What age did your child start tutoring for the 11+ entrance exam?

[HyunJiEun]

DD is nearly 7 (Year 2) and she is a clever child (she can do Year 6 maths problems easily and she loves verbal reasoning) and I want her to do the 11+ for grammar school.
She currently goes to a private school which gives a lot of support for the exams from Year 4 onwards.
I was wondering if it is a bit early as my friends only started when their children were about 8. She's not very confident in comprehension though so I want to get her a tutor for English first.

Oh my God she's 8, leave her alone! She absolutely doesnt need the pressure.

It all depends where you live. For example, in Kent there's loads of grammar schools do not too difficult to get in and if I child needs a tutor there to get in, then grammar school is not the best place for them. But in other areas, ie Hertfordshire, it's a bit of a fight to get in to the grammar schools in bucks so starting tutoring in year 5 is the norm.

I misread, your daughter is six! And at private school! She'll already be taught everything she needs to pass the 11+. Trust me, i went to a school full of girls with tiger mums and it absolutely destroyed most of them, while giving them zero advantage over the rest of us.

Oh my goodness. We did the bucks 11+ and did an hours group tutoring per week in year 5. Maybe a page or two of homework from it each week too. No more. No preparation from school at all. A lot of it is familiarisation with the types of questions and how to answer them rather than actually expanding a child's knowledge.
If you are in a different super selective area maybe year 2/3 is normal but I'd think if you have to tutor for years to try for a place then it's probably not the right school for the child.

My DC was 10. He had half a year of tutoring, and it wasn't intense (some of his friends at different tutors had to do homework every day, in addition to school homework).
However if your DD is at private school I'd expect them to do the preparing and wouldn't pay extra for a tutor!

In the nicest possible way, and I'm genuinely not trying to be horrible, but you need to leave her alone to enjoy her childhood.

I have tutored for the 11 plus. Your DD is already in a private school. She doesn't need anything except to familiarise herself with question formats. All of which you can access online. That kind of pressure is far too stressful for a child of 8.

@YRGAM Of course

@HyunJiEun i also second PP - if she needs 4+ years of tutoring to pass the 11+, then grammar school is not the right place for her.

I tutor 11+ and 8 is about right as a start date. It’s not just about the content it’s about building the speed / accuracy / discipline to study / exam technique. All of it is required to sustain her through the exam and failure in any one of those can result in an otherwise clever child failing.

Are you from Korea? If so you really need to work on her English first if she wasn’t in an English medium school - I suggest Kumon to build up her speed / confidence alongside tutoring.

But I think it also depends what your aim is. Many parents see passing the 11+ as the bare minimum and actually have their sights on multiple exams. My speciality is 11+ and it’s not uncommon for kids to see me after a prep session for another exam.

If your six year old can do Y6 maths questions easily and even knows what verbal reasoning is, then I honestly can't see why you're even thinking about tutoring.

I do agree with Grumpy that if her first language isn't English, or she only speaks English in school (seems unlikely as your English is perfect), then focus on that. But only in terms of encouraging her to read widely, read to her, audio books etc.

In Kent for the superselectives you generally start tutoring (a very bright and keen kid) through yr5 ready for test at start of yr6. That is because the kids are tested on some aspects of the yr6 curriculum and to prepare them for exam technique, tactics and speed, especially in non verbal reasoning. I think I'd leave it if I were you for now, too much pressure is awful. Though might be worth finding out how far in advance the tutors get booked up. Horrible system causing untold levels of anxiety and self esteem issues in so many children locally. Wish we'd never moved here...

Aged 10 in year 5

@Bflatmajorsharp @GrumpyHoonMain Yes we are from Korea we moved to the UK about 5 months ago so she has not had a lot of time in an English school. She started learning English at age 3 but she does not like speaking English with me
She can write English as she went to an international school in Korea but it is those comprehension questions she stuggles on. We are currently using Bond books at the moment.

I use the Bond books too to prep my kids. I think they are best used during timed tests and revision exercises. If your daughter doesn’t always understand the question you need to work on the basics. I would recommend you ask her to read books she enjoys and then ask her questions to test her comprehension (make her write a book report) - something from the Harry Potter series or a book by David Walliams is usually a great starting point at this age.

YRGAM Fri 05-Jun-20 21:56:29
In the nicest possible way, and I'm genuinely not trying to be horrible, but you need to leave her alone to enjoy her childhood.
...
I agree with that. If she goes to a decent school and there is a certain amount of 'fun' education in her home environment, the 11+ will not be a problem for her.

If you are returning to Korea next year, is it relevant?

Are you intending to stay in the UK and use state schools? There would be no need to tutor her for the 11+ at all if you're aiming to return to Korea or another international posting.

If you're aiming to stay in the UK just support her with her English. The best way to do that once the pandemic is over will be by fostering her school and extra curricular activity friendships with native speaker children/ children who she has to speak English to because it's their only shared language.

If you usually speak Korean to her and it's your native language don't make her speak English to you - that will be counterproductive on many levels, including her secure attachment to you as her mother. Its pretty developemntally essential that children have one completely fluent mother tongue - extra languages are then absolutely excellent additions, but not at the expense of the mother tongue which is intrinsic to a coherant sense of identity and the development of analytical thought and an internal monologue.

Let your kid be a kid!!! Summer of year 4 is early but that's when many started who went through the grammars in Kent - no grammars where I lived though, never had any private tuition, school in special measures and still a*'s. Tutoring just isn't needed if they are bright. Kids are only little for a short time, please dont be a tiger mum