The most important thing to do when preparing for an occasional place

With between 30 - 60 children on average applying for an occasional place at a top school, this is the most important thing that you must do if you are preparing your child.

You must prepare them to be 3 months ahead of where they currently are.

Here is what I mean.

If your child is preparing for an occasional place in Year 1 and it is April. You want your child to be a term ahead of where they currently are.

You want your child to be at mastery level of 3 months ahead of time!

This will be challenging because when you apply for an occasional place, the school will usually invite your child to sit their Assessment with a few days to up to a month’s notice.

One month is great. A few days - not so much.

So my advice to you is this.

If you have applied to your dream school for an occasional place, start preparing immediately. Regardless of whether or not your child has been invited to an Assessment. Perhaps they will be, perhaps they won’t. If they are, at least they are prepared and ready. If they’re not, you will have provided them with an incredible foundation in terms of their learning.

I have personally prepared children for occasional place Assessments at top schools such as Habs boys and girls, Alleyn’s, Dulwich College and Thomas’s to name a few. I have had children be successful and children not be successful.

Then children who were successful were the ones who were at least three months ahead of their peers.

Let me give you an example of a top London school who Assessed Reception aged children for an occasional place in Year 1. There were 46 applicants for 1 place.

After having completed their occasional place Assessment, the children were grouped into percentiles. They were split into 25%. Top 25%, Top middle 25%, Bottom middle 25% and bottom 25%.

They were Assessed in terms of Reading, Writing and Verbal Reasoning. So in order to be offered a place, the children would need to be placed in the top 25% across the board. Those who made it to that top percentile would then be chosen. The highest scorer would be offered the place.

That’s how it works.

If you are currently preparing for an occasional place, I would highly recommend that you take part in my Curriculum Coaching programme. I will support you every step of the way to help your child to have the highest possible chances for success in their occasional place Assessment.