Has anybody successfully tutored for the 11+ completely by themselves(need reassurance)

[Blueskiesandbuttercups]

DS year 4 desperately wants to go but we can't afford tutoring.He is bright,driven and I was a teacher so in theory it shouldn't be too hard.

His friend is also going for it but they're well off so tutoring and have already started.Ds is nagging me to get started.

Sooo went on the 11+ forum typed in the school to order books and I'm already in a pickle.They cost £££££ so need to get it right. We like CPG but loads are listed we haven't heard off. Would it be ok to just go with Bond and CPG or should we go with exactly those listed?

Is it possible to do this ourselves or am I deluding myself? If I screw this up I'll feel like shit- forever! Need lots of reassurance.

They are filled with very bright privileged generally middle class children. Surely everyone thinks that's an issue.....

But were they always?

As I said my dad went to Skinners a year early- a gardener's boy.My uncle went to Judd the son of a mechanic.

Similar for my dad, but then he did grow up in Doncaster - I suppose it might have been different in Surrey or something.

Laqueen my grandparents were very bright too,grandad wrote articles re horticulture,highly respected.Head gardener re many stately homes eg Hever,worked his way up. Astors used to give all their old clothes to my dad and siblings they were so poor.He had tweeds!!!My grandma was heart breakingly bright(actually knew Middle East politics inside out) but went into service as a young girl then married grandad etc.She was doing the Times crosswords until she died in her 90s.

As I say dad went a year early,I'm convinced it was the making of him(very successful forces career,MBE etc)and I wonder what would have happened to him if he hadn't gone.

Kind of ironic getting his grandson in to a far less selective grammar will be 10x harder.Social mobility- pah!It's like we've gone full circle.

I wonder whether the middle classes would flood Armthorpe if they brought back the 11+ now...

Probably would flood Armthorpe if along with the return of the 11+, the area was given special delvelopment status. The delvelopment staus would mean no corporation tax for 5 years, if big mutil nationals relocated to the Doncaster area and employed 40 to 50% local people on average or above uk wages. That along with a Grammar School would give hope to aspriational people in Doncaster.

"That along with a Grammar School would give hope to aspriational people in Doncaster."

The concomitant presence of a secondary modern might make them pause a bit.......

Yeah, I think going to the school you go to if you fail in doncaster would be pretty tricky.

Hello, not quite followed all the discussion in the thread, though I've glanced through. Just to say, yes, I prepared my daughter and she succeeded in getting in as an out of catchment kid to a school that does "best of the rest" out of catchment (just need to pass, in catchment). Also did very well in the tests for the consortium of the other grammar schools in our county (we get the actual mark for that and she did do very well).

I went by the recommendations from the consortium school for Letts books in NVR & VR standard papers, but also others to cover the non-consortium VR standard and multi-choice (they gave very little info on question types, so I made sure she was exposed/experienced in the 30 or so possible types). Bond books were useful as introduction, but not wide-ranging enough for one set of tests, and too wide for the other (IYSWIM) - generally easier than other books. By doing the "harder" books, dd took the tests in her stride and found them easy. Timing was the hardest thing for her to get the hang of - moving on if a question was taking longer, and coming back to it (can't do this in the NVR for the consortium though as the test is split into sections and the stop/start them all the way through). The consortium schools did a practice test day, where they advised the children quite closely on what sorts of questions would come up.

Just to say also, that as we live in a village and are not in catchment for any grammar school, I rather resent the whole catchment thing. She could more easily have got into the GS's 25 miles away than the one 13 miles away. I feel that in a GS county, every address should be in catchment for a GS. But heyho, that wouldn't be fair to someone either!

Good luck, perfectly doable. And I spent about £80 on books, but they should do for all 3 of my kids.