What you should and shouldn't tell your child when preparing them for the Assessment Day.

You definitely do not want to be telling your child that they are going on a ‘play date’.

It is definitely not a play date.

Although your child is still so young at this point, you really just want to tell them the facts. Of course tell them that they will have fun - they will! But be very factual.

In order to tell them about the Assessments, you yourself need to know the Assessment process very well. You need to know about each individual school because no two schools are the same.

Remember that children (like us adults) do not like change… at all.

So, make this easier on them by telling the step by step what they will expect.

Discuss each school in order of when they will be sitting it so that it is fresh in their mind.

Eg. ‘When you visit x school, we will drop you off and you will go in with a teacher from the school.

They will take you to a classroom where there will be a group of 10 other children who are a similar age to you.

You will be asked to do different activities such as puzzles, lego, playdough etc.

They will be watching to see how well you focus/listen/show kindness to others/ hard you work etc.

Please follow their instructions when they ask you to do something.

So you can see that you will be giving them very clear step by step instructions about how the day will be and how you would like them to behave.

I would start as early as possible doing this but go in order of assessments otherwise it will be confusing for them.

As always , please tell them that they will be left for 30/45/60 minutes (however long the assessment is) and that mum or dad will come back to collect them afterwards. Explain to them that you would love for them to go in happily and calmly and to not get upset.

Of course, children are not robots and we cannot predict how they will react to this on the day. The only way is to practise leaving them in new and unfamiliar environments in the lead up to the Assessments. The rest is not in your control.

If they do cry or get very emotional before going in, chances are they will not be successful. Not because of the crying or the getting emotional but because they simply won’t be able to perform at their best.

So please prepare them for this as best you can.

For tips, strategies and support with how to do this as effectively as possible, I will be running a Webinar on Saturday 30th September to help you to best support your child to go into their Assessments happily, calmly and with confidence. Click here to book your spot.