Needs advice please .....

[Faiqamir]

Hi
My daughter would be taking exam next year ....I need tips from parents of successful students regarding books , materials or any tuition academy they can suggest .
Regards

[eastern]

My advice get your child decent school in your catchment.
For a child go through an 11+ and compete with hundreds for small number of places is not right and pressures they go through.

The child could be bright doing very well at school and then an 11+ can have effect on them if they were unable get a place.

Number applying going up every year and thousands spent on tuition fees with all these tuition centre creaming it as they know what odds are kids getting in

Redbridge has excellent array of schools in area Beal/Seven Kings

Sats year 6 far more of importance

[ToadMum]

My advice get your child decent school in your catchment.
For a child go through an 11+ and compete with hundreds for small number of places is not right and pressures they go through.

The child could be bright doing very well at school and then an 11+ can have effect on them if they were unable get a place.

Number applying going up every year and thousands spent on tuition fees with all these tuition centre creaming it as they know what odds are kids getting in

Redbridge has excellent array of schools in area Beal/Seven Kings

Sats year 6 far more of importance

I hesitate to ask, but since your last post was to offer for sale all the books you had bought yourself for 11+ prep

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 59#p422759

are we to conclude, from your response to Faiqamir's post, that they weren't actually any use?

[ninanina]

The 11+ journey is not easy, the odds are against the children, it is not enough to be good at school, in the top table in the class, you should know that before you decide to go ahead (as some parents naively bełieve it is not that hard if their child is 'good' at school) but every child has a chance and a right to try. If your child is bright and willing to work hard, and has the right guidance as to what and how to learn (from a parent or the right tutor, very important in my opinion!) then they have a chance, so why deny it to them?

Well, you can go the easy way and save yourself the hassle and send them to a local school. If they are willing to study, they should do well whichever school they go to. But... there is no denying that if your child manages to secure a place in grammar school, they will have a head start. There are lots of disillusioned parents whose children failed despite working hard towards the exam, and these parents might advise you from their experience not to go through what they had been through. But had they got another chance, may be they would have tried even harder and pushed their kids even more. So do what you think is right.

Sending your child to tuition and studying hard for one year will not harm them. It might empty your pocket a bit, but money comes and goes, and skills and knowledge stay for the future.

[Bananas]

My daughter tried this year, she is consistently top of her year in state primary and I went to Cambridge so she should be bright enough in theory. She was not keen and got her to do an hour a week from May at Explore Learning in Woodford. She came rank 296 and last year last place was 240 in March, around 260 in September so although her score would have got her there in March last year as applications up 18% this year plus she didn't put enough effort in she's probably out of it. Only hope is 18% increase is out of area and so can be taken off but some has to be population rise. This was first full out of area year and admissions told me applications for Woodford were lower than expected given the 18 percent increase and similar to last year's levels.

I would say look round all your options and if you decide to go for Woodford do it more seriously than we did. Don't think the lessons did her any harm but they aren't fun. Would imagine she would get same grades at either but Woodfords intake is nicer and more academic. Having said that single sex is not ideal when you have one of each and the schools are so far apart. Three of her friends who are also very bright would not apply to Woodford out of choice which made it difficult to persuade her as at 10 you want to be with friends which she now will be. Personally I prefer Woodford but I'm not the one going and ironically in the end she wanted to go there but only after the test.

Explore Learning is OK but people who run it are on minimum wage and you get what you pay for.