How do you know if your child should sit the 11+ ?

[plus3]

Title might not be right for the question I wish to ask, and I am reposting here as well as in education

My DS is currently in yr3 and has sensory processing disorder, which is affecting his ability to do as well as I think he is capable of. School think highly of him, but do not push the 11+ at all, for anybody.

The SPD, however is probably the absolute problem. Should we just write off the whole idea of the 11+ because of this, or try to tutor at the right time? When is the right time? Should we be staring earlier to compensate, or are we being complete idoits even entertaining the idea?

Are there any puzzles etc we could be doing at home without stressing him out, because that is absolutely not my intention.

He is an avid reader and prefers literacy to Maths.

Hi

Hope you will forgive me, but had no idea what SPD was, so had to google. It sounds very complicated but if I am right there is a possibility of either hyper or hypo sensitivity to stimuli - touch sound etc? I would think it might be easier to answer your question if you could give more details of your DS 's specific problems?

However, I thought I would give you a 'general' answer based in my knowledge of 11+, in the hope that I might help a bit?

My daughter did not have SN when at primary school and went to a school where it was not expected that anyone would pass 11+ ( in yr I asked her teacher if she had potential to do so - she said 'we don't use the P word here'!) By year 5 we could see that she was continuing to want to learn despite her environment, and we realised that the best local school for her would be the all girl grammar school. So our decision was made for us - the 'right school' involved passing the 11+ so that is what needed to be done!

In our case this did not mean getting a tutor as we felt if she couldn't get in without 'cramming' then she shouldn't go (as she would struggle when she got there) However, you do need to practice the tests, as they are very specific. If a child is bright enough the Maths and English should be OK - it is the non verbal reasoning that needs practice. Things like lists of words and finding the odds one out, logic puzzles, etc.

To sum up (!) IMHO, it is better to find the 'right' school for a child, then if 11+ required, give it a go. Different schools use different tests but practice papers are available to buy (or sometimes free from school) - have a look at them and see what you think. If you do think DS can do them, with practise,its never to early(or late) to start practicing logic puzzles (professor Layton for the Nintendo DS is good).

But one thing I wish I'd checked on before deciding on school - I had no need at the time - is what their pastoral care and SENCO were like - my daughters school is academically brilliant (100% pass rate blah blah) but SENCO wants locking up (IMHO!)

Good Luck - but don't panic you have plenty of time to look at options

MM

MeanMom thank you so much for your reply.

The pastoral care & Senco are wonderful at DS's primary, and I completely recognise that many things may change in DS before we are close to making this decision.

I suppose what I am asking, is that at the moment, despite being hypersensitive to noise, having visual problems (he sees a behavioural optomatrist) & struggling to get out what he clearly knows, he is still mostly above average for his class. His teachers describe him as having a real spark and a joy to teach.

I do not want the 11+ to be something that is automatically written off because of his issues, but equally don't want there to be a sudden radical change in how he has to learn or think.

I think what is fuelling this for me is a slight feeling that kids with SEN aren't expected to do well at school despite intelligence & I suppose it feels like an another battle to fight.

I do appreciate opinions, even if it is to say 'calm down'!

Of course kids with SEN can do well at school! My DD still gets 'average' (at highly academic school - see above) despite only having been there 50% of the time so far this school year, 85% total in year 7 (lots of days off due to her complex health issues at the moment.)

If child is bright and happy at school they will fulfill their potential IMHO. So yes, 'calm down', lol. You have plenty of time to choose.

MM Xx

Hi, just read your post with interest as I have just posted about my 10yo ds who i think is dyspraxic. However he is academically bright and he passed his 11 plus with flying colours. There were parts of the test he found tricky as he struggles with spatial awareness. There were a few things we had to help him with in a bit of an unusual way- for example we drew a bit chalk grid on our drive for him to walk round to help him with questions that involved directions etc.

He hasn't had any formal diagnosis but he struggles with lots of practical things and is very sensitive to texture (clothes and food) so may have some issues similar to your son.

We did all find the 11plus experience quite stressful but he is definitley going to the right school. He comes across as quite quirky and I think he'll fit in much better in a more academic environment. We did help him prepare for the exam quite a lot but I think you need to because they have never done anything like it before. The school didn't have much input really and I think it depends on teachers individual opinions. His yr4 teacher said he should definitely sit the 11plus but in year 5 his teacher wasn't so keen, but I think politically she objected to the whole system. It was hard to know what to do without any real guidance from school.

So I would say get a few of the Bond 11plus books from WH Smiths for your sons age range and see how he does in them. Our ds took a while to get the hang of them but once he did we could tell from his marks that he had a reasonably good chance of passing.

However, if he hadn't passed I don't think I'd be giving that advice! He did work hard for it and if he had failed I would have felt utterly terrible about it! I think you do need to decide in advance that you're prepared for them to have to deal with all the feelings that will come up if they don't pass. We tried to keep it low key and didn't tell ds when the results were coming out but unfortunately you can't control the inevitable playground chatter!

Good luck!