Alleyn's 4 Plus Preparation
About the Alleyn's 4 Plus
The Alleyn’s 4 Plus assessment is a key entry point into the school. Traditionally a one-form entry, it has recently expanded to two-form entry. The assessments are rigorous and highly competitive. Children who pass, except in exceptional cases, will progress through to the senior school at the end of Year 6, avoiding the pressure of the 7 Plus or 11 Plus.
There is a sibling policy at Alleyn’s which can make it attractive for larger families. However, it is only loosely applied and there are many examples of siblings who are not successful. The policy broadly states that when two candidates are similar, the candidate with a sibling is likely to get priority.
Last year Alleyn’s acquired Oakfield school. Our relationship with the school means that we have a good idea around the integration strategy that is being adopted (and indeed the circumstances of the acquisition). They used the same 4 plus assessment process at both Oakfield and at Alleyn’s school. However, there was a complex application process whereby parents specified which school they would be willing to attend and obtained offers by school. There are decisions for parents to make in order to navigate this well based on their circumstances and we are well placed to advise.
Our Alleyn's 4 Plus Expertise
Our 4 Plus programme is taught by experienced tutors including Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers and former teachers from the Alleyn’s Junior School and other schools in the Dulwich area such as JAGS Junior School and DUCKS. Some of our staff were previously members of staff at Dulwich Foundation Schools. Others have successfully guided their own children through the Alleyn’s 4 Plus using the approaches we teach.
Our Success Rate at Alleyn's
In 2023/24 we helped sixteen children with their Alleyn’s 4 Plus, of which ten received offers. Alleyn’s is getting increasingly competitive and it is not uncommon for a child who has obtained an offer from JAGS or DUCKS to be initially waitlisted by Alleyn’s. The typical acceptance rate for Alleyn’s is around 12%. Our rate is around 60%.
We have a rule that we only help a maximum of fifteen girls and fifteen boys each year for the Alleyn’s 4 Plus assessment. If we helped everyone, we would be helping no one.
What’s on the Alleyn’s 4 plus Assessment?
All 4 Plus assessments are not the same. The Alleyn’s 4 Plus has important differences to the JAGS assessment. Alleyn’s used to have a gross motor skills test which has never been a feature of the JAGS test, and in previous years has even included a PE-type lesson – though not last year. Traditionally, JAGS placed more emphasis on group, classroom-style activity, whereas Alleyn’s have been increasing the amount of 1-2-1 content in recent years. Children also have more choice over their activities than at JAGS. Alleyn’s has been increasing the academic aspect of their testing in recent years. This can take the form of extremely challenging spatial reasoning tests which test all aspects of spatial reasoning – including both advanced rotation and the ability to translate 2D to 3D in both game and real-life formats. They overtly test children on their numeracy understanding and their basic phonics knowledge. They also give children tests which are unsolvable to see how they react. Alleyn’s is explicit that they want good language skills and in our experience children who struggle to explain their ideas will find the Alleyn’s assessment difficult. Our deep language assessment tools are a vital component to a successful Alleyn’s application. Before we introduced these our success rate was around 40-50% – now it is nearer 70-80% thanks to our language diagnostics and language acceleration programmes.
We also have extensive experience helping children with Alleyn’s 5 Plus and 6 Plus assessments which were conducted three years ago as the school expanded. This positions us well to help with occasional places for slightly older children. Most years there is an occasional place which comes up and it almost always goes to one of our pupils.
Our Alleyn's 4 Plus Preparation
We start with an assessment of where your child is, based on our knowledge of what Alleyn’s looks for in successful applicants. We do this through:
- A review of your child’s nursery report
- A full mock assessment with a 4 Plus specialist teacher which replicates the Alleyn’s approach
We give you detailed feedback on your child’s performance. We tell you what exercises to expect and what they are looking for with each exercise. We tell you how your child performed and give you exercises you can do to help them give of their best on the day. We are open and honest with you and tell you if we believe your child is on track for a positive assessment.
We then do a full academic assessment. This sees us to standardised english and maths testing, phonics and numeracy testing, and speech and language testing.
We then work with you over five sessions to help prepare your child. Two of these sessions are with just the child and two are with the parents in the room. We see ourselves as helping coach and support parents to help their child pass the 4 Plus. We use a range of experts for this, including teachers, teaching assistants, registrars and play specialists.
As the programme progresses we build in additional mock assessments. This can be either an individual assessment or a group-based assessment as appropriate for Alleyn’s.
Programme Pricing and Booking
Our core Preparation and Assessment Programme is £2,000. This includes an initial behavioural assessment, two academic assessment sessions, five coaching sessions, and parental coaching webinars.
Being realistic, a competitive Alleyn’s 4 Plus application is challenging and most parents spend around £3,000 – £5,000 with us to be confident that their child is in a good place for success. This would include behavioural sessions, some phonics and numeracy classes, group activities and mock assessments. However, each child is different and has their own journey.
If you are unsure but want to reserve a slot with us, you can register for £100 and we will make sure you are in our cohort. After you have booked, our course manager will be in touch to book you in for your first assessment dates.