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They say hindsight’s 20-20 and that’s certainly true when it comes to the eleven plus. Every year, we have at least one parent that wish they’d come to classes sooner or had done things just a little differently.
If your child is in Year 5 currently, or you’re trying to plan ahead, here are some of the areas that you’ll need to consider to give your child their best chance of passing the grammar school exams.
By the beginning of Year 5, you need a fair idea of which school is going to be your first choice and which other 11+ exams your child might be sitting. Once you’ve made your decision, remember to communicate this clearly to your tutor, especially if you’ve changed your mind in recently.
This is an important decision as each school has different entrance requirements and weights the subjects differently, for example, non-verbal reasoning counts for 25% of the marks in the Bexley 11+ exam but 50% of the marks in the Newstead exam. Knowing which exams you’re aiming for will enable you and your tutor to prioritise work over the next year.
Once you’ve decided which school to aim for, check the entrance requirements to make sure that your child could realistically qualify for a place based on your address.
Every year we meet parents that wish they could turn back the clock and start preparing earlier or start our classes earlier. Don’t let this be you!
You can always cut down your tutoring hours if you change your mind, but you can’t increase the hours retrospectively.
One of the most common mistakes parents make is forgetting to cover reasoning at an early stage, or focusing too much on one subject. Make sure your child is working on maths, English, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning from the day you decide to aim for a grammar school. They may have a strength in one area but this doesn’t mean you should neglect that subject entirely.
After potentially a year or two of paying for tutoring, don’t take your foot off the gas in the summer. Remember that every single mark counts in the 11+ and relaxing during August, or even just cutting down on lessons, could mean that your child loses the momentum they need to get over the finish line.
Due to a baby boom ten years ago, the 11+ has become even more competitive and giving your child a week off in the summer means giving an advantage to the hundreds, if not thousands, of children that worked their socks off during that same period.
To give your child the rest they need, we advise planning for no more than a week of doing nothing during the holidays. To maintain a balance of fun and work, we recommend completing or reviewing one practice paper each morning and then spending the rest of the day doing fun activities. This gives a solid routine and gives plenty of hours during which your child can relax. If you can incorporate education into these fun activities (perhaps with a trip to a museum or a wildlife centre) then even better.
Attending a summer school can be a great way of making learning fun throughout the holidays, however, remember that these are intense weeks that need to be supported with sustained work throughout the holiday. Once summer is over, we recommend attending hour-long weekly lessons up until the week of the exam. This will give your tutor the opportunity to clear up any last-minute niggles and give extra practice in the areas that are needed.
Most grammar schools will allow dyslexic children to have extra time in exams or permit them to use reading rulers to keep track of their work in an exam. If your child is bright, it can be particularly difficult to persuade their school to have them assessed for a learning disability and you may need to get this done privately, unfortunately. Doing this early in Year 4 or 5 may mean that your child is given the help they need to complete the 11+ exams to the best of their ability.
If your child has concentration issues or a poor memory, we highly recommend giving fish oil tablets (with Omega 3, 6 and 9) as these are scientifically proven to improve brain function. We’ve seen a very noticeable difference in the students that have taken these tablets long-term.
You can never be too prepared when it comes to the 11+. Click below to find out about our classes that help you to prepare the right way.
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e: contact@kinlearning.com
t: 07871 766937