A parent asked me in the playground yesterday, will your DS take the 11+? He is only 6 (year 1) - how and when did you make that choice? Our local grammars are super selective which I feel makes the choice more difficult and I can’t work out how I feel about it. I would rather only put him in for it if it seems highly likely he may be selected and very capable of the workload.

He is at an outstanding state primary and achieved exceeding in every element of the EYFS (which I am told puts him loosely in the top 2-3%). However, these tiny people change so much over the coming years and he is September born. The lady in question has no knowledge of this, I haven’t even told my son what his report said!

The lady has older children which may be why it was on her mind and rather hilariously, I wonder whether she asked because the children came out with the list of parts for their nativity, my DS was given Joseph (out of 120 children). If casting in year 1 nativity truly equals future success then we are sorted, haha.

Question is - when does is become clear whether or not your child should take the 11+?

I have been thinking about this since morning and am glad some one posted. I saw a post on other forum where a parent whose only child is in year 2 querying the results for SW consortium results and wondering what the chances for her child were. Since then I have been thinking are Grammar Schools the holy grail of education? Is this the only thing a child needs to do and achieve in their life? It is thought provoking and I am sure some parents decide at the birth of the child about the school the child will go to.

However, in my case I decided to go through this when my child was in year 3 more towards the end of the year. I did this with a thought in mind that we will give it a go and if it works well then great if not my child is still learning what he needs to learn according to his age. He has never been the top of class and is not a very academically inclined child but what I can say now when he is in year 5 he is now in the top sets for Math and English in year group at the school so I guess we are achieving something by going through this journey.

What happens next year after he sits the tests I will put it down to his luck as we are putting in 110% on effort and that is what matters.

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Thank you,

Worrybot

My DD couldn’t even read at the beginning of year 1, so nowhere near the top of any class.

It wasn’t until year 4 when she finally had caught up and started to overtake other children we stared to realise she was actually quite bright. Her year 4 teacher was the one that told us she was more than capable of getting into GS. Year 5 teacher didn’t agree.

Well she got in and has done fine, now doing A levels.
Children seen as ‘bright’ in the early years, either didn’t bother trying (peaked to early maybe) or did and didn’t get places.

You really can’t tell in year 1.

I am under no illusion that because he did well in Reception as the eldest in the year that he will be top of the class at age 11. I just don’t know how children/ parents make the choice to go for the 11+. From what I’ve heard, the teachers give no guidance.

My husband and I both went to super selectives. He loved it, I was miserable.

I just wondered how people decided?

I'm not sure how we decided really. We had lots of friends with older children so watched them make secondary school decisions - few of them sat the 11+ but enough that it was on our radar. People talked about one particular school a lot but I was a bit sceptical because I absolutely hated the primary school that everyone else seemed to love.
It was obvious from reception that there was a very clever little cohort in dd's year group (of which she was one) but the fact that there were 5 children out of 20 who all seemed equally able, made it feel less likely that they were all really going to be capable of getting a place. When I went and looked round schools at the start of year 4 (on the grounds that we wouldn't need to do any preparation if I didn't like the selectives) I was blown away by one particular school and could immediately imagine dd being very happy there.
We took a relatively low key approach to the 11+ with a "what will be will be" attitude even though I was really really keen for her to go to that school; I didn't want to make her feel the same way.

For me my DD1 was the youngest in the year , whilst other parents were talking about the 11+ in reception, I was struggling to get her to complete the high frequency word cards! At this point 11+ was off the radar . She needed quite a lot of help as she was very young and trailing behind her peers until Y3 when it seemed to click, by Y4 she was in the top sets . It was then the teacher mentioned the 11+ , I nearly fell off my chair ! Unfortunately she didn’t qualify but luckily got through on review (Bucks) . She is now in Y10 top sets Maths and Science and excelling in on other subjects . So how did I know ? I didn’t really, it was the HT in junior school that could see her potential. She is extremely hard working and enjoys a challenge. A rule of thumb for me , if they are in the bottom sets I would not want to send them to a GS, unfortunately in my area most parents tutor even the less able , this is where I disagree. Only my opinion . Dolly ***

This kind of topic scares me as so many children are late developers, or are more interested in other stuff when they are little. The appeal threads where it states that an appeal panel want to see evidence of high scores at the end of KS1 make me shudder as that is so pedagogically unsound - children do not develop in a linear manner and so much academic attainment when they are little has far more to do with what goes on at home than the relative brilliance of their brains. As someone who did not let her children go to school at all when they were little, and then didn't let them do homework, I know that they were definitely not 'top of the class' when they were in the infants or juniors.

To answer your question - I would say that as you get to know your daughter over the next few years, what she likes and doesn't, what her strengths and weaknesses are, how she enjoys spending her time, you will learn what kind of school you think she would thrive in when she gets to secondary level. My daughter would have hated the grammar schools near us and to be honest probably would not have got into one at 11. She was educated in a mixed ability environment until 16 when she chose to go to grammar school for sixth form. My older son took the 11+ and did not get the score needed for the school we wanted (no tutoring). He moved there in Y8. My younger son took it and passed it (tutored this time, I had learned) and went to the same school as his brother. All 3 got almost identical GCSE results and the 2 who took A levels got the same results and are both at what this forum likes to call 'top' universities. Moreover and more importantly to me, they all had a lot of fun as children and no one was focused at all on whether they were going to sit an exam at 10. We were abroad and actually didn't even know about it until DD was in Y5!

In short, relax for now and let her be a little girl without wondering what is going to happen in 6 years.

I think time will tell for us!

I was interested to hear that she was already planning her DD’s (year 1) 11+ campaign and thought that her honesty was refreshing, albeit a little scary.

Hi

DD was the youngest in her year being August born, was premature and had a fair stint in hospital so she took a bit of time to get into her own. By year 3/4, her ability was coming through more. She was in the most able group of pupils. Consideration of 11+ was mentioned by friends with older children - until then it wasn't even on my radar. During late year 4, I had a brief look at local GS schools websites. I visited one GS & one local comprehensive. It gave me enough of a feel to think that it might suit DD & to think about tuition. People in this area tend to find tutors in late year 4 / early year 5 (even though tuition didn't start until after xmas). It gave me a choice of tutors. We went into thinking - it can only benefit DD - and if she isn't capable - its not wasted. She has flown the 11+, six weeks into her new GS & loving it.

Really don't even think about it until later on. My DD enjoyed tuition and it was still stressful at times. When you get there think about what is right for your DD, where will she thrive & flourish. We were lucky in that one of her teachers had been to a GS herself and was encouraging. Her old primary headteacher denies they even exist - even though the children that go massively help her SAT performance (but that's another thread!)

This.

DD really struggled with reading then one day, at the beginning of year 2, it clicked and she was off. Reports up until Y3 show her as achieving the expected standard (or equivalent - it's changed three times!), Y4 she started to achieve above expected standard in Reading/Writing and still average in maths, Y5 report was above expected standard in all and mock SATs last week were all over 110 at the beg. of Y6. She's just passed her 11+ in Essex (although we're not super selective) with a little group tuition (we've spent less than £2,000 across 18 months).

Grammar suitability is about more than academic ability - it's attitude to learning and ability to deal with pressure too; these aren't things you can tell when they're in Y1!