Grammar School 11+ advice

[Bertiebear]

Our daughter is going into year 5 but I’ve started to look at Secondary’s. Our son is going into year 8 and settled where he is but I’m thinking of looking down the grammar route for our daughter. The school that she is interested in sits the CEM test not standard 11+.
Has anyone gone through the process with their child with no tutor? Any helpful resources that would be available to us? Thank you.

[sparkles18]

Our son did the CEM 11+ a few years ago, he’s going into Y11, and we used CGP books which were a great help. Check that you’re using the CEM version.
We also enrolled him on the online course with a tutor company called KSOL which was also brilliant.

What I would also advise is that your daughter sit some mocks exams before hand as these were invaluable. And focus on exam technique as it's very easy to mess the answer paper up if it’s still multiple choice.

I also remember that I had to teach him percentages and ratios as it wasn’t covered in the curriculum back then but may of changed now.

There’s also a good website which is good for help and resources:
elevenplusexams/
Hope this helps.

[Bertiebear]

Brilliant thank you. Will have a look at all the suggestions.

[caj]

Lots and lots of practice! I had some 5 min sets, some 10 min papers up to 40 mins. That meant we could fit it in daily. I found it a slog, but it was worth it. Make sure you are using the correct forms materials. Also make sure times tables are en point (try sally Stafford tables are go) and eally vocabulary with lots and lots of homophomes and antonyms and synonyms. It's mostly pattern solving though which is fine until they have to solve them quickly.

[skb 123]

Can't comment on the CEM, but can offer advice based on my 2 different experiences.

DS - singled out all through primary as being very bright, but I still succumbed to the peer parent pressure and got him a tutor for a few months before the 11+ (one of his teachers who knew his weakest areas) and used the Bond practice papers. He passed 11+ in ours and neighbouring borough (we live right on boundary) with very high scores and went to outstanding local boys Grammar. Was a big shock to be among lots of other bright students, but also surprising how many struggled after having obviously been tutored simply to pass 11+ and could not keep up. However, DS flourished and had some fantastic opportunities including sports, music and overseas trips such as USA and China.

DD was above average through primary. When her time came, the 11+ was "optional" and she wanted to do it. She was willing to put in the practice, but I took the decision not to get a tutor and if she passed it would be purely on her ability. She missed the pass mark by 2 marks. We did not appeal and she went to a local academy and has just had good GCSE results not too far off what her brother achieved - although she did 9 and grammar students usually do 12 or 13. A friend who got a lower 11+ score somehow did manage to get into the local girls grammar has developed mental health issues because of the pressures. The main difference in DD's experience has been the limited extra curricular opportunities she has had.

So my advice would be to think carefully about your reasons for wanting to go the grammar route. If they are really academic, then let them get there on merit (albeit with some practice tests). I always tell people now to choose the school that best fits the child.

[TheHughesCrew]

Both my boys sat the 11+ and are at the local Grammar School.

Important things are speed (especially with the CEM), accuracy and simply just holding it together under pressure. Mock exams are really useful for this. We used Kip McGrath for a couple of mocks, even though we didn't use them for tutoring.

See if you can get hold of past papers. The school may be able to help with this. We also used the Bond books.

And good luck! We didn't start thinking about it until Easter in Yr 5. It was a fairly intense few months, I'm glad we didn't start any earlier, none of us would have been able to cope, we'd have been fed up with it all!

There's a ton of useful information on here elevenplusexams/fo...plus/index.php and you can then ask questions specific to your area.

[duchy]

I had an interesting conversation with my brother about this .
I’m four years older and had the experience of been the first year our area moved from grammar and high school to comprehensive. Four years later my parents unhappy with the state system sent him to a selective ex grammar school paying fees.
He commented that I was the academic one, loved reading etc whereas he didn’t.
He said for the first three years he struggled was always bottom of the class and it did horrible things to his self confidence but couldn’t tell our parents as he knew they’d made sacrifices to pay his school fees.
At sixteen he found the confidence (or desperation) to say no to 6th form and took a BTECH in Business at college instead. He had good exam results so 6th form was a definite option. He was much happier there and did well, he then went to work for the Home Office.
That all these years later , how hard it was for him has stayed with him . His daughter is nine and more like I was very bright and academic rather than a plodder like him (Not a bad thing to be) and he fortunately lives in an area with very good state schools but it does underline that the best school for one child may not be the best fit for another. Some kids thrive in more academic schools others don’t respond well to a hot house environment where exam results are the only criteria that matters.
Where I live now we have grammar schools , if you don’t pay for tutoring you simply won’t get past the 11 plus which to me is awful as it means some kids are Heavily coached purely to pass and don’t have the required aptitude or ability and do suffer the square peg in a round hole situation . It’s a very imperfect situation.
I honestly hadn’t realised just how bad things were for him , looking back I’d have definitely benefited from the education he had as been an experiment in the first year of the comprehensive system was definitely a mess and I went from motivated to completely frustrated with a complete mess of a school system trying to make a new way of doing things work. It didn’t stop me making my way in the world but it probably put me off going to university until I was in my thirties.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by duchy

I had an interesting conversation with my brother about this .
I’m four years older and had the experience of been the first year our area moved from grammar and high school to comprehensive. Four years later my parents unhappy with the state system sent him to a selective ex grammar school paying fees.
He commented that I was the academic one, loved reading etc whereas he didn’t.
He said for the first three years he struggled was always bottom of the class and it did horrible things to his self confidence but couldn’t tell our parents as he knew they’d made sacrifices to pay his school fees.
At sixteen he found the confidence (or desperation) to say no to 6th form and took a BTECH in Business at college instead. He had good exam results so 6th form was a definite option. He was much happier there and did well, he then went to work for the Home Office.
That all these years later , how hard it was for him has stayed with him . His daughter is nine and more like I was very bright and academic rather than a plodder like him (Not a bad thing to be) and he fortunately lives in an area with very good state schools but it does underline that the best school for one child may not be the best fit for another. Some kids thrive in more academic schools others don’t respond well to a hot house environment where exam results are the only criteria that matters.
Where I live now we have grammar schools , if you don’t pay for tutoring you simply won’t get past the 11 plus which to me is awful as it means some kids are Heavily coached purely to pass and don’t have the required aptitude or ability and do suffer the square peg in a round hole situation . It’s a very imperfect situation.
I honestly hadn’t realised just how bad things were for him , looking back I’d have definitely benefited from the education he had as been an experiment in the first year of the comprehensive system was definitely a mess and I went from motivated to completely frustrated with a complete mess of a school system trying to make a new way of doing things work. It didn’t stop me making my way in the world but it probably put me off going to university until I was in my thirties.

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My experience of a grammar school was similar to you brothers. I got in as my older sister was there. She was super bright, I am more average. I struggled badly and lost my confidence to the point of awful mental health issues that I won’t get into, but I hid it all from my parents.
I totally agree one school won’t fit every child.
For the OP good luck with the test. We used bond books for my ds when he had to do the test (all schools in this area require the test, not just grammar ones) but he flunked the test in the end (he’s not academic and was expected) and got in on being local to the school. It certainly can be a stressful and worrying time.

[LadyFromage]

My daughter is the same, going into Year 5 this week.

She wants to go to the local girls grammar school and knows she'll have to pass the 11plus. She's a bright girl but we want to give her the best chance possible for £25 a week for a tutor it is.

We've told her it doesn't matter. If she doesn't pass she'll go to the mixed academy our older daughter goes to which is right next door. These are our 2 closest schools

[Bertiebear]

Thanks for all the replies. Definitely lots to think about.