Old SATS levels in year 5

[Petitpois]

I'm finding it hard to judge where ds (year 5) is at as he's been home educated since the summer term of year 4 and year 4 was a wasted year anyway, with constant supply teachers.

I would recommend doing any of the benchmark tests, e.g. in CGP's CEM 11+ study books, which may give you a clearer idea of where your DC is and any areas of weakness. I was a sucker for anything with CEM on the cover, but apart from that, in my panic about levels, I bought a Bright Stars (or something) book 'How to achieve Level 5 English' (lured in by the title). I don't think we used it at all as it turned out to be completely irrelevant to the CEM test. I think it's better to focus very closely on CEM 11+ material (of which there is now a boatload) rather than worry too much about SATs predictions/practice tests.

Our year 4 was characterised by term 1 the teacher having some sort of breakdown and then rest of the year mental supply teachers.

Find out who the best, most confident teacher in your school is, that will be teaching in year 5 and nab them. Don't accept anything less, our year 5 teacher was absolutely critical for our outcome!

[crazycrofter]

I'm finding it hard to judge where ds (year 5) is at as he's been home educated since the summer term of year 4 and year 4 was a wasted year anyway, with constant supply teachers.

I would recommend doing any of the benchmark tests, e.g. in CGP's CEM 11+ study books, which may give you a clearer idea of where your DC is and any areas of weakness. I was a sucker for anything with CEM on the cover, but apart from that, in my panic about levels, I bought a Bright Stars (or something) book 'How to achieve Level 5 English' (lured in by the title). I don't think we used it at all as it turned out to be completely irrelevant to the CEM test. I think it's better to focus very closely on CEM 11+ material (of which there is now a boatload) rather than worry too much about SATs predictions/practice tests.

Our year 4 was characterised by term 1 the teacher having some sort of breakdown and then rest of the year mental supply teachers.

Find out who the best, most confident teacher in your school is, that will be teaching in year 5 and nab them. Don't accept anything less, our year 5 teacher was absolutely critical for our outcome!

As he's home educated, that will be me and my husband then! He's half way through year 5 already, so we haven't got long, but we've got the freedom to do whatever we like with him in the best part of the day rather than being restricted to evenings/weekends so that's got to be a bonus!

[MSD]

I have mentioned this before, but in terms of English all you want to really do is read and build vocab. That will cover synonyms/antonyms and Cloze. The Cloze type you will be tested on is based on word bank, so as long the child knows their vocab, and is fluent reader, you should be OK. Comprehension is only a small part of overall English, and as long as he is reading, he is bound to get a fair mark in that. Bear in mind that comprehension is multiple choice, so no fancy writing skills required - just a keen reader who can understand and interpret complex text. And that's 50% job done

Sounds too simple lol but recipe to 11+ success is to really work cleverly on the areas where you can gain most marks. Out of all three sub sections, Maths, NVR and VR, vocab will give you the most marks.