Does anyone have a reading list specifically for Y7 (any) grammar school? From the actual school as opposed to personal recommendations.

Thank you very much and happy Friday

No list, but so far:

The bone sparrow
Flour babies
Blake’s poems about childhood
Frankenstein
Beowulf

Any reading is better than none. Children tend to enjoy reading read more if they can choose books themselves by genre, theme and as they read more widely, by author. Audio books can be a great starting point for reluctant readers.

Some ideas here (just the first two links I found from a quick search, you should be able find many more):

http://www.harveygs.kent.sch.uk/static/ ... g-list.pdf

https://www.latymer.co.uk/curriculum/li ... 6-2017.pdf

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Super! Thank you both

Is there an equivalent list for Mathematics as well? To the parents who have already been through Year 7: what books or book sets did you find most helpful for preparing DS for Year 7-11 maths?

Hi dh28.
Is your child in year 6? If so I would recommend absolutely no preparation at all. Let your child enjoy the all the fun things year 6 has to offer. Take a break from ‘school work’ at home. It won’t be long before they are swamped with homework!

Dh28 they hit the ground running at Wilson’s in year 7.
I would just advise enjoying the end of year 6 now they are back.

There’s a big difference between reading books that take your fancy - the world is full of books and reading can be very relaxing - vs trying to cover the curriculum in advance. The latter means the child never lives in the moment and is very likely to find class boring. That’s not a good thing.

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Absolutely. I completely agree with Stroller. I hadn’t read dh28’s post regarding their 11+ campaign. If I had, I would not have posted the reading material already covered in yr 7.

@dh28. Out of interest I asked my child if they thought that they needed any preparation for yr 7. The answer was a resounding ‘No’!
Let your child enjoy the end of primary school. Childhood passes so quickly. Let him play- forget trying to hot- house him before he starts secondary school. Looking at your posts he covered yr 5 curriculum at home in yr 4 and the year 6 curriculum in year 5. When do you think this will stop? Will he be covering the 1st yr of university in 6th form?

School should be about learning new things- how dull would it be if everything he is taught at school he knows already. That’s one sure way of switching off and disengaging. Let him be 10/11 years old.... He’ll never be that age again!

+ 1 here. The original question for reading list was from OP about reading list for year 7.
I am not worried about DS's reading skills, as he already reads a lot out of his own interest.


I could not agree more! At a primary schooling stage, forcing children to learn curriculum too much in advance, (when either parents or child have no aptitude or aspirations for it) will do the child no good. At a secondary stage, knowing the syllabus of subjects child is interested in, may help parents to support them in activities which develop and stretch their abilities in that subject (e.g. a child who enjoys Math would also enjoy solving BMO problems, and nothing wrong with parents supporting that).

But I agree, in the end, it is completely wrong if parents are driving this without the child's interest.


Not quite:

Year 4 Terms 1/2/3: Year 4 syllabus
Summer vacation of Year 4 : cover 11+ specific Year 5 syllabus
Year 5 Term 1: cover 11+ specific Year 6 syllabus.
Year 5 Terms 2/3 : Cover weak areas + paper practice
Year 6 first term: 11+ exams.

This is what the advice has been on this forum anyway: if you are not already at year 5 level at the beginning of year 5 then you will have a tough time with 11+ exams in 12 months' time (as then, you will be covering year 5 and 6 curriculum along with paper practice / mocks in 12 months. That I think is proper "hot-housing" and short-changing the child's 11+ chances).


Absolutely! DS is already dabbling with carpentry (making his own (unusable) furniture), making star wars light sabers and zipping through Anthony Horowitz collections