11 plus

[sws]

Anyone got any idea what will happen to the 11 plus in September?

@Lynda07

TeenPlusTwenties, there really should be no need for extra tuition for eleven plus. The primary/prep school ought to be teaching enough and encouraging pupils to expand their knowledge and vocabulary, that plus puzzles can be done in a fun way at home sometimes.

I honestly don't know any children who had extra, paid tuition for eleven plus and from what i've heard, it isn't very good anyway as well as being expensive.

The 11+ is sat at the start of the final primary year, but based on teaching that would be done in that final year. So, without some form of private tuition or parental input, kids would be getting tested on some things that they hadn't been taught in their school.

My understanding was the state schools were prohibited from providing specific 11+ teaching in "normal" lessons and discouraged from providing it in after school or lunchtime sessions.

My son's state primary had an "11+" club towards the end of year 5. It was something like one lunchtime per week for a month or two. All they did was hand out past papers for the kids to do at home, then the following week, the teacher would put up the answers on a screen and the kids would mark their own papers. The teacher would then go through random questions (maybe 5 per session) to explain the answers. Then they'd hand out another past paper to do for the next week. It was basically nothing more than getting the pupils accustomed to the question paper, exam style, etc. Apparently that was as fair as they were allowed to go. From memory, I think the drop out rate was pretty high - when it started probably half the class went, and by the time it finished, my son said there was only 5/6 of them still doing it!

@Lynda07

TeenPlusTwenties, there really should be no need for extra tuition for eleven plus. The primary/prep school ought to be teaching enough and encouraging pupils to expand their knowledge and vocabulary, that plus puzzles can be done in a fun way at home sometimes.

I honestly don't know any children who had extra, paid tuition for eleven plus and from what i've heard, it isn't very good anyway as well as being expensive.

I agree with that. Primary schools are letting pupils down. Mine didn't have any extra tuition.