Have you ever heard yourself thinking this:

“But my child’s scores are all above average. Do they REALLY need tutoring to do well in the eleven plus?”

If that’s a question you’re asking now, or have asked yourself recently, read on to find what my response would be – even if you don’t like what I’ve suggested.

One of the biggest misconceptions I find is when parents compare ‘in-school rankings’ with ‘eleven plus potential’ and then believe, erroneously, that those good rankings will automatically translate into their child’s eleven plus test success.

The problem is this; simply put, it doesn’t work like that. And if that’s how you’re thinking right now, you’re probably setting your child up to fail in their 11+ tests.



Be careful what you read into their results

Yes, your child might be ‘performing ahead of expectations’, and perhaps they’re on the ‘Gifted and Talented’ register, and quite probably they’re always having their work put up on the school walls. That’s all great and to be commended.

But, and there’s always a but, those are all based upon the measurements the school sets, across all of that year’s children’s capabilities.

So, although your child might be scoring very well in whatever work or tests their school teachers are setting them, that’s going to be an in-year comparison.

By that I mean, if your son or daughter’s in year 5 and deemed to be performing well, that means they’re tracking along the (hopefully) upper end of what’s expected for a year 5 child, in that year, by that school’s definitions.

“Surely that’s great, isn’t it?” I hear you ask.

“Well, maybe,” is my response.

What happens when your child starts year 6 and, early in September (or later if sitting independent school tests) they’ll be expected to correctly answer eleven plus test questions chosen from anything up to the whole of year 6?

“Hold on a moment!” You say. “My child’s not even started that year. How can they be tested on what they’ve not studied? That’s not fair!”

Fair or not (and that’s an entirely different question) your child could be tested on work up to the end of year 6, which means during year 5 they should have been studying up to that level.

Most children are under-prepared for the 11+

Not doing that means they’re under-prepared.

That year 6 work won’t be covered by their school in year 5 (especially since most schools are challenged to cover all of year 5 in year 5, let alone anything extra).

And so the only way they can study that work, and understand it, is if they’ve already banked knowledge pertaining to year 5 in advance.

That year 5 knowledge needs to be worked through either early in year 5, or, as is often the case, commenced during year 4.

(Can you see where this is leading?)

And so as to ensure there’s enough ‘wiggle room’ in your child’s timetable, it’s best to have them commencing year 4 work around the end of year 3 (once year 3s been understood, of course).

This means the next time your child’s school report shows they’re performing at or above expectations, you need to ask yourself, ‘whose expectations?’ The government, who is simply looking to send your child, with a modicum of preparation, onto the local comprehensive, grammar school or independent school examiner, who is focused on rejecting all candidates who score below an extremely high threshold?

“So what should I do?”

Broadly speaking you’ve five (plus one) choices:

1. Give up

Give up and let your child go to whatever state school the system dictates, or speak to your private junior or prep school head to identify which school might be suited for your child, one which may not have as strict a test regime.

2. Trust the school

If you’re lucky enough to live in one of the few locations that kept their grammar schools following the educational genocide carried out by the Labour government in the mid-1970s, your child will have some preparation provided by their school.

But so will every child in their area, so that’s not really going to nudge them forward very much, is it?

3. Home tutoring

Every year thousands of parents do their best to prepare their children themselves. There’s a veritable feast of information, freely available, on the internet, papers, books, online tests, you name it and it’s there for you to use.

The big question is WILL YOU USE IT? Or, more accurately, Will You Use It Effectively?



4. Group tutoring

Both in their online or in-a-class guise, group tutoring can help children to pick up the necessary skills. The snag is, not all groups are the same. If they’re too large your child’s going to be lost in the melee.

What if they’re stuck? Are they ok putting their hand up to ask for extra help?

What if they’re a fast learner? Why pay to have them spinning their wheels whilst the rest catch up?



5. 1-to-1 tutoring

I’m biased because this is how my wife and I tutor, and I know of many other great 1-to-1 tutors too.

Those who do prefer this because it means we provide focused, and undivided attention on exactly what a student wants, when they need it, without having to juggle the attention spans of other students at the same time.



6. Independent school test tutoring

I’ve added this on as an extra category because every year we hear from parents whose 11+ grammar school tutor stopped tutoring their child once they’d sat their grammar school tests.

If you’re considering independent schools for your child, always ask whether your tutor will support them for this, because many tutors don’t or can’t. Better you know sooner rather than later.

Could you tutor your child to pass their eleven plus?

Maybe you’re still undecided, sitting on the fence as to whether you could help your child to pass their eleven plus.

Remember, there’s no ‘second chance.’

Those ‘late admissions’ you might have read about aren’t easy to access and the chances of your child securing a place that way, bearing in mind they would by then already have failed to get in after all of that prior preparation, makes the possibility even smaller.

You could have the unique abilities that are required to help your child to pass their eleven plus.

We’ve developed this short quiz to help identify your exam parent personality.



Take the quiz here -> https://bit.ly/whatsyoureepptype



Contact us

If you’d like to explore the possibility of online 1-to-1 tutoring for your child here’s a link to our contact form https://bit.ly/get-11-plus-fit .





Photo by Keren Fedida on Unsplash