Competitive north london parents wont recommend an 11+ tutor!

[naxa]

I live in Islington and ds goes to a local state school. I would like to get him into a decent secondary (doesnt exist locally!) so I'm planning to send him private (Highgate would be ideal as its near us, but I know there are very few places) so I know I'll have to tutor him.

Yet when I asked some of the other parents at his school if they could recommend a tutor they all clammed up - competition it seems. Is this common, it seems depressing to me?

Any ideas on how I can find a good tutor with experience of getting state kids into north/central london private schools?

Miserable bunch aren't they not sharing tutors names etc .Maybe I'm weird but if I had found a good tutor I'd share that information .

You need two things to do well in an exam ..... knowledge of the subject you're sitting ( and the ability to apply that knowledge and rules ) and practice ie an awareness of type of questions asked and the ability to answer all / most of them in the required time . These are in my opinion the two key areas a tutor can provide an advantage where a primary school may not and hopefully as we're only talking about 11 year old maths here you can do that yourself .

So ask for past papers ( often on their website ) for the school/s you are interested in so you've an idea of the level and type of question he needs to be aiming for . Try printing off two papers for Maths and having a race with your kid . Good luck .

I think if you have time you can prepare your child yourself for 11+. I know a couple of mums who managed to do it and their children got offers from the most competitive independent school in London. And their first language was not English!

The thread was started over 6 years ago.

Even allowing for a fairly long lead time, the DC in question must be at secondary by now. Possible even in the sixth form.

Naxa that’s exactly what I found here in south London for the Surrey grammar schools. Law of silence, I might as well have been trying to join the Freemasons ( actually that probably would have been easier). In the end I swallowed my pride and asked a teacher friend to tutor him, which she very kindly did. He passed the exams, but still didn’t get a place ( huge competition). Sometimes life’s a b.....
Hope you do better than me.

Oh and a few people pm’d me when I posted ( fruitlessly) on mumsnet, recommending their tutors, whom I strongly suspect were no other than themselves.

Didn’t realise this was a zombie thread!

Its really sad how petty parents are, why would you not tell anyone about a good tutor? You aren't competing against their child, there are about 200 places at every school to apply for. Those people are absolute morons and doing their children a disservice. Would you teach your kids to act in such a way? Of course not, so why would an adult act that way.