Help for newbie
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Re: Help for newbie
Just thought I'd add although its been said many times before, lots of reading too! You reading to her, dd reading to you. Exploring the vocab together. It's the one thing I wished I'd picked up on sooner. My dd loves reading (always got her head in a book) and I must admit I used to leave her to it, then I realised there was a lot of vocab she would just read past in context but didn't really understand in isolation.
Re: Help for newbie
Hello newbies:
I thought I'd give you some feedback & backstory for little fish - who scored 213 (close but no cigar!)
school: very ordinary state school. No support/ encouragement regarding 11+. In last 6 years KS2 Sats have been all over the shop (62% low to 78% high) - but basically very few achieve NC L5 and NC L6 was very rare (basically a very bright boy who learned math at home on-line & a girl who transfered in Y6 from another part of England).
little fish KS1 SATs: NC L1A Maths/ NC L2c reading - dire basically and from this point I got heavily involved from summer between Y2 - Y3 in supporting reading/ maths at home. To be fair to the school in Year 4 (after my repeatedly requesting it) little fish was put into an accelerated reading programme - which did help a lot.
MOCKS: We didn't opt to take a mock at a test centre or take an exam outside of birmingham. One was enough. But we did purchase Letts/ NEFR - GL-Assessment/ Bond mock exams. I realised at some point that the score was a combination of English/ VR/ NVR & Maths and notionally would total 280 - so basically I would take the percentage for each test and multiply it by 70, then add them all together. Little fish fairly consistently scored between 210 - 220 (we had a few great days when 230s were scored, but only 2 of 9 attempts) - so frankly this 'method' has been an excellent predictor for her ultimate score. I don't know if it will work for everybody - but while you are practicing it may be a useful rough gauge to how your own little fishes are doing.
Result in context: Yesterday at school little fish and I found out other children's results. Our first shock was that in fact 12 pupils took the 11 plus out of her class of 30. The next shock was that many had tutors. Low score was 154 and high score was 236. Little fish had the 4th highest score of the cohort taking the 11+ from this school.
Hindsight: All the way through KS1 we were concerned about little fish's slow progress but loath to cause problems/ complain. The usual conversation at parent/ teacher meetings would be 'We're worried that little fish can't read/ add/ subtract' and the Teacher would reply that things will swiftly improve next year, when work would be more rigorous. We believed it for about 2 years but once we had the disastrous KS1 results we knew there was a problem and started doing a lot more at home.
Our school has an issue with homework. It's erratic - usually none in first month of term, never any over half-term or longer holidays. It's just photocopies of workbooks for maths and spelling lists, although they have recently made it about word 'investigation' - so now challenging pupils to find words ending -tion/ -cean/ -cian/ -sion (but no guidance on how many - so most students stop at 2-3 words).
I already have been doing more with little fish the 2nd who will sit the exam in 2015 (?still Sept then) - all the way through from KS1 she has had more support with reading and maths and is doing better at this point in school (now Y4) than little fish (the elder).
I think the only thing I will do is start to introduce more 'proper fiction'/ 'children's classics' this year to little fish the 2nd.
Review of experience: For us the goal has always been that little fish leaves primary with sound skills in the 3Rs (yes very old fashioned) - but I believe the extra work we've been doing in reading/ maths since start KS2 and the 11+ preparations have really helped ensure that this is possible for little fish. We really do feel that she will go on to do well on her SATs, we know the school will be putting her forward for L6 SATs in at least maths, and will hopefully be a high flyer in her state senior school.
Our new goal: For those who don't succeed (and there are many more or you in this group than those who succeed) - do bear in mind that you can transfter to a KE Grammar school for sixth form. We've decided to encourage little fish to aim for this once she starts senior school. She might not get there - but we feel aiming for such a high target at GCSE (or whatever it is by then) is no bad thing.
Good luck to all of you newly embarking on this
I thought I'd give you some feedback & backstory for little fish - who scored 213 (close but no cigar!)
school: very ordinary state school. No support/ encouragement regarding 11+. In last 6 years KS2 Sats have been all over the shop (62% low to 78% high) - but basically very few achieve NC L5 and NC L6 was very rare (basically a very bright boy who learned math at home on-line & a girl who transfered in Y6 from another part of England).
little fish KS1 SATs: NC L1A Maths/ NC L2c reading - dire basically and from this point I got heavily involved from summer between Y2 - Y3 in supporting reading/ maths at home. To be fair to the school in Year 4 (after my repeatedly requesting it) little fish was put into an accelerated reading programme - which did help a lot.
MOCKS: We didn't opt to take a mock at a test centre or take an exam outside of birmingham. One was enough. But we did purchase Letts/ NEFR - GL-Assessment/ Bond mock exams. I realised at some point that the score was a combination of English/ VR/ NVR & Maths and notionally would total 280 - so basically I would take the percentage for each test and multiply it by 70, then add them all together. Little fish fairly consistently scored between 210 - 220 (we had a few great days when 230s were scored, but only 2 of 9 attempts) - so frankly this 'method' has been an excellent predictor for her ultimate score. I don't know if it will work for everybody - but while you are practicing it may be a useful rough gauge to how your own little fishes are doing.
Result in context: Yesterday at school little fish and I found out other children's results. Our first shock was that in fact 12 pupils took the 11 plus out of her class of 30. The next shock was that many had tutors. Low score was 154 and high score was 236. Little fish had the 4th highest score of the cohort taking the 11+ from this school.
Hindsight: All the way through KS1 we were concerned about little fish's slow progress but loath to cause problems/ complain. The usual conversation at parent/ teacher meetings would be 'We're worried that little fish can't read/ add/ subtract' and the Teacher would reply that things will swiftly improve next year, when work would be more rigorous. We believed it for about 2 years but once we had the disastrous KS1 results we knew there was a problem and started doing a lot more at home.
Our school has an issue with homework. It's erratic - usually none in first month of term, never any over half-term or longer holidays. It's just photocopies of workbooks for maths and spelling lists, although they have recently made it about word 'investigation' - so now challenging pupils to find words ending -tion/ -cean/ -cian/ -sion (but no guidance on how many - so most students stop at 2-3 words).
I already have been doing more with little fish the 2nd who will sit the exam in 2015 (?still Sept then) - all the way through from KS1 she has had more support with reading and maths and is doing better at this point in school (now Y4) than little fish (the elder).
I think the only thing I will do is start to introduce more 'proper fiction'/ 'children's classics' this year to little fish the 2nd.
Review of experience: For us the goal has always been that little fish leaves primary with sound skills in the 3Rs (yes very old fashioned) - but I believe the extra work we've been doing in reading/ maths since start KS2 and the 11+ preparations have really helped ensure that this is possible for little fish. We really do feel that she will go on to do well on her SATs, we know the school will be putting her forward for L6 SATs in at least maths, and will hopefully be a high flyer in her state senior school.
Our new goal: For those who don't succeed (and there are many more or you in this group than those who succeed) - do bear in mind that you can transfter to a KE Grammar school for sixth form. We've decided to encourage little fish to aim for this once she starts senior school. She might not get there - but we feel aiming for such a high target at GCSE (or whatever it is by then) is no bad thing.
Good luck to all of you newly embarking on this
