Straw poll- would you make a child try for grammar school if they didn't want to bug had siblings there?

[LePetitMarseillais]

Dd is adamant she wants to go to the comp instead.

Going round and round in circles deciding what to do.

There is a lot of truth in that tinker, ds was convinced he would fail and was pretty surprised he passed. It did wonders for his self confidence.

Not all the preparation is particularly useful to be honest. Lots of practice of non-verbal reasoning is pretty useless beyond taking 11+ tests. Improving maths skills is obviously useful, but a lot of it is just introducing them to things early that they would get to later, which is not so useful. And much of it is just exam technique really, which again is of questionable usefulness at this age other than for the 11+.

So do some preparation by all means, it won't do any harm, but doing a lot is not the best use of a 10 yr old's time unless you are absolutely sure that it will be greatly beneficial to her to pass the 11+, which you don't seem to be!

Haven't read all the replies, sorry, but I'm two years on from making this decision. Our circumstances were almost identical, older sibling at grammar, good comp nearby etc, and a ds that was adamant he didn't want to do the 11+.

The two schools are equally excellent, but very different, just like my dc. I chose not to push it with ds2, for practical reasons but mainly because my instinct told me that the GS wasn't right for him, looking back, I know I made the right choice. He is thriving in the top groups at his comp, and is very happy there. He also gets to do a wider range of subjects, which he loves but that his sibling has no interest in.