How much do you discuss exam prep with other parents?

[berks_mum]

Negligible amount. 11+ seems to be a taboo subject in DDs school.
In her old school I used to chat with a mother and she told me she is not going to make her DD sit any GS exam as her DD is not as good as her son who qualified for boys superselctive a year earlier. She said, she did not even go to open days of GS as it is pointless. Test day in September DD met the girl at test centre as both of them had the same slot.
Never understood why the mum had to lie. Having said that her DD is very good and is a good friend of my DD. She wants to share things with my DD(spend time with her, have play dates) and vice versa but it is so hard to get past her mum.

[Brainfreeze]

How very odd berks_mum! And also odd stories that others have posted

It's one thing to be private about your hopes and plans but quite another to blatantly tell a big fat lie.

Thanking heaven that things are not quite as bad in my area as I thought lol

We do talk about it a bit. It's just that if I didn't use any restrain, it would take over my every conversation.

Having previously said that I am an open person, I have done some self analysis and realised perhaps I am censoring more than I admit to myself. For example I don't broadcast just how much my DS enjoys certain parts of our prep (obviously the bits he is confident with) but do talk about his reluctance with certain areas. So people might take away the impression that he is reluctant about a lot of it.

I thought this was being tactful but can see how some may see it as dishonest.

Maybe watching what you say is part of the territory.

[sonasona]

Take it from another angle, there are also those parents who don't really say much in case any of it was to embarrass their child later! For example if their child has been to a big tuition centre for a year and just scraped a pass or not made it, they may have wished they kept quiet about it in the first place. Not everyone is comfortable speaking about such topics especially when it comes to their little ones!

[salsa]

Very true sonasona.

[equilibro]

Never understood why the mum had to lie.

Afraid it's human nature in the raw BM, and t'was ever thus!

Personally, I make sport with it on the (thankfully rare) occasions when it crops up in any conversation that I have with any other 11+ parent. When they broach the subject, which I myself avoid doing, and the theme is the little or nothing that is being done to help "Jessie" or "Johnny" towards 11+ success, I always say what a joy it is to come across someone who is open and honest about the subject. The facial contortions of those who are blagging, as they strive to maintain the facade, are a sight to behold.

[Brainfreeze]

Equilibro you are awful!

[equilibro]

What a Carry On

[Brainfreeze]

Carry On Through the Eleven Plus should absolutely be the next Carry On film.

Barbara Windsor as a giggly tutor. Genius.

[onebigdilemma]

It was not until I picked my boys up on the morning of the 11+ test that I saw which other parents were picking up their children for the same thing!!
I had never mentioned it to the parents I chat too as my boys friends are lower ability (more sporty/creative than academic) so I knew it would not be something the mums I chatted too each week would consider.

[ToadMum]

Never understood why the mum had to lie.

Afraid it's human nature in the raw BM, and t'was ever thus!

Personally, I make sport with it on the (thankfully rare) occasions when it crops up in any conversation that I have with any other 11+ parent. When they broach the subject, which I myself avoid doing, and the theme is the little or nothing that is being done to help "Jessie" or "Johnny" towards 11+ success, I always say what a joy it is to come across someone who is open and honest about the subject. The facial contortions of those who are blagging, as they strive to maintain the facade, are a sight to behold.

Sorry, no facial contortions would have been necessary here. A lot of folk on the forum would no doubt consider us to be bordering on negligent for the amount of stuff we did - or rather didn't do - with our three. As for conversations with other parents, not many, but mainly because it wasn't really a hot topic of conversation and with DS2, him being our youngest and perfectly able and willing to walk home from school on his own, there were very few pick-up time conversations. Most of what little material we had was passed on to one of his friends, so that he could at least get an idea of what the test papers would look like, about ten days before the exam when his mum happened to mention that they had done even less but she was going to put more effort in before the 12+ .

We don't have a 12+...