Should I hire a tutor for 11+?

[Tryingtodothebest]

My child has been at an independent school since he was 4. He is entering year 5 in sept. his school goes up to year 11 so do not prepare children for 11+ however they do offer scholarships.
I need my son to get a scholarship or he will have to leave for financial reasons.
Would you recommend me hiring a tutor to prep him in VR etc.
Dh says it shouldn't be necessary as we already pay £4000 a term. I think all the other children will be tutored so he will need a tutor to make it an even sting field.
Please help

You know, the other thing they do better in parts of Asia is the arranged marriage. We could learn a lot from that, too. It worked for the landed gentry for generations. Money makes the world go round...

Thank you for all the opinions. Rosemary and thyme you have certainly made some fantastic points an I will follow your advice. I am aware some of you have a very different view to me and thanks to you also voicing your opinions as it has helped me reach my decision. There seems to be an understanding proactive group and an annoyed negative group. I think I know which side of the fence I would prefer to be.

*and (excuse poor punctuation) multi tasking at present.

Agree rabbit. There's definitely several tiers to education now - from public/private schools, grammar/comp/sec modern + tutoring.... and those poor little buggers who have to do it all themselves.
We need a complete ban on tutoring!

I don't think what I was doing was tutoring just familiarising ds1 with the 11+. I was very organised and at the beginning of each week knew what I needed to cover with him and got the papers ready for each day. i made sure I marked the papers immediately and went through them with him before he forgot what he'd done.

Sounds like tutoring to me, mumzy, even if it was the DIY variety.

We need a complete ban on tutoring!
I'm curious to know how you're going to implement this band; CCTV in peoples homes, compulsory boarding school 50 weeks of the year?

Just a Utopian dream, happy!

I don't think what I was doing was tutoring just familiarising ds1 with the 11+. I was very organised and at the beginning of each week knew what I needed to cover with him and got the papers ready for each day. i made sure I marked the papers immediately and went through them with him before he forgot what he'd done.

Sounds like tutoring to me, mumzy, even if it was the DIY variety.

I agree with Cecily; that's exactly what a tutor would do!!

I also agree that is tutoring. MUCH cheaper than a paid tutor, however.

The 11+ is an exam just like GCSEs and A levels so would you let your child go in without any preparation. What I'm saying is you don't need to pay for a tutor £30 ph but just some basic prep done by parents with their dc is enough also there loads of materials. Info on line so you don't need to fork out there. I agree you can increase % with practice but you can't tutor a child to understand work they are developmantally not ready for. My ds1 couldn't grasp the scholarship maths questions but was fine with the rest of the exam. I had to be organised as both myself and dh work and we have 2 other dc but we managed to fit it in the evenings and weekends.

I am a mother of two boys and work with children from all backgrounds and ages in my extensive experience most parents are trying to do the right thing. It may not be what I would do in their situation and they might do what I do if they were in my situation but basically most parents are desperately trying to make the right decisions that will have a positive outcome for their individual DC. So some will tutor extensively themselves, other will pay tutors(s) and pay an exorbitant amount of money, others will do nothing. The most important thing is that their actions are not making their DC's unhappy longterm and that they as parents are happy with whatever decision they have made.
We have no right to judge other parents as long as they are not causing their children any harm. The ones we should be concerned about are those children whose parents are unable to help them and do the right thing for a wide variety of reasons and this puts their children at a significant disadvantage.

Like the ones who can't afford £30 a week? (I.e. the 'ones 'who do nothing'?)

Would there not be thousands of parents (obviously not mumsnetters!) whose kids are doing just fine at primary school, who it just wouldn't occur to that they should be 'doing something'? The theory behind these VR and NVR tests (well according to a spokesperson from Bucks Council, anyway) was that they couldn't be coached for - so their advice would obviously be to do nothing.

That may be the message, Cecily, but obviously people don't believe it!

I think that some tutoring must make a difference, just by looking at the results from different schools. There are schools that get less than 5% to grammar school, and schools that get 65%+ to grammar schools. I know there are other factors to be taken into account, but these figures imply that tutoring may play a part. Some schools are quite up front about telling parents to tutor.

I am sure it does make a difference! I think some are in denial that it does or that it even happens.

*flexibex+ if you decide not to tutor your DC then that's your decision but I'm talking about parents who for some reason cant make that decision those with long term chronic illnesses those who are addicts those minority who don't give a toss and those who are unable to look at the issues understand them and make the right decision for their children etc these are the children who are enalised unfairly.
We have a friend who is a head of a very well known top grammar school he will tell you that a 1/3 are clever enough and would have got in without tutoring 1/3 are boarder line and have been lucky on the day and probably received a some tutoring/help and the remaining third are average ability but have pushy ambitious parents who've sent them either to private preps which are specialist "crammers for the grammars" and or extensively tutored them. These parents will ensure that their DC will be OK because the moment they get a whiff of any problem will simply engage another tutor.

There must be thousands of people who are neither addicts, chronically sick, or members of the underclass but are just ordinary families for whom tutoring is simply not on their radar. I don't think mumsnetters are typical of the majority of the population.

This is interesting....my daughter sat tests in year 4 for entry into a good private school and was offered a place on the basis that she scored highly in all the tests....unfortunately I was at risk of being made redundant at that time (and was made redundant) and so we didn't take up the place but the school suggested we apply again for year 7 entry when scholarships and bursaries were available.... so in Feb we will go through the process again...and I'm not sure how she will fair...her non verbal reasoning CATS score was very high last year (school tested) so I'm happy that she is comfortable with these type of questions ..she's a comfortable level 5 in English,science and maths...but I guess the competition increases for funded places........but we wont tutor on the basis that she has to gain a place/ offer of funding on merit...

This doesn't answer your question but I would ask your sons school for advice if I was in your situation...