elevenplusforum78 wrote:
Thank you for your responses- great to have a discussion about this! I think I can be assured therefore that my children don't need to know the year 6 curriculum, but they need to be able to work at the highest end of y5 level to secure a place at a 'superselective.' The 11 plus material , Collins, CGP and Bond also I believe heighten the anxiety by producing questions at a level which the children won't be required to answer, eg the use of algebra. If we could take the 'business' aspect out of the whole process , publishers and tutors, preying on parents' anxieties, we could save a large percentage of children from unnecessary work and stress.
I completely agree with you. We’re Birmingham so a different area but we have the same hysteria about needing to cover year 6 (and sometimes yr 7) maths. My child had a complete meltdown when trying one of the Bond CEM style maths papers; the content was way above what was covered in yr 5 . This was a couple of months before the test (late to the party!). That was the first and last practice paper they did. Feedback after the test was that it was stuff that they had covered in yr 5 but it made them think a bit more to answer it, but they had the principles to tackle the questions.
During lockdown (the 1st one, so over half way through yr 6 ) we dug the maths paper out again and there were still things that hadn’t been covered.
My advice for what it’s worth- make sure your child is secure with times tables and knows how to fill in a multiple choice paper- oh and another thing - if they don’t know the answer- guess and move on!