11+ preparation for DD who turned down offer from Bute House and Latymer Prep

[Happybunnyxxx]

Hello parents,

DD got offers from Bute House and Latymer Prep this year but we decided to turn both down and stay at our current state primary school- we would like to nurture her in a familiar and loving community and focus on character building.

Through the 7+ assessments, we learnt a lot about her ability and personality. We did not prepare her for any of the tests. In fact, we just told her to go and check out the schools as well as play some games, even with the 3 relatively formal paper with Latymer. She came out smiling and enjoyed the challenge- she was not aware that she entered any school entrance assessments.

We understand that we would need to prepare for 11+ assessments especially the tests would cover more than national curriculum for Year 6, besides exam skills. We also know that it is unlikely the current state secondary school could help on extra exam preparation. Since she is only in Year 2, we do not intend for her to start tutoring at all now. Rather, we would like to use the time to research and find a good tutor or a team of good tutors.

We do not have any target school yet as we would like to get to know DD more about her interests and talents first. Currently she is very interested in arts and music. We live about 25mins walk from both Bute House and Latymer Prep/Upper so it is likely to be secondary schools around that part of West London.

We would like to have recommendation of some good tutors who could do face to face tutoring at home but we are not sure how to find them locally as the parents at her school we spoke to use online ones and local FB page search has not been fruitful neither. Would you please help?

If you know of any good online ones too please feel free to recommend.

It would be very much appreciated if you could share your experience in finding the right tutor(s) for your children too as we have never done it before.

Thank you very much for your help. :)

I think the way some people hunt for trolls in this discussion is harmful, especially those who claim to share their honest experiences, but then attack others who have different or opposing views as trolls. It is good to see Bonjours trolls hunts post get reported and removed rightly so.

OP, you may feel frustrated by the other poster’s criticism of your questions. But reporting them won’t change anything if they are genuine posters.

You should know that this is the online world, where any “honest, personal experience opinion” may not be accurate or even truthful. Some poster, when they encounter information that contradicts their views or arguments, try to label other poster as trolls. This is when the forum moderator intervenes and examines the underlying information to take appropriate actions. It is recommended to use the information in conjunction with real life to form your own judgement.

I’m surprised you think that state is the better option compared with the schools you applied to (disclaimer: I know nothing of these schools 😅). In an alternate universe, where money was no object, I would have taken my children out of their outstanding primary and opted for an academically selective prep without a second thought.

But perhaps I’m being naive and assuming too much about the quality of teaching and small class sizes on offer from selective prep schools.

As it was, the only option available to us is state and we’re lucky that our local primary is excellent. But does it prep children in any conceivable way for the 11+? Not at all. I found it incredibly stressful even though we tried to keep the tutoring fairly minimal and low key.

It’s a rollercoaster and only worth the angst if you end up where you want! Good luck.

Some long posters take particular keen interest in sharing her 11+ related preparation experience in the thread for years. The 11+ related threads probably accounts for 70% content of the secondary section. I think inevitably you will find the same posters encounter again and again with the same information in many threads.

Personally I think you are very silly for turning down Bute house. Hundreds of girls try for the few places they have. It is Probably the most nurturing yet successful school there is for this age group. Not to mention the facilities it has to offer compared to most other schools in central London. The leavers destinations are to all the top schools in the country hence the high demand for a place here.
I also wouldn’t put my daughter through the confusion and worry about doing trial days and assessments when you already liked the school she was at. Bute do not like tutored children so if you are looking for a tutor now at such a young age maybe you did make the right decision but personally I would stay away from that at this young fragile age.