A slight joke about the name but I hope you know the sort of tutoring I mean. Intensive week long holiday courses. We are home tutoring, which is going very well, but looking at paying for mock exams and have come across boot camp courses which I think my DS will enjoy. If only as a break from his nagging mother and a chance to meet other children he might end up at a grammar school with.

Has anyone done this? How many weeks did you do? I was contemplating a week at Easter (so if they find he's struggling with something that I've missed we've got time to do extra work) and then 2/3 weeks during the Summer holidays. Or maybe just 3/4 weeks in the summer holidays. Along with a mock exam each for Kent and Bexley.

Thoughts?

No, please - that is just overkill - it is more likely that that amount of time in the summer will be counter-productive. He needs a break to refresh his brain - just keep doing what you are doing and ignore these intensive courses.

My DS pushed back on Boot-camps, and in the end we worked with at home and also managed to have time for going out and doing activities. I am not sure if there are any figures out there on how many hours a 10 year old is effective a day, but by summer we had a better understanding of their weak points and were able to concentrate on those. I am convinced that approach helped for English part of the test.
I also think you need the year to do the maths, because they need to understand standard concepts inside out, back to front and top to bottom

I think the intensive courses are useful, particularly around Easter and summer as you'll have a chance to see where your child sits compared to others taking the same exam. They'll be the competition after all. Also, I would definitely book in for mock tests as this will give your child experience of sitting in a strange place under timed pressure.

I think Easter is good, but we found in his 11+ tutor group DS was in the bottom third, so we worried that too much comparison may knock DS confidence. It is a fine balance. I think master classes are good in exam technique

Please don't. Would you like it? Pressure, pressure and all that holiday rest time ruined. He will never be 10 again.....

Sorry, you did ask.....

Also, seriously? What 10 year old would "enjoy" an intensive boot camp?! Definitely not either of my two - both of whom comfortably qualified for a so called super selective.

If they are that type of child who would enjoy boot camp, then why not use the time to get them out and look at nature, run around a field, play in mud, learn to cook, visit Bletchley park or Marwell Zoo - what I mean is get them out and about learning and enjoying life as they are a child - plenty of time to sit in an intensive learning environment....

Our group tuition company did three hour summer revision lessons every day for 4 weeks in August. We did a couple of lessons a week for three weeks on weaker areas, but also built in a complete three week rest on holiday. There was one boy there who had had no previous tuition and his parents sent him every single day to cover the entire syllabus. But I wouldn't do both; general learning and intensive revision. Not unless you want to test and learn your child's capacity for miserableness.

My DD did a week at her '11+ club' at the end of the summer holidays. The purpose was to totally forget about anything school/ 11+ during the holidays and just enjoy it and then send her to her club at the end to get her brain back in gear because the test was September 13th (which I didn't think was enough time to get back on track).

Her club was really fun and they played lots of games and had plenty of breaks.

She didn't feel under any pressure, she made some nice friends and was nicely prepared for the 11+ two weeks later.

To clarify, the ones I am looking at do 3 days with 4 hours of tutoring (plus a break), and that would be the only 11 plus work I would expect him to do that week other than reading.

I really didn't think that was excessive seeing as some of his classmates are spending 3 hours at tuition centres every Saturday for the whole of year 4 and year 5, plus 11 plus homework. He currently does an hour or so at home over the course of the week.