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11+ Tutor recommendations for Dame Alice Owen / Henrietta Barnett (Year 3 foundations) - please PM!

4 replies

LearningTheRopes7 · 15/06/2026 18:38

Hi everyone,
I’m dipping my toes into the 11+ waters for the first time and, to be honest, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the North London/Herts system!
My daughter is 7 (entering Year 3 territory), and we are starting to look at what gentle foundations we should be laying down. We live locally and are hoping to eventually target Dame Alice Owen’s and Henrietta Barnett, though I know just how incredibly high the academic bar is for both of these wonderful schools.
She is bright and enjoys school, but we really want to focus on building up her core confidence, numerical reasoning, and vocabulary over the next year rather than doing any intense exam drilling or "hot-housing" too early. I’m very keen to avoid burnout.
Does anyone have recommendations for an independent tutor or a small-group foundation class around the Barnet/North London/Herts border who is familiar with the unique demands of these schools (especially the unique DAO English paper style)?
I know board rules mean names/numbers can't be posted publicly, so I would be incredibly grateful if you could Private Message (PM) me instead.
Any general advice from veteran parents who have survived the journey to DAO or HBS would also be a massive lifesaver for a very anxious beginner!
Thank you so much in advance.

11+ Tutor recommendations for Dame Alice Owen / Henrietta Barnett (Year 3 foundations) - please PM!
OP posts:
Cioccoholic · 16/06/2026 05:12

Assuming she’s exceeding expectations, and free reading … a lot you can do at home.

You want to get your dd reading as widely and as much as possible. I cannot emphasise that enough. Take her to the library every two weeks and let her choose 4 books both fiction and non-fiction. It is fine if she picks books that are far too easy for now - let her - just make sure you add two that have stretch (one for her to read, one for you to read aloud to her).

As a guide, a stretching book should have about 3 to 5 words per double page spread that dc hasn’t met before (assuming you’re on chapter books). Any more than that is probably too hard and she will get fatigued; any less isn’t really doing her any good. You should know her reading skills well enough to be able to skim through pages of chapter one and check it will be hard enough.

At this age you still want her reading to you aloud as well as reading alone - always include comprehension questions. eg “this bit is exciting what do you think will happen next?” “Why do you think the author used the word “blah” here? What other words could they have used?”

Read to her as well. Focus on comprehension - good to ask her to summarise regularly eg when you sit down to read you say, “do you remember what happened in the book so far?” And then during the story stop and check she can figure out what a difficult word means from context.

You can keep a little note book of difficult and new words for yourself so you can remind yourself which ones she struggled with.

Lots of puzzle books, puzzles and games to improve her mental agility. Puzzle books for long journeys are good with logic puzzles, crosswords, wordsearches, jigsaws, tangrams, “detective” puzzles. Play games that YOU like as if you enjoy it, it will happen more often! I played chess with my db and my dad taught me to play Contract Bridge when I was 7 because we were a family of four and he was tickled pink that I was playing conventions by late primary school!

Opportunities for creative writing and creative play are also very important.

Also she should be fluent with her basic math operations by now. Does she know all her times table and division facts inside out without having to stop and think? Can she do three-digit additions and subtractions in her head? My dc in year2 had these skills but at school was Meets Expectations and definitely not heading for 11+. Make a game of it - my ds like being tested on fast recall of his tables sums in his head; if he didn’t get 5 out of 5 he would be get a silly penalty (do five pushups; sing a nursery rhyme in one breath etc).

These operational skills should be mastered by now so you can start to extend into harder conceptual areas of maths. The aim is to reduce cognitive load so they don’t need to think about the answer to 6x8=48 when they are trying to work out something harder.

I could go on but you get the drift!

LearningTheRopes7 · 16/06/2026 19:34

Thank you that’s great advice. Though are you saying there is probably no need to use a tutor at this stage and instead do more home schooling type stuff? Though I’d still be interested in getting a tutor if anyone could recommend one?

OP posts:
Wonderknicks · 21/06/2026 16:51

I would say if your child needs tutoring from age 7, grammar school may not be the place for them. As suggested lay good foundations, read a lot, do word puzzles, play Scrabble etc.

LivelyTiger · 21/06/2026 21:11

agree with the other poster tbh, no need for a tutor at 7. reading lots + puzzles is honestly the best foundation you can give her at this stage. we use ace 11+ (ace11plus.org) for quick daily quizzes w my ds, keeps it fun rather than feeling like exam drilling so might suit what you're after re: not hot-housing. also yy to puzzle books for journeys, mine love them

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