11+ - home tutoring until year 5?

[ParentsTrapped]

My DC1 (DS) is currently year 3, so year 4 in September. We live in London and he’s at a state primary. From what I’ve read it’s normal to start tutoring for super selective grammars in year 4.

We are considering the 11+ but I’m not keen on starting formal tutoring in sept because we’re not 100% decided that we want him to do it, DS does lots of extracurriculars (gifted musician and also loves sport) and I think we’d struggle logistically to get him to a tutor, and I feel like 2 years of tutoring is a bit grim for a young child.

Is it pointless just to do some extra workbooks with him during year 4 and then start formal tutoring in year 5 if we want to go for it? Do all the good tutors insist on 2 years+?

We may move house which makes it all trickier but considering the Essex grammars (CSSE) primarily atm.

If people do recommend the self-tutoring route initially, what are the best resources to use? I got the bond books year 4 materials (assessment papers/10 Min tests) and DS is getting at or near full marks in these. Is it worth aiming to complete the year 6 books by end of year 4? Or would the year 5 books be enough?

(I also have no idea of the required standard - none of DS’s friends are likely to be going for this due to where we live though some may try for selective indies. DS is one of the top in his year of 90+ kids but not very studious/conscientious).

I know people who've paid for 11+ tutoring longer than 2 years.

My 2DC went to a tutor for just Y5.
We live in Bucks though.
You need someone from London to comment.
We used CGP books
All I would say is now is the time to forensically go through the admissions criteria for all the schools you are considering. There are loads of parents who don't do this and get caught out every year. Whether you need to move by a certain date or is it just about the highest score......
Hundreds (thousands?) of DC take the Bucks 11+ and they have zero chance of getting a place even if they pass with a high mark (FYI - it's not about getting the highest score in Bucks). There are parents moaning every year that their DC 'missed out' when actually it was them who didn't do their due diligence.

Thanks @Pipsquiggle - good advice! I’ve looked at the CSSE requirements so am across those, but it’s a bit tricky as we may end up moving which would throw a spanner in the works. But will have to deal with that as it happens.

@timoteigirl we don’t have more than 2 years available, so short of going back in time not much we can do about it!

There’s a Facebook group for this which is useful as you have the parents discussing and I think adverts are banned (11+ CSSE Exam Essex)

If you go for in catchment I think one year tutoring is fine, if out of catchment you need more. Seems more common to begin in y4. The Chelmsford school just came top of the whole country (KEGS)

I have a son at KEGS

Thank you @Letamumsleep - I will check out the fb group! (every time I go to delete Facebook something like this comes up!)

KEGs is what we’d be looking at and were ooc - we live in east London and the commute isn’t too terrible. Would poss consider moving in catchment but it seems a lot of pressure for DS to base a move around schools. In a way would rather try OOC and if he doesn’t get it then so be it.

KEGS is very popular but it means they only have 30 places for OOC. I think the score needed was 375 this year which is 80%? There’s a calculator on the fb group that helps you calculate what you need in each paper.

I would say you either go for it or don’t. Extra revision and work won’t disadvantage them but it will mean you don’t regret leaving it too late when the time comes. My son loved doing classes, he did a group class in Y4 and Y5 just on zoom. It was run by one of the teachers at another grammar school so it felt like there was a lot of good information. But we then did practice papers at home and mocks in year 5. Year 4 was just learning material he hadn’t learned in his state school yet - the exam is hard and the maths honestly blew my mind that 10 year olds should do that. I have a July born so we did get age adjustment

good luck and happy to help if you need guidance!

If you are thinking of moving, are you flexible on location?
Bucks is not super selective which I see as a benefit - slightly less nuts.
There are strict rules on catchment and when you moved there

Are you aiming for London grammars or Essex ones?

The London ones are very competitive & many do tutor from yr 4 or earlier.

@meltingmoaner Essex exams as I mentioned, as a couple are commutable from where we are in London, but we might move house (for other reasons) and if we do then might end up closer to other grammars, though that’s an unknown right now so can’t really factor it in.

The move would be to a cheaper area if I decide to downscale my job, which is very stressful! @Pipsquiggle i think bucks is probably more expensive than where we live currently so unlikely to be there.

We did much longer for tutoring (started year 3 with my daughter) as we live just out of catchment (well, some years we're well in catchment, others we're way out!)
It depends on the tutor - my daughter adores hers so it's never a battle to get her to do the lesson. We went for online as it's logistically a lot better (plus my daughter even does her tutoring when she's ill off school for example)

@mariokart2026 why did you decide to start so early and did you get the outcome you wanted?

DS is almost finished year 3 now so obviously that ship has sailed, but he’s getting full marks in year 4 tests so is performing a year ahead at this point without anything extra at all (his school don’t even set homework other than daily reading).

As I understand it, the tests cover all of the year 6 syllabus but take place at the beginning of year 6, so I see that they need to be about 1 year ahead in terms of the curriculum and also familiar with the tests but is there more to it than this that I’m missing?

I don't know much about KEGS exams but generally maths and English comprehension are fairly straightforward, it's creative writing that sometimes needs more prep for top grammars, and working under real exam conditions/stress.

You don't have to start external tutoring in Y4. Friends started in the summer before y5 and got an offer from QE.

Thanks @Ubertomusic that’s good to know. I’m sure DS would need plenty of practice on exam technique - he’s quite slapdash generally - but presumably a year will be enough for that?

The CSSE exam (used by KEGS) is maths and English - no verbal or non-verbal reasoning - so I would hope that it would be fine for him to work with me on this during next year. And if so, am I just aiming to get through the year 5 and as much of year 6 workbooks as possible during year 4 to set him up well for tutoring in year 5?

The Bond books are much too easy. Try the CGP book assessments as they are at a more realistic level.

Thanks @OldTiredMum1976 - good to know!

I wouldn't worry that you've missed the boat at all. If he's already getting near full marks in Year 4 materials without much preparation, I'd probably focus on reading, vocabulary and gradually introducing exam-style questions rather than feeling pressured into years of tutoring.
One thing we found helpful was getting a clearer picture of strengths and weaknesses early on rather than guessing where support was needed. We used this free diagnostic: https://www.ace11plus.org/diagnostic
It helped us work out whether extra tuition was actually needed and where to focus our time.

Huge misconception that Maths and Comprehension is easier than CW. Firstly, CSSE doesn’t have creative writing. The maths is GCSE level. It is by far one of the hardest exams for the maths part.

The continuous writing I’d say is easier than creative writing as it’s testing the basics - can you write well? It is just that a lot of children struggle with that bit!

The people that we know, that tutored and passed - did it for over 2 years.

Yeah I remember it being across yrs 5 and 6. Like an hour or two with tutor a week plus homework.

And why exactly "a lot of children struggle with that bit" if it's so easy? 😂

@Letamumsleep GCSE level maths - really?! What materials do people
use to prepare for this??

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that DS would do nothing in year 4, I’m suggesting that DH and I do it in a slightly more low key way - maybe weekly Bond/CGP books with the aim of completing the year 5-6 syllabus - before getting a tutor in year 5?

My main concern is fitting a tutor in as we are very busy as a family and the kids do lots of extra curriculars which are already a juggle. This all seems to have come round very quickly and we don’t know anyone else who is even considering it, so really no insight into the process.

We are currently preparing for CSSE in September. We only started at the begining of the year. I think any earlier and DD would have got fed up especially as she goes to a tutor group for an hour a week.

I have used Gcse foundation level maths material if we need to practice a specific area. It is not just about knowing the KS2 syllabus but how they understand and apply it.

We started off using Bond books based off a recommendation from tutors but the closer we get the less impressed I am. We very rarely use them now.

I am currently tutoring 2 children for CSSE in September, for 2027 start. The maths requirements cover year 6 and year 7 knowledge - and beyond, with a major emphasis on applying skills rather than just answering a sum. I use old papers, some CSSE specific practice books and secondary level materials from Twinkl and Corbettmaths websites to focus on specific areas. I have included a lot of thinking about how to answer questions effectively and quickly - knowing when to calculate mentally versus writing out a sum. The reading passages are challenging, and again you would need to work on developing more specialist skills to answer the questions. There is always something on vocabulary which needs to child to read the context very carefully for example. Continuous writing - 2 questions to answer with 10 minutes for each is not long to plan and write 6 to 7 high quality sentences. They need to be confident in a wide range of punctuation, complex and compound sentences with a wide variety of openings, vocabulary, a sense of structure within a short piece, lots of literary devices....
Your child needs to be motivated and confident, and prepared for the possibility of disappointment as the competition for places is so tough.
Both my pupils are very able and have supportive families, and they have put in a lot of extra work to cover the 11+ knowledge.
I hope this helps. Not offering to tutor, I'm the wrong side of Essex!

I don't think past papers look like high level GCSE maths https://csse.org.uk/storage/2026/05/Maths-Paper-2023-Entry-for-publication.pdf but there are some questions that are in fact NVR (eg number 7) and a few "creative maths" ones you usually see in junior maths challenges. Lots of questions are basic arithmetic though.

GCSE level is not very high anyway, in many countries children routinely do GCSE level maths aged 10-12 so it's perfectly doable with a bit of prep.

Thanks for this, the insight was surpisingly useful! Do you use the site for revision or just the diagnostic - thinking about signing up