11+ tutor: thoughts / experiences on how to find one and what to look for?

[PForParent]

What are your thoughts / experiences on how to find a tutor for the 11+?

Do you have opinions on primary teachers vs secondary teachers vs other types of people who moonlight as tutors?

Any specific advice?

Thanks!

We have a 11+ tutor, she is not a teacher but a professional tutor. Has a (good) university degree.

I wouldn’t consider a teacher unless they have very specific experience of the test and the schools. Our tutor does 1:1, runs an 11+ group, knows the schools all very well as she helps prepare for the same ones in our area every year. She also has a child in one of the secondaries we are aiming for.
She also tutors secondary school children at those schools in English.

IMO I wouldn’t go for an online tutor, have someone in your area who meets your child in person and has expertise of the school/schools. I found the local knowledge insightful and helpful. I don’t think most children do that well with online tutoring.

By professional tutor do you mean someone who does this as their only job? Or someone who has another job and moonlights as a tutor?

Of course it will be very subjective and a tutor who may get on well with one child may not with another. May I ask how you chose yours, what made you think they were a good fit for your child?

Only job.

we had a call and I got to know her better. I didn’t care about fit (what does that even mean), I wanted someone experienced and knowledgeable about the schools and areas. A good tutor can work with most children unless there are specific issues.

Fit means that every person has a different style.
Some parents told me that the tutor who got on well with one child didn't get on well with the other, because they had different styles and approaches.
I mean, it's not unheard of that some kids like a teacher or a sports coach, and some others don't, for example.

Did you find this tutor through word of mouth or on specific sites? We are in London

I would try and speak to parents of at least one other child tutored by them previously. There are lots of parents who get into tutoring after their own child successfully completes 11+ and I find that they don't have a vast teaching experience. I had tried one who was reusing sheets used by her child and reusing notes which is not bad but limited as these things change constantly. Please always ask for trial lessons before you commit. They need to know the style of the exam you're preparing for. This can vary depending on the school you are targeting. Another thing to check is what kind of books they use. Some expect you to buy cgp books and just make you work on them during the lessons. This was not a good value for me as I could do this myself. We tried 3 before we settled on a good tutor who worked well for us.

We have different experience/advice from PP!

We are using a primary teacher who is absolutely fantastic, but she does have heaps of tutoring experience too and lots of knowledge and experience of the different schools and exams which I absolutely agree is important. I think she almost exclusively tutors now though said she will be teaching 1 day a week next year.

Having seen her in action would personally hesitate to have someone who is not a qualified and experienced primary teacher but I appreciate there will be some excellent “pure” 11+ tutors out there.

A good 11+ tutor needs:

• solid understanding of/ability to teach the maths and English curriculums for KS2 and beyond (as many if not most 11+ tests will test beyond Y6)
• a really solid knowledge of VR and NVR including quirks of different tests.
• to teach exam technique, which ties in with understanding the different exams. So, eg, for adaptive online tests, the focus is on taking time to get questions right, especially the first 10 or so questions, rather than trying to finish the test.

Our tutor has done online sessions for us (we don’t live anywhere near her) and again this has worked really well and much better than an in person tutor:

• more convenient - unless you find the perfect tutor living round the corner or willing to come to you (most aren’t) then you have to ferry your DC back and forth and fit this with other commitments
• It’s meant we can continue with sessions through the holidays (we have family abroad so are away most school holidays).
• while I don’t “accompany” my DC in their sessions, they do them in the kitchen and I’m often in there cooking or whatever. This means I’ve been able to see first hand what my DC is doing and how they’re getting on but also see the tutor in action (and see just how brilliant she is!)

This last one never occurred to me, but I’ve a friend who ferried their DC to a tutor the other side of town. The tutor had been recommended but it took 6-8 weeks and a fair bit of grilling of her DS for my friend to realise the tutor was pretty bad - eg she may spend the session simultaneously getting her lunch ready (!) and they just weren’t getting through the material.

She may have been unlucky but it really put her off this set up where you just drop your child at the door and have to leave them to it.

I agree seeking recommendations if at all possible is really important. If you’re open to online I can highly recommend our tutor.

Ask parents who have been through it within the last year or two.

Parents still in the process are often, in my experience anyway, cagey about sharing.

obviously you want to ensure they are experienced in the specific schools you want to apply for. Are you looking at the state grammars or private? Those cover different ground.

Also following, i saw online Owl Tutors and wondered if anyone had used them?

I got a quote from them - their prices were insane! £150/hour online.

I tried an agency for 3 months with 2 tutors - math and English last year but they weren't good. One was unreliable and rescheduled lessons almost weekly, the other just took worksheets from DS desk every week and told him to go through those but never actually showed DS what good looked like.

Moved to a student at Imperial who had been through the 11+ himself. Half the cost and he was much better than the "professional" tutors.

"Parents still in the process are often, in my experience anyway, cagey about sharing."

Yes, I have noticed it!

May I have the contact details of the tutor for my Year 5 DD? She has confidence issues, hope to find a good tutor who could help.

Give some thought to what you are really looking for. We used a small tutoring company that offer group lessons (4-5) in English and Maths with different tutors (some specialise in maths, others in English). It's a good option in many ways but in hindsight I've realised a few things:

• The teaching was good but a bit 'one size fits all' given that the kids were all going for different schools and were at different starting points.
• Specific feedback on DC's progess and what extra we needed to do to reach our goals was really lacking (not that it necessarily has to be with this kind of set up though)
• The creative writing teaching has been great and I wouldn't have been able to do that myself, but actually lots of the rest of the 11+ is not rocket science. I think we needed the teaching less than we needed guidance on the schools and the process (which our tutoring company were a bit reticent to give).

Hope that helps.

I would start with the specific schools you are targeting and ask around within the parents who have used tutors to attend these specific schools.

personal recommendation works to find tutors but you’ll only know when you try whether your child clicks either them. Ideally stay close for the trial or lesson1 and you can tell whether they are familiar with your specific tests and can they easily spot the main gaps to be fixed.

some children do better 1:1 and some do better with a touch of competition in a group. I have found that a small group of 4-6 works well with children who do not enjoy the pressure of 1:1 (esp if online) and like having a ‘group’ to work with - makes them feel less alone. Towards the final months 1:1 is useful to find specific gaps and address these.

i found the best tutors in the final months close to the exam - more because I understood the process much better by then but clearly it was a bit late to find them!! 😁