When to tutor for scholarship?

[Slapntickleothewenches]

I recently was given a lot of advice here regarding entering DS for a scholarship at 13 (he's currently 9, in yr5) After much deliberation we have decided that we will press ahead, despite the possibility of failure and the inevitable hard work he will need to put in.
The thing is, in our area we have no tutors. Perhaps it's fairer to say that tutoring is not a "thing" here as all DCs feed into one upper school at 13 which is non selective. I guess the only tutoring that goes on is for CE here and grammar entrance in the next area.
So how soon should we look at this? DS is academic and will not be expected to sit CE as he is a state school pupil. I am quite happy (and hopefully able) to sort out past papers etc. but I wonder whether we need more? As I said tutoring simply isn't a thing round here so I'm a bit in the dark and have nobody to ask who really knows

You need to consider how academic the school is, how many usually sit the exam and what papers in what subjects he will be required to sit. Also think about your level of education and what you're areas of knowledge. For example I could have tutored (if I felt so inclined) my DS in sciences and geography, my DH could have done English and history but neither of us are particularly budding mathematicians, or have done a MFL for over 20 years. Get past papers in the areas your DS will be required to sit and get a feel for the requirement.
Most preps don't start preparing for scholarship exams i.e.seperate classes for scholars until yr 7 at the very earliest and that's usually for the very super selectives but usually yr 8. So I suspect you just need to give him plenty of encouragement for now. expose his to as many cultural opportunities as possible e,g.visiting museums etc. talk to him and encourage his interest in lots of things, get him interested in the news etc, and monitor his progress at school, I personally wouldn't worry about it anything else for now.

Oh brilliant - I'm pleased you've decided to go ahead! (Not for my own entertainment but because I think you might always feel a little unsatisfied if you didn't at least try...)

As HG says I don't really think you need to worry about a tutor just yet. (Some preps do have a Scholarship class from yr6 - with fast-tracking and a slightly different curriculum - but it's not set in stone.) It's a long haul from now to the Scholarship Exam week in yr 8; no matter how willing your Ds is he would be bound to feel thoroughly fed up with years of extra formal work, particularly when no-one else around him is doing it.

(Oh - wasn't he doing "voluntary" Latin? Might be best to establish now whether he would be expected to take the schol exam in it or not. Because that would need proper regular teaching for the full period...)

In your position I would probably plan to start more focused preparation (not necessarily tutoring) around the spring of yr6, two years before the exams.

I've taken so long to type this that it's sure to X post...)

Since you are organised enough to be planning this far ahead, apart from reading widely and making sure his maths at school is up to his potential level, I would advise little but often for a MFL ( assuming that it is part of scholarship and his primary school is not doing it).
History, geography, sciences can all be done much later although again just interest is critical.

Thank you :)
Yes zero we decided that we had nothing to lose and everything to gain by applying. We all understand the reality of what we are aiming for and as I said previously, he has a very good state school as his "worst case scenario"
He is doing Latin in an after school club. The etcher who runs it studied Latin at uni and is hoping that the older students can take a new type of GCSE, a sort of "GCSE lite", aimed at encouraging those subjects most in danger of slipping away so his attainment in that should be ok. In any case I think the Latin section is tailored to the syllabus the child has been studying (for non CE entry)
As for a MFL, he already learns French but doesn't seem to really enjoy it, having had a passion for it in first school. That's something we can address ourselves I think as I am in the process of teaching myself French anyway (having studied German and Latin)
Glad to hear we can maintain the same level of benign dictatorship for a while longer though :o

I'm inclined to think a benign dictatorship probably produces the most interesting brains. (I'm not keen on tutors in the absence of specific need. I'm always afraid they might churn out dozens of children with but a single brain - which is not really what scholarship is about.)

Just keep on with all the obvious stuff; trips, visits, reading, talking and letting the kid develop there own (sometimes rather surprising) interests - so they have a context for all the future learning...

Oh! You have been watching CBBC's "My Life" recently haven't you?

.zero :o
DS actually did see that one (the one to the school that must not be mentioned by poor people on MN :o)
I must admit it didn't help my cause much WRT the more local schools :o

DS1 watched that programme too and started talking about how "cool" the uniform was. We might need a bit of a chat.

DS1 is Yr6 in a prep and I am thinking about interviews and the like for 13+ entry. I have decided that I am going to make a point of sitting down and having discussion / debates with him on everyday topics once a week e.g. an item in the news or a moral issue e.g. was something fair. I think it will be fun and it will help him get used to forming his own opinion and arguing his point.

Chaz if your DS is yr 6 he must have his interview coming up very soon. Good luck.

Not for a while as the school we're looking at (MT) runs a bit later than the central London schools. But thanks for the good wishes

chaz we do things like that as well, it's quite fascinating to see how his mind works and processes the information that we just "know" as fact.
We also read together every day. DS has gone a step up with books and while he's capable of reading them, he can get bogged down with the 50 odd chapter books and I like to keep an eye on whether the content is suitable (The Hunger Games for example) So he reads a chapter then I read one. We have started to really enjoy it, particularly as the story gets more exciting and DS will often ask to read more.