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Saturday, July 16, 2011

Eleven Plus Questions

What do some parents want from their eleven plus teacher or tutor?

The teacher should be able to successfully guide the development of the eleven plus child.

Parents would also hope that the teacher will be able to understand their child’s behaviour.

It should not be difficult to think that children should also play a significant part in the eleven plus process – after all it is the children who have to do most of the work. Does the child understand the teacher’s behaviour?

Eleven plus teachers need quite a bit of information about the children they are teaching. Is the child feeling well? Are there holidays approaching? Has the child done any work outside of the lessons?

Very few parents would want to argue with the premise that the more information that can be offered the more likely it is that the correct lesson can be prescribed.

Some teachers seem to be able to sum up a child in a remarkably short time. The playground feeling may be that a teacher of this genre is born not made. Some parents would probably rush to have their child tutored by a sympathetic and knowledgeable teacher.

It is very likely that the best possible eleven plus teacher, or tutor, is going to be either the mother or the father – or a combination of both parents!

1. Mums and Dads know their children.

2. Mums and Dads can change the rules because they are the mums and dads.

3. Children are usually pretty astute – and know their parents’ moods.

4. Mums and Dads know about holidays, health and the amount of work that has been done.

5. Mums and Dads can be remarkably sympathetic at times.

It does not matter if parents can not work out all the answers. One bright little eleven plus boy explained to me today that he was doing very well on papers at home but that his mother found some of the verbal reasoning questions hard. I asked him how he coped. He replied that he did not mind as his aunt was a teacher and he could ask her!

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