South east london preparing for secondary entrance?

[Shaheensayed1]

Hello mums my ds is in year 4 and I have slowly started to focus on his entrance for private schools. He is not particularly strong in his comprehension and I'm way too tensed and stressed. Would love to hear your experience on the same or how you helped your kid/s in comprehension. TIA

This is the hardest area to force and teach IMO. He needs to have a natural love of reading and already have an excellent vocabulary. For DD it is natural and we didn't tutor for her 7+ entrance and she won out over others who were tutored by a country mile. Some friends who have tutored for the SE London schools like Eltham and Dulwich have used techniques like 'a new word every day', reading a favourite book and then talking about a chapter of it to someone else, if you have time, you read snippets and ask questions too. Also having a story part written and asking them to continue it. The Sevenoaks school past papers are helpful for this. Eltham is easier than Dulwich I have heard. Explore Learning centres have computer stories that seem to work well with boys in particular and they can really help with this sort of development but it is pricey and not everyone's cup of tea. See it as a journey to go on together rather than a stressball in the making. I work FT and managed to find time for recent eleven plus exams. It wasn't without stress but it wasn't as bad as I expected.

year 4 is still really little?

there are various books that worked well for us - you can get some aimed at year 4 - which include some example comprehensions. Just short ones should be fine for now?

key thing is not to show that you're stressed and tense - it really won't help him.

where are you aiming for?

Thank you so much. He enjoys reading it's maybe because English is not our first language it's more tough than others.

Thanks much. Yes I know year 4 is still early but I don't want to cramp year 5. I blame myself here as I didn't pay much attention before :-(
I'm aiming for colfes, eltham college, St dunstans, alleyns in dulwich.

no need to blame anyone - you are waaay ahead of the curve starting in year 4!

The schools on your list are wildly varying in terms of academic ability they're looking for. A couple of them would accept children with a very average 11+ score. Don't panic. And maybe make sure you have a good look round these schools to work out what it is you really want?