Kip Mcgrath Centres

[Cleek]

Used Kip Mcgrath to coach dcs to pass the 11+? Really!

Who has?

Just some mums by the school gates said some people did. So I wonder what people think in here.

Personally I don't think that intensive coaching is appropriate, if you need that much coaching its not the right school.

A handful of lessons with a tutor to get to grips with how to answer NVR and VR seems to be what a lot of people round here, including myself did. We actually bought books so we could go through them together at home which was fine with VR but she had a hissy fit at NVR and would rage at me and not listen. So we got a tutor in, maybe 5 times before the test.

I do know some people who had a tutor for a year.

It's quite common to have children tutored for the 11 plus. If they do not see, practice and know the technique for answering those verbal and non verbal reasoning questions then they have little chance of being successful.
I genuinely believe that the some children may be happier and better off in their local school where there is less pressure particulary if they are not highly academic.
If they are over tutored they may succeed in the exam but they will always struggle with their peers and class group.
Most parents "secretly" organise some form of tutoring for their children. They may do it themselves or they may have their child attend a tuition centre or have a private tutor. I have recently seen an advertisement in local paper...encouraging parents of Year 3 students to start thinking about 11 plus..crazy in my opinion.It was for one of those centres who specialise in the 11 plus.
If you are seriously considering getting your child to do it you should speak to his or her teacher first and wait until your child is old enough before you turn them off school for life!

coaching is very common, but to be fair, no amount of coaching will enable a less able child to "pass" (there isnt a pass mark as such, just the top so many per cent are creamed off by the grammer schools), it may however give the edge to a child who is borderline, or capable but messed about in class or had a rubbish teacher.

Yep- my DD and loads of her friends had 11+ tuition at our local Kip.
It was a very good centre and if my memory serves me correct- some 15 children (from her school alone) passed and got into a number of different Grammar schools in Essex and Southend.

DD started 11+ tuition in Year 5- I wouldn't say the coaching was intensive but it gave her the same advantage as the many many privately educated children (around three quarters of her year group attended private prep schools) round here who are taught verbal reasoning from a very young age.

She is now in year 8 and doing extremely well.

I sent my DD to Kip McGrath one night a week for a term before she did her 8+ exam for entry to an independent school. They told me at the assessment they did that she would get a place anyway. However she is quite an anxious child. I wanted her to have covered everything they examined on in Maths, which it wasn't guaranteed she would at her then school, and to get some experience of exam conditions and exam technique.

I would have no hesitation in doing the same for a state grammar and don't really see it as a big deal or intensive.

A lot of the Kip McGrath centres have become independent now apparently, as Kip McGrath weren't updating their written resources.
I know the Essex one in Southend you are talking about and that one is now independent. The centres that have come out of Kip McGrath have new UK curriculum based resources, maybe worth checking out.
It's very difficult to pass the 11+ in our area without coaching as even the brightest pupils wouldn't know how to pass an NVR or VR paper without being taught the techniques. They also need to do past papers as the timing is so tight, they have to be so quick. I would say practically all the pupils in our area are coached, this includes mum or dad doing it at home, as that is still coaching.

In my dds school nearly 50% of children went to grammar school last year. Many parents wonder how many of these children had private tuitions. So the result of high number of pupils pass 11+ doesn't necessarily represents the quality of the teaching of the school. I wonder if some sort of survey should done to see many children went to grammer schools had private tuitions or coaching of some sorts.

Problem is Cleek is that people aren't honest about it a lot of the time. I am close to a lot of mums in this village, meet up with them for evenings out, etc. A few have muttered about having used old papers at home but nobody has mentioned a tutor.

The kids are all much more honest and dd was distraught with me as she was adament that loads of kids (and named a long list) were been tutored.

Rennie12 No the Essex one I am referring to is in Billericay not Southend

Oh sorry Brightbigknickers, It is the one in Essex that is one of the ones that has gone independent.

Sorry that was meant to read Southend not Essex!

Right- My neice had her 11+ tuition there- she took it a few weeks ago but has to wait till March to find out if she has passed.

Oh I wondered why my local Kip centre had changed its name, they must have gone indie. Don't blame them, my DD went two years ago and they were brilliant but they almost never used any Kip materials, they just did their own thing.