State primary to private secondary - when did you start tutoring?

[Loueytb3]

DH has announced that he definitely wants to send DS2 to private school at secondary level. He's currently in year 2 at a good state primary and at the end of year 1 was 2a in numeracy and literacy so working well ahead of his age. However, I realise that so will most children currently attending the private schools near us and the competition is tough to get places. I am anticipating that we will need to do some tutoring to help him but I have no idea when we should be thinking of starting this. We've obviously got a few years before we are even going to be applying but I don’t want to leave it too late.

The other issue is that he is quite tired (lacks stamina) and just dealing with school alone is tiring him out. We only do swimming at the weekend and Beavers on one school night. I am thinking of starting piano lessons in the next year or so (about to inherit a piano). The idea of fitting any kind of tutoring in to this is a bit daunting. He is in bed by 7pm – I get home from work at 6pm so there is not much time to do anything in the evening.

Private school is not an option for DS1 (who has SN) but DS3 may well also go there eventually – there is a 4 year age gap so we will only have to suck up double fees for a few years.

We're in NW London and would be looking at St Martin's/Merchant Taylors and possibly Habs – if anyone has particular experience of trying to get their children into those schools, especially from state primaries I would be very interested to hear about it. And are the higher fees at Merchant Taylors worth it??

Can't comment on the schools, but if he's only in Y2 now, it's surely way too early to start formal tutoring? Particularly if it sounds like he just wouldn't be able to physically cope with it?

In a couple of year's time he'll have more stamina, be able to stay up later, plus you'll have a better idea of how is ability is in relation to where you'd like it be.

I didn't mean we were going to start now as I agree it's too early. But I don't really have a feel for when we should be starting.

Tutoring prob yr 4 best to start. I would focus on extra curricular stuff though, schools often don't look at just academics. I would do more sports and by year 2 lots of kids at prep school are studying at least one instrument.

I think you need to get a feel for what he is doing now compared to what the private schools you are interested in are doing at his level and then just maybe supplement the work yourself.

I have two DSs both at a selective academic independent school. DS2 is six and in year 2.

In maths for example he knows all number bonds inside out, times tables 2,3,4,5,10,11,12 - working on being fluent at 6 7 8 9 (he can recite them but doesnt yet have the answers at his fingertips). They do lots of mathletics.

In literacy he is a free reader and has been since the end of reception. He is voluntarily reading things like Atticus Claw, some of the simpler Michael Morpurgo etc. They do quite a lot of formal grammar work and so for example he knows nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, similies metaphors, alliteration etc (I wouldn't have had a clue at his age).

They do lots of confidence building stuff so for example standing up and performing a musical piece or doing public speaking in front of the whole school is a very regular thing. In year three they have to do a public speaking contest and the piece they have to learn must be about five minutes long. They also do poetry reciting competitions etc, again not something I did at that age at my state school in the 70s/80s.

They have to read every night and have literacy homework, numeracy homework and spelling every week but that seems pretty standard in all schools.

Its a very competitive environment and that clearly has its downsides too!

Personally I wouldn't focus on sports. He is unlikely to be assessed on sporting ability unless he's going for some sort of scholarship. I'd be doing mathletics to supplement his maths, making sure his reading writing and comprehension is good, getting a good level of general knowledge, doing chess and focussing on confidence.

another thought, if the schools you are looking at use plannerlive to set homework you can log in and see what is being set for the relevant year group.

Thanks Littlesquirrel - that's really helpful.

I think what I've realised having spoken to a couple of people who have kids in private school (yr2/3), they are now getting a lot more homework than DS2 does and it seems that they are progressing faster.

He is a free reader (and has been since reception). He reads voraciously, a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. They do a lot of grammatical work at school (which I am also unfamiliar with) and he has been talking about all the terms you have mentioned. He is in a separate group of "gifted/able" children who do extra literacy one lunchtime (this was the school's labelling, not mine).

They have probably something similar to mathletics (they call it mental maths) at the start of every school day. But having never seen it in action I'm not sure what they actually do.

He is doing times tables but as far as I can tell, mainly 2,5, 10. He knows all his number bonds. Currently he has reading (which we tend to do every other night) and either literacy or numeracy homework once a week.

I realise that many independent schools are looking for more all-round children so we will definitely try and get him to do an instrument. He will move to the linked junior school next year and they offer it to yr3 kids there.

Sports are difficult because of lack of ability to pick up from clubs during the week as we are working. And also - presumably there are lots of kids who are just not that good at sports.

Will have a look at planner live as well.

Forgot to ask littleredsquirrel - why chess? Is it something to do with logic/problem solving skills?

mathletics is an online site/app something you can sign up to yourself - its subscription based. Well worth using for extra practice. Good for boys too since they can play maths challenges live with other children all over the world and it appeals to their competitive nature.

Lots of the boys play instruments at my DSs school (in fact probably most of them). Many of them started at age 4/5 and are very good now. We didn't start ours on piano until this year (year 2 and year 4).

Chess is in the curriculum at my DSs school from year 2, I guess for the logic/problem solving skills rather than to deliberately turn them into geeks .

A lot of private schools dont just select on academics if you can represent the school at a sport or chess or play in an orchestra then that can help a lot to get in and to fit in.

I live in outer London with three good, though not "super selective," public schools. Parents at our state primary who wish to sit their children for the entrance exams to these schools general get a tutor the middle of year 5.

We are hoping our DD gets into grammar or if not private secondary.
She is in year 4 now and doesn't get much homework but does have activities 3 nights a week.
We have started doing a bit of work with her from the Bond 11+ books and from next year ( year 5) she will have a tutor once a week.

We do have grammars in the next LEA but again they are super selective and if you don't live in catchment then there aren't many places even if you pass the exam. We can't move because ds1's school was v hard to get a place and moving out of borough we would lose it.

Will have a look at the mathletics program as that sounds good.