Trying to get son ready for Sept 14 11plus. Help needed....

Eleven Plus (11+) in Kent

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nickb23
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri May 02, 2014 9:38 am

Trying to get son ready for Sept 14 11plus. Help needed....

Post by nickb23 »

Hi All,
We have moved to Maidstone recently, and for the last 12 monhs we have had a tutor to prepare our son for the 11plus. We had also been doing the bond books etc at home, but with Homework, Tutor Homework, Bond Tests etc, I really feel that we were running the boy ragged....

For the last month since we have moved, we have pretty much stopped with the tutoring. He has started a new Primary School which he loves, but now we need to get back into the swing of things.

As we have moved into the Kent Grammer Heartland, is there an abundance of 11+ tutors and tutoring groups? Can anyone recommend one???

Also as he is going to be the first year of the new test, what have you guys done to help prepare your children? I think I read somewhere that we hopefully find out about the new test this weekend. Is that true??

Any help would be greatly appreciated... I just want to make sure that we are doing the right thing.....

Nick
scarlett
Posts: 3664
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:22 am

Re: Trying to get son ready for Sept 14 11plus. Help needed.

Post by scarlett »

Hi Nick..welcome to Kent ! My dd is also taking the new test in September and I already have 2 boys at Maidstone Grammar. I tutored all of mine so am not sure about tutoring groups etc. I would have thought they might all be booked up , but I do notice adverts for 11 plus tutoring in local magazines/ newspapers , so you might find something. If you have the time , maybe you might be able to pick up where the tutor has left off ? I can't really take all the credit for my boys , as I had an awful lot of help from this brilliant forum.

I am working through Bond 10-11 VR, NVR, maths and English and also using some slightly different books for variety. With my boys I just used Bond and then the GL Assessment papers. I'm just making sure dd knows all the maths topics inside out ..is up to speed with her mental maths and then the same really with the different types of VR and NVR. Not really sure about the English component , as we haven't had that before.

I guess you just need to work out a plan for the week , so your son knows what to expect and doesn't feel the work is constantly being sprung on him. My younger son was a nightmare getting on with it all and I had to stick to certain days and even though I was desperate to suddenly say " Oh you only got 20 % on that test...let's do 10 more ! " I had to really rein myself in ! If you want any more info or wondering about schools.. do feel free to pm me.
nickb23
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri May 02, 2014 9:38 am

Re: Trying to get son ready for Sept 14 11plus. Help needed.

Post by nickb23 »

Thanks Scarlett,

What are all the maths topics we should be covering? His tutor before had never had much experience with the Kent test so was not too sure what to teach.
Thanks.

Nick
scarlett
Posts: 3664
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:22 am

Re: Trying to get son ready for Sept 14 11plus. Help needed.

Post by scarlett »

Well, with all 3 of mine I used a few 11 plus maths books ( Bond, CGP, Letts ) which is split into topics, like the national curriculum , I suppose. So, just made sure they could do percentages, ratio , fractions, area and so on . We just worked through from beginning to end and then practised the weak bits. Not sure if that's right but the boys did well in the maths test so I'm sticking with it for dd ! Word problems is a biggy ..they come up frequently and children find them difficult. Of course, it could all be completely different this Sept..but I'm thinking that maths is maths.
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