Anyone with children doing 11+ tests this month?

[TheDullWitch]

I think I m more stressed out than my ds. Have awful feeling he flunked the maths test yesterday for a boys' school, he said he could only answer half the questions. And if they don't score well in all papers they don t even get an interview. Awful feeling of being judged: him and us.

Getting a state primary school educated kid ready to take private school tests is horrible. You have to compete with these prep school kids who are doing nothing but past papers for a whole year. Whereas you have to take full responsiblity for getting him up to speed in a system you don't really understand.

And state school maths seems only to be about sums, whereas the paper he sat was all problems, ie applying maths knowledge.

Woke up in middle of night thinking 'what if he doesn't get in anywhere?' Because state schools he'd get into are truly dreadful round here.

Sarah Jane > do you live outside London? I think things are gentler there. A lot of London prep schools are nuts.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. We started in London with son number one but by the time he was at entrance level, we were halfway here in the West Country. He will be sitting his GCSE's this year and I'm sure he will do well and go on to sixth form.

We do have our share of pushy parents who I am certain will have done a shed load of cramming during the holidays....it's just my experience that this pressure doesn't help long term. Children do seem to find their level no matter what extra's you chuck at them.

I hate the thought of normal primary children being labeled failures ever. The system is shite IMO, we were just extremely lucky to be able to move our work to an area that met our kids educational needs. We do have to work harder to pay the fees but we really think that it has been a good investment for them. Excellent contraceptive too.