Preparing for 11+ - advice needed please

[RueDeWakening]

So, we are home tutoring year 5 DD for Wallington Girls and Nonsuch. How much is a reasonable amount of work to expect her to do as preparation at this point?

I'm leaning towards little and often, so some English and some Maths every day, with something longer at the weekend. Does that sound OK? We will obviously review things as the year goes on, and we get feedback from her teacher on how she's doing at school.

Thanks.

I think you are better off going to the 11plusforum website and reposting over there. You'll get far more responses .

What papers do they do? Do they include verbal and non verbal reasoning? These need specific skills which aren't really covered in school. It's all about technique. Working at speed. Getting every point they can. Like doing all the ones they fond easy rather than getting stuck on a tricky one. I think with a year to go, though others start a lot earlier, others start a lot later, you've got time ro take it steady. Little and often sound good. Try (it's hard) not to stress her. Back off/cool thongs for a while if it gets a bit much. It's worth it in the end 😊 try to make it fun, maybe work with a friend. We had lots of special treats 😊. We got the guides on how to do nr and nvr. They really helped. Our primary was useless (don't think they have to help preparation) even giving wrong advice 😞

We don't need VR or NVR, it's purely English and Maths - first stage is a multiple choice for each, 2nd stage (if she gets through) is an essay and a standard form maths test.

None of her friends are going for the 11+ (or at least, none are admitting it yet!). I'll keep listening out though, as working with a friend could be useful.

I've posted on the 11+ forum but had no replies yet.

I would suggest from now until Easter you need to focus on learning
After Easter/Summer you need to be doing exam skills - timing, how to work out which questions are worth more marks etc

Dd is at one of these schools. We learnt the English and maths curriculum to end of year 6 and some ks3 concepts for maths by Easter then focus was on practising past papers and weaker areas.

That sounds sensible, thanks - to start with she's doing times tables every weekday (same as at school - 4 mins to answer 100 questions!), plus a bit of vocab type stuff, then working through a maths study book and some comprehension at the weekend with DH or me.

Encourage a wide range of reading too, lots of 11 plus suggested reading lists around, classics good for vocab.

Hi there

My daughter sat the 11+ for a local school last month. We started off late in Jan of this year. I started her off at a study centre one evening a week. She had homework and the option of a flexible session. At this point it felt like the right balance. However around Easter I realised that she would need more support so found a local tutor. The main challenge was covering the maths for the 11+ as it covers stuff not covered in the primary year 5 curriculum. Nearer the time with about 6 weeks to go we did a lot of revision papers and tended to do one hour in the morning and afternoon. I know that there are kids working considerably harder than this but it seemed like the right balance for us. I think what I didn't realise early enough was how involved I needed to be to support her. It's all over now - and I think she's forgiven me for putting her through it! The best info that I got on materials etc was from the 11+ forum.

This is a site that I found really helpful with lots of free resources;
www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/preparation/11-plus-preparation-in-year-5/