At what age should you start tutoring for 11+?
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My personal experience is the state school my children attend is very medioca at best. They don't stretch their bright pupils and I am totally convinced that had I not done a lot of work at home with my child we wouldn't be celebrating a grammar school place now. My bug bear is we should expect more from the state system - and I don't blame the teachers - they are far too overworked with irrelevant paperwork rather than focusing on actually teaching the kids!
Well done to you.Alexandra wrote:My personal experience is the state school my children attend is very medioca at best. They don't stretch their bright pupils and I am totally convinced that had I not done a lot of work at home with my child we wouldn't be celebrating a grammar school place now. My bug bear is we should expect more from the state system - and I don't blame the teachers - they are far too overworked with irrelevant paperwork rather than focusing on actually teaching the kids!
I feel exactly the same way, with my own children and those that I tutor. Thank goodness for the interested parents, they make their children a success.
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Chelmsford mum
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I can understand Braniac's reaction to that post however unintentional the slight/offence probably was.
All over the site this week, Essex, Indep section, Surrey,to name but a few, worried first time 11+ parents have been posting re preparation.It is sooooo easy to feel a sense of sheer panic.
I have several friends with children in private preps very locally and I'll admit that as the 11+ approached and they (finally
) told me how much prep their children were getting in school as welll as out, I felt very worried and powerless.
I think some of the less diplomatic posts on this thread are just whoops of relief that 11+ success is not only found amongst privately educated children. If you cannot pay for tuition and cannot , for all the scrimping and saving, afford private school fees, you can feel "priced out", but happily these feelings do not entirely match the reality.
State school children with supportive parents still have excellent prospects.
All over the site this week, Essex, Indep section, Surrey,to name but a few, worried first time 11+ parents have been posting re preparation.It is sooooo easy to feel a sense of sheer panic.
I have several friends with children in private preps very locally and I'll admit that as the 11+ approached and they (finally
) told me how much prep their children were getting in school as welll as out, I felt very worried and powerless.I think some of the less diplomatic posts on this thread are just whoops of relief that 11+ success is not only found amongst privately educated children. If you cannot pay for tuition and cannot , for all the scrimping and saving, afford private school fees, you can feel "priced out", but happily these feelings do not entirely match the reality.
State school children with supportive parents still have excellent prospects.
To be honest I think state school parents DO get priced out, which I think is a very sad reality. There are a lot of bright kids at state school, who don't get the prep like the private schools and ARE disadvantaged. It is totally wrong. However, saying that, if I could pay for it. Would I?? Of course I would!!!!
I agree with you Alexandra, you only need to look on the leaver's destinations to see that its not soo much of an equal game with prep schools.
I do agree with Chelmsford mum that with supportive parents then our state kids can have better prospects but still not comparable IMHO. To get decent primary schools you need bags of cash to live within the catchment and I often wonder what is cheaper to buy elsewhere and use extra money for private schooling.
If cash was no problem thou's kids would certainly be at a prep school but since that aint the situation, I have resorted to coaching or tutoring my own DD and fill those gaps. I am suprised at the huge gap as to what has been taught to her and what she requires to know for 11+. This has been an eye opener for sure
I do agree with Chelmsford mum that with supportive parents then our state kids can have better prospects but still not comparable IMHO. To get decent primary schools you need bags of cash to live within the catchment and I often wonder what is cheaper to buy elsewhere and use extra money for private schooling.
If cash was no problem thou's kids would certainly be at a prep school but since that aint the situation, I have resorted to coaching or tutoring my own DD and fill those gaps. I am suprised at the huge gap as to what has been taught to her and what she requires to know for 11+. This has been an eye opener for sure
Impossible is Nothing.
I have to say I was thoroughly shocked at the gaps in my son's knowledge. This was not down to lack of ability but lack of stretching a bright child by the school. I don't know why this is in state schools, and do not like to blame the teachers as I feel they have a thankless task. However, something is going wrong and not sure what???
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CCHSsmiley
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- Location: Essex
You do not need to start tutoring in year, if your child is bright then wait till summer of year4 or autumn year 5. My DS state school was very unsupportive of him and did not offer any help: sat tests was all they thought about luckly he was offered place and is now very happy. However my DD prep was much better, doing loads more VR for everyone and not bothering with sats. People are becoming more and more crazy with eleven plus.
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Chelmsford mum
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Oh dear 
I did not mean to intensify the debate!
I agree with what has been said .My children attended a state primary school which was by no means high flying and I still have concerns about as little DD is still there.Obviously privately educated children have some advantage! If they did not, why pay the fees.
Life is horribly unfair but mercifully the grammmar school system still exists locally and I firmly believe that my children are fortunate enough to be getting an education as good as many indep schools.
I just wish that were true for all but sadly it is not. Life is long though and it is never too late to learn and I teach many adults who are a shining example of lifelong learning.
I did not mean to intensify the debate!
I agree with what has been said .My children attended a state primary school which was by no means high flying and I still have concerns about as little DD is still there.Obviously privately educated children have some advantage! If they did not, why pay the fees.
Life is horribly unfair but mercifully the grammmar school system still exists locally and I firmly believe that my children are fortunate enough to be getting an education as good as many indep schools.
I just wish that were true for all but sadly it is not.
Life is long though and it is never too late to learn and I teach many adults who are a shining example of lifelong learning.-
Gladitsover
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- Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2009 8:45 pm
In response to Happy House (not Bleak)’s above post, I have to say I don’t agree with your views on private schools and think your opinions are unfair. My children have attended private primary but one is at state secondary now. My DH and I went to the local comp and local state primary, we don’t come from a rich background – far from it. In fact, I went to one of the roughest state schools and we never intended our children to go to private school until we moved into an area with a bad primary school as my catchment. I didn’t want my children going to a bad school like I did so we decided we would put them through private primary school to give them a good start in life and then see how they got on with the 11+. Because we never planned for our children to go private, we didn’t have masses of savings to cover the cost. We decided to sacrifice any luxuries in order to pay for their schooling. We don’t spend money on cigarettes or alcohol. Everything we earned went on school fees. There are people at our private school who have done the same. They are far from rich and have to buy second-hand uniforms, never have holidays, etc. Of course there are those who come from money but you would be surprised how many ‘ordinary’ families who go to private schools because they aren’t happy with the local state school. It’s a choice we have made and we don’t regret it one bit. My children aren’t stuck up or think they are better than those who go to the local state schools! They have great friends at private school but also great friends who are from various state schools they have met through outside clubs. I don’t think they are any less rounded than your DD.
I think there are a lot of misconceptions about private schools and because I’ve been through state schooling, I feel I can be the judge of both. Of course there are some snooty private school parents out there but there are also snooty state school parents. You can’t tarnish everyone with the same brush.
My children’s private school doesn’t give extra 11+ tuition – far from it! The school isn’t geared up to send pupils to the grammar schools and it’s the minority who choose to go on to state grammar. Most of the others feed on to private secondary schools. We still have to pay out for tutors like you to try and help our children through the 11+ exams.
However, I do know of friends’ STATE primaries who do run 11+ clubs. It can cut both ways. Is it right for someone from a state school who can’t afford to pay for a tutor to have a bad opinion of you paying for a tutor to help your daughter get into grammar school? Is it right for that person to think their child should have priority over your daughter because, unlike you, they couldn’t afford to pay for a tutor to help her through the 11+ exam? Of course not! So I have to disagree with your comments re: [i][b]‘I think state school children should be given preference at selective schools, perhaps by a slight weighting.’[/b][/i]
Unless you’ve tasted the private sector, you can’t just listen to what you hear from others and make a judgement from that. When we decided to put the children in private school, I was really worried we wouldn’t fit in and felt almost like we weren’t worthy of going there and people at the school would look down on us, etc. It was a misconception I had, a big hang-up I had and I was glad to be proved wrong. I have met many ‘rich’ friends there as well as ‘ordinary’ people like myself.
‘[i][b]If you asked all private primary school parents why they send their child to a private prep school, I bet at least 80% would say it was because their sole intention was for their children to get into a Grammar school!’[/b][/i]
This 80% figure you have is your personal estimate. I can assure you, most private school kids go on to private secondaries. We are a minority who choose to sit the 11+ because we just couldn’t afford the school secondary fees. If money wasn’t an issue, I would carry on with the private sector for my kids too but we knew from the start that we were stretching ourselves but we were doing it just for the primary side.
Don’t forget, we still pay our taxes to fund the state schools but not using its facilities, so in theory, we pay twice but I’m not moaning as that’s our choice. By us not taking our rightful place at the state primary, it frees the place up for someone else who wouldn’t have got a place there.
It’s a shame how the state of our schools these days make it so competitive and make parents so desperate to get into a good school. If the previous government didn’t get rid of so many grammar schools, there would be less fight for spaces and we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in now, trying to get the best education for our kids, which is the common ground you and I, and the parents on this forum, all share. Whether we come from private or state school is irrelevant, we just all want the best for our kids.
I think there are a lot of misconceptions about private schools and because I’ve been through state schooling, I feel I can be the judge of both. Of course there are some snooty private school parents out there but there are also snooty state school parents. You can’t tarnish everyone with the same brush.
My children’s private school doesn’t give extra 11+ tuition – far from it! The school isn’t geared up to send pupils to the grammar schools and it’s the minority who choose to go on to state grammar. Most of the others feed on to private secondary schools. We still have to pay out for tutors like you to try and help our children through the 11+ exams.
However, I do know of friends’ STATE primaries who do run 11+ clubs. It can cut both ways. Is it right for someone from a state school who can’t afford to pay for a tutor to have a bad opinion of you paying for a tutor to help your daughter get into grammar school? Is it right for that person to think their child should have priority over your daughter because, unlike you, they couldn’t afford to pay for a tutor to help her through the 11+ exam? Of course not! So I have to disagree with your comments re: [i][b]‘I think state school children should be given preference at selective schools, perhaps by a slight weighting.’[/b][/i]
Unless you’ve tasted the private sector, you can’t just listen to what you hear from others and make a judgement from that. When we decided to put the children in private school, I was really worried we wouldn’t fit in and felt almost like we weren’t worthy of going there and people at the school would look down on us, etc. It was a misconception I had, a big hang-up I had and I was glad to be proved wrong. I have met many ‘rich’ friends there as well as ‘ordinary’ people like myself.
‘[i][b]If you asked all private primary school parents why they send their child to a private prep school, I bet at least 80% would say it was because their sole intention was for their children to get into a Grammar school!’[/b][/i]
This 80% figure you have is your personal estimate. I can assure you, most private school kids go on to private secondaries. We are a minority who choose to sit the 11+ because we just couldn’t afford the school secondary fees. If money wasn’t an issue, I would carry on with the private sector for my kids too but we knew from the start that we were stretching ourselves but we were doing it just for the primary side.
Don’t forget, we still pay our taxes to fund the state schools but not using its facilities, so in theory, we pay twice but I’m not moaning as that’s our choice. By us not taking our rightful place at the state primary, it frees the place up for someone else who wouldn’t have got a place there.
It’s a shame how the state of our schools these days make it so competitive and make parents so desperate to get into a good school. If the previous government didn’t get rid of so many grammar schools, there would be less fight for spaces and we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in now, trying to get the best education for our kids, which is the common ground you and I, and the parents on this forum, all share. Whether we come from private or state school is irrelevant, we just all want the best for our kids.