A Guide to the Westminster 4 Plus Assessment

An Introduction to the Westminster 4 Plus Assessment

The Westminster 4 plus assessment is a brand new assessment for a brand new entry point for a school going through radical change. Historically, Westminster was a boy’s school with boys junior school attached called Westminster Under. The school has made the decision to go co-education throughout and to introduce a 4 Plus entry point. As such, there is little information about the 4 Plus. Furthermore, as Westminster have built up their Early Years’ team and expertise they have refined their plans and messaging.

We know Westminster and know how schools develop 4+ assessment

Our experienced tutors include Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 teachers and former teachers from schools which we believe to have an assessment of a comparable academic and behavioural standard to the Westminster 4 Plus Assessment – namely, Highgate and Alleyn’s. Furthermore, we have experience helping schools prepare for their 4 plus assessment and we actually have a substantial business helping school create and develop 4 Plus assessments. Obviously our client list is confidential, but we believe that we have a good handle on what is going to be needed for the Westminster 4 Plus.

Our success rate in schools similar to the Westminster 4 Plus

No one has a success track record for Westminster 4 Plus assessment as it is brand new. We are proud, however, of our success rate with academic, co-educational schools of a similar standards such as Alleyn’s and Highgate. Last year we had 16 children pass their Alleyn’s 4 Plus with us and 13 pass their Highgate 4 Plus with us. We also have an excellent track record with Westminster at 7+ and 11+

How is the Westminster 4 Plus Assessment structured?

Westminster are planning a two stage process, more akin to that of the Hampstead schools than the one stage process used by the Dulwich based schools. The first stage in November will be play and group based and we expect the second stage in January to be somewhat more academic but still play based.

Pleasingly, Westminster say that they are going to consider the age of the child. However, they have not said how they are going to do this. We find that schools adopt very different approaches to this, with some more effective than others.

Also there is good news that Westminster say that they will be factoring in whether a child has additional languages spoken at him. Again the details are sketchy about how and, as there are no good language and pedagogical methodologies, for doing this, it will be quite hit and miss. We will be preparing our bilingual children as if there is no meaningful adaptation by the school.

Disappointingly, Westminster are intending to use proximity to school as a factor. At Mentor Education we feel this is very unfortunate as, in our experience of other schools with similar policies, it inadvertently discriminates against families who might be able to afford the fees but not the house to match. It also assumes that people have decided, before applying to a school, where they are going to be raising their family. We know that many parents are intending to move to an area once they know where their child is going to school. We often have families, for example, in Canary Wharf who are agnostic about whether they want to live in the Dulwich, or in Westminster or in Hampstead and are going to apply to a range of schools and then decide. All these families will be disadvantaged by the Westminster proximity policy.

Our Westminster 4 Plus Assessment Preparation

We start with an assessment of where your child is, based on our knowledge of what schools such as Westminster 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 what we expect to be the Westminster 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.

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. 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.

We do have sites in Hampstead and in Dulwich for regular weekend or holiday intensive sessions. We encourage parents to bring their children to our offices in mid week for their initial assessment so that we can have our Head of 4 Plus do the initial assessments, but we can if needed do these at the weekend in Dulwich or Hampstead. We are looking to open up availability in the Victoria area at the weekend from the summer which will hopefully be more convenient for many of our Westminster families.

Our full Preparation and Assessment Programme is £2000. You can book here.

Being realistic, a competitive Westminster 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.

Our Westminster 4+ Preparation and Assessment

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 Westminster 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.

Mentor Education 4+ Group Assessment Dates

While we do the individual assessment dates on an ad hoc basis around you, we need to create cohorts of children for the group assessment dates. We do these later in the year to give children the time to develop more of these skills. By this stage families have usually been working with us for six to nine months and so their children are well prepared. The Mentor Group Mock Assessment dates for 2025 in the Dulwich area are:

• 20th August 2025
• 13th September 2025
• 18th October 2025
• 1st November 2025
• 6th December 2025
• 3rd January 2026

For more details about our Westminster 4+ Preparation

Schedule a Westminster 4+ Assessment Consultation with us

We encourage all potential clients to schedule a call with us to discuss their needs and tell us a little more about their child. Please schedule time with us using the button below. We have a strict rule that we only help 15 girls and 15 boys each year for Westminster 4+ entry. If we helped more then there would be no benefit for those we have helped. So please do not delay in booking.

Book a Consultation with our 4 Plus team