Summer Intensive anyone? The sprint to the finishing line...

[YoungSuccess]

Long term lurker here. Finally decided to sign up!

I suppose not many would want to share about this, but I thought I try. How many of you here with DC doing a Summer Intensive now and for how long? 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks?

And for those who have done it for their DC last year or before, did it make a difference to your DC's performance / success?

Thank you.

Also, for those who have succeeded last year or in the past, were your DCs ever in the position, whereby, at this time of the year, they still appeared to have not grasped well the types ( VR & NVR for Tiffin) and / or Maths & English for Suttons, making a lot of mistakes, and yet succeeded in the end?

Edited.

[Daogroupie]

Very impressive that the teachers suggested he should be challenged more. Usually it is the other way around with parents keen to have their students challenged. DG

[YoungSuccess]

Very impressive that the teachers suggested he should be challenged more. Usually it is the other way around with parents keen to have their students challenged. DG

Yes, I was all laidback about it all; I did think DC was doing well in Year 1, but I thought all the other children must be performing at his level too. ( In this school, you never get to find out how the other children are doing, all results are kept tightly secret from others). When DC reached Year 2, we still thought DC was just averagely bright and was very sure that most of the other children were the same level. Then the Y2 teacher told / asked us by the end of first or second term " you do know he is very, very bright don't you?" Lol, She proceeded to explain and said we should prepare him for the Grammars.

I didn't even know he is and has been in the school's G & T list until year 4!

With his current situation with the 11+, I think he is just averagely bright after all. Well, will just have a go and see what can be done in the next 6 - 8 weeks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated though.

[Peridot]

I have no experience of summer intensive courses I'm afraid: in the summer before my daughter took the eleven plus (Tiffin Girls' and Nonsuch) she did two things that I thought were beneficial: 1. Took a few weeks off completely to relax and have a holiday and then 2. Having done the Sutton PTA mock test in the Spring, she took two more mocks run by a private tuition centre at the end of the summer. In hindsight one was probably enough but I'd already booked two! Having a rest was good, then the mocks really focused her brain again ready for the exams in September.

If your son has covered all the material with the tutor and is academically able it may just be that he is making silly mistakes; often there can be speed issues, or children don't read the questions properly. These would be the things to iron out with him. My daughter had problems with the nonverbal questions at one point as she had listened so well to the tutor that she thought she always had to look for certain types and follow a methodology for each type. This wasn't working for her so I just told her to have an open mind and use her brain and suddenly she could do them.

Good luck.

[YoungSuccess]

Thank you DG and Peridot,

Peridot, that's very useful. I suppose being bright and being able to do these exams under pressure with 37.5 seconds for each question in the case of VR & NVR is entirely another thing. Working on his speed now and back to the maps again. Its painful to see that DC could be spending time on enrichment and fun learning activities as we always do on holidays. He said he wants to write a book, now that would have been fun.

Anyone been to the Natural History Museum lately and saw the butterflies show?! How was it? Can't wait to bring him there, possibly this weekend.

[Ladymuck]

Deleted by user.

[YoungSuccess]

Thank you Ladymuck for the friendly advice.

Intensive it is, and hopefully squeeze a week of holiday.