daughter's attitude to 11+
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 12:14 pm
I have been trying to prepare my 9 yr old dd for the 11+ in September and am just now having a wobble about the whole thing because of her attitude.
We have mainly concentrated on maths because she finds NVR very easy and it is only her vocabulary that limits her VR. The "outstanding" school say her maths is outstanding, but yet she has not covered a lot of the topics so I have had to teach her, though she seems to conceptually "get it" without too much problem.
However, when I get her to do tests on her own, she sits there sighing and does not even attempt half of it, says she "can't be bothered" to finish it. She shows no enthusiasm at all for any of it, it is a chore.
We are outside the GS local authority (but within catchment), so the other kids will be going to the local comprehensive. She seems to have bought into the benefits of the GS, as she has complained for a number of years about school work not being challenging enough and the disruptive boys and the GS is also very good for sport which she loves. However, she is quite a shy and sensitive child and sometimes she cries already about "never seeing my friends again" and is anxious about sitting exams. She also seems to resent having to do the work (we only do 1/2 hr to an hour a week) and doesn't want a tutor "because they'd give me more work than you do". (To be fair, she utterly resents doing homework as well!)
I just find her attitude depressing and wonder if it is all worth the effort. I have to admit my personal interest as I went to a dreadful huge comprehensive where I was often bored and the behaviour was appalling, creating an atmosphere I hated to be in. This local comp may be different - I just want her to be happy, and I feel this is more likely in the smaller, more academic girls' school.
I just wonder if it is worth expending all this effort if she can't really be bothered, whether it would improve if we got a tutor as she works hard at school, to dream up some incentive scheme or something, or whether anxiety about the future is the problem and we need to somehow work on that..?
We have mainly concentrated on maths because she finds NVR very easy and it is only her vocabulary that limits her VR. The "outstanding" school say her maths is outstanding, but yet she has not covered a lot of the topics so I have had to teach her, though she seems to conceptually "get it" without too much problem.
However, when I get her to do tests on her own, she sits there sighing and does not even attempt half of it, says she "can't be bothered" to finish it. She shows no enthusiasm at all for any of it, it is a chore.
We are outside the GS local authority (but within catchment), so the other kids will be going to the local comprehensive. She seems to have bought into the benefits of the GS, as she has complained for a number of years about school work not being challenging enough and the disruptive boys and the GS is also very good for sport which she loves. However, she is quite a shy and sensitive child and sometimes she cries already about "never seeing my friends again" and is anxious about sitting exams. She also seems to resent having to do the work (we only do 1/2 hr to an hour a week) and doesn't want a tutor "because they'd give me more work than you do". (To be fair, she utterly resents doing homework as well!)
I just find her attitude depressing and wonder if it is all worth the effort. I have to admit my personal interest as I went to a dreadful huge comprehensive where I was often bored and the behaviour was appalling, creating an atmosphere I hated to be in. This local comp may be different - I just want her to be happy, and I feel this is more likely in the smaller, more academic girls' school.
I just wonder if it is worth expending all this effort if she can't really be bothered, whether it would improve if we got a tutor as she works hard at school, to dream up some incentive scheme or something, or whether anxiety about the future is the problem and we need to somehow work on that..?