As you look fondly at your eleven plus child, hugging the T.V. switcher and resisting all of your bright and energetic suggestions, you may care to recite a little poem by William Cole.
How Sad
There’s a pitiful story - ah, me!
Of a young English girl called Nellie.
Who stared dumbly all day at TV
(Which in England is known as `the telly’) –
She died ….. and the reason you see,
Was that her brains had all turned to jelly.
There may be some children who have arrived at the door of eleven plus examinations without really being ready. Most children need to have obtained a consistent stage of development before they can comfortably cope with eleven plus work. There will be many individual differences but some children will be readier than others.
The eleven plus year is full of secondary factors such as emotional stability, intellectual ability, stresses of parents, unsuitable materials and possibly inadequate teaching methods. Some time ago a little girl joined us who was on the special needs register at school. She passed her eleven plus because her parents wanted this to happen. They moved heaven and earth to make sure she had the right learning environment at home and remained a happy and well motivated little girl.
The eleven plus is not a universal examination as it takes place in only a few Local Authorities. Some parents move home to try to help their child towards the eleven plus.
Where ever the child is being educated, eleven plus parents will generally try to offer a life free of stress and worry. Children with jelly between their ears may not, however, do all that well in the eleven plus.
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