Tiffin Girls School and Bond papers

[tiffinboys]

Difficult to say. Depends how much KS2 syllabus is to be covered. Then use test papers to familiarise with actual papers. Can take upto 2 hours a day. Ask her to do some work before you come home. So you can relax a while before tutoring her. But be very patient and calm.

Have you registered her for any mock exam? Sutton Grammar one is probably fully booked by now. But Wallington or Wilson one may still be available. Mocks give a valuable exam experience.

[scary mum]

Can take upto 2 hours a day.

Surely not, for a 9 or 10 year old? Please let them enjoy their childhood (disclaimer: not from this area, & all this is waaay behind me!).

[tiffinboys]

@OP
2 hours is a cap. You can do less. And don’t forget to take time off on week ends. Also don’t stop any extra curricular activity that your Dd may be doing at the moment.

[grgygirl]

I think at this late stage and given that many other children will have been working on harder papers for longer, I would encourage at least an hour a night and two hours each weekend day using the material you have identified. It's not going to be for long and if your child is happy with the school then they are more likely to put the work in. Emphasise that the work will not have been wasted as the ethos will do them well in Year 6 and beyond.

I would also book a mock test pronto. As well as the others mentioned, St Olave's in Orpington still has spaces. The various mock tests left may not be the exact format but they will provide an opportunity for your child to be in a daunting, formal 'test' environment before the real thing and you'll get feedback on where they sit in this well prepared cohort.

[CSB]

I think marks of 60 on Bond papers without any coaching at all is actually pretty good and shows she has the potential. You still have time. We provided DIY support last year from May for exams starting in September. I remember the first attempts at Bond papers being pretty disastrous. Booked mocks for May & June (results were below average) but successfully passed for all the Sutton schools. It's all about having the potential, the desire, and peaking at the right time before they (or you!) become burnt out or disillusioned with the whole thing.

I don't know the specifics for Tiffin Girls test, but this is how we approached it.

- Try and find ways of teaching without formally sitting at a desk with pen & paper. They're too young to spend long periods in the evening trying to learn this way, especially after a full school day.
- For maths you can do mental maths while making meals or on car journeys, like being able to convert percentages to fractions to decimals and vice-versa quickly, working out ratios, talking about shape properties etc etc.
- For vocab, what I found really effective was making games of pairs with tricky words and their meanings or synonyms on separate pieces of paper, mixing them all up and then they have to match them. You can do the same with words that sound similar but have different meanings. This method helps commit the words to memory more effectively.
- They didn't attempt practice papers until their knowledge was secure, otherwise it can dent their confidence.
- Organisation: chunk up the Maths & English syllabus into topics. Work out how many you need to master each week in the time you have left. If your DD helps you put the plan together it helps her buy into the idea, and understand the effort that is going to be needed. Ticking each one off at a time is satisfying.
- The books we used for Maths syllabus practice was Scholastic Maths Practice Books for KS2. For English, the Practice & Pass series. And also the 1000-word brain boost (this is the book I used for creating the word games).
- For creative writing, which may be needed only in the 2nd stage, the Descriptosaurus book is brilliant. Instead of making them write stories down, we talked about the stories, interesting plots, different ways of setting the scene, and describing characters.

Above all try not to fall out over this exercise - it is too easy to turn into a negative experience for everyone. Remind her that you want to support her to reach her goals, but if at any point she decides it's not for her after all (or it becomes obvious it's not the right thing) then you'll support that decision too.

Good luck!

[tiffinboys]

Good post, CSB.

[Jamais Arrière]

What an excellent post!

I agree with CSB it is certainly possible to start begin this quest fairly late on. I actually wonder if there are advantages. It is easier for one’s DC to stay motivated, extra-curricular activities are less compromised and it is, in fact, easier to carve out study time through the summer months.

Our story is that Mum and DD were quite content with our local comp, but on a whim attended St Michael’s open evening on 28th June 2017 and fell for it. Dad, soon after, heads to WH Smiths to get the relevant Bond books and drafts a study schedule. Spent absolutely no more than one hour per day until September, but did prepare and practice every single day. This was entirely DIY tutoring and I felt we were doing OK until we had the result back from two mocks DD sat in 20th August. She got 60% in NVR, and only 40% in VR, (coming 16th out of 18!) Naturally we didn’t share this information with DD. DD was still motivated, so we carried on but our confidence was knocked. We were a little surprised and obviously thrilled when DD got a feasible ranking after she sat the test 15th September, and over the moon when she got offered a place in March.

I know that getting a place at St M’s is a different kettle of fish to other grammar schools, but it’s no walk in the park and the daughter of a close colleague secured her Latymer place after even less time in training, and without the aid a professional tutor either.

(We pretty much stuck with Bond, BTW.)

Jams

[Grammarwannabe]

What an excellent post!

I agree with CSB it is certainly possible to start begin this quest fairly late on. I actually wonder if there are advantages. It is easier for one’s DC to stay motivated, extra-curricular activities are less compromised and it is, in fact, easier to carve out study time through the summer months.

Our story is that Mum and DD were quite content with our local comp, but on a whim attended St Michael’s open evening on 28th June 2017 and fell for it. Dad, soon after, heads to WH Smiths to get the relevant Bond books and drafts a study schedule. Spent absolutely no more than one hour per day until September, but did prepare and practice every single day. This was entirely DIY tutoring and I felt we were doing OK until we had the result back from two mocks DD sat in 20th August. She got 60% in NVR, and only 40% in VR, (coming 16th out of 18!) Naturally we didn’t share this information with DD. DD was still motivated, so we carried on but our confidence was knocked. We were a little surprised and obviously thrilled when DD got a feasible ranking after she sat the test 15th September, and over the moon when she got offered a place in March.

I know that getting a place at St M’s is a different kettle of fish to other grammar schools, but it’s no walk in the park and the daughter of a close colleague secured her Latymer place after even less time in training, and without the aid a professional tutor either.

(We pretty much stuck with Bond, BTW.)

Jams

Thanks. I’ve bought the bond books now, so may as well use them. Have bought some others. Glad the hard work paid off. Good plan to do an hour a day without fail (this is what we are struggling with!)