11+ Support Thread 2027

Dadsbabe · 19/10/2026 20:13

BrilliantBee · 18/10/2026 20:08

I don’t think there’s a thread for the current Year 5s yet!
How is everyone getting on?

Hi all, can anyone share which online platform we can use for FSCE preparation

Original poster

BrilliantBee · 20/10/2026 14:33

Dadsbabe · 19/10/2026 20:13

Hi all, can anyone share which online platform we can use for FSCE preparation

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I’m using Atom Learning for FCSE this year. My eldest passed very highly solely using Atom Learning - it was a different exam board as they’ve changed it, but I’m hoping it’ll effectively prepare still…! For my eldest, it said on track for each subject, and did well enough to pick whichever school we wanted!! The mock tests available are specific to our area as are learning goals when I added our target school.

OP posts:

Dadsbabe · 20/10/2026 14:56

BrilliantBee · 20/10/2026 14:33

I’m using Atom Learning for FCSE this year. My eldest passed very highly solely using Atom Learning - it was a different exam board as they’ve changed it, but I’m hoping it’ll effectively prepare still…! For my eldest, it said on track for each subject, and did well enough to pick whichever school we wanted!! The mock tests available are specific to our area as are learning goals when I added our target school.

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Thank you so much 😊

yasirawan · 21/10/2026 13:35

BrilliantBee · 18/10/2026 20:08

I don’t think there’s a thread for the current Year 5s yet!
How is everyone getting on?

For Year 5, the things that seem to help most: short daily sessions of 15 to 20 minutes, untimed until accuracy is solid, then adding the clock in the summer. And going through wrong answers together, asking which option they nearly picked and why. That shows the habit behind the mistake, like squaring the whole of 4n when only the n is squared.

Declaring an interest: we built Prism Learning, an 11+ practice site. There's a free 12 question mini paper with every wrong answer explained and no sign-up, if it's useful to anyone: prismlearning.co.uk/11-plus/free-mini-paper

Sipperskipper · 22/10/2026 07:11

Daughter is in yr 5 and we are starting to prepare for CSSE.

Has a tutor once a week, and we are starting to get into the habit of 15-20 mins of work each day, maybe slightly more at the weekend. She doesn’t get homework from school, so this feels sustainable. She loves reading more than anything, which is great- but I need to start reading some classic type books with her. We’ve fallen out of the habit of bedtime reading together, as she just reads all the time anyway, but I definitely need to be doing this again.

We’ve had a little look at a mock maths paper - to be honest I was shocked at how hard it was! Most of the content she hasn’t even learnt yet. Hopefully all will become clearer!

Original poster

BrilliantBee · Yesterday 07:46

Sipperskipper · 22/10/2026 07:11

Daughter is in yr 5 and we are starting to prepare for CSSE.

Has a tutor once a week, and we are starting to get into the habit of 15-20 mins of work each day, maybe slightly more at the weekend. She doesn’t get homework from school, so this feels sustainable. She loves reading more than anything, which is great- but I need to start reading some classic type books with her. We’ve fallen out of the habit of bedtime reading together, as she just reads all the time anyway, but I definitely need to be doing this again.

We’ve had a little look at a mock maths paper - to be honest I was shocked at how hard it was! Most of the content she hasn’t even learnt yet. Hopefully all will become clearer!

Sounds like a really great amount of time to be working with her!!
I haven’t read to mine at bedtime since around 6/7 - quite proud and keen to let me know they can do it themselves! I think it’s fine to assign some reading though.
Is the exam September? Don’t worry - her tutor will have a whole plan to cover the material, by May Half term she’ll have covered it all!

OP posts:

Sipperskipper · Yesterday 13:55

Yes, September - hoping that is plenty of time! It feels very daunting at the moment. Our catchment local school really isn’t great, so really feeling the pressure!

TypicalBlue · Yesterday 17:00

Hi! We properly started the prep in September and things are going well so far. DS has a 121 tutor in our village and he loves his sessions with her. She gives him quite a bit of homework each week for each of the areas (English, NVR, VR, Maths) and daily vocab tasks. He actually gets quite a big chunk of school homework too, so it’s not easy to fit everything in. We are finding our groove though.

We went to two local grammar school open days recently so that he could see what he was working towards and to check it is what he wants. He liked both schools and I think it inspired him. I was relieved as he is currently in a tiny village prep with small classes and I thought he might feel a bit overwhelmed at the size and scale. So far so good though!

CoralLemur · Yesterday 20:10

Sipperskipper · 22/10/2026 07:11

Daughter is in yr 5 and we are starting to prepare for CSSE.

Has a tutor once a week, and we are starting to get into the habit of 15-20 mins of work each day, maybe slightly more at the weekend. She doesn’t get homework from school, so this feels sustainable. She loves reading more than anything, which is great- but I need to start reading some classic type books with her. We’ve fallen out of the habit of bedtime reading together, as she just reads all the time anyway, but I definitely need to be doing this again.

We’ve had a little look at a mock maths paper - to be honest I was shocked at how hard it was! Most of the content she hasn’t even learnt yet. Hopefully all will become clearer!

My DD has just taken the Csse paper. If you haven't found it already there is a CSSE Facebook group. I only found it in July which was a bit too late for DD.

The maths is hard but don't ignore the English paper. DD and most of her friends came out saying the English was okay/easy but the results showed that it wasn't. The average raw score for English was 33/60 similar to previous years.