11 Plus Exams Forum

First Post, and like everyone else not quite sure in which direction we should go in terms of preparation for secondary school (2013).

Both of us parents are working and trying to find the time to home – prepare seems very difficult; however we do encourage reading.

Would anyone know whether the preparation offered in the group sessions is ideally enough to find entry into of the selective grammar schools, such as the ones in North West London?
We were looking at something called A+ Tuition based in Wembley. Has anyone ever heard of them and would they recommend them?

They claim that they always have 8/9 children find entry into a selective secondary school from a class total of (20).

Would people please send any recommendations or comments for 11nuts by PM please.

Welcome to the forum 11 nuts.

yoyo123 wrote:Would people please send any recommendations or comments for 11nuts by PM please.

Welcome to the forum 11 nuts.

Thanks...

To be truly honest, I did not find any sort of external tutoring fruitful. I too am a working mum (and not a school teacher)and it was hard trying to find the time to tutor my dd, but I think home tutoring was the best way forward.
For maths, simply start of with Bond and fill in the gaps with extra practice in the areas your dc is weak at. Found AE tuition books very good to fill in gaps. Then move onto past pasts from both GS and indies.
For english, read, read & read more and then practice comprehension from indie school papers, Latmer, Manchester Grammar. Also do the higher level Bond comprehensions. Practice a creative writing piece once a week.
Keep the pace constant and you will start to see a vast improvement in the level of work your dc is producing.

Excellent advice Apple10, I wholeheartedly agree that if you can self tutor your child that is preferable. My DS studied for his exams sat at the kitchen table whist I was busy cooking, with my one year old around my feet. I started him off on a piece of work and kept an eye on him . An hour here and there worked wonders. As exam time approached we went up a gear, but even then you can get on with other stuff whilst DS does a paper.

Thank you for your help.

We do struggle with English, especially creative thinking and writing. The English that we use through the house is relatively simple, which does not help at all!

We were working on a piece of writing for school homework, and found that DS used simple phrases, such as “I went”, “I did” so been trying to emphasis the fact using more descriptive adjectives would be more helpful.

At times, it does seem we are working in the dark with the knowledge and guess work required to predict what we could expect from the various exams.

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/nationalstra ... ory_id=248" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I hope this works.

I have not used this myself so would welcome any views on it.

11nuts wrote:We do struggle with English, especially creative thinking and writing. The English that we use through the house is relatively simple, which does not help at all!

For English, I would strongly suggest reading. Encourage your dcs to read all types of genres but above all, find some time to read with them. In that way you can read slightly challenging texts which your child may not always find comfortable picking up.

Thank you all.