The Eleven Plus at the Fourth Attempt

We have a book called Modern Cookery Illustrated by Lydia Chatteron. There is no ISBN number and no publishers date – but Amazon has two copies at the present price of £5.93. If you do happen to buy a copy, and you turn to page 598, you will find ideas on how to make your food last a little longer.

There are suggestions on how to cope with a small leg of pork.

For the First Meal. – Cut off the trotter with a small piece of knuckle and stew for a breakfast dish, using the broth for soup.

For the Second Meal. – Cut the remainder in half, have the knuckle end salted and serve with pease pudding in four or five days’ time.

For the Third Meal. – Cut off a slice from the remainder and serve as pork cutlets.

For the Fourth Meal. – Stuff and roast the piece that is left.

Some parents and children may find a similar approach to eleven topics helpful. Collect all your eleven plus material together. Make some form of analysis of what your child finds easy and where he or she may struggle. Reckon on going over any needy topics at least four times. There will naturally be a space between each of your attempts.

For the First Attempt. – Work through the topic with your child and make sure that both of you understand what is involved. Leave a few days for consolidation before attempting the next stage.

For the Second Attempt. – Write notes that you can both refer to. Both of you learn the notes by heart. (In the old days this was called drill. In today’s eleven plus world this is called drill. Same effort -same results. Learn the work by heart!)

For the Third Attempt. – Ask your child to write and recall the notes from memory. Relearn any weak areas.

For the Fourth Attempt. – Try more examples – using the similar questions from all of the different sources.

Mrs Chatterton wrote in her introduction: “Cookery is neither dull nor difficult if you study it intelligently. Indeed it might be argued that Cookery ranks high among the arts.”

An eleven plus parent may argue: “Learning is neither dull nor difficult if you study it intelligently. Indeed it might be argued that learning ranks high among the arts.”

Convince yourself of this – and you may find it easier to convince your child. You may care to remember that if you don’t get it the first time, you try again. You may also need a third and fourth attempt to drive it all home.