Introducing the idea of 11+ to year 4 child

[KnitFastDieWarm]

DC is year 4, doing well academically across the board with a great vocabulary, loves puzzles. Am considering grammar school (gloucestershire, if anyone has any area knowledge). I’ve seen lots of test papers and practice books available, but does anyone know of a more game-based paper/app/website that lets kids try out the question styles?

Obviously I don’t want to push DC towards that path if it’s not suitable, but am not really sure where to start as I attended a non-selective state school. Any advice? Do i need to be looking at tutors now or is that a year 5 thing? help!

There is a 11+ forum, which will answer all your questions and is a good place to get advice.

I phrased it to my DC that in Year 6 there are a bunch of tests to help them find the right secondary school for them and we needed to do a little work to help them get ready for the tests.

You know your child and what works best for them. Some people choose to self tutor, some use 1-2-1 tuition and some use group tuition.

You can go onto the website for the schools you are interested in and have a look at the admission section. These can change every year, so it is important to check back and make sure there are no changes to the admission criteria for the year your DC will be entering.

Most tutor in year 5 as it can be an intense year so you don’t want to start too early. A lot of people will start doing a little bit of work from CGP books, though. The 10 minute tests are a good starting point.

Atom learning app has 11+ on there, although I don't think it's game based

Most start preparation in year 5, either doing at home or with a tutor. If you are going down the tutor route , make contact in Jan/Feb so they can put you.on their list for next September. Hopefully if you are in Gloucestershire you have a good non selective option available so it's just about having more options - that's how I framed it to my kids. I have two DC in different grammars in the county - they are all different and not all suit all children so as well as preparing DC it is definitely worth looking round any of the grammars that are within commutable distance for you to get a feeling, as well as reading up/asking questions on the forum that was mentioned above. I have one in the school that everyone wants and it is an amazing school, but absolutely not the right one for my other child.
Best of luck with it all!

I think there are ways of supporting eg making sure maths is looking strong and working on basics without freaking them out. We’ve started in y4 just doing a bond maths paper each week but not under timed conditions. It’s really helping to highlight strengths/weaknesses and areas of the curriculum that haven’t been covered. My daughter’s enjoying it.we’re also trying to reinforce some of the grammar lessons (which is less enjoyable tbh than any of the bond papers).