Eleven Plus Attitudes

In the absence of any major published studies on the needs of eleven plus children in their eleven plus year, it may be left to parents to make up their own minds. What a pleasure this must be to most parents as they now are able to find their own solutions without being told what to do! We seem to go through much of life having to follow rules and regulations. So long as the child is entered for the examination -and sits the examination – then a place in a grammar school could, possibly, come available.

Of course there are caveats – but there is no one golden rule for children to follow. Some children have tutors, some don’t, some do lots of papers – others do none. Some parents work with their children – other children manage without their parents.

It is possible, however, that there is some common ground that children who pass the examination need to cover. It seems likely that most successful elven plus children will have appropriate attitudes and values. They will probably want to co-operate actively. It could also be likely that a successful candidate will have to ability to listen to more than one side of an argument. A further thought – and this must be largely unproved – is that a true eleven plus child will enjoy sound attitudes, skills and knowledge.

What parents will hope is that their children will cope effectively with the explosion of knowledge that studying for the eleven plus must entail. Learning lots of `eleven plus’ facts will not help a child to cope with a knowledge explosion. Children studying for competitive examinations need a positive attitude to learning and a strong battery of inquiry skills.