shall we go for 11 plus

[awjab]

hi everyone, received my daughter's end of the year report. she has 3a for literacy, 4c for maths, and 4c for reading. she is in year 4 and going to year 5 this September. I am bit worried about her level in literacy.............do u think its a good idea to prepare her for 11 plus or its going to be too much to handle for her. please advice :)))))

We were told that if a child got a 4a or more by the end of year 5 then they had a good chance of passing the 11+. Your DD is quite close to that wrt reading and maths so it's just your own thoughts as to whether she is capable of getting to that level (or above) without being hot housed to pass. Nothing wrong with going over practice test papers to prepare her on what questions are likely to be asked though - you'd be silly not to iyswim.

Our DD was a borderline candidate (so on a good day would pass but on a bad day less likely to) and we didn't want to coach her with tutors but as the rest of her class who were taking the 11+ had had tutors from year 3 onwards we (DD too) felt she may not get a fair chance and so she declined to take it many who were tutored didn't get the pass either. We are delighted on her school choice that she got given and she starts in September.

Good luck on whatever you choose to do

Dd's worst level was for literacy. She too was given 3a at the end of year 4. (Same as she was at the end of year 2). She had about 10 lessons with a really good tutor. Her ability to put a story together and make it interesting went up incredibly. Her ability at comprehension also went from failing to passing.

She did really want to go for grammar and put in a lot of work for it. With others prepared to put in the work, this is now what you have to do. It is possible to pass without, but the more work she puts in the more her probability of passing will increase.

It depends on (1) where you are - ie how competitive 11+ is in your area, and (2) in how eager your daughter is to learn.

Top line - I think she'd need to make a lot of progress in the next year. This is possible but will require work.

Thanks everyone for your help and support.........looks like we have a tough year ahead