Should I have coached my child for 11+?

To be honest, I don't know a single child who's gone to a selective school who hasn't been tutored professionally since I myself was at school 20+ years ago!

It's not about covering the content, which most parents and books can do, it's all the extra coaching a professional tutor does about going through the exams at a good speed and in a fluent way, plus all the practice of mocks. You also need a tutor who prepares them for life at the school once they get in, so ensures they're fully up to speed and will be able to manage once they're at the school.

In your position I would get a tutor now to support them through secondary - most of my friends (and us too) are going with the "state+tutor" model for high school education. We use a tutor company who was recommended on here actually (Tayberry) for our daughter and they're doing SATs prep with her at the moment

I think most kids are tutored which distorts the results . Is there a chance for her to take another test at a later date and join a waiting list or enter at 13+ . I know a few Dc who have been tutored and this has worked out for them . I do also know a DC who although he passed the test for a waiting list slot - he never got a place as not enough Dc left

Oh and yes, I went through some 11 plus study guides with my lad for about 3 months prior to the exams. They give an indication of whether they are likely to reach the standard. The hard bit for us wasn’t the content of the papers but the speed at which they were expected to do the math questions. So a large part of that, unless they’re seriously outstanding at math, was to have a strategy not to waste time on questions they couldn’t easily answer but to move on and then go back at the end if time allows.

So while I don’t think you can coach a non academic kid to pass, I do think knowing the format of the tests and having had similar practice beforehand helps. There were no published past papers but e study guides are often tailored to particular exams.

My son got a place, he is just finishing year 11, he said all the kids had tutors for the 11 plus (the ones he knows anyway) and many carry on with tutors throughout. The work isn’t exactly harder when there as it’s mostly just GCSEs but the expectations are higher.

We bought dd some practice books the year before which she half heartedly did a couple of tests from, then did a few in the week before the test. We were never going to get her tuition and if I had have had doubts about this I would have been reassured that intensive coaching was not the way to go after seeing the curriculum and the standard of the work on the open evenings. I can see how someone coached to pass the rest could flounder when at the school with such high academic expectations.

A quick google will tell you that most kids are tutored for the 11 plus so yes, to give her the best opportunity, you should have, at the very least, used some 11 plus study guides with her to level the playing field so to speak.