How much preparation work is realistic at this stage?
Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:45 am
I am really struggling with getting the balance right and would be interested in some opinions.
Dd is 10 and we are applying to Watford Grammar, Parmiters, JFS, St Helen's, St Albans Girls and Habs. Not that keen on Habs but we're having a go anyway - our favourites are St Helen's and Watford Grammar.
Dd is bright but a bit lazy. She has a very nice tutor who's been coming for just over a year and sets her papers. She's finding the whole preparation thing a real pain as she's not keen to put the work in. As a parent I want to prepare and support her as much as possible without pressurising her or interfering with her out of school activities which are important to her.
In the last few months the tutor has been setting her 2 Athey papers per week - one Maths and one VR. Manageable I think even with school homework to do. However after buying some GL assessment papers which are the closest to the Watford Grammar/Parmiters papers, I'm worried about how hard they are!
So I suppose I'm asking how many papers of which she should be doing now with only 5 weeks to go till the Watford exam? I was at the Habs open day last week and the head said in her speech not to tutor your child or get them to do papers or they will burn out before the exam. But surely there can't be many parents out there who are doing nothing in terms of preparation?
And is anyone else finding these GL assesment papers harder than private school exams? Some of the questions dd hasn't even covered yet, eg algebra. How well do they have to do in the test to have a chance of a place?
Dd is 10 and we are applying to Watford Grammar, Parmiters, JFS, St Helen's, St Albans Girls and Habs. Not that keen on Habs but we're having a go anyway - our favourites are St Helen's and Watford Grammar.
Dd is bright but a bit lazy. She has a very nice tutor who's been coming for just over a year and sets her papers. She's finding the whole preparation thing a real pain as she's not keen to put the work in. As a parent I want to prepare and support her as much as possible without pressurising her or interfering with her out of school activities which are important to her.
In the last few months the tutor has been setting her 2 Athey papers per week - one Maths and one VR. Manageable I think even with school homework to do. However after buying some GL assessment papers which are the closest to the Watford Grammar/Parmiters papers, I'm worried about how hard they are!
So I suppose I'm asking how many papers of which she should be doing now with only 5 weeks to go till the Watford exam? I was at the Habs open day last week and the head said in her speech not to tutor your child or get them to do papers or they will burn out before the exam. But surely there can't be many parents out there who are doing nothing in terms of preparation?
And is anyone else finding these GL assesment papers harder than private school exams? Some of the questions dd hasn't even covered yet, eg algebra. How well do they have to do in the test to have a chance of a place?