Carrots, Sticks and the Eleven Plus

Many eleven plus children are prepared with a teacher on a one to one basis. Many other children are taught by their parents. Some children prepare all by themselves. Other children are taught in small group situations. Sometimes small group teaching is administered on an individualised basis while others are taught as a group.

A number of parents will try to influence the development of their child’s eleven plus progress through incentives, interest and goal orientation exercises.

Step One
Build your child’s self esteem.

Step Two
Consider the social dynamics of any or all of the teaching environments mentioned above and decide on what is best for your child.

Step Three
Think about the relationship of the chosen eleven plus teacher, if you have one, to your child.

Consider your relationship with your child – and how that will change and grow over the months.

The question of your child’s self esteem is an important but subtle factor in the build up to the examination. Your child wants to feel that he or she can cope with eleven plus work as well as other eleven plus children. You hope that your child feels, at times, that he or she may be better than most of the competition. Approval by others is probably vital to most eleven plus children. I have even heard of eleven plus teachers developing a `star’ system to try to keep rewarding their children. It is likely too that some parents are rightly proud of their own form of a star system. The goal would probably be, in most cases, to try to keep motivating and involving their child in the eleven plus process.

For some parents a carrot works better than a stick.

Other parents will rely on sticks rather than carrots.

Some will use a combination of carrots and sticks.

The carrot versus stick scenario will not even enter the mind of some parents.

There can not be a right way or a wrong way – just what ever works!