7+ preparation St Paul’s, kings, latymer etc

[Hypeinsouthwestlondon]

Hi,

it would be really useful to hear from the mums whose children made it to the most selective schools at 7+ in London

• what schools did your child go to at reception please?
• when did you start with tutoring?
• hoe much tutoring (daily, weekly, occasional workshops)?
• at what point was it clear to you that your child was elite schools’ material please?

struggling with the prep-prep decision, any help will be appreciated!

many thanks

My child went to a good pre-prep but one that didn’t prepare him for the 7+
We started tutoring in the September before the January exams. In hindsight, he could probably have benefitted from a bit of gentle tutoring in August, to warm him up, but nothing too intensive as I think they need a break after the summer term . But that depends on the tutor being around. I would say start looking for a tutor during the summer term. Don’t let yourself get too panicked by those tutoring years in advance. I don’t believe it makes a difference and is awful for the children. FWIW though, my child did love his tutor sessions

Ps he did a few workshops and weekly tutoring from September

We took advice from various sources, but broadly we did tutoring from January onwards of year 1, and we did a weekly 1 hour session for maths and NVR as this was an area of weakness and in particular the maths parts of the tests seemed very high level.

I don’t think we ever had clear thought that our child was elite school material, they just seemed to be bright and enjoy learning new things. I think the 7 + always feels hard, but we tried to prep in the least pressured, most effective way as we believed he had a chance and didn’t want to regret not going for it.

Very happy to share the details of our wonderful maths tutor, who helped our child get 7 + offers from WUS and SPJ. Please send me a PM for details x

My daughter has a place at WUS. I'm not going to name her school on here as it would be massively outing. But they did some general prep for a few children from halfway through Yr 1 (c. 1 session a week) but not sure how useful it was.

We did no formal external tutoring. But she did use Atom and Doodle to do daily work from June time and then I went through past papers with her and some sessions on areas she needed to focus on from September time.

I knew we would be putting her in for 7+ before she'd started in Reception. She has always been very quick thinker with an aptitude for learning quickly and applying that learning.

Westminster via Garden House and no tutoring.

State then St Paul’s junior. Tutor 1 hr per week for English, I teach them Math/VR/NVR. We prepared after Easter.

Thank you, your point around curiosity and confidence really hit home!