Hi all, first post here so be gentle!
I'm a mum of two who went through the whole 11+ prep journey myself - self-taught, no tutor for most of it, lots of late nights googling "is this normal" and trying to figure out if we were doing too much, too little, or completely the wrong thing.
Looking back, the bit that nearly broke me wasn't the maths or verbal reasoning but it was everything else. Knowing which exam board my target school even used. Managing my own anxiety without passing it on to my son. Figuring out if what his and my own emotions meant at different times. Constantly fighting the urge to compare him with my friends kids or fearful that what i was doing wasn't enough.
For a long time, I was angry that his primary school didnt at the time provide parents with adequate information about the exam and that I found out about it by chance. So, I'm curious whether other parents here felt the same, and whether something that pulled all of that together — practical subject guides, but also the emotional/wellbeing side, timelines, webinars on different topics- all in one place and just knowing you're not the only one panicking about it — would actually have helped you. Or is that just one more app/platform to check, on top of everything else?
Genuinely trying to understand if this is a "yes please" or a "no thanks, I've got enough on my plate" for most of you. Would love to hear how you managed (or didn't manage) the emotional side of it all, not just the academic prep.
Thanks