Maths weakest subject for DD Yr 5 - advise please

[Sas1]

Hi

DD will sit the 11+ in Sept17 (Maidstone area) however Maths is a weaker area for her. We are working through Bond books (10 min tests and Assessment Papers) and she has been seeing a tutor for confidence building for a few months now. Unfortunately DD is very headstrong and not always willing to listen to our help.

Any suggestions on anything else we can do to support/help her over the next 11 months until the exam? Thanks

[kenyancowgirl]

So she is currently just started Y5? And how long have you already been working with her and with a tutor?

My advice would be, take a break - let her be a child and play after school, or lie upside down on the sofa kicking her heels in the air. She is very young just out of Y4 to be focussing on 11+ now. Her "headstrong" is possibly an indication that she is stressed. Some children really just don't get maths - they may learn to cope but may never be brilliant mathematician's. Revisit the basics - times tables are key to maths success.

Sometimes you think you are helping, but she may be hearing you as being critical...this puts additional pressure on an already stressed girl. Once you have revisited the basics and she is secure in those, build up her confidence by doing maths work that she can do easily - congratulater her and then move on to more challenging stuff.

And look at other schools - GS are not the be all and end all - encourage her to embrace your alternatives so that she realises that you are happy for her to try and not succeed rather than being disappointed if she does not.

Edited as I was kindly nudged that the DD in question would now be in Y5....!

[LocalTWmum1]

I think the OP said her daughter was in YR5 as sitting the test in 2017?

You have started at exactly the right time! Keep ploughing on with lots of variety - we did Letts, CGP books, GL Assessment packs plus BOFA online in the months leading up to the test, all in addition to tutoring.

If I or the tutor spotted something DS was weaker at, they or I would go back to basics and cover the topic with him in-depth, plus find lots of practice questions for him to work through. This kind of gap analysis is really useful, particularly with maths.

test info removed by moderator. Please refrain from discussing test content, number of questions etc as there maybe late sitters. we didn't in much detail and it came up in the Kent Test 2016 for the first time!

[PettswoodFiona]

You need to work out which types of questions she is struggling with. Encourage her to find this out herself by looking at her own answers, encourage her by saying that one of the best ways we learn is from where we make errors in the first instance. We used a mock test provider that also helped us with this, it grouped the types of questions that DD was getting wrong and we could see the types that she was struggling with, but it also gave a boost as she was getting a lot right too. For Kent in past years the maths pass mark has not been particularly high, around the 50% pass mark depending on age standardisation. Don't just focus on what she is getting wrong as that is counter productive, DD was headstrong but she choose to sit the tests as she really wanted to go to the grammar school so if that is what your DD wants then remind of that, if it is your choice but not hers then you need to discuss what her hopes and aspirations are and why you have certain hopes for her. We didn't start work for 11+ until start of Y5 and only did an hour a week, too much and they will find it all tedious and will switch off.

[tag30]

i realised too late that 'going back to basics' was what my daughter needed rather than preparing specifically for the 11+.

I think that the timing and verbal and non verbal reasoning elements are the only areas that need specific preparation for as they are not always catered for in primary schools which i think (personally) can probably be left until the year of the test. However, reading lots and having a firm understanding of numbers is something that can be improved on now and rather than focusing on the level required in the 11+ which is what the bond books do i would tell my 2015 self to instead go back to basics of number bonds, times tables etc. A book i found useful is 'So You Really Want to Learn Maths Book 1: A Textbook for Key Stage 2 and Common Entrance' as it covers everything from number bonds and addition to improper fractions and algebra

My last piece of advice - from someone whose daughter is likely to have failed the Kent test on her maths paper and spent almost 2 years going to an 11+ tutor - is rather than spend money on 11+ tuition, is to find a good maths tutor or 11+ tutor who can explain maths well to your daughter. A friend of mine had the latter and their daughter excelled in maths after that.