Weekly 11 Plus Tuition

We offer weekly classes in Bromley (near Bromley Common). For full addresses and days, please see our contact page. Class availability is subject to change, please contact us for details.

The majority of our students spend just 1 hour a week with us, particularly when preparing for the Bexley, Kent or Newstead tests. For other schools, like St. Olave’s, we sometimes recommend classes of 1.5 hours a week in order to give us more time to focus on subjects like creative writing.

The length of your child’s classes is heavily influenced by when they started their tuition. We’ve found that many of the students start with us in Year 4 are able to do 1 hour a week of classes and achieve incredibly high scores, including being in the Bexley Top 180 or gaining places at super-competitive schools such as Newstead and Olave’s.

This is often an arbitrary recommendation that, of course, has major benefits for the tutor as they make more money from parents this way. By contrast, our lesson length recommendations are always based on the individual child, which is the reason they can vary.

We are also able to cut down our lesson time by making sure that each session is jam-packed with content and not a minute is wasted. By filling the lesson in this way, we’re able to trim down the total time spent in lessons to save you money.

In our experience, cutting down lesson time is also crucial in keeping our students motivated. Two hours of weekly classes, plus homework, for two years is exhausting and can cause burnout before your child reaches the exam. Shorter classes of 1 hour or 1.5 hours mean that our students frequently marvel at how quickly the lesson has gone. This motivation and enthusiasm is key for helping students through their 11+ journey and setting them up for a positive educational experience at secondary school.

Our students will never sit an entire practice paper independently in our classes. Why? Because, in our opinion, there are much better ways for us to use our time with your child than simply watching them write for an hour or two.

When students complete practice papers under timed conditions at home, our tutors are freed up to spend our lesson time on deepening your child’s understanding of a subject and helping them to improve.

There are times when students do benefit from sitting practice papers in an exam environment, which is why we created our mock tests. These mock tests are set up like a real 11+ and also include valuable feedback reports that help to guide future 11+ preparation.

Absolutely! We cover all 11+ subjects: maths, English (comprehension, grammar and creative writing), verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Not only do we have a library of reasoning resources but several members of our team also went to Newstead Wood School, where the entrance test consists solely of verbal and non-verbal reasoning. They’re therefore perfectly equipped to help your child with both verbal and non-verbal reasoning.

We always recommend choosing and sticking with one tutor rather than attending several at a time. This policy includes attending general improvement classes (like a Kumon programme).

There are a few reasons that we recommend choosing one tutor. Firstly, one tutor must generally be better than the other (hopefully, we’re the better ones!). If one tutor is better then it’s more efficient to maximise your time with them rather than going elsewhere.

Secondly, different tutors have different ways of working. Some of our methods are slightly different to school techniques and this alone can be confusing for a child. Children will be even more confused when you add a third teacher’s methods into the mix.

Lastly, adding a third tutor can create an excessive workload that often means that students fail to complete their homework properly. If your child isn’t going through an 11+ programme thoroughly – by attending classes regularly and completing all homework – you can’t expect either programme to be effective.

We have a number of English-focused 11+ sessions in our schedule, however, we still insist on occasionally checking progress in all subjects when working towards the 11+. We’ve applied this philosophy with many families, even when the parents are experienced school teachers or have a related degree.

Although parents might be able to teach certain subjects at home, they can rarely match our levels of experience and depth of knowledge when it comes to the specifics of the 11+. It’s therefore in your child’s best interests for us to use our experience to at least guide the work you do at home to make sure that your child is on track in all subjects.

Always. Homework is the best way of reinforcing the concepts learnt in lessons and reminding children of the work they’ve done.

We give weekly homework using a combination of books from our range and from other publishers (such as Bond and CGP).

We work hard to find a balance between giving children the necessary amount of homework and making sure they still have time for fun, enriching activities. If you find your child is receiving too little or too much homework, you’re welcome to come and talk to us so that we can work together to find a solution.

1-2-1 tutoring can only be as effective as group tuition if you have a fantastic tutor in both cases. We’ve had many students that have come to us after attending 1-2-1 tuition and even the children themselves report that they learnt very little in their old classes and learn far more in our groups.

There are some great 1-2-1 tutors and there are also some that see tutoring as a hobby or quick money-maker rather than a career. If a 1-2-1 tutor is unprepared, unreliable or just plain uninterested then your child’s chances of success are going to be significantly decreased. By contrast, attending a reputable tuition centre means that you have the assurance of a dedicated team looking after your child’s progress.

Crucially, group tuition also provides tutors with an ongoing comparison of your child’s progress compared to their peers. When teaching on a 1-2-1 basis it can be easy to lose perspective; this perspective is key when preparing for an 11+ exam in which a child’s performance is essentially ranked against other students. Our classes benefit from having this group dynamic but also ensuring that there are enough members of staff to give your child the attention they need.

Finally, we’ve found that there’s a noticeable difference in children’s motivation levels when working with a group. In a group setting, children are more enthusiastic about coming to class and are more likely to push themselves as they try to compete with their peers.

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