Anyone used Explore for 11 Plus tuition?

[mcmooberry]

Hi, I wondered if anyone had used this company as I am considering signing up my Year 5 DS? Have a meeting there tomorrow and expect there will be pressure to sign on the dotted line. He did a trial there (Camberley) last week and seemed to enjoy it. My concerns which I shall air tomorrow are whether the tutors are in any way qualified for the job. I came across a recruitment ad and they had to have a B at GCSE level and have worked with children which wouldn't necessarily equip them to teach. Am wondering if a tutor coming to the house might be better. I can't do it myself as I just get frustrated and lose my temper however calm I plan to be....

My friend’s child attended one of them.
They decided to leave.

It was interesting to child unless a tutor quit from the centre. Also, the centre very often changed the time. Moreover, it very busy.

About your temper. Usually, children have a tutor or go to a learning centre once a week. In between, they must to do a lot of home practice ( including new unknown material). That means, you will be involved into the process anyway.

Although, you are not obliged to explain and leave unclear question to the tutor, but it may significantly reduce knowledge.

Our DC attend a small centre where pupils work in a group of four. Sometimes, children distract each other during lessons, but in whole it is ok; tutor know how organize them back.

One to one is the best way for children who struggle in something particular, or not too much time left before exam.

Maybe this is only my opinion nut try to look at the learning like on join exercises.🤗

Hi, thank you for the reply, I was thinking it might be more fun to learn alongside other children his own age rather than sit in a kitchen with a tutor. I expect the centres vary depending on the staff. I am probably rubbish at explaining things anyway and find it very frustrating if they come out with some daft answer so should probably keep out of it!

All depend of your abilities, preferences and child’s character.

Yes, it is fun to study with other children; especially, if tutor regularly organize competitions and involve help each other.

Have you asked at the centre, what is a proportion of children to one tutor? Or they just seat in front of computers guessing a right answer? How they assist if child does not understand? How they organize the time? Fixed or flexible? Will they give an extra practice if child stacked in something particular?

My DC attended Explore but in younger yrs. It was great up until yr 3 or 4. One of my DC also attended the extended English and really enjoyed for about a yr. After that, we switched to a tutor for 2 hours a week or an hour each. The tutor we had was extremely good - qualified teacher and very knowledgeable about the exam processes. We were heartbroken when he moved away and then had to transfer to a weekly group run by an experienced teacher from the same tutoring agency. For the 11plus I would suggest either a tutor and/or group. But you need to be clear what value they are adding- for us it was enabling frustrated DC to develop their work (school work wasn't challenging enough), getting an independent view on whether DC should sit the 11plus (and whether they would pass), their strengths and weaknesses, gaps in the exam syllabus (Yr 6 work in tested but isn't taught until later in yr6 at some schools, including DC's) and exam techniques. I would also start looking for mock exam sittings as they book up fast.
Additionally, I supervised DC undertaking practice Bond papers ( most DC will need to build up their speed tackling qs as there is less than a minute do multichoice qs). Yes, it is frustrating when they don't get it or won't concentrate..

Friends have used Explore 11plus prep but in conjunction with either a tutor or group -, I don't think anyone would rely on our local centre to provide all the prep.

Thank you very much for the further input and I will write down some questions for the meeting at Explore this evening. A tutored group sounds ideal I shall see if there is anything like that in this area, I haven't seen anything advertised and only 1 or 2 boys in my DS's school ever sit it each year so hardly anyone to ask. Plus I scarcely want to go public in a way as it is so hard to get in it seems that I would rather keep things low key.

We used for DD but really wished we hadn't. Noisy, not tailored to what she needed at all. We carried on as we started late and didn't have a lot of other options but I don't think it did anything much.

Didn't matter how many times we asked for her not to do NVR they kept giving it to her.

I took dd for the initial assessment and wasn't impressed, the stuff he told me she was weak on was wrong it was her strongest area as confirmed by the tutor we ended up using.
The man stunk of cigarettes too.

Hi. both my dd's went to our local Explore Learning. older one in y6-7 for general english / maths. younger one for the 11plus course. they both enjoyed. it can get a bit manic with little kids runnjng round but you can time it to avoid the worst of it. The centre managers have to have a degree. the assistants have to have A levels or be in final year of 6th form. Would say its a help without so much pressure as proper tutoring

Thank you again for the responses. We are mulling things over.

Have a look at the elevenplusexams website. There is a forum of other parents for all of the 11+ areas of the country and loads of information on tuition. 11+ tuition needs to be targeted to the exam spec of your county ie; GL for Kent, CEM for Birmingham etc. I don't think Explore will cut it especially if it's a very competitive exam area. Do some moe research. We found an excellent group tutor through the website.

Apologies plus ignore my last post it wasn't explore. It was step up. Sorry.

Thank you MrsPatmore I have looked at that website and it certainly does look useful. We have in fact signed up with Explore but they have a month on month rolling contract so if it's not cutting the mustard we can look at other options.

we used it a few years ago (ds is now in year 11) and would not recommend at all

1. noisy
2. not tailored to individual (they say it is, and promised more practice in specific areas, but every week he followed the set 11+ lesson)
3. very expensive compared to weekly tutor
4. tutors are NOT teacher, sor even trained, and they don't really know what the requirements are, The lead teacher tutor may, but they aren't the ones doing to day by day teaching.

ds passed, when it came to dd i tutored her myself, and now do it for a living! (I am primary school teacher though)

Total waste of money.