angered by tuition for grammar school 11+

I don't think heavily tutored children @ Maths & English subjects will do well in the competitive environment of a grammar school where most pupils are naturally gifted or talented & way above average academically.
Grammar schools are not only about Maths & English subjects...
OP would you be feeling as angry if you will find out that many parents are helping their children themselves instead of using tutors?

ZOMBIE THREAD

Some people say it's cheating to practice for 11 plus exams. This seems like a strange attitude to exams and to work.

What other exams is it wrong to revise or practice for?

I disagree with grammar schools. I went to one and live in a grammar school area. Will have to rent a house near a good non-selective and mixed gender school in a few years.

That's interesting but still not much help as we must be about 2 - 3 miles away

gazz - apparantly the catchment for distance in bands 1 and 2 is much wider than for 3. Many places in Band 3 are taken up by Looked After children and Statemented students so the open distance catcment is smaller, but for other bands about .9 of a mile.

We went to have a look at Dunraven and I really liked it until I read the bit in the prospectus about needing to live within a km of the school to realistically stand a chance of getting in [sad}
Custardcake thanks for advice and noted. Trouble is DS really, really likes a super-selective he hasn't even done the exam for which is part of the issue (tears hair out....)

gazz - Dunraven.
It is our nearest school, so we have decided that as such we don't need to enter the feeding frenzy for a place at a school further away!

Wow you've done your homework CustardCake! Well those stats don't seem quite so bad but then it would be a super-selective vs Graveney dilemma....hmmmm.
Where are you opting for Blu for your DC?

ooh, I don't know!
We have decided against going for graveney, so you won't have DS to compete agianst, at least

SURELY not 5000?

Blu, thanks for good wishes. I am not over-optimistic about Graveney Test as I think I worked out that there will be at least 5000 children doing it.....????!!! Which is considerably higher odds than the super selectives - or do you think we're wrong on that???

If he doesn't, hopefully his success in the exam will be a good indicator of his chances in the Graveney test?

gazz - huge congratulations to your DS, and fingers crossed that he will actually get a place.

I think that is the most difficult bit - we were cock-a-hoop yesterday about DS's 11+ pass, but then the dawning realisation that it still didn't necessarily guarantee him a place kicked in and felt it was a hollow victory/celebration (not for DS) for we adults....
On a positive note all DCs from DS's school who passed last year got their places too!

Thanks for the reply. We only have to wait until next week for a ranking although thats obviously not a guaranteed place. At least its all over. I cant ever remember being this stressed when I did my own exams. I fear I may be morphing into a "helicopter mum" I keep hearing about

Hi, Mrsrat, DS got result today. He and his friends all had some issues with completing the 80 VR questions but DS said he finished even though he guessed a few of the last ones whereas some of his friends only got to Q55-60!
But for that particular 11+ the VR only accounted for 20% of marks so if the boys were very strong in the other subjects it might not have made that much difference...

gazzalw did DS take the test today or did you hear today. My DD did the test this morning and she knows that she just ran out of time so guessed 6 questions which is the difference between pass and fail at the school she wanted to get into ?

Can just report that we are one of those families that so didn't believe in tutors, thinking that we should be able to do it ourselves. For a start couldn't afford £40 an hour for a year or so....But, and this is true so there is hope for those of us who can't just throw money at our children's education, with a combination of gritted teeth , Bond Online and Bond books (with others thrown in for good measure), we have done about 1/2 hour max a day for about the last nine months (and I certainly don't think we were over-rigourous!) and today it proved that it can be done as DS passed for one of the super-selectives. We were totally not sure that he would pass because we just felt that the opposition would far exceed what children can do from the state sector - but this proves it is do-able for everyone.
I do think that there is a big posse of upper middle class helicopter parents who use financial clout to muscle in and take over everything that should be open to all. The problem is that then we all think that it is not achievable without that financial clout and va-va-voom but it is.

Thank you racingheart. She is in there now.

Good luck Mrs Rat's DD.

Welcome to the real world! One of the reasons I hate the system. The parent who has 'bought' the place then has the hypocrisy to say 'what a wonderful system to give the DC from a deprived background a way up and out'!!

My DD1 taking 11+ tomorrow. We have only been "revising" for last 3 months when had to take her out of school for financial reasons. I feel sick reading how many children are tutored for sometimes years. I have been using the Bonds and GL books and an on line site but I think she is woefully unprepared having read these posts. She did really well in the school on line tests but 90% not the 98 % another poster suggested was the pass mark.

Custard that's a really good distinction. It's just massively oversubscribed because there's no catchment. Puts it in perspective a bit.

I don't quite understand why the OP is so furious about tutoring. No is prevented from helping their children stand a better chance. No need for outsic=de tutors. there's loads you can do at home, pick up second hand etc. Why be angry that others are working hard to help their children? just do it too, if it bothers you. I truly don't get why people are so hysterical about the unfairness of tutoring. It's not unfair. I don't screech that my son's best friend has unfairly won himself a place in the swimming gala by going every morning at 6am for an hour when we go once a month. You get out what you put in. I think if anything, the kids who have worked really hard deserve the places far more than the 'naturally bright' whatever that means.