11 plus tuition type confusion

[user1461609321]

Hi everyone

My son will be in year 4 this September and so I wish to start the 11 plus weekly tuition with him.

We normally do extra work together at home with DH taking the lead on math tuition and me focusing on English/ verbal reasoning etc

Owing to time constraints, my DH has been able to do more daily maths tuition with our son, which has now become his area on strength

At school, son in top groups across the board but does occasionally struggle to focus if not set a specific task.

I have come across 2 options for tuition,

1st option

Run in a school setting fairly close to home

Children taught according to age

Children expected to do specialists 11 plus homework 5x a week

1 class on Saturday between 1-3pm

Owner seems popular, eg lots of parents of former students calling out to her as she walked past like a mini celebrity

we attended a test day some months back, son did ok, with maths being clearly area of strength

The written feedback from test day seemed very accurate and summed up my son's ability perfectly, given pointers on how to improve although we did have to wait 2 weeks for the feedback!

Going forward cost will be £40 per week with £20 monthly top up for specialists subject support, so potentially £180 a month in tuition!

2nd option

Person teaches from her home in groups of between 4/5 students (not sure I am happy leaving my child in a strangers house -totally my issue)

Weekly classes

Person comes personally recommended from acquaintance whose child recently got into a gramma

Classes cost £24 per session (so miles cheaper)

So people, which would you choose?

Money is not necessarily an issue as I am desperate for child to do well and this is obviously cheaper than an independent school

[user1461609321]

Bump (shamelessly )

[whiteroseredrose]

We did 1:1 tuition but of those options I'd go for the small group rather than a class.

You'll probably be able to do mock exams nearer the time.

Where are you located?

[user1461609321]

Hello,

We are in South London

[JoJoSM2]

From my experience (of teaching and tuition), I’d say that one-to-one is ideal as you get to focus on the child’s needs 100%. Up to about 4 in a group is still quite ok as there’s decent enough time to dedicate to individuals and things specific to them.
If the group is larger, say 10, it isn’t possible to dedicate that much time to each individual.

Obviously, you can give the family lots to do at home and generally that makes a massive difference. However, if someone is particularly bad at, say, creative writing, that one-to-one teacher input really helps.

[peacypops]

My child attended group 11+ tuition at the tutor's House. Four children in the group for an hour every week. The children were grouped by ability (she was top group) so all children in group were working roughly at a similar level. She passed comfortably as did all the children in her group. For me, small group tuition was definitely the best option as I think my daughter pushes herself more when she is working alongside other children. I also think that she might have found 1 to 1 tuition a bit too intense. I think it really depends on the child though as I know other parents who have used a tutor on a one-to-one basis.

[Coppersulphate]

There is good tutoring organisation in south London that my daughter uses for her DS.
I think it has recently changed its name and I think it is called Mentor Education or something like that. The tutor comes to daughter's house once a week.

[MrsPatmore]

Year 4 is quite early - you'll risk burning out. I'd start around the summer after Year 4 finishes. It will be cheaper too. One caveat to this though is build up the creative writing now. Look on the elevenplusexams forum to see how other parents have done it.

We tried a couple of 1-1 tutors who were mediocre- one didn't even know the format of the local Grammar test had changed! We then found a fantastic group tutor and ds began to realise what the competition in London was like. It's not enough to be 'top table' for the schools that take on highest score only and have thousands of applicants for a couple of hundred places. Technique, speed, accuracy and ability to fill out the answer sheet properly under pressure are the skills needed. If you are targeting 'normal' Grammars that just require a pass then there is less pressure.

Luckily ds wanted to go to particular schools so put the work in but it was hard.

If money is no object then would you consider a private school? Not as much competition and generally the South London independents do very well - even the not so selective ones.

[peacypops]

I agree that year 4 is too early for formal tutoring. The Tutor we used (who had a very good reputation and got booked up very quickly) would not tutor anyone for 11+ until year 5. He assessed my daughter in Year 4 (easter time) and then just gave us a list of books to read and suggested topic areas that she should be familiar with by the time she started tutoring in October year 5. I would suggest lots of reading and talking about what your child is reading. And make sure times tables are known inside and out.

[DarlingOscar]

snort at the "not so much competition" for private schools idea!

The OP specifically says they are trying to go state.....

[JoJoSM2]

I can’t see why you wouldn’t tutor in Y4. However, it’d be general type of tutoring and not 11+ specific at that stage. It could be very handy if you don’t do much additionally at home otherwise.