Not to have spent the summer coaching DS?

[SolidGoldBrass]

He's just started Year 6 and this week he is taking the Selective Entrance Test or whatever they call it for the local grammar schools. I have not wanted to blight his summer by flapping about education, so we haven't done much more than a couple of practice tests in those books you can by from WH Smiths.
DS is clever but I think he is getting a little anxious. Any tips on reassuring him?

He should be fine then. My dc finished y5 with a mix of 5a's and c's. As long as he knows there's no pressure on him to do well his nerves should be fine.

I know someone my age who took it years ago and just sat there doing nothing. Their parents wanted them in but they didn't want to go. Kids can be wilful when they want to be!

The multiple choice questions are very close and sneaky,not easy to pick up marks on. To be frank any they're not sure about they won't even have time to answer even by guessing.

Nope - but there are 4-5,000 yr 6 children in South London sitting the same test on the 16th, so it wasn't hard to guess, especially as other areas have already done theirs, and few call it the SET.

Anyway good luck to your DS. At least they don't keep you waiting too long for the results.

Our stance was that DS needed to pass the test on his own merit and not through hot housing as whilst that might get him a place at the school, he might then struggle to keep up.

That said, we were fortunate that we had a choice of 2 great schools - 1 selective, 1 not.

He passed the tests but didn't get a place as he was 5 places below the cut off. He has done fantastically well at the non-selective school and we're not sure if he'd have coped with the pressure of expectations in the selective school.

Hope that you got the email that you wanted SGB