Christmas trees, stripped of their shiny ornaments, are shedding their last needles onto the pavements. Night falls fast and early. Fresh Moleskine diaries are bursting with New Year resolutions. That can only mean one thing:  4+ assessments are coming right up. And while three-year olds up and down the country, still mesmerised by their Christmas haul, are blissfully unaware of what is about to happen, the same cannot be said about their parents. Behind a serene front, many will have spent the holidays fretting that their child is not quite “ready,” or worrying that the mid-nap slot they have been allotted will harm their chances. And who can blame them? The process of letting anyone “assess” the character and academic potential of one’s child is daunting. Even more so when you factor in that it all happens in an allocated 45-minute timeslot, amid strangers, in a completely new...