11+ preparation overseas

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usa
Posts: 141
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 4:36 am

11+ preparation overseas

Post by usa »

I am a new parent to this, but would really appreciate some good home advice. We are a British family returning to UK next summer, from USA, just before my son starts senior school. The school I approached, said he could sit the 11+ at his current school. My concern, is that education here is well behind UK and I have to supplement his work in order for him to keep up, for when we return. I have a pile of Bond( used most at the moment), Nfer, IPS and a fair few others. This site has been brilliant in helping me know what to order, so we are armed, ready and willing!!! But what bothers me most, is that should he pass (2xVR), as he has not done the Nat Curriculum for 2 years - will he be able to cope in Year 7? I can only teach him so much and am concerned that his IQ might be the same as his peers but his knowledge will be below. Also, has anyone any idea of how to strike a happy balance between "teaching fractions" and then whipping out a test paper?! Time is on our side - we have 12 weeks off in the summer, but a rough schedule wd be really appreciated! Thanks so much!
USA
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear USA

Yes, I have seen a number of children come over from the States and yes, they have 'struggled' to catch up with our national curriculum. You are without a doubt doing the right thing re hepling him to adjust.

I would only worry about Maths English and Science, you cant go wrong by purchasing a set of KS2 CGP books on the these subjects, they have study, revision and work books.

The fractions, not needed for Bucks verbal reasoning. The CPG books will cover, generally in a fun way.

Note you have been using Bond books, not for Bucks 11 plus, however can be used for 'fun' exercises

Publications for Bucks 11 plus:

IPS, AFN, Susan Daughtrey..Bright Sparks NOT books 1-7, Nfer [these have types HIKNOS missing therefore must be practised,along side these tests, see IPS for identification of HIKNOS.]

Would also suggest you ensure his basic 4 maths operations are up to scratch, with VERY quick recall.

In addition reads out loud to you, making notes of all unknown vocabulary, make up flash cards, word on front, on the reverse meaning together with SINGLE words meaning the opposite and the same. Make up games to play. Vocabulary is probably the biggest problem with Bucks VR tests.

Patricia
usa
Posts: 141
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 4:36 am

Thank you for overseas advice

Post by usa »

Thank you so much Patricia for that helpful information. I will do as you say, and also get some KS2 books. Would you please be able to tell me, apart from reading, just how much 11+ stuff to do each day. Reckon 30 mins a day? Good advice to hear them read out loud - it is so easy to think at that stage it is no longer needed and they can do it themselves.
Sorry for not replying sooner - 7 hour time difference.
Thanks again
USA
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear USA

When will your son be sitting the 11 plus? Are Bucks sending the papers to the States? Not heard of this arrangement before.

Patricia
usa
Posts: 141
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 4:36 am

Post by usa »

Hallo Patricia!
Yes - I pay for absolutely everything involved - but the papers are sent over by courier, straight to his current school, who sign for them etc and then keep them hidden away until the time to sit them. He will sit the same day as all the other Bucks children - just 7 hrs later, and the school invigilate. on both days and then send back via courier. I suppose the practise papers will be sent too, so that will be a bit of time squeeze, but so be it. It is quite common practise over here for English children to take school exams for UK, without the expense of flying back. Not all schools allow it. The odds are stacked against him, but nothing ventured nothing gained - might as well give it a go!
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear USA

My dad always used to say to me, try to learn something new everyday, today I have learnt that Bucks will allow students to take the 11 plus overseas, makes sense, just hadn't occurred to me.

Will you or the school be responsible for administering the familiarisation sessions and 3 practice papers? Out of county parents take responsibility.

Difficult to pass comment on how much work is required for your son, not knowing his ability, you can't go wrong with the attitude of little and often.

Suggest you take a look at the Bucks section, Free help, page 2 my 2 replies to PK, any questions ask away.

Patricia
HP
Posts: 438
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 2:06 pm

Post by HP »

Hi USA,

Have to say "Well Done" for finding this site. If your son is half as enterprising as you he will do well in Year 7 :D

Notice that you are still worried about how much to do, so I thought it might help if I put down our experience. We had started with VR Bond Level 3 about 6/7 months before her exam, just a paper each week. This familiarised her with VR without being too difficult and boosted her confidence. We usually marked her papers together and talked through any problem areas. My daughter was also working through technique books, one/two techniques each week, roughtly 20 minutes each time.

In addition, we did a Bond maths paper each week. (Eventually we covered books 3 and 4) Although I felt that we had started early enough, we discovered by about June that our bright daughter simply hadn't covered enough curriuclum work to stand any chance of passing her Maths exam (we had a separate maths paper as well as VR). We literally had to tackle about half of the KS2 curriculum for maths over the summer holidays :!:

We found that striking a balance between maths and VR is not as hard as you might think, thought it might help to know what we did over a period of just 3 weeks of the summer hols before her November paper to bring her up to srcatch.

We prepared a timetable from the outset, (helps to tick off what you have done), Over three weeks we did about 2-3 hours each morning broken up into 50 minute chunks, including breaks we would finish by about 1 pm latest. This left quite a big enough chunk at the end of the day for "chilling out", important as 1:1 is quite intensive. We planned fun days out for every third day to break the monotony, we didn't study for more than 2 consecutive days but didn't put a break from studying of more than a day. My daughter tells me now that this worked for her as 2 days off together would have made it harder to settle back down to work.

We alternated our days between learning curriculum Maths and VR, we used VR papers (Bond/ IPS/ AFN), and we didn't always time these, but wanted to test/build her knowledge. Speed seemed to increase naturally with familairity and increase in vocabluarly knowledge anyway.

Maths was harder, the Bond papers (again not timed) were great at identifying the missing bits. We then worked on areas that were new for a few sessions. I did lots of "Mum's Revision" sessions, just making up 10/20 questions on areas that were new eg Ratio/Proportion. My daughter loved "Mum's Revision" especially when her answer was correct and mine wasn't :lol: New areas were always tackled first thing, as were any Bond papers that we did. If this sounds intensive, or you think I was too pushy :) then to put it into context long multiplication and long division hadn't even been covered in school at this point :shock:

We didn't look at a single book for the first 3 weeks of our summer break so that our daughter could put space between school and starting 11+ prep. She was certainly much fresher and eager to work after this. As, it seems, you have much more time than we had, you could go at a much gentler pace. Don't know how much maths you need for your VR papers but just wanted to let you know that if you do feel that you have maths to do as well as VR, than you will know that it can be done. It worked for my daughter. :D.

Finally, don't neglect the KS2 science books, shedule in some time here and there to go throught the KS2 curriculum science vocabulary as this could be significant.

Hope this helps.

HP
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear HP

HP, have no problem in how you approached each day etc, you certainly had a good, structured regime.

However, just to clarify, Bond must not be used for BUCKS NFER verbal reasoning. too many irrelevant types of questions, use Bond for 'fun' activities only. We know the types of questions that are going to come up, so don't want to overload the child with unnecessary work, especially when time is a problem.

Dear USA

Personally would concentrate on verbal reasoning now until test in October, with some basic maths, the maths in the Bucks verbal reasoning is quite basic only involving the 4 operations. In addition some vocabulary work, then proceed onto KS2 Maths/English/Science to get your son up to scratch with our national curriculum.

Patricia
Guest

Post by Guest »

Thankyou HP for the huge insight into your practise schedule.

It will be very helpful when I start with mine, but
could you pls advise why you feel the KS2 Science will help.

I will not only have to cover the Maths, and VR but also English for our entrance test. so science was not on the agenda at all :P unless I am missing something. :(

Like you I plan to do the revision at home, and hope to inject some fun in as you appear to have successfully done. Also as Patricia advises little and often.
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Post by patricia »

Dear Guest

Re HP and I talking about science, the first poster [USA] has a son who needs to catch up with our national curriculum.

What part of the country are you from?

Yes I agree HP had a well thought out plan, if you are going to tutor your child, you need to be fairly disciplined.

Patricia
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