Has anybody successfully tutored for the 11+ completely by themselves(need reassurance)

Miranda tutoring is not tutoring if parents help their children and that help is not the sort to create social disadvantage. Which is all that matters, in terms of equal access to grammars. Sure, children who have parents interested in their education are at an advantage but there's a very clear distinction between professional and parental tutoring. It would be very undesirable to encourage parents not to help their children.

Well not in my case Thisisaeuphemism.

Marni I don't particularly regard the help given to my younger ones as 'tutoring' but I'm not too bothered if others do. I would never, ever have gone out into the market place to find a tutor I didn't know personally. As it happens the teaching the older four was getting was decidedly weak in main areas so this solution was good: no conflict with the school and a vague parity of education between my eight children.

It would be a crazy world to suggest that parents are causing social disadvantage by helping their children. The only tutoring which does that is intensive paid for tutoring from a tutor who is properly effective. Very clearly not all tutors are effective in securing a place, given how many DC I've known over the years who've been professionally tutored and failed. All the DC in DD4's class except one sat the 11+. DD4 passed in the top category (certain place) in spite of only oblique maternal help, one DC passed the second category (possibility of a place) but had no tutoring in either sense and all the others failed outright despite them all going to a paid for tutor over a long period of time.

Tutoring is tutoring whether you pay someone for it or do it yourself. Although I would also say that familiarising your child with the format of the paper is necessary - they would be at a disadvantage if they didn't know about that.

Am glad we're not in a grammar school area though - is quite nice to know I don't have to make any choices about whether to apply or not.

I don't think you can draw a clear distinction. There's a world of difference between, say, simply providing a few practice tests for your child to complete, and spending hours going over papers teaching the concepts the child hasn't grasped.

But then I'd say the same thing applies to paid for tutors. AFAIK some are 'classes' where the DC just complete paper after paper vs one to one sessions with the tutor concentrating on areas of weakness.

It reminds me of a parent at DC's school who was very vociferous in her condemnation of parents using tutors but then paid for a member of staff to do extra sessions with her DS. She seemed to think this didn't count, presumably because the teacher wasn't a 'tutor'!

Yellow - In the OP, Blue does make the distinction between tutoring and parental involvement. So, in the context of this thread, travelled was correct in saying that her DDs weren't tutored.

But speaking generally In other threads a lot of people do define 'tutoring' as prepping their kids for the 11+, whether it's done by the parent or by a paid tutor.

"It's a matter of semantics I would say - but I agree with you Yellowtip - there's a huge difference twixt going thro' past papers and explaining things that the DCs don't understand and sending them to a tutor who is actively teaching a lot more than that (one would hope...). "

What else is a tutor doing? A specific 11+ tutor, I mean?

At least now I understand what people who say they didn't tutor their kids means. It means they researched papers, made their kids do maths tests, practised and practised (exactly as they would do at a 'tutors') oh but no money exchanged hands...

It's a matter of semantics I would say - but I agree with you Yellowtip - there's a huge difference twixt going thro' past papers and explaining things that the DCs don't understand and sending them to a tutor who is actively teaching a lot more than that (one would hope...).

We certainly didn't have a rigid timetable and subjects that were actively taught to DS - he practised papers and we then went thro' them. We didn't even work on timings etc... because we were lucky that DS is naturally prone to be careless speedy.

seeker 'tutoring' means a paid for 11+ tutor and not parental help. Parental help is not tutoring in the sense that that it's regarded as disadvantaging those who can't afford tutoring. It's ridiculous to try and make out that parental help is 'tutoring'.

My eldest four DC simply went to school and I bought the pack of four NFR papers as recommended in the prospectus by the grammar school. They therefore didn't get 'tutored' even under your misleading definition of tutoring.

The younger four went to a much weaker school and got a modest amount of help from the two retired teachers from the older ones' school. That is 'tutoring' but not without cause: DD4, for example, is taught by one teacher who teaches all subjects by herself in a school where Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6 are all taught in one room and there are some seriously, seriously disruptive children who have absolutely no wish to learn or to let others learn.

I myself have done remarkably little with the DC beyond sending them to school regularly (almost no days off) and being clear that I'd like them to go to the grammar and think they're all capable.

Travelled - What you did with your DCs is 'tutoring' :)

It always amuses me when people say that the child passed the 11+ without tutoring, then go on to detail the tutoring they gave them!

Neither of my children were tutored and they both passed for good Grammar Schools where they are both doing well. With DD we just gave her some past papers to practice. She had a little help from DH with problem solving/maths.

Following year I worked with my DS for eleven plus exams, on my own. We live in a county with VR tests but Maths is his strong point. We saw it as a challenge and we had a lot of fun together.

At year 4 make sure your DS reads a lot, can do multiplication tables. Play scrabble, do crosswords and other word games. Disuss the books he reads and talk about vocabulary.
Become more focused on practice papers and specific techniques in year 5 but do not worry about tackling complete papers and working against the clock until later in the year.

Challenge for you will be to make TIME to sit with him and work together on a regular basis. Don't overdo it. Study/practice for small chunks of time. Reward good effort with praise or treats eg "let's do some word puzzles and then we can go to the park". Always be patient and positive.

Good Luck.

Agree with hardboiled that actually doing reading and writing is the best thing. It may be worth asking your child how much actual writing they are doing at school. It may be very little, which is why it's worth setting them up to do it at home.

The elevenplusexams website has (or used to have) some sample essays, which gave you a good idea of what a school might be looking for in an exam context.

Also, have a look at what are the criteria for level 5 and level 6 writing (national curriculum levels). It'll be around somewhere on the internet (the TES website is a good bet), and get your little one to have a go at writing in short bursts, including some of these. A teacher friend told me that markers will literally be sitting there with a list of things to award points for. Don't know if that's true ... but it will be for things like good, unusual grammar; higher-level adjectives and adverbs; strong control of beginning, middle end; holding the tone of the piece; language appropriate to the theme and style; stylish things such as linking the end to beginning (demonstrating control again).

(Sorry if I;'m off the point here - I saw you asking about literacy earlier.)

Re creative writing I don't trust any "how to" formula book. Reading and writing every week does it.

The GL papers are very useful and we found them closer to the real thing than Bond for maths and VR. The IPS book on how to tackle VR is fantastic for techniques and tips tutors know but you don't... It is the one recommended by "Patricia" in the elevenplusforum.
Oh, and yes OP. It is possible!

I didn't do any additional prep at all with my older four since they all went to a school with good teachers. Or rather, they did a NFR Maths or VR paper most weekends from Sept to Nov prior to the exam. The younger four have had a much patchier primary education so the retired teachers from the older ones' school (a couple who are family friends) have given them an hour and a half a week of Maths and English for a year prior to the exam (and after it too). I haven't done anything beyond that with the younger four myself.

You research it on the EPE forum or look at past papers to see the range of questions. Some areas only use 15 question types, others 21, others more.

The most important thing is that you get the right books for the area you are living in. There is no point doing Bond VR if you are in an area that does a different kind of VR.

I tutored both of mine myself. One got a very high score and passed by a long way, but the other one narrowly failed. The one that failed was always going to be borderline really, so the outcome would probably have been the same with a tutor.

I enjoyed tutoring them and they enjoyed doing the work. It was of benefit to both the one that passed and the one that failed as they both got into the habit of working hard before they arrived at secondary school, and hard work will be more important than intelligence when it comes to passing exams later on.

You sound really on it, blueskies - much more so than I was - the reading will make a massive difference to him and yes, at least you are aware there will be gaps - I didn't expect that and so I was a bit complacent at first.

Yes, I think Blueskies... that particularly with maths you will soon see where your DC needs help - I seem to recall that despite DS always being in the top set for maths, his long division was remarkably bad so we had to do quite a bit on that - because the basics are what the 11+ exams are essentially testing them on.

With English and Maths a child needs to be KS L5 at the time of the exam. Bearing in mind a lot of state schools aim for their kids to be at L4 and maybe L5 at the end of year 6, one needs to work on that gap as soon as possible.

That's with exams for private schools. I don't know about GS exams.