What does it mean to create your own 'Simple Summer Reset Plan' ?

Clarity

Lazer Focus

Awareness

Here’s what it has meant to my clients who have attended the Summer Reset Workshop.

‘It has allowed to to focus and be completely aware about what exactly needs to be covered in terms of curriculum.’

‘It is an extensive document which is very clear and simple to use.’

‘I now have the clarity and awareness that I was lacking before having it!’

If you attend my August Summer Reset Workshop, you will receive your very own tailor made 13 week Summer Reset Guide. I created this workshop initially for the month of June (hence the 13 weeks). However, it will still work perfectly well for August.

When you attend my Workshop, you will be allocated a 30 minute time slot. During that time, you will have plenty of time to ask me all of your questions about the schools that you are applying to and have all of your questions answered. Whilst you ask your questions, I will be busy creating your Summer Reset Guide which will be bespoke to the schools that your child will be applying to.

You also have 30 days of access to me in which you can contact me at any time to ask me anything you like! Incredible for only £59!

An very valuable resource I would say!

So don’t miss out and secure your place today. I have 6 places available and if you sign up before the 10th of August you will receive 3 incredible bonuses worth £300!

If you're preparing for the 4+ Assessments (2025 Entry) you will love my Summer Reset Workshop.

Here’s what some of my clients have told me about the Summer Assessment Reset Workshop.

‘So valuable!’

‘You have so much knowledge and it is clear to see that all you want is to help us parents to be successful!’

‘I was so confused before coming to the Reset Workshop, now I understand exactly what I need to do to help my child to actually go in and pass their 4+ Assessments!’

‘I love that you are just so honest.’

This August will be the FINAL 4+ Assessment Reset Workshop. September through December my one and only focus will be preparing my students for their Assessments!

It’s always my favourite time of year! My clients don’t feel the same and this is why they love working with me!

The Summer Reset Workshop will be the breath of fresh air that you need to help you to clearly understand everything that you need to understand about your child’s 4+ Assessments.

I make 4+ Assessment preparation fun, enjoyable and easy.

So if you are feeling lost, confused and anxious about your child’s 4+ Assessments, sign up today for only £59. You will leave the Reset feeling calm, supported and refreshed!

Book by the 10th of August to receive £300 worth of amazing FREE BONUSES!

3 ways to teach early writing that do not involve pencil and paper.

There are two types of students when it comes to early writing.

They either love it or they hate it.

My son is two years old and he is obsessed with writing. He calls pens ‘papers’ and is asking me throughout the day for ‘papers’. So I have no problem getting him to write. He tells me when he wants to write and we do it daily.

With my own 3+ and 4+ students it’s the same. Some love it and some don’t. Some will do it with enthusiasm and energy and others will not want to do it at all. Some get upset about it and walk away and some ask me to write numbers and letters.

Wherever your child is, there are ways to support them to build a love for writing that will help them to actually want to pick up the pen or pencil in their 4+ Assessments.

For most of the 4+ Assessments, your child will be observed writing so they must be able to go in and be able to write. And they must be able to write to a very high standard (correct letter formation and a decent size)

Here are 3 ways to teach early writing that do not involve pencil and paper.

1. Water tray writing

Fill a water tray with water and add lots and lots of bubbles. Add some lovely glitter to make it even more visually appealing! Ask your child to use their finger to form letters and numbers. Once they like this, ask them to pick up and pen and ‘write’ in the water.

2. Sand tray writing

As above but use sand.

3. Use a write board

You know how children love to write on walls? Well, now they can!

No more destroying your beautifully painted walls! When I used to do in person tuition, I used to always bring this with me and write on my client’s walls with their children!

Fun!

If after using these three methods, your child still doesn’t want to write, get in touch with me, I will be very surprised and happy to help you!

Do the opposite of what 70% of parents will do this summer!

If you are preparing for an Assessment for 2025 entry (any Assessment) let me tell you what 70% of parents will be doing this summer.

70% of parents will be taking a break.

I’m sure that you can guess what the remaining 30% will be doing

Now, hear me when I say that there is nothing wrong with taking a break. I am a firm believer in rest and relaxation. However, if your child is sitting an Assessment for 2025 entry, now is not the time for this.

Rest and relax but in a structured way.

Incorporate learning around your rest and relaxation.

Many of my clients up the intensity and frequency of their tuition over the summer months. Many of my clients are seeing me 2x/3/x/4x and even daily over the summer break. These are the students who will have the BEST results in their Assessments.

It makes no sense to me when clients come back to me after 2- 3 months of summer break and tell me this…

‘I don’t get it, it’s like they’ve gone backwards!’

What don’t you get?

Your child hasn’t opened a book for 3 months. Seems very logical to me.

Don’t undo months and months of hard work by taking the whole summer break away from learning.

What message are you sending your child if you do this?

That you don’t learn when you are relaxing and resting!

This is not the message I want to give to my students.

Will you be part of the 30%?

I hope so.

Introvert or Extrovert in the 4+ Assessments?

Why it just does not matter.

Many parents that I speak to on a daily basis fixate on this topic of their child either being an introvert or an extrovert.

Being an extrovert will not give a child the advantage over a child who is an introvert.

It’s helpful, sure.

But by no means will a school choose a child to come to their school purely on the basis of them being an extrovert.

It is far more complex than that.

These schools have a long list of criteria that your child needs to meet and being able to talk and answer questions is just one out of hundreds of things that they will be assessing.

The only downside of being a little more introverted at the ages of 3 and 4 is that your child might be that little bit more reluctant to answer the assessors’ questions.

However, if your child is more on the introvert side, fear not. They can still be incredibly successful.

I’ve worked with many children throughout the years who have been very able to articulate themselves, answer questions in great detail and have the confidence to go into their 4+ Assessments and talk to anyone who crossed their paths but there have been times that perhaps they did not know how to share. How to follow instructions. How to listen to the opinions of others. These are just a few examples for you.

I’ve also worked with many children who have been just as able to articulate themselves but perhaps were a little more shy or reluctant to speak to new and unfamiliar people who have been successful because together with the work done with me to support their ability to answer any question in their 4+ Assessments, they were also able to do many other things well. Eg. follow instructions, listen to others well and share kindly.

With only 2-6 months remaining until the 4+ Assessments, now is your time to get started!

Book your Sample Lesson Today!

Why you must tell your child exactly what to expect on the day of their 4+

Many parents tell me that they did not tell their child exactly what to expect on the day of their 4+ Assessments and those same parents tell me that they regret doing this.

Many parents tell me that their child won’t understand anyway or that it’s best they don’t know exactly what is happening or that they don’t want to worry them. I disagree with all of this.

Your child does fully understand what is going on.

Your child will fully know is happening on the day of their Assessment

They may or may not worry regardless of whether you tell them or not.

You must tell your child exactly what to expect in their 4+ Assessments if you would like them to actually pass their 4+ Assessments. Here is why…

1. They will be clear about the expectations.

By telling your child exactly what to expect, they will be clear about what is expected from them.

Telling them things like -

‘You will be collected by a teacher who works at the school and taken to a room/hall to take part in several different activities.’

‘You will follow their instructions and do exactly what they ask you to do.’

‘ You will be kind and polite to all adults and children in the room.’

‘You will share and take turns.’

etc.

2. They will be far less likely to not do what you don’t want them to do.

If you don’t tell your child exactly what to expect then don’t be surprised if they do go in and treat it like a ‘playdate’.

3. They will be 10x more confident

By knowing exactly what to expect your child will go in with 10x more confidence than if they didn’t know exactly what to expect.

Tell your child exactly what to expect on the day of the 4+ Assessments and if you don’t know what they will be expected to do, speak with someone who does.

Book your Sample Lesson today.

What everyone should know about comparing 4+ Assessments.

It’s a waste of time.

Waste your time actually preparing your child.

These are the questions I hear ALL THE TIME…

How does school x Assessment compare to school y Assessment?

I’ve heard that school x test phonics differently to school y?

Is the Assessment easier at school x than school y?

These are just not useful questions.

These schools know exactly what they are doing. And they will never keep the Assessments the same year after year anyway. So just because something was the way it was last year absolutely does not mean that it will be that way again this year.

I know what these Assessments at each of these school have been like HISTORICALLY (the last 15 years)

And I certainly do prepare my students specifically for the schools that they are applying to.

My main priority is to prepare them to the highest possible standard.

When planning my lessons, I don’t ever ask myself if phonics will be easier at school x than school y. Do you know why?

Because it is irrelevant.

Instead, I prepare my students to go into each and every one of their Assessments equipped with the phonics knowledge needed in order to pass their 4+ Assessments at each of the schools that they sit Assessment at.

Who cares if they test phonics differently at different schools?

What I care about is that my students know their phonics so that if they are asked their phonics, they know how to answer the questions.

‘Easier’ or ‘harder’ is so subjective. What I think is easy, you might think is hard!

Don’t waste time comparing Assessments at different schools.

Waste time actually preparing your child each and every day so that they can go into each of their Assessments and actually pass.

3 ways to fail the resilience part of the 4+ Assessments

In their 4+ Assessments, your child will be expected to demonstrate how they handle things when they are hard for them. They will need to show resilience. It is important that you teach your child how to be resilient in their 4+ Assessments. How to demonstrate this at all times in their 4+ Assessments.

I thought it would be helpful to share with you three real life examples of students who did not pass their 4+ Assessments because they were not able to show the Assessors how they handle things when they are hard for them (of course they may have failed on other aspects too)

Joan

A happy, confident and calm girl, Joan went into her 4+ Assessment at a Top North London girls’ school filled with excitement. Joan was a very bright 3 year old girl and had mastered many aspects of 4+ Assessment preparation. The one thing she struggled with was to deal with things when they were ‘hard’ for her. In our lessons, generally she would walk away when she didn’t know how to do something. We also did one in person Mock Assessment and she did exactly the same thing. If something was too ‘hard’ for her, she would simply walk away. In this particular Assessment she was asked to complete a puzzle and she couldn’t find one of the pieces. She three several puzzle pieces on the floor and then walked off to a different activity. She did not pass this Assessment.

Ricky

He was one of the youngest in my cohort of students last year. August born, he was nearly a year younger than some of my other students. Although he was younger, Ricky had mastered many of the skills needed to be incredibly successful in all of his 4+ Assessments. Ricky had developed a habit of giving the wrong answers on purpose when he would find things ‘hard’. As in, rather than ask for help, he would just do it wrong purposely. Eg. We would play a game in which he would have to find the missing numbers on the number line. If he didn’t know the answer, he would just give me a random number. We worked through many strategies to support him with this and things definitely improved. In one of his Assessments at a Top South London School, Ricky was asked to reverse a toy car out of a car park maze. He gave it a go but then got stuck. He told the Assessors ‘I give up!’ and he walked away from the activity. He was not successful at this school.

Sara

A sweet, kind girl, Sara worked very hard to prepare for her 4+ Assessments. She did however have a tendency to give up quickly on the tasks that she deemed too ‘hard’. She could sit and colour in for hours for example but if she was given a lego task where she would have to build something specific, she would often get frustrated and ask her mother to help her or to finish it for her. In her 4+ Assessment at a top Central London School, she was asked to place 8 beads onto a string in a particular order. Unable to figure out the pattern, Sara told the Assessor to finish it for her. She handed the Assessor the string and went off to do something else. She was not successful at this school.

NOT answering questions in the 4+ Assessments will lead to your child NOT passing their Assessments.

I hear these comments as though they are reasons why a child might not answer questions in their 4+ Assessments. It really doesn’t matter. Your child MUST answer the questions they are asked and they MUST answer them well in order to be successful. It is as simple as that.

Here is what I hear all the time from parents that I speak to daily.

‘My child is shy…’

So what?

Your child can still answer questions even if they are shy. They just need the correct support and guidance in the lead up to their Assessments.

‘My child doesn’t like talking to new people…’

So what?

Unless your child knows the Assessors, the people that they will be meeting at the Assessments will be new people to them. Your child can still answer questions even if they don’t like talking to new people. They just need the correct support and guidance in the lead up to their Assessments.

‘My child is an introvert…’

So what?

These schools are not looking for extroverts. They are looking for children that will thrive at their schools. Introverts are welcome too! Your child can still answer questions even though they are introverts. They just need the correct support and guidance in the lead up to their Assessments.

‘My child will not answer questions in their Assessments.…’

Then don’t send them to an Assessment.

Simple.

Prepare. And prepare well!

What we offer is the best there is out there. I know that I can help your child to be successful to as many schools as possible in their 4+ Assessments so that YOU have the choice of where YOU would like to send your child.

Book your Sample Lesson Today.

3 ways to mess up teaching early writing

Whether you believe that your child will be asked to write in their 4+ Assessments or not, you must prepare them to be able to go into their Assessments and write.

To go in and write with accuracy and precision.

Teaching early writing does not mean doing writing with your child once every blue moon. It means teaching it daily and consistently. It means blocking out time in your diary to sit with your child and do writing with them.

At the very minimum, you will teach your child numbers 1-10 (formed correctly), all letters of the alphabet and to write their name.

I’ve seen early writing taught beautifully and I’ve seen it taught very badly.

Here are 3 ways to mess up teaching early writing and I would avoid these at all costs if you want your child to be successful in the writing part of their 4+ Assessment.

1. Telling your child that what they have done is wrong.

At the ages of 2 and 3, they can never do it ‘wrong’. So don’t tell them that they have done it wrong. Praise them and be specific. Eg. I love that you have drawn the circle to look like the number 8 or I love that straight line for the number 4.

2. Not blocking out small pockets of time each day to teach writing.

Writing once a week will not cut it if you are preparing your child for their 4+ Assessments.

Do it daily even for just 1-2 minutes and be consistent with this. Add it to your diary if you need to.

3. Leaving it to the last minute.

Preparing your child for the writing part of their 4+ Assessments 2 months before the Assessment is not good enough. Leave plenty of time for this. Each child is different and unique. Some children will master this quickly and others will take longer.

Book your Sample Lesson Today.

How to support your child to boost their curiosity for learning in less than 5 minutes a day.

Curiosity for learning is not taught.

Curiosity for learning is innate.

All children have a curiosity for learning.

If they are not showing it to you, then that curiosity for learning needs to be sparked. Needs to be ignited.

Think about it like a bonfire. Perhaps you struggle to get the fire started, but once you do- watch those flames!

Curiosity for learning is not something that you teach.

It is something you help to spark within your child.

In their 4+ Assessments, curiosity for learning will be observed.

Here is how you can boost your child’s curiosity for learning in less than 5 minutes a day.

1. Pick a topic - Anything your like (that interests your child to begin with) This could be anything from animals, trains, the sea, countries, clothes etc.

2. Discuss that topic with your child (questioning)

3. Watch videos about the topic with your child.

4. Do learning about that topic with your child.

Let me go through how I go through these steps with my own child (currently 2 years old)

1. Topic - Sea animals

2. Questioning…

Name three sea animals…

Where to they live?

What do you like about them?

3. On YouTube I choose a video about sea animals and I watch it with my son. As we watch it, I ask him lots of questions.

4. I find resources or create my own to do with my son. Eg. Draw a jelly fish or create a home for the fish.

I can do all of the above in less than 5 minutes!

I usually stick to the same topic for 7 days and then choose another topic.

My son is very curious and always want to know more.

I believe all children have a curiosity for learning which just needs to be sparked! Opportunities need to be give to them to develop their curiosity for learning and as your child gets older, they can choose their own topics.

I love doing all of the above because it really doesn’t take me more than 5 minutes a day but the results are extraordinary.

Active brains need active bodies.

Exercise improves blood flow to the brain.

More blood flow may increase the flow of nutrients to the brain, and, in turn, improve cognition.

Exercise can also influence cognition indirectly, by improving general well-being, notes Daniel Sanabria Lucena, a neuroscientist at the University of Granada.

Exercise can also boost memory and thinking indirectly by improving mood and sleep, and by reducing stress and anxiety.

I don’t pay too much attention to what the NHS say but they do say that toddlers (aged 1-2) should be physically active every day for at least 180 minutes (3 hours). The more the better. This should be spread throughout the day, including playing outdoors.

Look at that again.

180 minutes.

Children aged 3-4 should also be active for 180 minutes a day!

The 180 minutes reduces drastically to 60 minutes for children aged 5-18. I completely disagree.

Why on earth should it reduce so much?

Children must be more active than this.

Over the last 15 years I have noticed a huge link between my students who are super successful in their assessments and the amount of activities that they do throughout the day. My students who take part in a variety of sports every day, go for long walks with their parents, skip, roller skate, roller blade, go ice skating, swim, play cricket, play golf or do gymnastics.

I have always been on a mission to get our children moving more.

When I worked full time in schools (private and state), I started to pay close attention to how much I was sitting down each day and I did not like it. I started to pay attention to how long my students sat down each day and I didn’t like it. That’s why I introduced The Daily Mile at my last school (in Wembley) and every single day we would get out on the field and walk for 2 miles (at a minimum). My students loved it. We all started feeling better and results definitely improved. As much as possible, I would take learning outside. We would just take our books and go and sit out in the field and do our learning out there.

Active brains need active bodies.

Pay attention to how much movement your child is getting each day (pay attention to yours too!) Perhaps it will surprise you.

Get moving.

My 60 second Magic Formula for 7+ Story Writing Success

Do you know what 6 year olds should be doing over their summer break?

Enjoying it!

Whatever that means for them.

Going to 4 hours of 7+ Assessment preparation classes each week over the summer break is just not necessary.

Hours and hours of story writing doesn’t mean story writing success.

In fact, it might go the other way!

At this very young age, short, sharp bursts are always best.

Always.

So let your child enjoy their summer break and use my 60 second Magic Formula for 7+ Story writing success.

You are welcome!

1. Pick a stimulus (5 seconds)

At the table, place your stimulus. This could be a picture you’ve printed or a real object.

Eg. A jewel, a rock, a picture of a fountain to give you some examples.

2. Introduce your character, setting and problem (20 seconds)

Ask your child to tell you this and you write it down for them.

If your child struggles will this (Hint: most children do!), then they need to be reading more. Reading adventure books to help them to generate their ideas.

3. Go into detail about the problem (20 seconds)

Ask your child to tell you what exactly happens in the build up section (middle paragraph)

4. Finish the story (15 seconds)

Ask your child to tell you how their story will end.

Will it end well or not?

Moral or a question to finish?

The more you can use my 60 second Magic Formula, the more ideas your child will have when it comes to actually writing their story in their 7+ Assessment.

Remember that this is just the planning and thinking stage.

Then your child will actually need to write their story.

However, again, you don’t need hours and hours. Just give your child 30 minutes and see what they produce.

Mark it and give feedback and ask them to re-write it (again in 30 minutes)

Keep doing this process until you have the story that is the final story and this will become their model.

Place it into a folder in which you will create a selection of stories.

Read these daily.

You want to aim to have a collection of at least 12 amazing, well written stories before your child sits their 7+ Assessments.

If you want your child to master story writing for the 7+ Assessments, book your place on my incredible 7+ Intensive Summer Course .

This is what I love to do. I will help your child to love it too!

Top THREE reasons children FAIL story writing in the 7+ Assessments

1.The story does not make sense

They go off on tangents and the story is unclear.

The story does not link to the story title.

The reader cannot understand what the child has written.

If the story doesn’t make sense, the assessor will simply not read it and the story will not pass.

2. The child has not followed the instructions provided.

Story writing is generally a continuation of the comprehension or a stand alone story in which the children are give a story title or a set of images to write a story about. Recently, most stories have been linked to the comprehension task.

If students are asked to complete the passage for example and they do not do this, the story will not pass.

If students are asked to write a story called ‘The Fountain’ and they do not mention a fountain, they will not pass.

If students are asked to include speech punctuation and higher level descriptive language and they don’t do this, they will not pass.

These are just a fe examples.

3. Handwriting is illegible

If the assessor cannot read the story, it will not pass

Master these three things when teaching story writing to your child and they will definitely pass the story writing part of the 7+ Assessments. Don’t master these and they will not.

Always remember that they are 1:100’s of students being assessed. The assessors will read hundreds of stories. Your child’s story needs to stand out from the rest. Your child’s story needs to be so well written and your child’s story needs to be the one that will WOW the assessors and enable them to pass this part of the 7+ Assessments.

Story writing is my super power and I have helped hundreds of children over the last 15 years to be able to write amazing stories not just for their 7+ Assessments but for life!

Book your Sample Lesson Today.

The Number 1 Reason Story Writing is so hard to teach for the 7+

Not knowing what the schools expect.

If you don’t know what the schools expect then how can you ever prepare your child to pass this part of the Assessment?

In their 7+ Assessments, your child will most likely need to write a story in the first round of the Assessment (not always!)

Each school will have their own criteria that they will use to assess story writing.

It is important that you know what this criteria is so that you can prepare your child to go in and show everything that these schools are looking for.

I know exactly what each school is looking for.

How???

Because I have been preparing children for their 7+ Assessments for over 15 years now.

I have prepared children for ALL top inner and outer London schools for their 7+ Assessments.

I know that not all schools assess story writing in the same way and I prepare my students knowing exactly what the schools that they are applying to are looking for.

SIMPLE.

Know what the school/s are looking for and then prepare a plan to help support your child to go in and actually write the best story and to pass that section of their 7+ Assessment.

Story writing is not easy to teach for most people.

It is very easy for me to teach. It is my super power. Let me work with your child for only 30 minutes each week and see their writing transform. Watch as they begin to understand exactly what needs to be included in a story and how to actually write an amazing story.

Join my 7+ Intensive Summer Course to take your child’s 7+ Assessment preparation to the next level. Leave it to me to help your child to write the best stories ever and succeed in any 7+ Assessment.

Your child MUST be able to do this one thing if they are sitting their 7+ in the next 3-6 months.

Answer questions independently.

Seems obvious right?

I think so.

But I see this done wrong A LOT.

Not all teachers know how to do this well.

Being able to teach children without giving too much away.

Allowing children the time and space to be able to answer questions fully independently.

In the 7+ Assessment, your child will be given a Comprehension (or two!) to read and answer questions about.

They will need to have developed the skill to be able to answer lots of different questions types quickly, efficiently and with accuracy.

They will need to have developed the skill of being able to infer what a word means just by reading the sentence. Your child will not know every single word in the text. They just will not.

Your child MUST be given the opportunity to answer questions WRONG. And to then have the opportunity to make corrections. In this way they will fully understand what is expected from them in their 7+ Assessments.

If you tell your child the answer, what are they learning?

Nothing.

If you support them and guide them to find the answer, what are they learning?

How to do it themselves.

In our 7+ Assessment preparation lessons, we complete at least one comprehension each week. We cover different genres and different vocabulary. Remember that your child may encounter a fiction or a non fiction text (or both!) so it is vital that you expose them to a variety of different text types.

It is imperative that you expose them to a wealth of vocabulary so that they can tackle any question they encounter in their 7+ Assessments … independently.

Try not to tell your child the answer. It’s just not helpful. Guide them and support them to be able to find the answer all by themselves.

Sitting the 7+ for 2025 entry?

Book your Sample Lesson today.

When you provide too much support, this can happen...

I worked as a teacher full time in a variety of different schools for 15 years.

This one thing irritated me most of all.

Children receiving far too much support to the point where the learning produced was no longer theirs.

I would observe teachers literally writing out what they wanted their students to write on whiteboards and the students copying what they had written word for word.

Then their books would be looked at by senior leaders and it would be assumed that the learning in the books was theirs.

Well it wasn’t.

And when left to write their own sentences, these children were not writing to the quality that they had been when they had received this level of support.

I see this done with tuition too.

Too much support can be detrimental.

I believe in the importance of giving children the opportunity to find the answers themselves. Of children writing things incorrectly and then taking the time to figure out how to improve it themselves.

When you provide too much support, your child might find it hard to be able to support themselves.

So do help your child with their learning of course but do it in a way that gives your child the opportunity to find the answers themselves and to not be afraid to get things wrong.

Will you be in their Assessments with them? No

Will you be there to help them to find the answers in their Assessments? No

Your child needs to learn the skills to be able to find the answers independently. As in without your support.

I would far rather incorrect answers done by my student than perfect answers done by their parents or by other teachers working with them.

Can you see the difference?

Why writing caught out so many parents last year in the 4+ Assessments.

Don’t let it catch you out too!

Writing is always downplayed when you go to the open days of the schools that you are applying to.

You will either be told that writing will not be assessed or you will be told that your child will not have to write very much.

It is just not true (for most schools)

Writing needs to be near perfect in the 4+ Assessments.

Your child will need to have superb letter and number formation (as in form the letters and numbers correctly)

Your child will need to hold their pencil as the school expects them to hold it.

Your child will write their name and the letters will need to be written perfectly.

Upper and lower case letters will be written with accuracy.

Your child will be asked to write letters of the alphabet and they will be expected to write them perfectly.

Your child might be asked to write cvc words.

Many parents that I spoke to last year were just not prepared for this and it did catch them out. It caught them out because they simply did not prepare their child to be able to do this. Or it caught them out because they didn’t think that the writing needed to be so perfect.

Well, it does.

I will tell you the truth so that you can ensure that your child goes in prepared and ready to answer any question that they are asked.

Always remember that your child will be 1:100’s of children being assessed. Think about how their writing compares to other children’s writing. Just keep that in mind.

I know exactly how to prepare your child to be incredibly successful with their writing in their 4+ Assessments.

Last place remaining to work with me.

Improve FOCUS with these 3 EASY strategies

In their 4+ Assessments, your child will need to FOCUS for a long period of time. It could be 15/30/45/60/90 minutes! Yes I have heard of Assessments lasting 90 minutes!

Being able to focus, is therefore a very important skill to develop before going into their 4+ Assessments.

I heard the most naive comment this week.

‘Every child will get a place at the right school for them. They don’t need to be prepared.’

Ridiculous.

That’s like saying that you don’t need to prepare for a job interview. Just hop along, cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Without knowing HOW to focus, your child will likely NOT pass their 4+ Assessments.

Always remember that your child will be 1:100+ children, at some schools 1:500+ children.

Here are 3 EASY strategies to help you to improve FOCUS.

1. Get outside a lot more than you think.

As a society, we spend far too much time inside. We all need to be outside in the open air a lot longer than we most likely are. So when you can, get your children outside. You don’t need to plan anything lavish. Just go to the park, be in nature, go to a farm - see some animals, go to a pond/lake/canal. Being in nature is the best thing for all of us and 95% of us do not do this enough. Being outside does something for a child’s FOCUS. Studies have shown that our minds and bodies relax in a natural setting. This increases feelings of pleasure and can help us concentrate and focus more effectively, according to studies in the National Library of Medicine.

So whatever ‘a lot more’ means to you, get outside!

2. Lower screen time.

Whether we like it or not, whether we want to admit it or not, screen time interfere’s with our focus. Even more on a younger child’s focus. Screen time has so many negative impacts on our children’s young minds. There are thousands of studies that you can read up on yourselves if you’d like but just lower screen time. There are so many other things that your child can be doing. If you want your child to FOCUS, lower screen time - whatever that means for your child.

3. Drink more water.

Being fully hydrated means your child will be able to think faster, be more focussed, and have greater clarity of thought. Ensure your child always has a bottle of water with them and that they take little sips throughout the day. If your child goes to a childcare setting, remind their key worker to ensure that they stay hydrated. Young children tend to get lost in what they are doing and just forget to drink their water. They just need a gentle nudge. Most of our children need to be drinking far more water than they currently are. You will see a sharp increase in focus, the better hydrated your children are.

Focus is a skill that needs to be taught, practised and refined.

Your child will not just go into and Assessment and focus without practise. And if you think they will, you are wrong.

'How do you overcome a child's frustration when they are finding something hard?'

You don’t!

I get these questions all the time.

How do I get my child to do it when they just don’t want to?

How do I deal with their frustrations?

How do I get them to deal with their frustrations?

What do I do when they just do not want to do it?

Let’s get one thing clear. You do not ‘overcome’ a child’s frustration. There is nothing to ‘overcome’. Frustration is just a feeling.

We can choose to make frustration mean something negative or to make it mean that something has gone wrong. Or we can just choose to see it as neutral. As something that just is.

My child is frustrated.

That is all.

There’s nothing to solve for and there’s nothing that needs to change.

I think we might have this picture perfect scenario in our head about what it ‘should’ look like. And when it doesn’t happen, we are the ones who get frustrated!

Let’s look at something very common that most of my 3 year old students find frustrating.

Writing.

I ask them to write the number 5 for example and they can’t. They think it’s not good enough. They think it’s too hard. They struggle to hold the pen. They get frustrated.

Nothing has gone wrong here.

This is what I say to my students when this happens,

‘That’s ok. Let’s move on to something else and come back to that later on - if you’d like to of course.’ And we move on.

Sometimes we come back to it and sometimes we don’t.

Frustration is part of the process. We feel frustration all the time, it’s only natural that our children do too.

Need further support with 4+ Assessment preparation? Book your Sample Lesson Today!