An Unexpected Journey

[Petitpois]

We are a couple of months into the 11+ journey with DD2 and it is weird. You find yourself kind of back to square one in many regards.

My relatives have successfully got multiple kids through, but any thoughts from others would be helpful.

I assume that its best not to compare and to try and assess each child on their own strengths. I think also that the new Gove curriculum is a contrast. Confidence levels and pastoral issues much more salient with DD2.

Just trying to formulate a game plan. Let me know your thoughts.

[guest201]

I have got my two through the process and I found the second more stressful because there was greater expectations, if you already have one child in grammar school then the second is expected to do as well, which in itself causes stress. I found it very useful to do the same prep with DS2 and compare the results he was getting compared to DD who did the test two years earlier. There are now so many new books for CEM prep, when my daughter did it two years ago there wasn't really anything CEM specific until the summer before the exam when the CGP CEM books came out. I found it to be a minefield so I stuck with what I knew had worked for DD. My two are very different DS is a reader DD isn't, so VR was much easier for DS. The prep was the same I noticed DS was getting slightly better marks in most of the assessment papers so barring any disasters on the day I was quietly confident. When the results came they were as preparation had indicated DS had done slightly better than DD in all areas, she had achieved top 30 ranking he achieved top 20. What I am saying is, it is good to compare you can use your experience with the first child to see if second is on track.

[Tolstoy]

I agree with Guest201 but I would say just because DC2 is performing better don't become complacent. My first DCs did 11+ (not CEM) and DC2 significantly out performed DC1 on every single practice test right up until the one that mattered

[MSD]

Hi PP - As you know we went through the same process with both our boys. I would say both had similar amount of tuition, but a completely different approach at home.

DS1 - We were very hands on and 11+ process almost became the be-all and end-all of life. At times we were over critical of his low test scores with tutors and not supportive enough. In hindsight I think DS1 might have been under too much pressure to perform. He ended up scoring 235 for KE Birmingham.

DS2 - We made a conscious effort to be hands off and leave it to the tutors. We did support him with regular tutor homework but didn't provide any further support. We tried not to talk about the 11+ at home and gave him unconditional praise and confidence irrespective of his low scores with tutors. He ended up scoring 258.

As a parent I feel both my boys are equally capable but the real difference in the final score was pretty much down to mixture of nerves, attitude and confidence.

[guest201]

Not complacent, Tolstoy, quietly confident, what I meant was that he was in the same place as my DD who had passed two years earlier so if he kept it up and barring any disasters on the day he should be fine. I didn't tell him that though, I told him he needed to keep working hard.

[Tolstoy]

Yes I was quietly confident as well right up until I got DC2 score and realised he was in the twilight zone when he should have breezed it . He wasn't unduly pressured and didn't appear nervous, came out feeling confident. It's like MSD says, sometimes you can't account for what happens on the day. Hence the absurdity of a one day test being the decider for possibly 6 years of schooling.

[um]

I have got my two through the process and I found the second more stressful because there was greater expectations, if you already have one child in grammar school then the second is expected to do as well, which in itself causes stress.

This is so very, very true. That expectation certainly caused my dd unnecessary stress....

My lovely dc4 is not as 'academically able' as his siblings and it can be frustrating when people unthinkingly assume/say aloud that he can follow his older siblings to KECH.
It creates pressure and confusion for him and really annoys me
Our hope is that he might possibly pass for another grammar in the city but no-one can guarantee that, as even if he is working at the right level, he unfortunately suffers from nervousness. The important thing is he's a decent, caring and hard-working little boy so while he may not gain the academic 'successes' his older siblings have, he is just as special in my eyes .

[quasimodo]

You will be aware from this forum of the likelyhood of only one exam between the Birmingham and Wolverhampton consortiums.This in itself creates added pressure with everything riding on the results of one exam.The actual decision by the Wolverhampton consortium is yet to be announced but the headmaster of QM Boys has stated that this is in the offing and there have been rumours of it for some time.What we are also not yet certain of is whether the exams will continue to be marked as they are at present with the Wolverhampton exams favouring those who are good in Maths and non verbal reasoning and the Birmingham exam for those who are good with their English.It is anticipated the combined exam will be in September.But at the moment everything is uncertain.
Like many parents my younger brother in laws daughter has these pressures as well as the knowledge she has to emulate her elder brother or have the label of "failure" when it is no such thing.It makes preparing for exams harder when you don't know if their are exams in July and September 2016 or a exam probably in September 2016.

[Petitpois]

DD1 got

NVR 113
VR 117
Math 130

360 in total for Walsall. She had not done fractions, percentages, area, volume or conversions at the START of year 5. The volume stuff they were doing in the October caused me to panic, because they had kids adding up cubes to get their head round things, then the teacher was off sick and volume and area kind of fell in to disarray. Two things happened as a result

1) I put together an emergency Y5 maths curriculum together (despite protests from teacher than DD1 would be bored)
2) I got a bit angry with the school and the Sandwell LA, hence my repeated posts on here about kids at standard primaries getting a raw deal (which I still firmly believe).

For whatever reason we got to summer holidays and I looked at the VR scores and felt we had done too much on the math side and had put ourselves at a serious disadvantaged for the KE, regarding the VR aspect.

Scores for that were

113 VR
110 Maths and NVR

223 in total.

Completely perplexing, but clear signs of weakness on the NVR and VR, even with a good overall result for the Walsall. I think this got fully exposed in the KE, even though she did better, as a result of the summer holiday reading programme.

This time round I am doing basics with DD2 e.g. This because at my DD's school they had a really good maths teacher, who left because of outstandingly poor and cynical leadership by the Head teacher. Result is that DD1 had fully mastered timetables by year three, where as we are in catch up mode for DD2 in year 4 (now). However focus is on reading and grammar as this is much much harder. I feel with a light touch catch up maths programme and as much reading as possible this year, I will maximise chance for DD2.

My biggest worry is that DD1 is relatively good always been top of her class. DD2 in the top sets too, but work not as neat as DD1. Definitely a WIP