Summer holidays or hard work?

mousaka · Post by **mousaka** » Mon May 21, 2007 1:14 pm

My only problem is that my son is spending his holiday with granparents (who do not speak English ) in Poland at the seaside. We are going to join them only for two weeks. I am not quite sure wether he will be disciplined enough to do tests when we are not there.

Appeal Mum · Post by **Appeal Mum** » Mon May 21, 2007 1:39 pm

Overall I think 1.5 hours a day is not a big deal.

Wow, I think 1.5 hours a day, be it summer or term time is a big deal!

I'm shocked at the amount of tutoring going on.
I classed my child as "tutored" as we did 1 hour a week for 6 months (not including holidays) with a tutor because I didn't feel able enough to teach her.

I had no idea pupils were being tutored to such an extent.

Makes me think seriously about child no 2.

AM

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon May 21, 2007 1:52 pm

I agree with Appeal Mum. My daughter has a place at Latymer and we did an hour a day for two weeks. Please don't panic, if your child is able he/she really won't need any more than a little familiarisation.

mousaka · Post by **mousaka** » Mon May 21, 2007 2:17 pm

I think it really depends where you live. In North London we are talking of about 10 children per place (in some schools like DAO-13 this year) .
As a reesult competition is really fierce.
Besides I found out that lots of maths questions appearing in tests are not being covered in schools. My son attends good catholic school in N. London(usually on top or close to the top of league table in borough) but I have a feeling that, if not for me and now me and the tutor, his maths level would be close to what it was 2 yrs ago.
There might be exceptionally able kids, but I think quite intensive tutoring is needed in order to fill in the gaps in children's knowledge.
Also able children are not being stretched in schools and rewards usually go to academically weak children to make them feel good (and to make other kids feel bad and make them realise how unjust the world is).

HP · Post by HP » Mon May 21, 2007 2:53 pm

Hi Mousaka,

We worked throught the summer before our test papers which were in the November, primary school just hadn't covered enough of the maths to give her a good chance of passing, hadn't even completed KS2 syllabus . Dd left Year 5 at level 4a in Maths and was assessed at start of Yr 6 as level 5b. Had first 3 weeks of the summer off and spent 3 weeks studying for maths and VR papers.

Some might think his excessive but in view of fact the school she attained a place is most oversubscribed in Herts, I think it was worth it....funnily enought so did my daughter!!!!!!

Have to bear in mind that some of the children competing for places had been tutored from Year 3, so for us it was a catching up excercise. Incidentally first NFER practise maths paper completed score low 70's% after tutoring mid 90's% (apologies after all this time can't remember the exact figures...do remember that dd nearly gave up after first paper

)

Hope this helps

HP

sj355 · Post by **sj355** » Mon May 21, 2007 3:16 pm

Wow, I think 1.5 hours a day, be it summer or term time is a big deal!

Appeal Mum,

Homework at a grammar (well at least the ones in North London ) does take around 1-1.5 hour a day and this is term time. How will your kid deal with this if 1.5 hours in the summer is a big deal?

Regards,

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:40 pm

A child in year 5 is only 9 - 10 years old, there's a good 18 months between this year's summer hols and starting secondary school. Plenty of time to mature and be capable of hw at a grammar. Able children who would flourish at a grammar would need just a little familarisation, so why not allow these children to remain carefree for as long as possible?

sj355 · Post by **sj355** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:56 pm

Anonymous wrote:A child in year 5 is only 9 - 10 years old, there's a good 18 months between this year's summer hols and starting secondary school. Plenty of time to mature and be capable of hw at a grammar. Able children who would flourish at a grammar would need just a little familarisation, so why not allow these children to remain carefree for as long as possible?

I hope you are right! Mine however coped with no problem at all and rather enjoyed himself. He did the test and then waited for me to correct and discuss. Later, he would take the answers and correct it himself as he was fed up waiting for me to wake up from my siesta! I was only left with going over the the mistakes with him. Towards the end of the summer they were hardly any mistakes. And he had a fantastic summer (swimming morning and afternoon, out with his friends at night until 11:30 )! In that sense this process did make him more mature as he was working increasingly in a more independent way.

guest115 · Post by **guest115** » Mon May 21, 2007 5:43 pm

I completely agree with you sj355.the summer holidays is to give chidren a break and let them hang out with mates.nevertheless they should some revision for next year so that they don't fall completely behind

regards

SJ · Post by SJ » Mon May 21, 2007 6:26 pm

Obviously the area that you are applying to has a significant impact on this question.

Personally we had to do NVR/VR/MATHS & ENGLISH, but the Maths and English were only reviewed if you were a border line case. Consequently we only worked on VR nad NVR, 1 hour a week during May, June and July and only approx 3 housr in total during the summer holidays. He passed with a VERY GOOD score and although I began to panic at the end of August that we had not sone enough during the summer holidays and he would forget all the techniques etc, he proved me wrong... so it is also down to how your child copesand what is best for them. I decided to let him chill during the summer, not being convinced that he would pass, but being sure that he needed to chill.

By the way his exams were 9.9.06 and 16.9.06, therefore literally just after the summer hols