How to prep for 11+? Tutor needed?

[GreenGrass33]

Hello,
my son is just going into year 6 and is at state school. He does ok academically. probably has ADHD. He gets scores of 120+ in his standardised tests.

we are looking at local independent schools, for entry in sept 2026. I’ve not prepped him at all. Do we need a tutor or can he start doing online learning? If so can you recommend? He will sit exams in autumn ‘25

we are considering:
Reeds in Cobham
St Georges in webridge
RGS in Guildford
Haliford
Hampton
Danes Hill, cobham
Halstead St Andrew’s HSA, Horsell

weve ruled out Claremont and SWPS

does anyone have an opinion on any of these schools?
he’s a smart boy, if a little ‘distracted’ (prob ADHD, currently waiting for assessment).
Very sporty, plays everything very well (cricket, tennis, swimming, athletics) but not elite.

I know we’ve left it late, but I’m a firm believer he will thrive in the right school without being pushed and prepped to extremes.

Thank you!

I don’t know the schools but for prep you need to know what the assessment is for each school - where I live it’s commonly maths paper, English paper (is that creative writing or comprehension?), verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning plus an interview. DC1 was very strong academically and just got VR and NVR papers from Amazon for practise. Interview prep we did. DC2 had prep from a retired Prep School teacher in all areas for 6 months once a week but applied to only one very academically selective school so all eggs were in one basket. For NVR reasoning it’s just a knack of how to approach the questions and any child will need to practise that.

Should clarify DC2 had 1 hour a week for 6 months with one teacher who covered everything and that was plenty. Both kids had been at a prep school which changed to an all through school so school stopped preparing them during this change hence we had to do it out of school for DC2

I don’t have any experience of the schools you’ve mentioned but I would try to find out as much as possible about the type of exam your child will need to sit for each school. If it’s ISEB (Google it) then they only need to sit this once & the results are shared with the school. Lots of online resources for prepping for this (Atom etc.).

If the schools have their own individual exams then ask the exams office for past papers so you can prep.

IMO it’s only worth getting a tutor if they fully understand the exams your child will need to take, so your first step is to fully understand this yourself.

There are lots of 11+ tutors in Surrey, also 11+ groups (5-6 children meet weekly). My DC is in a tutoring group and the tutor also gives 1:1 on top and advices the parents on strengths and weaknesses. Most people start in Y5.

as his exams are this autumn, I would just get a 2-3 month atom subscription and do the mock tests for the schools you are applying for.

Thing is, you might not believe in tutoring but many of the other families of children taking the test will, so all becomes a bit of an arms race really. Would suggest at least looking at past papers and doing some Bond books/Atom learning. Hampton and RGS from your list are particularly competitive. You don’t want your son to go into an exam hall with no knowledge of the exam technique/pacing required. You don’t necessarily need an external tutor (although I’d argue the majority of those sitting for those exams, particularly from state schools, will have one) but you do need to be sure that you’ve covered the content, particularly for maths, and know what the marker is looking for.