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Help with planning

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 11:57 am
by sxa350
Dear all

I'm a newbie to the site. I have a son in yr 4, who lacks confidence with English but is other than that very able. Very good reader but will do the minimum for creative writing.

Does anyone have any tips on helping with planning for 11plus and boosting his English.

When should we start preparing and how many hours a week do we need to put in?

Re: Help with planning

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:58 pm
by Jazz-UK
Hi sxa, I'm not expert on English (far from it) but I'm sure some of the regulars will also contribute with a more structured reply, but here's a few tips from our experience.

There's various aspects to the English sections of the exams, verbal reasoning, spellings, similes, antonyms, synonyms, cloze, comprehension etc. and therefore you can tackle different aspects of this, along with building on your childs creative writing.

There's an excellent word list on this forum called the Patricia Word List - It's easier to find via Google than using the search on this website.
This is an excellent starting point for improving vocabulary, and my daughter said she found it useful.

With regards to when you should start preparing and how often, I'd say start now but just do little and often. Personally we used a tutor (but that's not necessary) and he gave 20 words a week, and expected the kids to know spellings, and sometimes antonyms and synonyms. Some weeks he would give the answers in a crossword fashion, giving the children a box with one or two letters filled in and giving them the meaning - Eg A dwelling [ ][ ][ ][ ][E]

Good luck

Re: Help with planning

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 7:18 pm
by sxa350
Thank you so much for your help. Have noted your sound advice!

Re: Help with planning

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 8:26 pm
by Turtlegirl
The AE Spelling and Vocabulary books (available in the shop on this site) have great vocab building exercises. But if he does lots of reading, he will learn good vocab that way too. The more books he reads, the better. Some of them may even spill out into creative writing at school, although remember there is no creative writing section in the CEM 11+.

Note that he doesn't have to read stories - joke books, fact books and magazines or newspapers (there's a great one just for kids available) are equally good.

Re: Help with planning

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 10:27 pm
by sxa350
Thank you Jazz uk. :)

Re: Help with planning

Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 11:46 pm
by Peridot
The children's newspaper we had a subscription for is called "First News", for ages approx 7-13. We've just stopped getting it now my DD is in year 8 as she doesn't really read it any more - but it was great. Stimulated a lot of conversation around the table too. There is also a magazine called "Aquila" although I think that may be aimed at slightly older children than year 4.

Re: Help with planning

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 10:52 am
by sxa350
Very useful. Thank you.

Re: Help with planning

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 3:32 pm
by um
Assuming you are looking for entry into a Bham grammar school, you need to consider the CEM type exam, and the CEM thread on this website may be very useful.

A rich vocabulary is key, and I would agree with the poster above that reading widely is a great idea - for many reasons, not just an 11 Plus pass :D .

There is no writing component in the grammar school examination.

There will a writing task (and traditional VR) in the Independent school examinations.

Re: Help with planning

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 10:34 am
by sxa350
Many thanks! Very helpful. :D