Hi,

My DS is coming to the end of Year 4, so we are now starting to seriously consider where he would like to go to Secondary school. He is an able little chap and for some time now we have discussed the 11+ and the prospect of going to DHSB (we are in Plymouth). He is my first and only child so I have not been through the Secondary school process or the 11+ process before and would be really grateful for any advice, guidance or suggestions that can be offered.

I plan to employ a tutor as I feel he will respond better to being tutored by someone independent of the family, so any recommendations would be great.
Does anyone have a preference or opinions on whether the children are best tutored in small groups or individually? I realise this will differ between individual children, but I would be interested to hear any views you may have.

I was wondering too if there is any way to gauge the chance of getting a place based on practice or mock papers. I know that the school take the highest marked 174 boys, but is there any way of finding out what kind of score we need to be aiming for? Obvioulsy, the higher the better, but would, say, 70% sit us in the right area, or do we need to be achieving 90%+? Could I even ask the school this...or is that not the done thing?!

I am only at the beginning of this process and already its a little overwhelming! Thanks in advance for any help, support advice you can give. I am a single Mum and DS and I are doing this completely on our own so all your help and advice will be extremely gratefully received.

Thank you!

Hello,

Just noticed your post and thought i would share my recommendations with you.
My son is yr 6 now and sat the 11+ he qualified but is on the waiting list due to over-subscription. This is sooooo very disappointing as you can imagine. We are still in the process of appeal but to be honest we are resigned to the fact he will go to his second choice school in september.
My advice to you would be this:
Most definately get yourself child some tutoring as places are soo competitive, although i understand the test is changing this year so verbal reasoning is now not on the agenda!! I have never understood why they test them on things they dont learn at school.
The school will NOT tell you how he scored or where he was ranked, you just get a yes or no answer and phoning them makes no difference, they will not disclose any information.
Definately book a place for the mock exam as this is a great exercise to prepare them for the whole exam situation and you do get proper results that will show where he is ranked but bear in mind not all boys sit the mock.
Be prepared if he should not make it as it is bitterly disappointing for you and him, the whole process is so much pressure for an 11 year old.
we used a tutor but for just 4 weeks and cant recommend her enough so if you would like her details let me know and i will pass them on, she is based in Hartley and teaches a small group of say 5 boys at a time.
This really is one of the most difficult decisions to make on behalf of your precious one and i wish you all the luck.

I think I must have come to all this very late as my son is in Year 5 and we've only been studying for the last 2 and a half months. I used a tutor for 6 weeks of those but cannot afford further lessons. We went to the Open Day last night and I was the one who was overwhelmed as there were over 700 people there. Not sure if I am doing the right thing or not as it is a lot of pressure.
Not feeling very positive today
Wish you and your son well

Yes I know what you mean about feeling overwhelmed.
We too went to that open evening and it made my heart sink- but then the more and more we spoke to (or listened into conversations) we soon realised that there were Y4 pupils there and Y6 (already knowing they are starting in September- even knew their form tutor etc). SO they weren't all Y5 pupils and parents...not sure if that helps??!!

We could not afford to get our sons tutored (as we have two). We just hope and pray that their own attitude and hard work along with our support will get them through.

Good Luck

I did wonder why some of the boys looked so small!! Hmm, I wouldn't even have considered an open day in Y4, unfortunately my son is the youngest (Aug 27th) and is not even 10 yet so in Year 4 I think it would have terrified him!!
I don't think his tutor helped that much to be honest, the only thing we gained was the homework she set each week.
Good luck to you too!