11+ independent school preparation

[Corgi887]

When should we start preparing for the 11+? DC is bright, and I don't think we will get a tutor. How much each week should we be doing on top of normal homework?

However bright a child is, unless their school is preparing them to sit the 11+, you need to have a tutor. A good one will be able to cover the full syllabus and prepare your DC with exam technique as well as interview technique.
DD failed to get into grammar school because we assumed being bright was good enough (she was accepted on interview after pressure from HT). As HT said of our son ‘he’s bright and could pass the exam but we don’t cover the work. Their will be math problems he hasn’t seen unless he has a tutor’.

Are they sitting for independent schools or Grammar? If they t’s just the 11 plus then you should start preparations as soon as possible. Many people would have started already. Exams start around September.

With independent schools, I think most of the exams start early in the new year.

Agree with mdh2020 that being bright alone will likely not be enough for many of the very-competitive schools. Most DC who are not in a prep school will need extensive preparation.

We went through this last year (North West London/ fairly competitive entries). DD was (still is) in state primary that sets no homework. She spent about an hour/hour and half every day, sometime a bit less, for prepearation (no professional tutor - we were teaching). Towards the later half of the year, in weekends, she spent a bit more time, about two and half hours.

We started from year five, which I now think is late - ideally we should have started end of year 4 and could have taken it slowly. She prepared at home with us, and started mock tests using Atom and few other online providers in the last two and half months (again, later than ideal)

Then there will be interview preparation too which I think is best done slowly over time. DD attended a number of interviews and underperformed in the first few due to nerves before gaining confidence. (the prep schools will do several interview practice sessions over months).

If we were doing it again, I wouldn't go with the DIY approach. It worked out okay in the end, but was lot harder and haphazard than it needed to be (due to our inexperience with the 11plus process as well as no prior teaching experience)

Ideally at the start of Year 5, or the end of yr 4. A tutor said to me that if you start preparing before that, they get bored of it and become resistant.

Practice is much easier with a tutor, but I do know a child who passed just by practicing at home with his parents, they did one or two practice papers per weekend for a year. And I know another child who passed by going to a weekly group 11+ club for a year. So if you can’t afford a tutor there are other options.

A child who has never seen a practice paper before the exam won’t pass, because they’re competing with thousands of naturally bright kids who have had the practice.

I spoke to a lot of tutors who wanted them to start at the beginning of year 4, it seemed excessive to me. We started October of year 5, ds had 30 lessons. The tutor had a 100% pass rate for the schools we wanted to look at and we got our first choice. The tutors are really responsive on WhatsApp and text and deal with all the anxieties around the exam. Tayberry.org.uk

I think it depends on how much practice material is available, what your own level of education/confidence is, and what your relationship with your child is like. I've taken two kids (successfully) through super selective grammar and independent entrance. We started around October of Year 5 both times. We had a tutor first time around for the grammar entrance, but I really didn't think it made much difference, beyond the familiarisation aspect, which is definitely important. Second time round we didn't bother with the tutor, just did regular practice tests at home, and second child actually did better than first child (though of course that might just have been down to the child). It was harder work than outsourcing the practice though, and there were definitely a couple of stressy moments. With the independent entrance, we didn't get a tutor either time. There were past papers available on the website, so we didn't think a tutor would add much that we couldn't do ourselves. In terms of volume of work, we probably did about 3 hours a week, in two blocks (one midweek, one weekend). With the grammar entrance, we paid to do one proper mock test each time, which I think was helpful.

The trouble with asking these questions though is that the answers are always unreliable - because nobody can ever try two different approaches with the same child. So someone whose child didn't have a tutor and failed, will tell you that tutoring is necessary. Someone who did loads of tutoring and their child passed, will tell you that the tutoring made all the difference. But no one can ever actually know what would have happened in that situation if they'd used a different approach.

How bright is your child? How selective are the schools he or she is sitting for?

There is no single answer to this.

As a Tutor myself I know a lot of parents are starting out at the start of Year 4 now compared to previous years where early to late Year 5 was the norm. Just to give an indication it really depends on the school and what they are doing to prep the students. Does the school give homework? I would say on top of what they are learning in school they may need one or two sessions with a tutor each week.

Hope this helps. If you need any advice feel free to reach out!

Good Luck!