11 Plus Exams Forum

In your experience as a tutor, have you ever found that children that come from certain schools have better success with 11 plus tutoring than those from others? I heard this comment from a well respected and successful tutor recently, as she stated that she has very limited success with children from my child's school. Upon analysis she felt that children coming to her from our school are limited in the basics - spellings, mental maths and comprehension. However, our school does well in SATs generally, but well below average in 11 plus - 6% pass rate this year! The best I can remember the school getting was 25% a few years ago. Normally it's around 15%. The school is in an affluent area, with strong parental backing, but we parent are struggling to work out why the school consistently does badly at the 11 plus.

I'd be interested to know if you have found there is any factor which influences a child's chances of passing, taking the tutoring factor out of equation. The head says it is purely down to inate intelligence, and is not influenced at all by what the school teaches.

I'd be interested to know what you think.

Dear Jellybaby

I do not have a problem with any of the schools I take my children from.

However I can see what the tutor you mention is saying and would agree in some circumstances.

I do not believe the 11 plus can be passed on pure inate ability alone. Unfortunately it is an unlevel playing field. Many, many children are coached by parents or tutors. As a consequence, in order to pass children need some form of help in order to understand the method and technique. In adition practice is necessary in order to complete all the questions within a given time.

I believe some schools have better pass rates purely on the basis that thier parents are more savyy on the 11 plus process, either by engaging a tutor or coaching themselves [DIY]

Patricia

I agree with you, and suspect that relatively little coaching goes on at our school, as I think many parents still believe that if their child has to be coached to pass, then they shouldn't be going to grammar school. We're a bit behind the times here!

However, even those who are coached seem to have a very low pass rate (they don't all go to the same tutor!). As I mentioned before, this is not just 1 school year that I am talking about, but at least 5 years). You would think with the law of averages that we would get a good pass rate at some point!

Dear Jellybaby

There are still many tutors out there who do not teach the 21 types. I took over a child recently that spent 6 weeks studying comprehension?? There are still tutors who teach the 35 plus types as designed by Susan daughtrey. Some teach KS2 Maths??

The message of 21 types is now evident on the forum, but when I first found this website, which was only 3 years ago many did not have a clue and believed that the Susan Daughtrey 35 plus types were the staple diet of the Bucks 11 plus. [and other areas using nfer/gl assessment] I of course had to reply, it took me a while but finally the number 21 became gospel, but thats here on this site, not everyone is aware.

Patricia

Absolutely! I first came to this site 3 years ago when my eldest child failed the 11plus. With advise from this site she got through on appeal. I then used the advise from here to DIY tutor my 2nd child myself, and she passed. I've pointed many people in the direction of this site since, but I still think that in this area they are living in cloud cuckoo land and don't realise until too late about the importance of a good tutor, or learning the right info. But on top of that, I am convinced that our school is not giving the kids the best possible grounding, despite small classes, good catchment etc. But then it is completely tabboo to even mention the words 11+ on the school premises!