11 Plus Exams Forum

Figures show one in five trainee teachers fail either the literacy or numeracy test first time round. One in 10 trainees have to take the numeracy test more than three times to pass and one in 14 has to take the literacy test more than three times.

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Phew! I am happy to say that I passed mine first time! Very worrying that anyone wanting to teach fails them at all, the tests I took were very basic!

I was one of the 80% who passed all mine first time as well(including ICT, which was my main worry). I can't imagine how anyone could fail the literacy skills test, but to be fair, I can see how some might buckle under the pressure of the numeracy test. Whilst not that difficult, the format was a little unexpected. I had to sit in a room with ear phones listening to a pre- recorded voice fire mental maths questions at me( some which were quite lengthy),to which i had 4 seconds to work out and record my answer, before she moved onto the next! Not sure whether they have changed it as I took mine quite a long time ago, but not a pleasant experience. Still, I passed with a 90% score, so can't have been too difficult.

when the tests first came out I was fed up hearing " I don't need maths I am an art/ music/pe/history specialist..

the whole two cultures thing really annoys me..

All teachers should be literate and numerate and there is no excuse

yours primary teacher of Kent

( my personal opinion!)

I agree yo - yo. Whilst maths is not my main subject, I like to think I can 'hold my own' when covering yr 11 maths class as required.
One well respected maths teacher in my school has very 'average' (?) literacy skills and regularly asks me to proof read departmental reports, or even emails she is intending to send to the head. It is quite worrying, but I do think the introduction of the QTS tests has improved the situation to a degree.We had one teacher who had been teaching science and DT for 30 years and had his dyslexia go undetected until the year he retired (he was never formally tested on these skills during his training). When I found it, it certainly explained a lot, that's all I can say!

Obviously, with primary school teaching , being a 'jack of all trades' is a even more of a 'must', not just a desirable quality.

Since it is a government requirement that all trainee teachers have C grade GCSE or equivalent in Maths and English I cannot help but wonder what the additional tests are for - except to prove that GCSEs aren't worth the paper they're written on.

push-pull-mum wrote:Since it is a government requirement that all trainee teachers have C grade GCSE or equivalent in Maths and English I cannot help but wonder what the additional tests are for - except to prove that GCSEs aren't worth the paper they're written on.

I think you could be onto something there ....!

Where I work, one of my colleagues tried to correct my spelling. She began by apologising and said that she had to point out that my spelling of definitely was wrong. The problem was that she wanted me to change it to definately. We both tried to convince each other politely that we were right but, at the end of it all, she was convinced that she was right and I knew that I was right. I couldn't quite bring myself to pass her the dictionary.