11+ Support Thread 2026

[Elevenseconds]

Hi all

Am I going mad? I'm sure we had a thread to discuss those current Y5 who will be taking the exam in September. Has it disappeared, or am I having a moment?

Same. She started Easter of year 4, so we are over a year into this now, and it's tough to stay motivated. I kind of wish they took it before the summer holidays, so then could enjoy it.

I saw some areas are doing exactly this - the 11+ before the summer holidays. It's better too for children who aren't doing tutoring as they often backslide over the holidays - so it's extra discriminatory towards less affluent families.

We’re totally relying on the summer holidays to catch up! We only just kicked off our serious 11+ preparation this month, so there’s a pretty massive gap to close. The upside? DD is still fresh and ready to dive into intensive mode without burning out. The downside? The sheer volume of material we need to cover is slightly terrifying!

DD's tutoring group has just moved to the Collins NVR (normally they do CGP) and the sudden uptick in difficulty is astonishing. I can't do most of them, and DD has moved from getting 10 or 11 out of 12 to scraping half marks. Eek.

Do they use Collins for anything else? I haven't had anyone recommend Collins books so wondering what they are like.
We have just changed from Bond English Assessment practice to Cgp comprehension and 10 minute tests which we are finding better as the questions are more like the actual test.

Absolutely this. Ours are taking the 11+ the first full week back. So we will try to do bits over the summer, but their brains and bodies need a break

Near us they do 11+ 'summer camp' in August, so will send DD to this - they do a combination of mock tests, revision and fun stuff. It's expensive at £600 for the week, but standard holiday camp would cost me nearly £300 for the week anyway. But I agree doing after summer is definitely discrimatory towards less affluent parents who can't afford things like this. And grammar is supossed to target bright less affluent children!

But I agree doing after summer is definitely discrimatory towards less affluent parents who can't afford things like this. @Bushmillsbabe

There are plenty of free 11+ papers online that provide enough practice, and typical 11+ materials only cost a few hundred pounds at most, which most families can afford. It doesn't require an "affluent" family. Starting preparation too early only benefits those who begin tutoring in Year 4 or even earlier, which is detrimental to a child's development. It is better to have the exam later rather than earlier, ideally after the Year 6 spring term. By then, children are more mature, and the exam content is less likely to exceed what they have actually been taught.

But affluence is linked inextricably with ambition. I don’t deny there are families who do brilliantly with free resources. But there are also bright children from homes where parents absolutely will not find those resources for them.

I agree that academic ambition is what matters most, but the relationship between affluence and ambition is quite complex. Because when affluent families can afford private schools, they might not prepare as heavily for grammar schools. In our all-through private school, the highly wealthy children basically do not prepare for the 11+ at all; academics are just not that important to them.

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my definition of affluence. I wasn't talking about extreme wealth where private school is option.

Middle class families can generally afford a year or two of tutoring to get their children into good schools if they live in a grammar area. Private schools are still well beyond the reach of e.g. a family solicitor and a project manager for the NHS.

You then have a handful of middle class and working class families for whom even tutoring is a stretch financially, but they may be able to buy a few Bond Books and access free resources online. Whilst less likely to pass (less pushy/professional tutoring) - these children still stand a chance.

But bright Pupil Premium pupils where mum and dad might not work / have complex social needs / no ambition to get into grammar school because nobody from their family ever has - very few people here are accessing those free materials.

Additionally in areas where grammar schools are the norm (e.g. not super-selective areas), very few truly academic private schools exist - because smart parents save their money by sending their children to grammar schools. Agree though that the truly wealthy are likely to send their children to board.

I agree, it's very different spending 2k for 1 year on tutoring, to spending 30k every year for 7 years for private schools.
The private schools naturally prep them anyway - one near us boasts of a 100% pass rate on 11+, so either they are hyper focused on it to get every child through regardless of ability (as it's not a selective private), or they are lying. It does feel quite unfair though, there should be different pass marks for private vs state. They already adjust mark for age and pupil premium, why not for school as well.

CSSE (the Essex consortium) provides free Atom access for those who qualify for pupil premium and the copies of the tests taken in 2023 and before for free. They just need their current school to confirm their status.
No one I know who would qualify took up the offer despite originally being interested in the grammar schools. Most said that their DC weren't interested because it meant work outside of school.

And that highlights the issue with grammar schools, they aren't accessed by the children who need them the most/who they were originally intended for. I was listening to DD and her friends last week, one asked the question ' what do you want to do when you grow up'. The ones who have professional 'middle class parents said 'wildlife photographer, teacher, vet' the ones with parents who are working in lower paid roles said 'hairdresser, beautician'. There was no correlation between ability and ambition, but there was a complete correlation between parent background and ambition. Not saying this is always the case, but it does seem to be linked.

No child wants to do extra work outside school, mine definitely gets fed up of it. But we went to visit the local grammars and comps at start of year 5, and she is motivated by wanting to attend one of the grammars. Parental ambition and proactivity has a huge impact on who takes the 11+.

DD's tutoring company has 97% children of South Asian heritage, with the remainder being of Eastern European descent. Out of over 100 children, she is the only white British child. The area we live in is not representative of this (probably 15% South Asian, 7% European at an educated guess).

These parents are ambitious for their children, and see a grammar school, rightly or wrongly, as a ticket on the way to a better life and are willing to encourage their children to work hard.

There are two white PPG British children in DD's class who with some tutoring would absolutely pass the 11+ but not only are their parents not accessing online resources, one of them has actively pulled their child out of taking the exam. No judgement really - society is complicated as are people's motives. But anyone who claims grammar schools promote social mobility is sadly not correct.

@Elevenseconds its just driven into Asians that education is key, not so much to get ahead, but more that it forms the basis to everything. I was chatting to the local newsagent and he was telling me his son got into QE boys, then the local waxing/threading lady, telling me about her daughter trying to pass Henrietta Barnett. These are people who really haven't much money but choose education as a priority and want a better life for their kids.

We're hitting a bit of a motivation barrier here! My two are chugging along on atom, but we've a very busy summer planned and I'm stressed about how to get in the revision they need, and balance it with not ruining their tenth summer. We also have family who are extremely ideologically opposed to grammar schools so I'm not looking forward to explaining ourselves.

It's so hard. One is easily on track, the other is slightly below the target line on atom (although her mocks are ok) which she finds so demotivating. The good thing is all this work has meant they're absolutely soaring in school and on such a high from the confidence. They've always been bright but being so ahead of the curriculum now because of the content they're learning has really been great for them.

We also have family who are extremely ideologically opposed to grammar schools so I'm not looking forward to explaining ourselves. @notanothernvr

Could you elaborate on that? I can understand being ideologically opposed to grammar school system, but I find it hard to comprehend why anyone would make their own kids give up a grammar school place when the alternative is a disruptive comprehensive school. I don't understand why you need to explain why you choose to prepare for grammar school.

Historically, British families used to really value education—grammar schools definitely weren't invented by Asian families! But nowadays, there seems to be this massive cultural shift where pushing your kids academically is almost looked down upon. Maybe it's because society has become so stagnant now. Most mainstream British families just seem completely content with the status quo.
It is like frogs sitting in warm water for too long, they have completely lost the aspiration to jump out to a better place. Even worse, they look down on the frogs that actually want to jump.

Exactly this. I am ideologically opposed to grammar schools, but I'm not going to stop my daughter trying for one if that's what she wants. The alternatives are a faith school (which I'm also not that keen on) and a very poor comp. It's her life to live, and her choice to make.

And that I think is the response to anyone who is opposed to it - not to argue with them, but to say that fine for you to think that, DD/DS has made the choice which is right for them, and them not going isn't going to change the system.

I think they feel like when we return to country (we're currently abroad) we should choose a non-grammar area as it's such a terrible system. They will also think it's cruel for us to be doing work over the summer with the kids and will just be generally snooty about it. They feel strongly about children being exposed to a wide section of society - it's political for them. Whereas I don't want my children surviving at some miserable comp which doesn't set until Y9 and having to put up with loads of disruptive behaviour, just to make a political point.

They will also think it's cruel for us to be doing work over the summer with the kids and will just be generally snooty about it.

They’re practically treating hard work like a crime. Labeling study time as 'cruel' is a massive stretch, especially since it’s just one summer and DC has had plenty of time to just play over the last ten years! They see it as taking away DC's holidays, but I see it as protecting DC's future. It comes down to a simple trade-off: a few weeks of structured work now versus years of DC struggling in an underperforming school later. To me, letting DC coast into a chaotic environment just to prove a political point is what's truly cruel to the child.

We found with our eldest that we did an average of an hour a day most days over the summer holidays - some days nothing at all if we were off for a family day out, other days maybe two hours if there was a test she wanted to do.

Honestly, an hour a day average is really not that much - how much vacant screen time are children generally having? I think some people have this rosy idea of children who aren't studying playing magically in fields, capering around healthily with lambs, when in actual fact, most of them are glued to YouTube shorts or the television.

We had a list of things to do each day - something outdoors (weather dependent), some structured 11+ work, some music practice, something with her sister, something creative - and when she'd done all of that, some screen time was granted. That gave a bit of structure to the day and screen time felt like a reward or payment for work, not a default.

I don't think any of that sounds cruel - and we weren't rigid - e.g. if we had a long car journey, screen time was fine. If she wanted to have a sleepover with her friends, we didn't enforce anything etc. It worked for us.

One thing that did disgust me is one of DD's friends had her phone confiscated after she didn't qualify for the 11+ as punishment for not working hard enough. I would never have done that.

It is quite interesting how it all comes down to perspective, really. I guess one could argue that sending a child to school for 15 years is a bit cruel, but then one could just as easily argue that withholding 15 years of education is a different kind of cruelty. It feels like summer learning falls into that exact same grey area.

I suppose most reasonable parents just try to look at their own child's actual needs and priorities to figure out what works best for their specific situation. It can be a bit exhausting when people assume their own approach is the only enlightened or caring way, and that anyone doing things differently must be either misguided or unkind.

Personally, I think keeping an open mind and just focusing on what serves the family's overall well-being is probably the healthiest way forward. It seems much better to quietly adapt to our own children and try to tune out the external noise and societal pressures, whatever they may be.

an average of an hour a day most days over the summer holidays

I guess a lot of it comes down to looking at the marginal benefit. For instance, if a child already has a 90% chance of getting into a grammar school, spending an extra hour studying just to push that to 91% might not be worth it. But if they are at 50% and some extra hours could bring them up to 80%, then it feels justified. It is just an example to show that it really depends on whether a child is still on the steep part of their learning curve or if they have already hit a plateau, as well as their actual chances of admission and whether they have met the required standard.