Where to start with prepping 5 yr old for grammar/private school entrance exam

[crystalgall]

DS is 5 and in reception.

I know nothing really about how the entrance exams work.

I know they do an 11+ and that's probably about it.

Where do I start? What do I need to be doing?

DS is keen and enthusiastic about school, loves reading. I have no idea if he has what it takes for the exams but figured I should think about where to start from now and give him a chance.

Any help and advice appreciated!

So true - it's those sort of ignorant generalisations that lead to trouble

My sons' school is 80% Asian which is great and many of the parents are first generation here and I am not ignorant in stating that. I am stating a fact. I was justtrrying to help the poster get over the problems some of those children face compared with my sons in suggesting make sure their accent, their spoken and written English and grammar is good. I live in an Indian area. We have a hindu primary school. It would not be fair to suggest I know nothing about the issue some of those very hard working and often successful children have. My sons benefit every day from being in a school full of hard working strivers. i think the schools should do more to correct things like people who say "haitch" instead of "aitch" and the like but on the whole being a child in a class with second generation immigrant children is a big benefit - the worth ethic is amazing from most of them and the commitment to the school is brilliant.

Some are going to frown on me, but I wouldn't prep him. If he can't get in on his own merits, he's going to struggle. My DD is much older, but really wanted to go to a private school at the next stage, we know may others went to a prep school, but she did it herself which hopefully means she's capable.

EnormousTiger you do understand that Asians have been in this country since the 60s, and that make British Asians were born here and actually in many cases speak English better than a lot of Caucasian people.
If you are going to make sweeping statements about us all you need to qualify which Asians you are speaking to.
I personally have no problems with the lingo and tbh have many friends not born here who have a better command of the language than those born here. Whether you realise it or not your comments come across as ignorant

Read a lot together (not with any pressure, just for the love of it.) Talk about maths things from everyday life just for fun. Talk to him a lot. Do art/craft work; sing nursery rhymes and other songs; go for walks and find interesting things.

I thought you said y5 as this is the right aged to prep him.

5 is way tooooo soon. Let him enjoy life, read with him, encourage him to question things, go out with him to experience as much if life as possible, you can revisit 11 plus prep at round Easter Y4.

Middleoftheroad- No the child is 5 years old. That is way to young.

I think you can gage where they are by the end of year 4 (8/9years old) and start looking at Secondary options to figure out the admission requirements, but I really wouldn't push your child. Once they are in those schools they have to be able to cope and it has to come from them. That is why you can nurture it and help them form good habits, but you can't drill them through those tests. The kids I've seen who's parents have done this often have total meltdowns and feel they have failed in the end, either at the exam or once they get in, and they end up leaving the schools. The highly academic schools are for certain types of kids. Kids who possibly wouldn't be served well in a normal comp or normal private and need that extra/advanced stimulation. But, I believe a child is this or isn't and it has no bearing on how successful they will be. The important thing to think about is where is your child going to thrive the most. What is the best option for them as an individual. Because, if a child doesn't like school, they won't like learning, and once they are teenagers, you really don't have much control with what they do outside of the house, so you want to know they are driven in whatever they want to do and wherever they are spending the most of their time, which is a school usually. This will not happen if they are unhappy and have low self-esteem. Prepping kids so young can be very damaging to their emotional and mental development.

My DCs are at grammar school, the reading as young children shows through even at the ages of 14/15.

Knowing times tables fluently was a great time saver during the entrance exams.

You really don't need to worry about anything else at this stage.

Why wait for 11+ OP? There's also 7+. My youngest DD sat the Latymer entrance exams in January. It's extremely competitive but she managed to get in for September; year 3. We didn't have a tutor( had for other DC before) we used past papers from other independent school and Latymer send you sample papers once registered. The bond books are also fantastic for practice especially, verbal reasoning. DD isn't in a state school currently so she is used to timed testing conditions. Time is crucial at the exams. High standards are expected for math and English comprehension especially the writing exercise. You have to keep an eye out for the application and registration dates. Some schools such as St. Paul's also have an 8+ entrance.

My daughter went to North London Collegiate after entrance tets at 7+ so yet another doing 7+ not 11+. In a sense if you can get in these schools earlier it can mean you don't have the competition at 11+. I thnk NCLS may just have 5+ entry nowadays however.

In the other thread I said I hate the 11+ with passion. There isnt much choice but preparing for it if you think your child could thrive in a selective secondary. It really depends on the area that you live, in Southwest London there is 1 grammar school for boy and 1 for girl that we could try(imagine of having 10 almost heavily tutored kids for only 1 is chosen...in 1 exam day).

We take a different route other than anyone that I know(all my friends are having their children heavily tutored from yr4 PLUS (much more) parental tutor...the parental Tutor is so much more intensed bare in mind---however all the kids do exceptionally well with any entrance test, only 1 failed however he has learning difficulty and is now back to New Zealand). We stick with more activities(musics, arts, chess, science, swimming etc) and focus on general maths( arithmetics rather than mental), readings and writtings(for pleasure rather than any books for exams). They will be drilled once they do gcse then A-levels, these exams are more important and by then they are much grown up... less than 10 years old, even with a hot house South East Asia back ground like myself I still find it too early. Only my 2 cents( Its still experimental andI am finding it hard to stay firm with my decision worrying I might have odd her off her chance).

To Enormous: you will be surprised when I say many billingual children in primary schools outbid their mono friends in English. I was surprised too.

Grealeave - there are three 4 boys Grammars for boys and 3 for girls in south west London.
Are you just referring to the Tiffin schools? There are another 5 in Sutton.

Anyway I do take your point and agree but they do need to go to a secondary schools before they can take their GCSEs and arguably the selective ones do have better results for these.

The whole system is awful but unless you just decide to go down the state route and just hope for the best they do unfortunately have to sit an entrance exam at some point.

Even for our local comp they have to do a CAT in June to set them in yr 7 - I suspect the setting really affects how they will then eventually do in GCSEs.

The testing is endless!

Sorry typos in first para: there are 3 more boys Grammars in Sutton and 2 more girls Grammars.

Read lots of books!

My cousin discovered that at her children's primary in Dulwich 75% of his class had a tutor by year 5, so she set out to find one. Not as easy as you might think. The tutors interviewed him, and decided whether they would take him, not the other way round.
Depending on where you live I should think you need to start looking around in year 4.

Not every one in Sw can travel to Sutton, it takes us more than an hour on public transport to these Sutton grammar school... so no, only 1 school

Green, I don't doubt it. My daughter (at Habs) was one of only 2 girls in her year with 4 English born grandparents. Everyone else has immigrant grand parents. They do very well indeed. I only mentioned grammar and accent because I do notice children being let down by that.

For anyone with English as a second language, there are lovely CDs of books for children, as well as beautifully read poetry. Maybe "Audible" has a children's collection. www.audible.co.uk/search?ie=UTF8&searchRank=relevancerank&selectedValueId=535837031&field_subjectbin=535837031&advsearchKeywords=childrens

Very good language at a young age gives a massive advantage to a child, but in an effortless, intuitive way. A lot of logic is built into language structures too.

A little maths a day in the form of play, and times tables when the time comes helps too.

I've missed a lot!

I'm a secondary school teacher. My grandparents came over in the 50's and my mother has lived here since she was 6. DH father since he was a teen. All our parents speak English and DH and I are both born and bred English/British.

He doesn't speak a second language. He only speaks English.

We won't have an issue with accent/grammar/or whatever else it is.

Asian bilingual kids (so not ones like mine but the ones referenced) outperform their peers for the most part.

Thanks for the other advice.

The accent comment is completely irrelevant for school selection even for private schools interview. Have no idea why Enormous brought it up.

DH switched languages/alphabetic when they emigrated here when he was about 9 years old (with about ten words of English) and has a very good degree in English lit from a top UK uni.