the child as they can prior to assessment in order to prepare for it; the poor quality of the written report will impact badly on the nursery, not your son! If you are very concerned about your 1st choice school seeing it, I don't think you'd be asking too much of the nursery to provide a corrected version! Good luck with it all.

My son is due to have his assessment for reception entry at Newton Prep this month. NP requested a report from his current nursery, and the deputy manager just showed me what she has sent to them. Frankly I was appalled by the number of typos and spelling mistakes in the report! I wish she had let someone proofread it first. I am worried that this looks really bad and will hinder my son's chances at NP. Should I bring it up with the manager? My son is due for an assessment at another school (our 1st choice) in November and I don't want her to send another shoddy report.

Do you think it's ok for me to tell her to have it proofread first? It's supposed to be confidential so obviously I can't personally look at it before she sends it.

How important is the report really? Anyone know?