How will the CSSE changes affect your DIY prep?!
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 11:23 pm
I'm pondering what to do now! I had a tried and tested strategy that worked well and now, well-I will have to adapt!
They changed things two years ago when I had DC1 and they decided (in February, I think it was) that they'd shunt the 11+ forward from November to September and then changed the catchment areas, just to confuse everybody! I think they like to keep us on our toes!
Those of you that are working with their own children at home-will you do less work on VR questions? DC is already familiar with the different question types, so I might just keep those ticking over (as there will still be VR questions) and do a few here and there rather than worrying about 80 question timed papers. We'll still do grammar/punctuation/spelling and comprehension-using past papers etc for the English and I suppose practise creative writing. Maths won't change much, I expect-but we need to do some NVR which is new. I used to do about 1/3 English, 1/3 Maths and 1/3 VR. What proportions should we focus on now? 1/4 English, 1/4 maths, 1/6 creative writing, 1/6 VR and 1/6 NVR!?
At least they do creative writing at school, so that won't be a complete unknown. I can't expect they will expect much in the way of written work though-as they still have to fit all the other stuff in the one hour paper. I wonder if it will be a choice of two titles to write about rather than be two actual pieces as they will only end up being v short if they have to write two!?
I still think that the likelihood of success in creative writing depends on the quality of the teaching in each child's school; being good at that sort of thing is not an inate skill. If you have a good Y5 teacher, you are at a big advantage and vice versa. This plan probably won't change the dynamics/background of the group of children who pass much-it will still be the same group of children either at 'Outstanding' schools or those with middle-class parents who will go out of their way to find out what might be on the paper who pass. I wonder actually, if these changes are nothing to do with altering the dynamics/'type' of the children that pass and more to do with getting children with a better standard of English at grammars. I know of a couple of teachers at local grammars who are not impressed with the ability of Y7 children to construct a coherent sentence, so I can see why they've made the changes.
They changed things two years ago when I had DC1 and they decided (in February, I think it was) that they'd shunt the 11+ forward from November to September and then changed the catchment areas, just to confuse everybody! I think they like to keep us on our toes!
Those of you that are working with their own children at home-will you do less work on VR questions? DC is already familiar with the different question types, so I might just keep those ticking over (as there will still be VR questions) and do a few here and there rather than worrying about 80 question timed papers. We'll still do grammar/punctuation/spelling and comprehension-using past papers etc for the English and I suppose practise creative writing. Maths won't change much, I expect-but we need to do some NVR which is new. I used to do about 1/3 English, 1/3 Maths and 1/3 VR. What proportions should we focus on now? 1/4 English, 1/4 maths, 1/6 creative writing, 1/6 VR and 1/6 NVR!?
At least they do creative writing at school, so that won't be a complete unknown. I can't expect they will expect much in the way of written work though-as they still have to fit all the other stuff in the one hour paper. I wonder if it will be a choice of two titles to write about rather than be two actual pieces as they will only end up being v short if they have to write two!?
I still think that the likelihood of success in creative writing depends on the quality of the teaching in each child's school; being good at that sort of thing is not an inate skill. If you have a good Y5 teacher, you are at a big advantage and vice versa. This plan probably won't change the dynamics/background of the group of children who pass much-it will still be the same group of children either at 'Outstanding' schools or those with middle-class parents who will go out of their way to find out what might be on the paper who pass. I wonder actually, if these changes are nothing to do with altering the dynamics/'type' of the children that pass and more to do with getting children with a better standard of English at grammars. I know of a couple of teachers at local grammars who are not impressed with the ability of Y7 children to construct a coherent sentence, so I can see why they've made the changes.