A Guide to The AlleyN's 4 Plus

 The Alleyn’s 4 plus assessment is a key entry stage for entry into the school. Traditionally, this was a one form entry. However, recently it is expanded to two form entry. The assessments are rigorous and highly competitive. The children, except for exceptional cases, will all progress through to the senior school at the end of Year 6. As such, this is an excellent way to avoid the pressure of the 7+ or the 11+.

There is a sibling policy at Alleyn’s which can make it an attractive option for larger families. However, parents should be aware that 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 then the candidate with a sibling is likely to get priority.

 Our 4 Plus Programme is taught by experienced tutors include 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. In short, we are well versed in the application process for Alleyn’s and the other Dulwich Foundation Schools and these experts have helped us create this programme. Our programme is taught by an experienced tutor with a multi-year track record of getting children into Alleyn’s. Some of our own staff were previously members of staff at Foundation Schools. Others of our own staff who have got several of their children into Alleyn’s, using the approaches that we are going work with your daughter or son on. 

 In 2023/24 we helped sixteen children with their Alleyn’s assessment of which ten passed their assessment. It is only fair to say that Alleyn’s is getting ever harder 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 local application dynamic, however, is changing as DUCKS are now giving all through offers which is resulting in some boys turning Alleyn’s down which rarely occurred before. Typically, the 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+ assessment. If we helped everyone, then practically we would be helping no one.

We also have extensive experience helping children with Alleyn’s 5+ and 6+ assessments which were conducted two years ago as the school expanded. This well places us to help with occasional places with slightly older children.

 Firstly, all 4+ assessments are not the same. For example, the Alleyn’s assessment has important differences to the JAGS assessments. Alleyn’s has gross motor skill test which are not a feature of the JAGS test and last year had a P.E. type lesson. Traditionally, JAGS placed more emphasis on group, classroom style activity, however, Alleyn’s has recently started to include these sorts of activities. Children also have more choice over their activities than at JAGS. Alleyn’s have also 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 have overtly testing children on their numeracy understanding and their basic phonics knowledge. They also give the children tests which are unsolvable to see how they react. They are 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. We can help prepare your child for both over here. 

 Our Alleyn’s preparation is based around our full 4 Plus Preparation Programme. We start with an assessment of where your child is, based on our knowledge of what Alleyn’s are looking for in successful applicants. We do this through a review of the nursery report; a test conducted in conjunction with Cambridge University by our teachers; and full mock assessment with a 4+ specialist teacher which replicates the Alleyn’s approach. The assessments have to be done over two different days because the academic potential test takes a few days to come back and analyse. This almost directly replicates the Alleyn’s approach as they look at the nursery report, do some standardised testing and have a behavioural based assessment.

We will then give you detailed feedback on your child’s performance. We tell you what exercises you should expect and what they are looking for with each exercise. In short, we will give you the inside track on the day. We tell you how your child did and give you some exercises you can do with each exercise to assist her to give of her best on the day. We will be open and honest with you and tell you if we believe your child is on track for a positive assessment.

We then work with you over five different 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+. We use a range of experts for this, including teachers, teaching assistants, registrars and play specialists – all the people involved in the assessment.

After this we do another mock assessment. This can be either an individual assessment or a group based assessment as appropriate.

Our full Preparation and Assessment Programme is £2000.

Being realistic, a competitive Alleyn’s run is challenging and most parents need to 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, phonics and numeracy classes, groups activities and mock assessments. However, each child is different and has their own journey.

 You can book either our full coaching and mock assessment package (£2,000). If you are unsure yet but want to reserve a slot with us you can just register (£100) and we will make sure you are in our cohort (once we have 15 boys and 15 girls for Alleyn’s we will take no more children for that school). After you have booked, our courses manager, will be in touch to book you in for your first Assessment dates.