11 Plus Exams Forum

I am thinking of starting 11+ tution for free for to those who can not afford

Venue: I will consult local council requesting them to arrange a room for free every weekend for 3 or 4 hours
Subjects: VR/NVR
Location: Thinking of Slough as I live in Slough so it is easy for me to setup
Tutors: I will request some of the famous tutors to provide tution for me just like any other community service that they may do.
Eligibility: Children of parents who can not afford

All : Please share your ideas/comments

My immediate thought is "how would you decide who can/can't afford it?". A noble idea and I applaud you for it, but I imagine is may be fraught with difficulties in practice.

I do think this is a good idea and don't want to put you off,but how many places would you have in mind and how do you plan to fund this ?

Great idea. However, as mentioned above, how will you fund it? Are you expecting the tutors to do it for free? Why should the council give you the room for free? What background/experience/credentials have you got in running this service. What do you gain from doing it?

scary mum wrote:My immediate thought is "how would you decide who can/can't afford it?". A noble idea and I applaud you for it, but I imagine is may be fraught with difficulties in practice.

Yes there will be difficulties in the beginning, no doubt.

How would you decide who can/can't afford :
1) by verifying parent's recent months bank stmts , but not sure if I need to register a charity to see parents bank stmts as it is their personal finacial information
2) By beleiving that parents are honest and truthful

I may concentrate by allowing only y5 children who are from local primary schools and which are not rated as outstanding by Ofsted

Please share your ideas and opinions

I know somebody who runs something very similar in inner city London (Peckham)

They run it in conjuction with a local church and a few local parent volunteers. The church provides the venue and the man trains the parent helpers who help out and current and former students chip in with help too. It works brilliantly driven as its driven by passion and the children get fantastic results. Its not completely free though because you wan't people to value what you are offering otherwise you end up getting time wasters who don't bother with homework etc. They charge a minimal fee (can't remember how much but around £5 for 2 hours).

Now they just don't do 11 plus but have grown to covering up to A level including helping these student with top university applications. Its great what they do and they have been featured everywhere including meeting the PM because they achieved what the govt has failed to do for inner city kids. The beauty is seeing the older ones who have been helped there helping the little ones.

As to how you determine who can come, well depending on location there are just some places where middle class won't venture into and really no need for vetting. The guy does workshops sometimes where he encourages parents to do something similar and that's how I got to see him. It maybe useful to attend one of these as they are free and have a chat with him. I can pm you the website details if you want.

Thingsbehindthesun wrote:I do think this is a good idea and don't want to put you off,but how many places would you have in mind and how do you plan to fund this ?

one batch will consist of upto 15places and only one batch will be started in the first year

No funds required

I will need to identify tutors who can provide tution for free as a help towards the local community

For a room: I may ask local school to provide a room for free on weekend, if not council

pheasantchick wrote:Great idea. However, as mentioned above, how will you fund it? Are you expecting the tutors to do it for free? Why should the council give you the room for free? What background/experience/credentials have you got in running this service. What do you gain from doing it?

I have no background/exp/credentials to run this service, do I need these all to provide my services to the community

I am not gaining anything from providing this free tution, it is just community service

CRB checks cost money ... so do resources e.g. practice papers.

It's a great idea but there are many logistical problems to overcome.

sherry_d wrote:I know somebody who runs something very similar in inner city London (Peckham)

They run it in conjuction with a local church and a few local parent volunteers. The church provides the venue and the man trains the parent helpers who help out and current and former students chip in with help too. It works brilliantly driven as its driven by passion and the children get fantastic results. Its not completely free though because you wan't people to value what you are offering otherwise you end up getting time wasters who don't bother with homework etc. They charge a minimal fee (can't remember how much but around £5 for 2 hours).

Now they just don't do 11 plus but have grown to covering up to A level including helping these student with top university applications. Its great what they do and they have been featured everywhere including meeting the PM because they achieved what the govt has failed to do for inner city kids. The beauty is seeing the older ones who have been helped there helping the little ones.

As to how you determine who can come, well depending on location there are just some places where middle class won't venture into and really no need for vetting. The guy does workshops sometimes where he encourages parents to do something similar and that's how I got to see him. It maybe useful to attend one of these as they are free and have a chat with him. I can pm you the website details if you want.

thanks for sharing the above

actually my idea was to start free tutions for all ages but somehow i thought i shud start with 11+ as it changes pupil lives towards better education
True , nominal charge should be taken so only serious parents would send their children
As volunteers I can use local grammar school students and parents

Though I can help with tution but I can not drive it so I need a proper tutor to drive it with the help of other parents/student helpers