11 Plus Exams Forum

Happy Easter to all

I went from part time to full time when DS was in year 5 - I don't think it made any difference and was probably working rather more than FT hours when DD did hers.

Obviously you have to decide for yourself but by the time they get to GCSE / A levels I'm not sure that parents should be heavily involved other than getting books if needed, somewhere to study, good wifi, plenty of chocolate and the occasional distraction.

I don't think you need to quit your job - seems a bit extreme. Can you get a part time job instead, or work and employ a tutor. In Kent, most pupils who have a tutor will do so during year 5, for approximately 1 hour per week, plus homework. Obviously, if you go down the DIY route, you will need to prepare the sessions. This website sells the resources you need.

If you give details of which area you live in, people can advise you as to what work us needed.

That sounds extremely over the top!! You say about "outside of school hours" so your child must attend school (as opposed to being home tutored). NO child should be doing more than a few minutes a day after a day at school anyway - even working full time, I am sure you can find 20 minutes to do some stuff - even reading for 20 minutes and talking about what you have read can help? To put it in context, my two sons did about an hour/hour and a half a week for the last 10 weeks of Year 5. That is all. They were both working at a high level maths at school, admittedly, and we focused on 11plus exam technique rather than knowledge.

It is very easy to get carried away reading this forum - it is full of high intensity/well informed parents and I can imagine that someone who hasn't done the "11+ journey" before would feel overwhelmed and anxious thinking they have to do all the things that everyone else is doing. Please don't feel like that - for every parent on here, there are probably ten who aren't, and most of those will be doing little or nothing - and a lot of their children will get a place - as not everyone who is on here does achieve places for their children. Please get it into perspective - if you want to leave full time work, then by all means do, but don't leave it to concentrate on 11+. Remember your child will be at school for most of the day, working hard, and needs to have time for rest and recuperation and being a child.

As pheasantchick suggests, if you give the details of the area you live in, you will get more specific advice and should be able to identify the key priorities and then work out whether a tutor could address those for you, or if you can diy after work, which I have all confidence that you can.

Well if you want to give up work to spend more time with your dc, that is lovely, but is the dilemma really just about prepping for the 11+? I am a stay at home mum, and have done just about 80 minutes 11+ work with my boy all this Easter...far too lovely and sunny to worry about work. Are you sure you are not just looking for a way to justify giving up work to enjoy your children? Maybe see if you can find part time work if that is the case, it will be a compromise. Twenty minutes a day is the best way for diy, with some longer sessions to complete papers for a few months before hand.

Good luck with your decision, is there more family at home to help you?

easterrush wrote: 2-3 hours a day during school days and 8-10 hours in the summer if not more?

I know lots of children at super selective school and I don't know anyone who has done that amount of work. If they are doing a full day at school I can't imagine many kids will have the energy for 2-3 hours work too. Mine could barely manage a bond 10 minute test some nights!

Can you tell us a bit more about your situation? How does your son our daughter feel about this? Are they already working at level 5? If they are nearly there then the mountain to climb is not so big.

Quality of prep rather than quantity is the key.
We did 15-20 mins twice a week during year 5 with a couple of papers a week during the summer.
Trying to do more during the week I think is self defeating. They have had a tiring day at school.