Hi

Can some one guide me on what is covered in DA English exam and the best study resources for this. My DD is in year 4 and want to start preparing her for the DA entrance

Thanks

Hello Ajayboy, welcome to the forum and well done for planning ahead. I have made many posts on the DAO English paper so you can do a search of my posts. It is a comprehension paper with questions on a passage taken from English fiction where you write the answers on the paper. The final question asks the student to continue the story of the passage for 3 to 4 paragraphs. In my opinion it requires creative writing skills which may not have been covered by the end of Year Five. I work with students from several different schools, some of which have outstanding Ofsted reports. However some of the students have never heard of the terms I am using. Others have heard of them but do not seem to know how to apply them in a creative writing text. The best resources to us are the past papers from the school as in my opinion the DAO paper has a particular structure that is not reflected elsewhere. They can be obtained by post, at reception at the school or at the Open day on Thursday 19th July. Pm me if you would prefer. DG

Thank you very much so does Dame Alice school not have any grammer related questions at all ?. I have got the Bond book for 8 to 9 and 9 to 10 but that does not have ceative writing. The bond book has comprehension followed by general grammar related questions . Based on the school website and what you have suggested it does not look like practicing the Bond Assesment papers will be enough. I might need not only the practice papers but also model answers to get an idea on how to orient my daughter. I will check out the school website for their papers. Must admit looking at the statistics for past years hoping to get into the school not staying in spitting distance seems like a tough task.

Regards

No actual grammar questions but you will be expected to apply your knowledge of grammatical structure in the creative writing. Bond papers will certainly help you with comprehension skills but in my opinion you would be better off with Athey and Alpha and GL English papers now and then work towards the DAO and CSSE and the North London Consortium papers. Has your dd done much creative writing at school? DG

Thank you DG , I did get a feeling that Bond papers might not be enough when I reviewed DAO English paper format but with your input it's certain. Will look into other books as mentioned. The school only does occasional creative writing as part of syllabus as I have seen a couple homeworks come through but nothing serious.

What are the best resources for Maths and NVR ? Not sure if I should be investing in Bond books for these. My DD is weaker in Maths and VR so would need special focus.

I also need to set a target score she needs to achieve for me to feel confident that she is doing well. What test papers would be a good bench mark to judge her progress on.


Thanks for your help

Regards

There is no NVR, VR, get all the Athey papers, you can get them from the school at Open day, start with those, then GL, IPS, Alpha, then when you have mastered those move onto the Tutors, Bright Sparks, Walsh and Learning Labs, but these are harder, so get the confidence up before you tackle those. On maths it is just a KS2 paper, most marks are lost on careless mistakes. GL, Bond, IPS, Alpha to start and then use the school papers and Lattymer if you can get them. North London Consortium, then eventually Habs but not yet. Start with a target score in the 60's and then try and creep up from there. She wont be able to finish to start with so draw a line to where she got to in the time and get her to finish. Use a timer from the start, timing is the most important thing in VR, the questions are not hard, it is just a lot in the time. Right now get her to the open day and invested into the process. Did you go to the fete last sat? DG

Thanks DG

Did not got to the open day ..did not realise there was one.

Regards

The Open Day is this Thursday 19th July 2pm until 5pm. You will get a chance to see the classrooms and the work will be on display. The bands will be playing, some sport will be running, drama will be doing some sessions and there will be some hands on experiments. All current students are encouraged to come along and lend a hand. If you want your dc to want to go to DAO take them along. DG