just strarting out on the 11+ journey....

Eleven Plus (11+) in Lincolnshire (Lincs)

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ourmaminhavana
Posts: 966
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:14 am

Re: just strarting out on the 11+ journey....

Post by ourmaminhavana »

nwc95 personally I would be concerned at the pressure this may put on your son if he is aware for the reason for the move. How does he feel about leaving his established friendship groups? Do you actually know whether there is a place available?
IMHO I don't think that primary schools should be doing anything beyond a few past papers to familiarise the children with the question types, test format etc Do you mean at his current school your son would attend an after school 11 plus club for a year, or have I missed something?
Alex
Posts: 1097
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:10 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: just strarting out on the 11+ journey....

Post by Alex »

nwc95 wrote: Our village school only enters them for the exam if you have registered and very few children pass - three last year. They have an after school club preparing them for it but the teachers aren't "pro-11+" at all.
An after-school club is more than the vast majority of primary schools provide. It is very difficult to judge from the figures alone. 3 out of how many takers? Are the children who are not passing ones who one would have expected to pass because they are generally high achievers? Do you know what the quality of the after school club is like - is it teaching the "right" things?
The primary in the next village enter all their children each year and nearly all pass each year. They spend an afternoon each week during year 5 preparing and the school is very pro-11+
If it is the school I think it may be, I believe they have had a bit of a blip in their results this year and had a number who did not get through......
we can't really afford private tuition. Some of the local parents have paid out for it and their children failed.
Personally I think that most parents are quite able to prepare the children themselves with a bit of help and guidance. The quality of tutoring varies enormously and a lot of parents don't really know how to judge whether the tutor is doing a good job or not.
My attitude is that if he's good enough and gets the right support at school and at home he should be able to pass without additional tuition.
The problem is that there is not really a level playing field any more and children who have not had some preparation are at a disadvantage against those who have been prepared in the right techniques and are familiar with the types of question which are used, particularly as the tests are time pressured. The "right support" I think is teaching the techniques and giving enough practice to perform at speed fairly accurately.
If we decided it would be the right thing to move schools then it would be better to do it in readiness for him starting year 5 in September -
If you were to move schools then I would definitely go for the move between school years. Most teachers I know seem to think that there is a negative impact in moving schools in the short term so it is not a good idea to do it, if possible, in the last year of school.

If the school you are thinking about is the school I have in mind, they were full in every year group with one over in Y4 in January so you would have to go to appeal to try and get a place, which might prove difficult to win without having reasons other than the good 11 plus record and in-house tuition.

If you do decide to DIY we are all happy to help with questions and queries :)
nwc95
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 11:45 am

Re: just strarting out on the 11+ journey....

Post by nwc95 »

Thank you all for being so honest and informative :) It helps to know other people's experiences and opinions.

I don't want to put DS under any undue pressure, so we haven't discussed moving primaries, although he does know some of the children at the other school as we live locally, but I would like him to have a good opportunity of passing.

I wanted to explore the different avenues and gain insight from others before diving into anything, so I haven't asked about places yet. Maybe that will answer for me!

It seems such a huge minefield.... when I took my 11+ I wasn't even aware of it until afterwards, so there was no pressure. In an ideal world that is how I would like to treat DS.
Lainey
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2012 10:37 am

Re: just strarting out on the 11+ journey....

Post by Lainey »

I would agree with all the previous comments - you know your DS best and are best placed to know how stressed he would be by a move. There are many good resources out there to help you work with him at home - we used the Bond books with my DS and are following a similar route for DD who is year 5 at the moment. She does a little practice at school but says she prefers to work at home anyway! I don't know if the other primary has any places but why not ask to have a look around and see if you get a nice feeling from the school or not before commiting to anything?
Jetster
Posts: 113
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 11:54 am

Re: just strarting out on the 11+ journey....

Post by Jetster »

The primary school in question actually had a really poor pass rate this last time, not sure what went wrong. Like you said, pretty much every year a lot of the children pass the 11+ there, the school have strong links with the Grammar schools and seem to focus a great deal on the exams. In my humble opinion I think it does the children no favours at all.

If your child is capable then I think you will be more than able to provide support at home. My son didn't even look at an 11+ paper until Easter time in year 5, then he didn't really start doing them until the June time. We worked on the various question types and once he got the hang of those we worked on his timings. Timing is crucial and should definitely be practised. Throughout the summer holidays we didn't do a thing, then in the 2 weeks leading up to the exams he sat some further papers and some 10 minute taster ones. I have to say he didn't really do a great deal, the school definitely didn't, just a couple of practice papers were given just before the summer holidays.

My son passed without private tutoring and without intensive school tutoring. I would just advise you to get some practice papers and books that set out the question types (I'll try to dig out ours and let you know which ones they are).

If I can provide the support then anyone can, I promise you that - give it a go :)

Good luck to you and your son with whatever you chose to do :)
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