Stormy Eleven Plus Weather

Stormy Weather

A child, Loretta, is a member of her school football team. She looks forward to the football games – but is sad that so many games are cancelled because of the bad weather. She started becoming involved in the weather – and was particularly taken with `cold snaps’. When her teacher at school suggested that the class may be interested in doing project work, Loretta wanted to do a project on cold snaps.

She was working through an eleven plus paper and was asked to solve the anagram: `span clod’. Loretta saw at a glance that `span clod’ was an anagram of `cold snap’.

Was this fair?

Do children who are fit and play in teams do well in eleven plus examinations?

Is the eleven plus an unfair examination if some children can cope comfortably with anagrams?

We once had a mother who wrote to us to complain that her child had been given part of a cross word to solve. Some of the questions involved anagrams. Part of our answer was that we sometimes read of very bright men and women who can solve crosswords remarkably quickly. Crossword solvers have to be able to reach the correct answer. A `punt’ at an answer may hold up proceedings for some time.

Can eleven plus children learn to pass an examination by learning to solve anagrams?

(Answer: “It depends”.)