Profile of the Eleven Plus Parent
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Profile of the Eleven Plus Parent
The Eleven Plus Exams Parent Survey, launched 30th March 2005, has begun to reveal the profile of the ‘typical’ 11plus parent, having canvassed over just over 1,000 parents who voluntarily completed the questionnaire from the link on the home page of this website (also at the foot of this box).
The early indications are:
The typical eleven plus parent is likely to apply for both grammar and independent schools, but unlikely to apply to independent schools only. The factors our 11plus parent would consider most highly are national school performance league tables and proximity of the school to their residence when selecting their schools.
Our typical parent is in favour of having a national standardised eleven plus exam across the UK i.e. the same subjects, exam dates etc; furthermore he/she does not think that the grammar school system should be abolished, hardly a surprise given either they or their spouse attended a grammar school. They prefer to apply to schools within the catchment area.
The 11plus parent begins preparing for the exams between 9 months and a year in advance of the first exam, engages a tutor at between £20-30 an hour, and believes that this will significantly enhance their chances of success, spending under £500 for the preparation (presumably excluding the costs of the tutor, though 8% would spend greater than £5,000).
The 11plus parent is unlikely to send their child to an intensive one week eleven plus preparation course, and thinks that the children from a preparatory school have an enormous advantage over those from a state system when attempting the eleven plus exam.
The 11plus parent who has failed to get the older sibling into grammar school is very unlikely to try with subsequent children.
The typical parent feels that the chances of their offspring getting into a grammar school is greater than 60%, and oddly only greater than 50% if applying to a senior independent school.
He/she would vote Conservative at the next election if the only issue was education, believing that they have the most credible education policy.
If you want to cast your votes please click on:
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/surveys/vote.php
These are the conclusions at the end of the second week.
We will keep you updated as our the profile evolves.
The early indications are:
The typical eleven plus parent is likely to apply for both grammar and independent schools, but unlikely to apply to independent schools only. The factors our 11plus parent would consider most highly are national school performance league tables and proximity of the school to their residence when selecting their schools.
Our typical parent is in favour of having a national standardised eleven plus exam across the UK i.e. the same subjects, exam dates etc; furthermore he/she does not think that the grammar school system should be abolished, hardly a surprise given either they or their spouse attended a grammar school. They prefer to apply to schools within the catchment area.
The 11plus parent begins preparing for the exams between 9 months and a year in advance of the first exam, engages a tutor at between £20-30 an hour, and believes that this will significantly enhance their chances of success, spending under £500 for the preparation (presumably excluding the costs of the tutor, though 8% would spend greater than £5,000).
The 11plus parent is unlikely to send their child to an intensive one week eleven plus preparation course, and thinks that the children from a preparatory school have an enormous advantage over those from a state system when attempting the eleven plus exam.
The 11plus parent who has failed to get the older sibling into grammar school is very unlikely to try with subsequent children.
The typical parent feels that the chances of their offspring getting into a grammar school is greater than 60%, and oddly only greater than 50% if applying to a senior independent school.
He/she would vote Conservative at the next election if the only issue was education, believing that they have the most credible education policy.
If you want to cast your votes please click on:
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/surveys/vote.php
These are the conclusions at the end of the second week.
We will keep you updated as our the profile evolves.
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Guest
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Guest
After reading through the other posts I do not agree with you at all, what you WILL find is a group of parents trying to get the best possible education for their child.
I vote Labour and don't really like the 11+ system, but as we have it here in Bucks I have to use it to my advantage. Why would I send my daughter to a very low achieving upper school when I could send her to a grammer which gets great results? Whatever your political leanings it is not worth sacrificing your child's education for.
Diane
I vote Labour and don't really like the 11+ system, but as we have it here in Bucks I have to use it to my advantage. Why would I send my daughter to a very low achieving upper school when I could send her to a grammer which gets great results? Whatever your political leanings it is not worth sacrificing your child's education for.
Diane
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K
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Guest
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I voted Labour once
To the disgruntled Guest,
Pray tell, what is your recipe for a better state school? Also what sort of questions would you use in your survey.
All we can say is that education is in a real-state! Looking closely at the latest Blair-Kelly proposals it's 11-plus (ultimately) by the back door. Essentially every child will sit the eleven plus exams starting in 2007, most likely in non verbal reasoning rumoured to be set by Durham University so no one can be tutored - they claim they have such a test!
The children will then according to their abilities will be classified in one of eight ability sets. Every state school will then have to pick a quota from each ability set. These kids will then be automatically "setted" based on these scores from day one in each school. Thus we will be saying at the age of 11 to every single child in this country that they either are able and destined for greater things or doomed!
Furthermore additional tests will then be held each year so the most gifted each school can be "hot-housed" at weekends and school holidays by University lecturers. If you ask me Blair is driving business to the private sector, where he was educated, since an entire state educated generation will be messed around while the dust tries to settle in these mindless proposals. I cannot see how anyone can trust the pontificating Mr. "WMD" Blair, who always seems to think he knows better than even the experts. His only legacy will be an illegal war not an improved education system.
I personally found this survey and indeed many other threads on this site quite useful in that whilst not every parent agees with the 11-plus atleast every parent has a sense of what the typical parent thinks and prepares for it. If anything it is plain that every parent who is subjected to the eleven plus willingly or otherwise would like to see a transparent standard national examination in much the same way as the key stage exams are held. Until that happens there are several tutors who have contributed regularly to the forum enlightening and allaying the fears of many, my thanks to them.
Going back to the disgruntled guest, is your child sitting the eleven plus exams or are you just a labour activist?
Pray tell, what is your recipe for a better state school? Also what sort of questions would you use in your survey.
All we can say is that education is in a real-state! Looking closely at the latest Blair-Kelly proposals it's 11-plus (ultimately) by the back door. Essentially every child will sit the eleven plus exams starting in 2007, most likely in non verbal reasoning rumoured to be set by Durham University so no one can be tutored - they claim they have such a test!
The children will then according to their abilities will be classified in one of eight ability sets. Every state school will then have to pick a quota from each ability set. These kids will then be automatically "setted" based on these scores from day one in each school. Thus we will be saying at the age of 11 to every single child in this country that they either are able and destined for greater things or doomed!
Furthermore additional tests will then be held each year so the most gifted each school can be "hot-housed" at weekends and school holidays by University lecturers. If you ask me Blair is driving business to the private sector, where he was educated, since an entire state educated generation will be messed around while the dust tries to settle in these mindless proposals. I cannot see how anyone can trust the pontificating Mr. "WMD" Blair, who always seems to think he knows better than even the experts. His only legacy will be an illegal war not an improved education system.
I personally found this survey and indeed many other threads on this site quite useful in that whilst not every parent agees with the 11-plus atleast every parent has a sense of what the typical parent thinks and prepares for it. If anything it is plain that every parent who is subjected to the eleven plus willingly or otherwise would like to see a transparent standard national examination in much the same way as the key stage exams are held. Until that happens there are several tutors who have contributed regularly to the forum enlightening and allaying the fears of many, my thanks to them.
Going back to the disgruntled guest, is your child sitting the eleven plus exams or are you just a labour activist?
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Guest
To the "1 time" labour voter - Hold your horses! Allow them a drink for goodness sake!
MY general comments were in respect to the survey results as reported in the 1st posting. I was not attacking this helpful website or indeed the difficult plight of parents who like myself simply want the best for their children.
Listen, you don’t need to conduct a time/money wasting survey to find out what makes a good school. There’s no secret ingredient. I’ve yet to encounter a thriving school that doesn’t have a passionate and determined head at the helm. Let’s throw into the bowl a clearly defined and enforceable “no nonsense” discipline and sanctions policy. For good measure let’s add an ethos that is actually practised. I copied the following from another posting on this site except I’ve replaced the word “independent” with “STATE”.
"There is an absolute driver going throughout the STATE system that no child can be allowed to fail and you have to find all the different ways in which a child can succeed"
Would anyone else like to add to the mixture?
I think I’ll leave the political rantings to you. You can canter off now!
MY general comments were in respect to the survey results as reported in the 1st posting. I was not attacking this helpful website or indeed the difficult plight of parents who like myself simply want the best for their children.
Listen, you don’t need to conduct a time/money wasting survey to find out what makes a good school. There’s no secret ingredient. I’ve yet to encounter a thriving school that doesn’t have a passionate and determined head at the helm. Let’s throw into the bowl a clearly defined and enforceable “no nonsense” discipline and sanctions policy. For good measure let’s add an ethos that is actually practised. I copied the following from another posting on this site except I’ve replaced the word “independent” with “STATE”.
"There is an absolute driver going throughout the STATE system that no child can be allowed to fail and you have to find all the different ways in which a child can succeed"
Would anyone else like to add to the mixture?
I think I’ll leave the political rantings to you. You can canter off now!
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Annabel
11+ Parents
Instead of discussions about whether independent schools are at an advantage over state schools, we should be discussing implementing an exam thats results are not dependant on the ability to pay for private tutoring or whether the local independant school is dropping the so called non important subjects to concentrate on verbal reasoning training. The state system carries out NFER tests on each child and the local LEA states that anyone with a score of above 118 is suitable for a grammer school education. If this test was delivered in a way that every child had a level playing field then we would have a system that would benefit everyone. In one local grammer school, a child gained a place with a KS2 science level of 3, clearly being tutored to death was effective in acheiving the parents short term goals for their child. Unfortunately the longer term goal of educational fulfilment were not met either for this particular child or the child who had to forsake their place due to lack of hothousing.
