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Original poster

11+ preparation for DD who turned down offer from Bute House and Latymer Prep

55 replies

Happybunnyxxx · 13/02/2024 19:52

Hello parents,

DD got offers from Bute House and Latymer Prep this year but we decided to turn both down and stay at our current state primary school- we would like to nurture her in a familiar and loving community and focus on character building.

Through the 7+ assessments, we learnt a lot about her ability and personality. We did not prepare her for any of the tests. In fact, we just told her to go and check out the schools as well as play some games, even with the 3 relatively formal paper with Latymer. She came out smiling and enjoyed the challenge- she was not aware that she entered any school entrance assessments.

We understand that we would need to prepare for 11+ assessments especially the tests would cover more than national curriculum for Year 6, besides exam skills. We also know that it is unlikely the current state secondary school could help on extra exam preparation. Since she is only in Year 2, we do not intend for her to start tutoring at all now. Rather, we would like to use the time to research and find a good tutor or a team of good tutors.

We do not have any target school yet as we would like to get to know DD more about her interests and talents first. Currently she is very interested in arts and music. We live about 25mins walk from both Bute House and Latymer Prep/Upper so it is likely to be secondary schools around that part of West London.

We would like to have recommendation of some good tutors who could do face to face tutoring at home but we are not sure how to find them locally as the parents at her school we spoke to use online ones and local FB page search has not been fruitful neither. Would you please help?

If you know of any good online ones too please feel free to recommend.

It would be very much appreciated if you could share your experience in finding the right tutor(s) for your children too as we have never done it before.

Thank you very much for your help. :)

OP posts:
SamPoodle123 · 14/02/2024 09:01

Focus on love of reading, cultivating interests out of school. If your dd retains information easily and learns concepts quickly nothing to worry about for 11+. But it can be a little stressful for the parent trying to figure things out when coming from a state school (our school was not helpful at all). When the time comes, get a tutor to make sure she covers the curriculum and understands the 11+ exams. Also, Atom learning is the popular thing now (it might change by your time). Good luck.

PreplexJ · 14/02/2024 08:05

For Butes one would need to do 11+ anyway, and would assume pressure from peer parents with high expectations.

lattemerde · 14/02/2024 06:45

What you seem to fail to have realised is that there is no guarantee of success at 11+. At 11+ there are often 10 times as many applicants as places. All candidates are well-prepped so it can come down to a few marks on the papers or whether you clicked with your interviewer. At 11+ all kids are fully aware of what's at stake. Tutoring and past papers for 6 months to 2 years in advance is the norm, as is sitting for 4 to 6 schools. As such, sitting 11+ is a far more stressful, competitive and time-intensive process than 7+.
If you had offers from somewhere you wanted long-term, and which was walking distance from your location, you really should have taken it. Turning down multiple places to assemble a crack team of tutors in year 2 is, frankly, nuts.

Pyracantha1 · 14/02/2024 02:28

This is a confusing post. OP why would you turn down offers from both these schools when you intend to send your daughter to them in a few years time? I understand you want her to stay in a nurturing environment however she got into those schools with ease and no prep, you now want to invest in tutors to make her sit exams for the same schools?!

The exams get much more difficult (7+ Vs 11+) and the prep for them will consume so much of her time and energy. Now imagine a scenario that she started at one of the two schools you mentioned at 7+, she would just continue through the years, with no further hours and hours of prep or tutoring.

farfallarocks · 14/02/2024 02:00

Why would you turn down such good schools at 7+? I suspect you’ve marked your copy book.