when to start tutoring / working for grammar 11+?

[MrPickles73]

DS is in year 5. He is bright but no genius, competitive but lazy. He is top quartile in non selective school.

We can apply for the grammar school near us which has 4-5 applicants per place.

So the question is how far in advance should we start working / tutoring him for this? And how many hours per week?

I started with DD1 in February of year 5 but only because it took me time to find a good tutor.

DD2 started September of year 5.

DD1 did an hour tutoring a week plus homework set for it so probably another hour.

DD2 had 45mins twice a week plus homework (again around an hour or so extra).

Both kids got places where we wanted. DD2 did much better though.

Oh god, it's overwhelming isn't it.
We are in a more competitive area (10+ students per place last year!!!!) and we started in year 4 spring (after Feb half term), mainly to see if it was worth putting DD in for the exam. I'm glad we started when we did as finding a good tutor was really hard work!! We went through 4 different companies/individuals, but we found a really really great one (online) just before the summer holidays and it's been a godsend. I can pass on their details as I found there was a lot of 'gatekeeping' around good tutors where we live so I'm always happy to pass on a recommendation. Just send me a DM :)

The tutor we found is specific to the 11+ only and does not take students before October year 5. They do group sessions online (8 kids). A couple of the kids in the group go to private schools and also do work towards the 11+ there.

I've been told that the 11+ contains stuff they don't cover in state school until year 6/7.

There will be people who have been aiming towards certain schools for many years and doing tuition throughout primary but if you just want to make sure that they know the right stuff and what to expect then I would say now.

It's not the same in all areas. We don't have super selective in our borough but some people apply out of borough. I know of some kids who do 11+ in more than one borough and tests for specific schools.

We've been told the difference between our 11+ and the neighbouring borough is time. There isn't much time for each question and even the high scorers come out worried as they haven't finished.