11+ prep for Tiffin - so overwhelmed

[Whatapickle99]

Please help an overwhelmed mum out!

We live in SW London and realistically the only grammar school my son could get to is Tiffin. We know competition is stiff and we have flip flopped about whether to even try. However, he's fairly bright and I feel like I'd like to offer him the opportunity to try, even if he doesn't get in. We are taking it seriously but it's also not the end of the world if he doesn't get in.

He is about to start Yr 4 in September. We are surrounded by people who have started tutoring and the peer pressure is strong.

We simply can't afford tutoring for two years. I have started doing Bonds and Simms & Schofield Maths and English with him over the last few months, also brushing up on his spelling and handwriting, and vocab. If it goes well, we can look to tutor in Yr 5.

Also looking Atom but not sure if that's right for Tiffin, and when we need to start it.

Basically, I feel like I'm just making it up as I go, without any structure. I have no idea how far "ahead" he needs to be. Like, what age workbook does he need to be working to, to stand a chance? At the moment we are just recapping Yr 3 to make sure that's solid with no gaps, as we've only really just started.

I don't want to overwhelm him, but I also what to make sure we are doing enough. I asked on a FB group but all the replies suggested he needed tutoring out of the womb. Am I being naive to think our approach could be ok?

Any advice on how to approach this would be so gratefully received.

Look up TestTeach. They post material home each week - standard is quite high. It gives you a great framework to do self study without spending a huge amount. We did this in y4 & y5 and gradually added some 1:1 as needed. The final run was me printing of papers and working with DC.

@Whatapickle99 my son is in year 8 at Tiffin, going into year 9 in September, so not that long since we went through this. We didn't use a private tutor, we did use Atom and we didn't start until Christmas of year 5. You know your child, and mine would have lost interest if we had started any earlier and if your son is bright and he goes to a good primary, it really is not necessary. What we did was lots of exam practice in timed conditions and I did that with him myself. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions. Good luck.

What you're already doing sounds like a really solid start, honestly, loads of families do just fine going the DIY route this early on. I wouldn't rush into anything more structured than Bond and CGP until year 5, that's plenty for now. If you want a quick steer on where the actual gaps are before spending money on Atom, Ace11Plus has a diagnostic tool that's handy for showing you weak spots without a big outlay.

Don't panic! My son has just finished year 7 at Tiffin. We started with a tutor an hour a week at the start of year 5. We upped it to 2 hours in the last few weeks before the exam. We didn't do much outside of that, just sat a couple of mock papers in the summer of yr 5, and went through some practice papers at home in the weeks leading up to the exam. I think if your child is amenable to working with you, a lot of what the tutor did with our son could be achieved at home.

My son got into Tiffin but we didn’t take the place - please don’t let yourself get overwhelmed as that won’t help you or your son. Be realistic about the chances of success (there are approx 10 kids applying for each place) and then do what prep you can with a ‘giving it a shot’ mentality rather than making it the be all and end all.

I firmly believe tutors aren’t necessary if you use the tools recommended above and, yes, loads of timed papers as you get closer. But your son does have to be very academically able - in the top one or two in his class at the very least. And even then it depends how able the cohort is.