Bute House 7+ prep

[mumpunch]

Hi All,

We are preparing our DD for the 7+ at Bute house. She is in Year 1 currently. She is a relatively bright child and we have typically tried to top up her school course work with books from Schofield & Sims, Collin’s etc.

We are now currently trying to assess the best way to prep her for Bute House’s exams. She is generally good at doing her course work but struggles sometimes when doing it within a timed environment.

Is there any merit in privately tutoring her or would making her do incremental test papers be adequate? We understand Bute tests on creative writing. So particularly wondering if tutoring helps. If the latter any recommendations on which ones could be best. We tried to look online but didn’t really find any good past papers. Are vendors like exampaperplus useful, albeit expensive? Or are we better placed spending that money on tutoring them.

We have to tried to look at older posts on similar topics but couldn’t find a single thread that addressed all our questions above ( apologies if we missed). So any guidance on the above would be really appreciated.

She's 6 or 7 years old.

Poor kid.

Let her be a child.

@mumpunch , have you been through all the 7plus papers available from city of London and Latymer prep plus the boys preps - KCS, Westminster , St Paul's? Most dd are sitting for more than 1 school, would you consider LEH juniors as a practice or are you focusing on a bursary place at Bute? It's a lot of pressure on your dd to only focus on the hardest entry exam for dd age 7 in the uk! Yes tutoring would help.

I would say that the vast majority of children who pass for Bute House will have, rightly or wrongly, been extensively tutored.

Also a tutor will be able to give you a realistic overview of whether your dd is bright enough to pass the exam and flourish at the school. "Relatively bright" at a state primary school isn't really a benchmark to use for success at 7plus in central / west London.

My daughters were lucky enough to be at Bute from reception so didn’t need to pass a test but I’d say almost every girl that gets in at 7plus had tutors, whether or not they needed them is a different question.

As a parent of older children now I really think the London pressure on children is very wrong. There is an enough to cope with just being a modern human without losing childhood to testing and revision.

Thanks all. That’s really helpful.

Hi there,
We were in a very similar position last year and I completely understand the uncertainty around how best to prepare.
My daughter got a place at Bute this year. She’s at a good state primary, quite bright and very curious, and we didn’t go down the tutoring route. Instead, we focused on gentle, consistent practice at home: a page of maths a day (often Schofield & Sims), weekly spelling practice (mostly based on school homework), and lots of reading together in the evenings. She’s also active outside school with swimming and ballet, which I personally think helped keep things balanced.
It’s worth knowing that Bute doesn’t do formal written exams — instead, they invite girls for an assessment day. My daughter described it as a really fun school day! There were various activities, some group-based, and the whole thing was made very relaxed and engaging. I didn’t even tell her it was an “assessment” — we just said she was going to visit a new school, and she walked out grinning saying it was fabulous :) Afterwards there was a child interview, which she said was more like a lovely chat.
From what I’ve seen and heard, there will be a number of tutored children applying. But I also strongly believe that untutored, well-rounded, naturally curious children really do stand out — especially when they feel relaxed and confident in themselves.
If your daughter struggles with timed work, I’d gently practise that at home in small doses, but try not to overdo it... Bute’s assessment style is more holistic and less test-like than many others.
Hope that helps a bit — happy to share more if useful!

This is super helpful . Thanks a lot.

Apologies if this message is too late but we were in a similar position a few years ago so I thought I could give you some reassurances. We didn't tutor our daughter for the 7+ but instead spent time reading with her, asking her about what she had just read and generally feeding her love of learning. For maths we did the sample paper provided by Latymer and (attempted) times tables. She got places at the two schools we applied for, we ended up take the place at Bute and we couldn't be any happier there. Its a wonderful school. For naturally bright and curious children I think tutoring for the 7+ is unnecessary and its pretty obvious to the schools too. I'm sure lots of parents do tutor their children for Bute but the school does not approve of it and you have to sign a declaration that you haven't tutored your child (they will also ask your daughter). Good luck with the process and try not to worry about it too much, it always works out in the end!

@Inneed0fhelp Thank you for your thoughtful reply. That’s really helpful and reassuring.