Recommendations for an 11 plus maths tutor for Tiffin Boys

[day80]

Any 11plus maths tutor for tiffins boys please. DS is in yr4 now

www.richmondmathstutor.com

Try Oxbridge in New Malden

Tiffin maths is can be demanding. The paper tends to reward flexible thinking under time pressure rather than memorised methods.

Year 4 is a good stage to start building that type of reasoning before moving into timed practice later on.

Rather than focusing on that school, teaching to a test, I always recommend trying a variety of tests and being prepared for anything. Schools can change what they are looking for at anytime.

Thanks @Sheshares Good point. any recommendation for good maths tutors pls

Try Fatima in SW19. All her Tiffin students receive offers.

How do you know in advance how School X tests maths differently from School Y? All I see are those 11+ books in Waterstones, which are generic.

You would know if you’re in that sector as we make the papers and network within the education community. Papers from books are just the generic books but are not too specific to a school as private schools do not have to follow the NC. Therefore, it is hard for generic books to completely “prepare” children.

Please can you PM with details of Fatima

Hi are you a tutor?

How should parents prepare on top of using the generic books and papers?

Yes, I’m a qualified teacher and tutor primary-aged children preparing for 7+ and 11+.

Generic books and papers can be useful for building familiarity, but they do not always develop the deeper skills the exams are testing.

What tends to help more is focusing on how a child thinks rather than how many questions they complete.

For maths, that can be as simple as taking one question and asking, “How else could you solve this?” or “Can you explain your thinking?” Even making up a slightly different version of the same problem and seeing how they adapt builds flexibility.

For English, instead of another comprehension, you could take a short paragraph from a book they enjoy and ask them to improve it. For example, replace simple words with more precise ones or add a sentence to build atmosphere. That develops vocabulary and control in a much more meaningful way.

Short, consistent practice alongside that tends to be more effective than long sessions, especially at this stage.

I hope this helps :)

@Sheshares Thanks. I meant if you say some schools test differently and go beyond the generic questions, how can the parents identify the differences and help prepare specifically? For example, how can I prepare specifically for Kings (which should go much deeper and/or broader than Bond questions)?

That’s probably the hardest part – there isn’t a clear guide, so a lot of it comes down to recognising patterns.

Past or sample papers (where you can find them) are usually the best starting point, as they give you the closest sense of the style and level expected. You could use these and make some up yourself.

Equally, you could look at papers from similar schools as there’s often some overlap in the type of thinking they’re looking for, even if the format differs slightly.

The key is not just to complete the questions, but to use them more deeply – for example, asking them to explain their thinking, try a different method or slightly adapt the question and see how they respond. That is one way that tends to help build the flexibility those papers are really testing.

I previously worked with a wonderful tutor based in North London who helped both of my children gain acceptance into every school we applied to. She has also supported several of my colleagues’ children with great success. I understand that she now offers online sessions and has expanded her services with a team, thanks to her strong track record. If you’re interested, I’d be happy to share her details so you can contact her directly.

@MummyofTheRobinsons can you pls share details

Of course! I've just sent her details over in a pm. Have a lovely bank holiday weekend.

Did you start an account to advertise your product?

We found the same to be honest - the generic Bond/CGP style books were useful at the start, but for schools like Tiffin the bigger challenge was getting them comfortable with unfamiliar multi-step maths under time pressure.
One thing that helped my twins quite a bit was a website we found that gives shorter but more regular timed practice online alongside tutoring, mainly because they got immediate feedback/explanations rather than just marking answers right/wrong and moving on.
We still use a tutor once a week, but nowhere near as much as we originally thought we would in Year 4.

what website was this please?

ace11plus.org

some AI powered shyte?

Yes it gives explanations using AI and marks comprehension questions, the rest is all normal though. We only really use it for mock tests

Hi, might I, too, ask for this tutor’s details in a pm? Thank you very much!