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.

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.

will your son be ‘up for’ the exam, therefore willing to invest in the process? IMO, the child’s attitude really is the deciding factor.

Year 4 seems early to me (unless there are particular areas of the curriculum in which he is behind). Bond books, Atom, etc you can do yourself with him (again, if he is game!).

For the Tiffin exam, speed is key - they need to be able to blitz those papers, especially the maths. However, if your son is verbally able and has strong comprehension skills, these will give him the edge. A great many boys are terrific at maths (even at working out sums super fast); but there are far fewer who are ahead in both English and maths.

To add - Tiffin seems like a perfectly nice school, but, to me at least, it is the cohort and the invested parents to whom they ‘belong’ that sets it apart from other local state schools. There is little further educational alchemy involved (!). Enjoy your son, let him enjoy year 4, try to read heaps with him - books, articles, etc - (frequently pausing to discuss what has been read) and try to get him excited about writing stories, would be my advice!

Year 4 is the year to get him into the habit of doing a bit extra every weekend. Just get a maths book and maybe encourage him to write stories. Encourage books of the genres he enjoys, feed the reading like a fire!

Y5 would be where I would use ATOM or if possible a tutor or weekly prep classes.

Is he exceeding age expectations in English and Maths? If he's not in at least one it's not worth it tbh. The competition is fierce.

Hi, I attended a fantastic free webinar 2 nights ago for Year 4, 5 and 6 students. My son’s been doing Atom and has a student tutor him £20 an hour for English. He’s greater in depth in maths but still at a standard level in English. We are getting him assessed for Dyslexia too as he has received tuition for 3 years now. He’s keen on City Boys London and a few others, so I’m investing in a Year 6 Mastery programme. It costs £285 per month from mid-September to mid-November and includes eight lessons plus a huge amount of extra resources including mock exam papers - this cost me too much last year when doing my daughters 11+ prep. I wish I'd known about Confident Learners then. I'm a single mum and wnat to ensure I help build the right foundation for my kids as we all do. My daughter was offered 4 top London schools last year.
<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&pf=1&ai=DChsSEwjDyveglImWAxUPklAGHdtLK2EYACICCAEQABoCZGc&co=1&ase=2&gclid=CjwKCAjwvsvTBhBaEiwAmf-3nlMXHhiCOFzjA82n5ArLv4kK6sSgGzP-rr3_qWqZul-dFRKTnP1tPRoCBeUQAvD_BwE&ei=FgBzaqTCM4-ohbIPte7KuAk&cce=2&category=acrcp_v1_32&sig=AOD64_1jO-Xd6cfDCynDIz4hnVN6f5EbjQ&q&sqi=2&nis=4&adurl=www.confidentlearners.co.uk/?gad_source%3D1%26gad_campaignid%3D21985401583%26gbraid%3D0AAAAA-dhTx9onoTY0--1UOhD_u2locsTN%26gclid%3DCjwKCAjwvsvTBhBaEiwAmf-3nlMXHhiCOFzjA82n5ArLv4kK6sSgGzP-rr3_qWqZul-dFRKTnP1tPRoCBeUQAvD_BwE&ved=2ahUKEwikpfKglImWAxUPVEEAHTW3EpcQ0Qx6BAgPEAE" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">confidentlearners.co.uk

Check it out. Marion the lady behind this is an ex Head of a Private school in London. She knows what she is talking about.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I really appreciate it! Sorry for the delay replying, summer holidays are a bit crazy! It's interesting to see the different approaches, some saying Yr 4 is too early but I'm surrounded by people who are starting tutor as they go into Yr 4, which is what sent me into a spiral.

His attitude is an interesting question. He's very used to finding everything easy which unfortunately has made him a bit lazy. He's happy to coast along, knowing he can do fine. However we talked about this and he is keen to work towards the 11+ to give him a bit of a challenge. He knows the competition is high and he could work really hard and still not get in. He replied that it wouldn't be work wasted though as he'll have still learned lots in the process, which I thought was a very mature answer! He has moaned a bit about doing the extra work sometimes but I've told him it's optional and I don't intend to battle him over it, so he's either in or out. As he gets used to doing it, he's settling into it and getting on with it now.

His primary school is distinctly average. We are happy enough there but they have a wide range of abilities and between trying to support the kids who need more support, lots of kids with English as a second language and a high proportion of SEN in the classes, resources are stretched. Kids who are coasting along dont really get stretched, so really that is going to have to come from home. I think we probably do need to be doing more with him than he's getting at school for him to have a change, while also not going overboard.

The Bond and Schofield and Simms books have been helpful as they have identified some gaps in his Yr 3 learning which needs brushing up (spellings and grammar need a bit more work) so it's been a helpful process. Also his school are very light on homework so getting home used to doing some sort of work outside of school has also been good. We also just discovered the Pip 11+ app for a little daily practice, which he's really enjoying.

I will check out the suggestions and see if I can assess where he is at.

Can anyone please clarify one thing for me - does he need to get ahead of his school year? Like the Bond books go up to 10-11 or 11-12 etc. How far is he expected to know by the exam?

Op, he needs to be at the top (or near the top) of his cohort, in terms of likelihood of success at Tiffin and the like.

Hopefully, his primary school might be able to indicate (in a general way) where he ‘sits’ in the class?

There are some pretty good timed CAT 4 style tests on Atom you could possibly try? Even if you just pay a month subscription.

re all of the tutoring ‘noise’ - many parents have busy lives, intense work schedules, other kids educational needs to consider; employing tutors can be a helpful way to ‘off set’.

You can invest all of that time and energy yourself, particularly now, when there is such an abundance of resources available online (for free or to buy).

Also @Whatapickle99 check you live within the 10km catchment too. Although technically you can get in outside this area, in practice all places are filled from within the 10km.

Sorry for the slow reply. We are definitely in catchment area for Tiffin.

A family friend who is a tutor (but not local and currently at capacity so cannot online tutor) ran some GL tests with him this weekend to see whether pursuing this route was worth our time.

He was very tired as we were away from home with them and hadn't slept properly for days. He did the NVR and scored 100% and 99th percentile. He hasn't done NVR before, as Tiffin doesn't tes to it, so that was interesting. He also did the GL New Group Reading Test. She said he's supposed to be 9 for it, so the score isn't entirely accurate as he's a few months off that, but his SAS was 125 and reading age was 14. He was very tired and made a few silly mistakes, I think he could have scored a little better if he had been well rested. We didn't test his maths, but I'd say that's his strongest subject.

Anyway, I don't know anything about these tests or scores but she said he's scored really well and strongly suggested that we find a local tutor and pay for the two years of tutoring as she thinks he has good potential. I'm obviously pleased he did well, but it's sort of knocked my game plan to tutor him myself for Yr 4 and now I don't know what to do for the best. I want to give him the best opportunity but I'm also under no illusion about the level of competition involved and when I think about the cost of 2 yrs of tutoring, it makes me want to weep!!