The Intentional Parent:
Understanding Independent & Grammar Selective Schools Admissions in the UK (Ages 4-13)
The Essential Edition
A Guide to Navigating a Competitive System & Maximising your Child’s Chances of Success with Confidence
A consultancy-led book giving parents clear, structured insight into grammar and independent school admissions - so you can make informed decisions early, avoid common missteps like burnout and over-tutoring, and maximise your child's chances of success.
Available for £22 with instant download
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Who this book is for?
This book is for any parent who wants to understand the UK school system and is considering a selective school path at any stage - whether grammar or independent, through fees, bursaries or scholarships. It's written for families in nursery, preparatory, state or international contexts who may be thinking ahead to 4+, 7+, 8+, 9/10+, 11+ or 13+ entry to day or boarding schools.
If selective schools may feature in your child's journey, now or later, this book will give you the clarity you need to maximise your child's success from the start.
Why Parents Buy this Book
Parents struggle with selective admissions because the system is fragmented, highly competitive and rarely explained early enough. They sit within a highly decentralised UK school system, with differing timelines, formats and rules. Families in both state, independent, and international contexts face the same challenge for years: not understanding what selective schools actually assess, who they truly select, preparing in an unsuccessful manner, or not understanding how early decisions quietly shape later opportunities. This book gives clarity, strategy and timing parent wish they had earlier, so you can make give your child the strongest advantage in a competitive landscape.
The Hidden Landscape Behind Selective Schools
Selective admissions aren't difficult because parents lack ambition. They're difficult because there are many hidden challenges behind the landscape that parents are not aware of, which aren't visible. Information arrives too late, is quietly gate kept, families are pushed into over-tutoring and over-scheduling, and thousands are spent on the wrong resources without any real clarity. Many parents delegate everything to schools or tutors, not realising that understanding their own child is what ultimately shapes success.
These three visuals reveal those hidden dynamics so you can make smarter decisions earlier.
What's Inside the Book
This book gives you the insight most parents require, including:
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How selective schools really work. What admissions teams look for, how they prioritise children, and the behavioural and academic markers that quietly shape decisions.
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What schools look for when they select children. The academic, behavioural, and personal qualities that lead to offers (and the ones that don't).
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Entry routes explained clearly. 4+, 7+, 8+, 9+, 10+, 11+ and 13+ for both independent and grammar schools, and how to choose the stage that offers your child the strongest advantage.
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What schools expect to see at different ages. How to read your child's readiness, & support them without over-tutoring.
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Critical timings and decision points. When to start, how to pace preparation, and how early decisions shape later opportunities.
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The parent roadmap. What to consider each term, what to consider long-term, and how to make confident decisions when everyone else is panicking.
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Supporting progress without burnout. What actually strengthens your child's progress, what drains or undermines it, so you can create the right conditions for success.
Plus: key frameworks explained simply, assessment guidance, FAQs, parent and child mindset tools to strengthen your decisions and to position your child for the best possible outcome.
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What Makes Intentional Studio™ Different
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Consultancy-level insights made accessible. Built from the combined knowledge of leading preparatory schools, specialist tutors, educational consultants and successful families - without the expensive consulting fees.
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A clarity you won't find elsewhere. We explain the hidden landscape behind selective admissions - critical timings and readiness windows, criteria for admissions, behavioural markers and real competitive dynamics that quietly influence success outcomes.
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Strategy without burnout and wasted effort. We show you how to strengthen your child's chances of success with precision - avoiding avoidable time and investment, over-tutoring, panic preparation, and rushed decisions that exhaust families and weaken performance.
The Intentional Parent:
Understanding Independent & Grammar Selective School Admissions in the UK (Ages 4-13)
The Extended Edition
A Guide to Navigating a Competitive System & Maximising your Child’s Chances of Success with Confidence
A deeper more detailed version of the Essential Edition - written for parents who want complete clarity, wider strategic insight and a stronger advantage across grammar and independent selective schools.
Why Parents Choose the Extended Edition
The Extended edition goes far beyond the foundations. It gives you the depth, detail and insider-level understanding needed to make confident decisions across multiple stages, not just one. If you want to see how the whole landscape fits together: the routes, the timings, the competitive realities, and what selective schools prioritise at each age - this is the most comprehensive version.
What's inside the Extended Edition
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School comparison tables to help you shortlist and weigh up different selective schools, so you're not choosing on reputation or hearsay alone.
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Extended frameworks and checklists that go further than the Essential edition - giving you more structured prompts for school visits, reflection, planning and next steps.
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More practical tools to organise your thinking, track where you are in the journey and act with confidence rather than second-guessing
Available for £55 for a limited time only
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For less than the cost of a single tutoring session, you will get clarity most parents spend years trying to piece together.
Intentional Education™
Where intellect, behavioural science, and emotional intelligence converge.
Intentional Education™ is our research-led framework where cognitive development, behavioural science and emotional intelligence overlap. It supports three areas of learning - Selective Admissions, Academic Excellence and Mindful Learning Habits - offering families and schools a clearer, more informed way to understand how children grow, learn and thrive in a rapidly AI-shaped world.