11+ Tuition £££- How much did you spend?

[Twofor]

Question to those who used tutors - how much did you spend in total?
I spent an eye watering amount (approximately £6500 over 18months) but for us it was worth it and it has paid off. This is not a bragging post, just want to gage if the astonishing amount is the ‘norm’ for those targeting grammar schools, especially super selectives. For context I am a single parent with no financial support, and from a working class background.

DC is state educated, we are based in Southeast England and top choice was a SS. Tutoring included weekly 2hour group session, mock exams, and a couple of 121s sessions.

Agree with you on this. Which is why I often think it is very difficult to tell the quality of a school in a middle class area - as the results could be down to the tutoring outside the school rather than the teaching in the school...

Although in reality it is most likely a combination of the school and the additional tutoring.

@privatenonamegiven

Well... To get to grammar school most often it entails private tutoring. Hence it attracts more affluent parents who can afford it. And therefore they can afford tutoring afterwards as well.

But it doesn't mean that the kids who go to other type of state school also don't have parents who can afford tutoring and are ambitious enough.

We spent (I think)£18 per week, for most of year 5 then a practice exam that was about £25. So about £700, that mental arithmetic probably shows that I am not grammar school material myself!

Exactly. Some schools where I live are just like grammar schools- with the little of effort they have good GCSE results because the cohort comes from a solid middle class that can afford £ 1-2 mln for a house.
Yet there are schools which have similarly great results but the cohort comes from a very mixed background.
You are very right assuming that the good results often are not necessarily a school effort. The most frequent it is at grammar schools

Yep you’re preaching to the choir. A big proportion of the students in my child’s year group in the normal comprehensive school were tutored for the 11 plus and didn’t get in…. The school has an excellent reputation but many parents definitely not short of cash! I don’t like the system but don’t see an easy solution

Yes he's very smart. He had a tutor for 1 hr a week and they set a load of work to do. It would be pretty pointless to pay a tutor but not do the work that was set. I'm sure most children that had tutors would have had to do work outside of the 1 hr tutor session, unless they had multiple lessons a week. I always thought he was smart but didn't want to risk him take the test with no tutoring. In a grammar area if you think your child is capable of grammar I'm sure most parents would try and help their child get a spot. His test results for the 11+ and his sats scores pretty much prove he's very smart.

I own an 11+ tutoring company in the South/London. I’d say the average a parent will spend with us is £2k and we are towards the higher end cost wise.

I think it’s easy to tell a grammar school student from one who isn’t and it’s not who appears smarter on paper. It’s not rare to find smart children failing the exam. One of the smartest children I know struggled with the exam, he has got in to a top 5 school now but he didn’t perform as high as he is capable due to severe anxiety in exams. One student was average in tests and just about managed it with tutoring and is now predicted all 9s, no tutoring needed.

You don’t need to be tutored for the exam but it certainly doesn’t make you any more superior than those who do.

Poor kids

I spent about £250 all in on books, mock exams and past papers. Did a few free trials on websites as well over the summer holidays to mix it up.

Similar spend on all 4 DC, all passed. Youngest passed but still waiting to hear if made it to the London superselective like the others.

We are sufficiently educated ourselves and English as a first language so do not have to pay tutors.

That’s cheap for a mock- ours were extortionate!

When I read your post I thought wow that's a lot! But actually when I added up I'm surprised at how much I've spent.

Year 4 small group session once a week- £28 x39 £1092
Year 5 once a week one to one £32 X 52 plus maybe an extra 10 hours over summer £1984
Six mocks at £50 each £300
Probably £150 ish on books and practice papers over the year

£3526.

I've got 4 dc the last one is in Y5 preparing now and it will be more as he's doing an extra session a week

We migrated to the UK when year 3 and English is not our first language and we speak our mother language at home.

He started to working on the book exercises from year 3 at home, spend less than 30 mins per day in first 2 years and become more in year 5. We teach him by ourselves, no tutor.

We spent £1000 for exercise books, 5 mock exams and online subscription fees on Atom Learning which starting from Dec in year 5.

P.S. DS is not only focus on doing exercise but reading is also very important for preparing the 11+ exam.

He got a not bad result in Kent test and we put a SS school as first choice and we are in-catchment.

Waiting for the national offers day in March.😊

This is going to be like 10 meals from one chicken thread. Tutors are professionals and charge accordingly. To be tutored costs a minimum of £30 per hour, realistically £50 per hour. Add that over a year plus £60 per mock exam and books? You need a bare minimum of £2200 to be tutored for this exam.

But the evidence in this thread suggests you dont need to spend that much - if your child is bright but taught “how” to pass the exam they will still get a place. It’s the bright ones who don’t get any tutoring and don't know the rules of engagement that will get them that pass that are genuinely disadvantaged.

I guess if you doubt your child’s ability in the first place you might want to spend that much though.
You kind of make the point that selective schooling is more about financial capability than academic capability though.

Just a reminder that if you have to tutor to get in to Grammar the liklihood will be you then have to tutor all the way through. A lot of ppl we know were borderline entry and have to have 1:1 tuition to stay in. Actually even a child who got a great pass mark still has 1:1 to stay in set 1. It never ends and the pressure can be extreme.

Just to say you can't just tutor to get tin them leave a kid on their own amongst hughly competitive peers; it's not fair on the kid or their peers or school.

They learn the same thing whether in a grammar or a state non selective school. Sets are mostly all going to be top set anyway. The grammar I used to teach at only had sets for maths.

Not heard of grammars kicking students out for not performing well. Grammars are still state funded schools and wouldn't be able to kick kids out due to not being smart enough. Can't say I've heard of many kids getting tutored in grammar unless their parents wanted them to get higher grades than predicted.

I didn't spend anything (Bucks so not SS). Both my children went/go to grammars, but I could neither afford, nor was I smart enough to teach them

@PanicAttax not my experience at all.

Our grammar only sets for maths and science.

All mine received tuition as what was on the exam wasn't covered on the curriculum.
My first daughter passed by 45 marks my second got the pass mark. Both have done really well at the school and haven't needed any extratuition as the teaching and atmosphere in the classroom are so good.

Dd2 had a little blip in science last year and the teacher was straight on the phone suggesting ways to support her and what the school could offer. She's back where she should be now.

When we received quotes recently it came up to almost £7k a year per child not including Atom Learning as we live in a superselective area but there are only a handful of tutors locally as kids tend to travel in. We tried it, DD hated how much pressure she was under after finishing school, so we took the plunge and moved all our DCs to a local private prep that offers 11+ prep as part of their curriculum.

DD and DS both got in. Youngest DC is still really young but he’s far more academic and sportier than them so it looks like he might have more options so we might look at bursarys / scholarships from public schools for him.

It's absolutely not the case that a child who is tutored to get in will need continuous tutoring. The exams are such that the children won't have seen such content before. They need to be taught how to do these types of questions- I'm thinking of particular non verbal reasoning.

Our grammar told us that in year 7 they would absolutely expect children to be working towards expectations because the baseline standards are higher than in other non selective schools.

Both my children seem to be holding their own in grammar having been tutored to get in as I knew I couldn't explain some of the concepts they needed to learn adequately.