Can somebody explain the 11+ like I’m 5?

[Donotfitin]

We’re moving to London in a few years and we’d like to time it for when our DS is due to start secondary school, we’d prefer he attends a grammar school.

He’s currently in Y1, so when would we have to move so he can take the 11+? It’s my understanding that’s he’d have to attend from Y6 in a primary within the catchment area. TIA!

Kids in year 6 have just taken the 11+ (in Jan I think).

We are in London and our local grammars have >1,000 applicants to 180 places. They are really only for the super super super intelligent kids. My child is in year 3 (state school) and has regular 11+ style tests given at school. She’s in the 85th centile, we are in the inner catchment area, and I still don’t think she would get in (or enjoy it). We will still get a tutor for her from next year so she can give it a go. One friend was told that her daughter would have to give up all holidays and hobbies in order to be tutored enough to get in. It’s very very intense.

Don’t assume that if you’re intelligent and you have intelligent kids that they will pass. It’s not like it was in the 60s. It’s ridiculously competitive and can be very stressful if you let it be.

Check your DC is up for it. They’ll most likely need to be tutored to be familiar with the test and be on a level playing field to all those that have been tutored for years.

Personally I think it’s an awful system. Testing kids at 10 and separating them from friends. We are lucky to have a good secondary modern as a back up but many areas don’t.

Also - figure out if a high pressure/stressful environment works for your child. My DS was quite borderline and missed out by a few marks. He is absolutely thriving at a non grammar - the benefit is that he’s in all the top sets so his confidence is much higher. He wouldn’t have been happy in bottom sets at the grammar

There are many different 11+ exams, that's what (well one aspect) that makes it so confusing.

Determine which school(s) you are targeting then look up the timing, catchment and style of paper for that school.

This page has a section per school / region.
www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/

I mean he’s 6, he’s only up for the latest Mario film! But I also reckon is the best type of secondary in inner M25 without being a private one.

London proper doesn’t have grammars.

There are some grammars accessible from London eg in Surrey and Essex. Their admission rules are complex and vary - for example I believe Tiffin has two tiers of catchment, and the inner catchment gets priority over the outer catchment.

You need to look into which grammars you intend to apply for and check their admissions rules, catchment areas, who gets priority and what scores are needed to get in etc. You’ll need to be living in some quite specific areas to be eligible for the grammars.

Also look into what schools your child would get into if they don’t get into the grammars, you really do need to be happy with the back up option as well.

The grammars vary in how competitive they are to get in. But anywhere that gets a lot of London applicants is likely to be very competitive and require some fairly intense, test- specific tutoring. Unless your child is a genius and even then they will need some practice on question type and exam technique.

Which grammar schools are you thinking? Like others have said it would be Surrey and schools like Tiffin for closest to London. (So competitive).

Other than that it’s Kent and Bucks.

Your child really does need to be highly intelligent and I don’t mean just top sets intelligent. So always have a back up plan.

Latymer is our front runner. Sutton is second choice. We think it would be down to the neighbourhood.

Ive heard so many horror stories about the state secondaries that I guess my plan B would be to go privately.

Not all state secondaries are bad - there is a difference I think between somewhere like Kent which is a full grammar county to Sutton where there is a couple of super selectives and the majority of people go to a ‘normal’ secondary. My daughter goes to a Sutton secondary that selects 20% of their intake. She did as well as going to a grammar.

Have you visited either of those schools, or the areas you’d need to live to be within the priority admissions criteria? Quite different areas. What about house prices, jobs, commutes?

By the way, it doesn’t matter what primary he attends as the grammars don’t have feeders. What matters is your home postcode. Check the admissions criteria carefully for the priority postcodes. Yes, you need to be living in the area for the start of year 6 realistically. (I think for Kent grammars it may be even earlier?)

What horror stories have you heard?

The 11plus is massively variable.

I live in East Kent, which has undersubscribed grammars, so even if your child doesn’t pass the Kent Test, they may well get a grammar place on appeal.

And no, you don’t have to be in Kent until the start of Year 6. What you do need to do is register your child for the Kent Test in the summer of Year 5.

No, we haven’t as it’s fairly early days. Originally we wanted to live in Wimbledon, but my friend who lives there told me the secondary school wasn’t that great (doesn’t perform well academically).

My DHs family is in Norfolk, so ideally we wanted north London but within a night bus route.

Hmm Wimbledon is a very different sort of area (much more expensive and chichi!) from Edmonton or Sutton…. I think best make a list of the relevant postcodes for both schools and do a visit, see if you would want to live there, before you go further with this plan. Visit the schools too if you can!