Extra 11 Plus Tuition from a child's perspective

Carla (9y 8 months) writes about extra maths tuition at home:

Every time I go to my Dad's house I do half a chapter out of my extra maths books. I have already completed three chapters and am working on Fractions today. Sometimes its hard to get down to work but my Dad makes me do it - sometimes by bribing me! I'm glad that he makes me do it - because once I start I enjoy it.

11+ Examination Help

I was asked today, by a very pleasant and worried mother; `What is the best thing I can do to help my child as the 11+ examinations approach?’

It is difficult to pin just one label on 11+ preparation. Surely preparation implies more than just one activity. I suppose, however, that the one best activity to do is 11+ papers. The problem with doing papers is that sometimes the first few papers seem to show pleasing progress. It may then become difficult to maintain the momentum. If you do too many papers then some children will appear to be rather bored with the whole process. But this must surely be better than being disadvantaged by not doing any papers at all.

Part of the solution to this is to do parts of papers so that the children do not have to keep getting over the magic pass number. What then arises is: do you allow your child to choose the easy questions or do you work together through the hard questions? The obvious option is naturally to do a combination.

One thorny question that lingers in many parents’ minds is that of timing. Naturally you want your child to learn that an extra five minutes here or there can add marks to a final score. Where to find the extra minute or two may hard be to judge.

Why not read over a fresh paper together? Work out the hot spots. Discuss the timing of these areas. Your child should then take his or her watch off and lay it beside the paper. You must also take your watch off and help your child with the timing. Try to avoid looking at the questions while the two of you are sitting there. You are helping your child with timing - not marking the paper as your child goes along.

Talk about what the two of you have experienced and felt. Discuss possible solutions. Remind your child that the reasoning papers are to test reasoning - and it is very unlikely that there will be any tricky questions in the actual examination. Naturally you will say: `Leave out the hard ones. Come back to them later on - if you have time.’

11+ and Time Travel

Here is a picture of two travellers on the island of Tavenui in Fiji where the international date line crosses one of the islands. They had to draw the international date line around the Fijian islands otherwise half the island would be living in yesterday and the other half would be living in today. This would make getting to exams on time very complicated for pupils on the island who lived on different sides of the date line.



If it is 11am for the travellers in Fiji what time is it for everyone back in Dartford? You need to think about how many hours there are in a day and also how many degrees the earth turns through. It also helps greatly to know that Greenwich in England is on the 0º line of longitude and the international date line is on 180º.

In the picture one of the travellers is standing in today and one is standing in yesterday. They only have to take one step to travel back or forward in time. How does that work?

Learning is like travelling, you find out a lot of stuff along the way, but you keep on bumping into new questions that need answers.

(Written by my brother Michael Drury - Thank you!)

We will be running half courses in October of this year. For some children the courses will be just a few weeks before the examination and other children will be writing their examinations early next year.

Going away on holiday before an examination is always a worry to parents. Would their child be better served by having a peaceful half term, doing a little work and generally relaxing – or should the family fly off to a remote location so that all the family can `get away from it all?

A middle route could be a visit to Marbella. In the heart of old Marbella is `Angela’s School’. The school has been running for many years. Angela has all the up to date information about how to get a child into an exclusive school.



http://www.gomarbella.com/ASC/index.htm

Your loved one could do work towards the examination for an hour or so in the morning – and then have the rest of the day to enjoy a holiday.

One of the best arguments that a child can put up about not working on holiday is that of missing out on the rest of the family’s activities. One family tried to solve the problem by `agreeing’ that the rest of the family would read for the forty minutes of 11+ work. We were told that the ensuring arguments about books, and what to read, were far worse than the actual 11+ `Just now! Just now!’

Get me there on time!

Tarryn and Chris were married in Spain. They arrived in style with a beautiful black horse. The journey was eventful because the horse decided to take a lap around the seventeenth and eighteen green before they could alight to wow their guests.



If the eleven plus examinations are at your child’s school then you will know just how long it takes from waking to breakfast to leaving and then arriving. Naturally you want to arrive on time.

Some children do the 11+ test at a local grammar school so this involves different sets of traffic lights. You timing is changed. In years to come this might become a very familiar route – but you can’t afford to gamble on the day of the actual examination.

Simply drive the route a few times, ahead of the day, to make sure you are aware of local traffic conditions.
The last thing you want is your anxiety about arriving on time to rub off on your child. Remember too, that any unforgivable signs and words may be repeated at the most inopportune moment.

Avoid any or all discussion or last minute advice about examination technique and timing. Your last words, and in fact your only words on the subject all morning, just need to be: `Good Luck. Just do your best – we will love you what ever happens.’

You will of course have followed an action plan where the countdown started a full 24 hours before:
Food
Sleep
Pencils and general stationery
Keeping yourself calm
Not harping on about the examination
Siblings
Watch
Petrol
After exam snack
The list is endless. Good luck!

Do you remember the discussions about transport to your wedding? How fast will the horse go? Can we rely on the driver? What happens if we arrive early? Does the horse need food? Where can the horse get a drink? How do we recompense the driver?

Arriving at an 11+ examination needs just the same amount of scrutiny. Tarryn (my niece) and Chris arrived relaxed and unflustered. We hope you do the same.

Cars and Mathematics

My sister married the most academically gifted man I have ever met. They studied together at university and enjoyed a wide and varied social life.

One day my brother in law arrived, with my sister beside him, in a very large motor car. The engine, I think, was urged from a very large lorry. The car was white with a pointed nose that protruded a good three feet in front of the fan belt. The rear of the car had no boot that I can recall but there was a ledge where suitcases or boxes could be strapped.

There were only two seats – and the driver and his passenger were probably about four and half feet off the ground. It was in fact the driving position of a very early Chelsea tractor. Naturally the car was topless. In those days it would have called an open tourer.

It was a remarkably noisy vehicle, as befitted its description as a `sports car’. I am not sure how long it took to reach 60 miles per hour. The engine did not purr – it chugged and gurgled majestically. There was no gentle emission, or puff of blue smoke – there was, quite simply, a continuous plume of carbon emissions.

Naturally there was a discussion of how many miles to the gallon the car did. In those days we did not have concern ourselves with litres. We could talk about gallons, quarts and pints. I think the car did eight miles to the gallon. If the car was driven fast (over 30 miles per hour) the consumption dropped to nearer to four miles to the gallon.

By now you should be able to work out the 11+ question. (Conversion of units is still a part of some 11+ examinations.)

Hint 1: We will need to change 4 miles to kilometres and then change 1 gallon to litres.

Hint 2: We know that 4 miles is about 6.4 kilometres.

Hint 3: We know too that 1 gallon is about 4.5 litres.

How many kilometres to the litre did the car do when it was driven quickly?

11+ Mathematics

Probably comparatively few people are able to buy a house `cash down’. Banks or building societies may advance part of the purchase price. The charge is usually made 1% over the bank rate.

During 1931 the popularity of house purchase by instalment grew – and a total £90 228 000 was loaned. This was back in the days when a house cost around £500. An advertisement in a local paper focused on a single estate agent in one of our local villages who has recently sold over £5 000 000 worth of property. The average price of a house is this village in 2006 is around £290 500.

Some straight forward 11+ mathematics follows.

Back in 1931, by dividing the total money loaned by the average house price we can see that 180456 loans were made in the whole country.

In 2006, to find out how many times 290 500 went into 5 000 000, we had to divide once again. The local estate agent had to make just 17 sales.

However, and there is always a however, £290 500 in today’s money divided by the £500 cost all those years ago suggests a rise in value 581 times greater.

The 11+ question is: Assuming the rise in house prices maintains a similar pattern in the future, how much will our ten to eleven year olds have to pay for a house in another seventy five years?

If we round it all up our £290 500 house becomes £300 000. Our 581 becomes 600 so the cost of a house in 75 years time will be £180 000 000! )

Just a bit of Padding

My great grandmother, on my mother’s side, was a `van Tonder’. She was quite simply an indomitable woman. She was very proud of her pumpkin pies – and she loved to sit in the calm of the afternoon working on her quilts.

Quilting is a form of needlework which dates back to the eleventh century. The word quilt means sticking things together. A quilt is a cover for a bed It is made of two layers of fabric. There is often a soft substance such as wool or down, between them. The quilt is often stitched in patterns.

We presume the quilt originally came into existence before the eiderdown was invented. There is evidence of wooden forms or templates that early English workers arranged on the material and then sewed round.

Naturally the padding between the outer coverings is important – and if the top cover was often made from the finest linen or silk the backing could be a coarse material.

We now come to the nub of the question. With many 11+ examination boards now opting for an essay or an account, how much padding can be allowed in a written answer? It is simple. If your child is answering the question then fewer words will be needed. If there is a brain storm and the answer gets longer and longer then no doubt there would be more padding.

I can not believe that over the centuries – and in England quilting goes back to the eleventh century – that there have been mothers who have not complained about the amount of padding.

`Be careful of that padding, dear.’

`Too much padding and your work becomes unwieldy.’

Just as with a properly planned quilt you will have a template to work around – so in an essay your child will need a plan.

Sit down with your child and practice planning. Planning has not changed since you were at school. Plan all sorts of topics. Here are three examples:

`Write a letter complaining about loud music.’

`How do you make a pumpkin pie?’

``Explain how you can fix two bits of material together to help you to keep warm.’

How can we find time in an examination?

A mother sent us a note today:

My child, Samantha, has an examination coming up in mid to late November of this year. Please give her some examination tips.

The dialogue in the lesson went as follows:

`Please thank your mother Samantha for this note. What techniques do you, and your mother, feel you need?’

`I am struggling with timing. I never finish the papers.’

`Please could I see your watch?’

`I don’t have one. I have never had one.’

`How do you time yourself on papers at home?’

`My mum tells me the time.’

Suggestion 1

Samantha needs to buy a watch. It should have a large clear face that is easy to read. She should get used to wearing the watch to school.

Suggestion 2

Samantha needs to do a wide range of timing exercises – from watching and timing of the boiling of an egg to how long it takes to drive from home to school every weekday. She needs to be able to work out just how long five minutes is. Samantha also needs to know when 35 minutes has gone past.

Suggestion 3

She should time herself on sections of verbal and non verbal reasoning papers.

Suggestion 4

She must make sure she is very confident about reading the time.

Suggestion 5

It was Benjamin Franklin who reminded us:

“Lost time is never found again.”

It is just not fair!

It must be a great relief to the souls of the men and women who build and develop our 11+ tests that parents are not allowed to see the actual 11+ test papers. It is conceivable that the test makers could come under considerable pressure from parents about the content of the tests.

It is all a question of what is fair. Is it fair to include a question that a loving parent or a diligent tutor has not covered in the examination preparations? Can you imagine the fuss and furore if parents were able to pick over individual questions?

`Oh no! That did not come up in the papers we did. There was nothing about that in the lessons.’

Suppose, that by design, questions of the following type were included. You see at a glance that these questions measure how well you can cope with applied ideas, such as understanding of technical drawings. How will we encourage girls into engineering if we do not look for strengths in the field when the children are ten and eleven years old?

Ten Tips to Eleven Plus Examinations

1. Talk to your eleven plus child - discuss your expectations - and understand your child’s position. Discuss the rules of engagement - the time for study, homework, games, school, family and friends. Develop the point that `both sides’ are working within the framework of a family.

2. Listen to, and try to understand, your child’s teachers and tutors. If you hear the words: `Border Line’ interpret the words as such - do not think that this means your child will pass with flying colours. Be realistic about what your school can offer. Your child’s school has far wider and very different responsibilities to high marks on a test paper.

3. Make a point of your child maintaining relationships with friends. Do not allow the week to be so cluttered that friends have to be ignored `until the examination is over’. In any event your child’s best friend’s mother may know more about what your child is up to a school than you will ever need to know. But don’t ask the questions if you don’t want to hear the answers.

4. Both sides - parents and children - must understand that the nerves of both parties may be on edge. Tolerance is essential. Encourage your child to make allowances.

5. Avoid any discussion that may end with one side being the `winner’. It is just over one hundred years since England and France signed the `Entente Cordiale’ - bringing peace to both countries. Develop your own negotiating positions - and work within those bounds. Use the term `Entente Cordiale’ to set up a mediating framework.

6. Try to develop a dialogue about school. Discuss how you would like to hear after:

`How did it go at school today?’

`Fine.’

`What did you learn that was new and interesting?’

`Nothing.’

Help to develop the three sentence answer to every question. (`Yes thank you because ….’, `And then I …’ and `I think …..’.

7. Work together to understand the concept of the generation gap. You and your child may have different values and aspirations. Look at the gap between you and your parents. Ask your parents how they, and you, resolved the gap.

8. Help all concerned in the household to understand the fears, anxieties and pressures - along with the ten year old’s desire and need for independence. Younger siblings must respect privacy and the need to be quiet. Older siblings must learn to curb the cutting remark. Grand parents must continue to be supportive and accepting.

9. Think seriously about food and exercise. If the day and the diet are not balanced then it becomes hard to study and prepare.

10. Devise policies on the rules of the house - the tidy bedroom, the help in the home, walking the dog, feeding the parrot. The ten year old must understand that he or she is part of the family and can not simply move from 11+ practice papers to lie on the couch with the remote control while asking for sustenance, use of the telephone and ignoring the pleas of the dog. He or she has to get up to let the dog out. Explain how this selfless humility may actually help in the examination.

Building Excitement

We must all often wonder what goes through the mind of people who build reasoning and ability papers. We know that the test builder must be literate, imaginative and creative. We hope that at the 11+ stage the questions stimulate and interest our children.

Some `candidates’ will be able to see their way through a test question like this in seconds. Others will remain mystified and puzzled.

Some drilchne love iwrognk through blavre reasoning papers. They enjoy the elhaclneg and the excitement of the tsonseuiq.

Think, however, of the reasoning steps involved in a question like:

Here are a group of five whole numbers; one is missing.

3 17 11 .. 18

Half of the missing number is double another. The missing number is not the largest in the group, nor is it an odd one. What is the number that is missing?

We know that our children will have around 40 seconds to solve this problem. Surely there must be some type of mind that solves a problem like this quicker than others?

Does it mean that a child with an extraordinary ability with languages and a genuine love of subjects like history, geography and the arts should be denied a place in a grammar school? The steps to solving a problem of this kind can be taught – and there will certainly be some children who will revel in the opportunity of trying to decode the answer.

Ninety nine per cent of parents will have been able to work out that the answer to the missing number is twelve within twenty seconds! Some brave parents will try to explain their working out – only to have their explanation roundly rejected. There may be one or two of us who would have to phone a friend for help.

We can not choose which types of questions will come up in a test. We can say which ones are more likely. But we must all thank the selection test builders for the excitement they bring to our lives.

Two Little Words

When we run our 11+ courses we deliver a series of `pep talk’. The talks range from `The Night Before’ to `How to be pleasant to your parents.’ One message we try to put across is to remember to say thank you to your parents.

`Thank you mother, I really enjoyed that lesson. We went over some verbal reasoning exercises that I enjoyed. The maths was stimulating as we revised division of decimals and then went over proportion again. I can’t wait to go back.’ Familiar words?

We always watch the parents and the children as they meet during and after the course. Naturally some conversations go:

`Hello Dear, did you have a good time?

`Yes.’

`Did you learn anything new?’

`Mum. What is for supper?’

Now as a mother you have just forked out a fortune for your child’s education. The immortal words: `I am only doing it for you,’ spring to mind. What you would really like to hear is an in depth analysis of the day – culminating in your child’s success after adversity – and going on to win the prize of the best student of the day.

In some of the sessions we rehearse what parents really want to her – but if our efforts are not to your liking why not adopt a purposeful approach to the conversation? Before your child leaves to go to a lesson, or attend a course, hand him, or her, a small card. On the card write the three questions and the three answers you want to hear. We will do our part – we will whisper a reminder. You child should then approach you with a big smile and say:

`Mum, guess what?’

`Yes Dear?’

`It was the best …… ever.’

(Then you know you will have had your money’s worth.)

A Time To Work and A Time To Watch

I was eighteen years old when television first came to Zimbabwe. It is difficult to put a figure on how much time today’s children spend watching television. We know that fifteen to eighteen year olds seem to watch less TV than younger children.

A quick eleven plus question.

If we watch an average of 2 hours of TV a day, how much will we have watched by the time we are eighteen?

If the same question had been posed as: (365 x (18 x 2)) then it is possible that more children will not have had to hesitate.

An even easier question would have been 365 x 36.

In the great spirit of research into television, studying and children it was found that watching a simple quiz show before an examination helps to stimulate the mind.

Perhaps parents need to start watching and recording quiz shows to ensure the television viewing before an examination is appropriate.

Naturally there will be a rush on the book shops with anxious parents asking for quiz books suitable for the eleven plus. If you do decide to make up your own questions, please send some sample questions to us.

My questions is: If there was no TV until a child was eighteen - how on earth would children spend the time?

The Fruits of the Vine

Summer is drawing to an end. Autumn is growing closer. The grapes on our vine at home in Kent are growing sweeter and blacker. All this means that the Eleven Plus examinations are growing closer for another year. In Bexley the children will be writing in early November.

This is the time of year that parents are most likely to show concern about what their most loved one knows and does not know. Every single question is analysed and worried over. Children bring little lists of three or four questions to their tutors to go over. Most parents, however, are hot stuff on questions like:

How many grapes make a bottle of wine?

As adults we all know that while it varies, it usually takes between 600 to 800 grapes per bottle. This could be around ten bunches of grapes.



Please make sure that you do not try to fill your child with too much trivia with a month to go. Think of your poor child. Why not concentrate on trying to help him or her to do as well as possible on the topics already covered at school and in any extra lessons or work at home. The very hard questions on practice papers are there to stretch and stimulate the very bright.

It is much more important to know how to find ten per cent of a number or how many degrees there are in a triangle than spend precious time on some rather obscure question that may or may not come up.

The Special One

At some time or another your much loved eleven year old may start thinking about the four key throwing events: shot put, discus, javelin and hammer. In early days the throwing events were used a practice activities for war. In competition and training we need to observe simple but vital training rules:

Never thrown a implement if someone is in the landing area.
Never stand in the throwing area.
Treat javelins with care. Carry them vertically - point down.
When working in groups take especial care.
Start with light implements and progress on the heaviest you can manage comfortably. Trying to throw heavy instruments too early on can cause problems ad harm progress.

Like with so much in life there are parallels with preparing for eleven plus examinations. Eleven plus preparation, and taking the examination, is certainly not practice for war. There is, however, naturally an element of competition because there are so few places and so many aspiring candidates. What then are the eleven plus simple but vital training rules?

Start with easy work to build confidence.
Add lots or repetition and practice into your program.
Learn to listen carefully on a one to one basis.
Be prepared to experience failure - but continue to strive for the very best.
Discuss your progress with interested parties - they may throw in good coaching hints.

Some of our children may land up competing in the Olympics. There may be considerably more who will have won the prize of a grammar school place.

Preparing for every examination will expose sprinters and marathon runners. Some will be able to maintain a sustained approach to the examination - while others will need frequent rests along with bursts of high activity.

Listen to your child’s body. When he or she is tired simply let it be. Try to foster a state of dialogue where you, as a parent, can actually listen to your child without foisting your own anxieties.

Treat your child like a prize athlete - a special one - and enjoy the new relationship.

Can Any One be so Lucky?

Our super administrator is called `Gerry’. Many of you will have spoken to her at one time or another.

In a few weeks time Gerry is off to Las Vegas. It is possible that she will have a little flutter while she is there. We thought she needed some protection. We know that she will spend around $500.00 – and enjoy about three and a half hours a day on the tables.

We hope too that she will be able to take in at least one of the top shows. She has mentioned Tom Jones – but we don’t know if this is simply wish fulfilment.

On the slot machines she will be trying to build up a row of four bells or cherries or what ever she goes for. She will be calculating the odds every time she feeds the machine. Every time that lever goes down she will feel a little thrill of anticipation. We have all heard stories about the jackpot. I think it is called a `truck load’. Imagine how the young man who won $39 million a few years ago felt. If Gerry won that, would we ever see her again?

The laws about gambling in Las Vegas are strict. The advice parents give to their 11+ children must also be strict.

`If you have 15 questions left on your paper – and there are three minutes left to go you must simply guess.’

This now is the problem. Do you fill in the first multiple choice boxe in all fifteen questions – hoping that there will be a chance of at least a few of them being correct? Do you tell your child to select the answers at random? Should they choose the numbers of their birthday? The odds are great. You just have to remind your child to be wise and do their best under pressure.

If you do telephone us in early November and ask for Gerry – and a voice says: `I am sorry, but she does not work here any more.’ You will know that she either met Tom Jones or she won the jackpot.

Just say no...

`Mum, please can I have some chocolate? My exam is today and I really, really do feel nervous!’

`Please Mum, I am not feeling at all well. Just a little chocolate will help.’

Why is it that so many people have similar chocolate eating habits? We all know of people who have eaten three or four thick bars of chocolate – or a whole box at one sitting. Some of us have actually done that our selves! It seems that a taste of chocolate triggers off a desire for more.

We know that chocolate contains fat, sugar and cocoa. But there is also the stimulant caffeine. We are lucky that there isn’t enough caffeine in chocolate to severely affect an adult’s nervous system. Scientists have told us that dark chocolate is better for us than milk chocolate. We have also been told that it is not bad to eat some chocolate – in moderation. But chocolate before an examination?

Just before the eleven plus examinations try to make sure that there is simply no chocolate in the house. Make sure too that you do not allow your child to walk into any shop that has chocolate of any kind what so ever. The emotional pressure that children can bring to bear on parents at certain times has to be experienced to be believed. On the way to the examination don’t stop the car for anything at all.

We have a copy of Jamie Oliver’s 1999 `Naked Chef’. He lists four recipes with chocolate. In the recipe for a simple chocolate tart he mentions `chocofreaks’ – but he does say that the better the chocolate you buy the better the taste. Jamie was not writing about children and examinations – but he still makes a lot of sense!

We naturally also have a copy of Amanda Grant’s `Kids Kitchen’. She writes on baby and toddler nutrition. She suggests a wide range of menus for children learn to cook. Her ideas for melted chocolate include:

Dipping balls of ice cream into melted chocolate.
Half dipping flapjacks into melted chocolate.
Half dipping a mango into melted chocolate.

Chocolate makes us feel good. If your child has some chocolate just before the examination then your child may become distracted during the examination and have to try to deal with cravings as well as tricky questions.

Naturally you, as a parent, can buy and eat chocolate while your child is being tested. You need to be distracted. You need to eliminate your cravings. Jamie and Amanda won’t know. It is simply between you and your conscience. Just don’t leave any wrappings on the car seat for the kids to find.

What Career will you Follow?

It sometimes helps to clarify the reason why attending a grammar school is a good idea for some children. Parents can talk about the difference between jobs and careers.

A job exists when there is a definite arrangement for regular work every week, or every month, for pay or other compensation (eg, profits, anticipated profits, or pay in kind, such as room and board).

A career, however, is something a little different. A career is more of a lifelong process; it is unique to each person and involves a sequence of work and leisure activities. A career includes career development and participation in occupations. Ideally a career choice should be an informed decision.

Jackie, who is married to my son, chose to be a photo journalist. She likes deep sea diving and adventures. She reads a lot and enjoys travel. (This is a great help when one is a photo journalist.) The following is an extract from a recent trip to the jungle.

We hiked up and up, first to Cerro Zapote where there was a break in the canopy and we could see for miles across the rain forest. It is so lush with plants that you recognize from the vivero – but these are on steroids! Huge trees tower over head with vines as thick as tree trunks hanging down.

I have probably got this wrong. It seems to me that a photo journalist says: `I feel like some deep jungle activity.’ She then finds a magazine that wants an article about visiting the jungle. The magazine then pays the fare and expenses – and for the ensuing article.

Point out that many bright adults prefer a career to a job.

Suggest: `If things don’t work out you may land up with a job. If you choose a career then you will be able to make many more of your own decisions.’

Make the point that Jackie does many jobs – but she has just one career.

Spilt Milk

My grandfather was a farmer. The farm had tobacco, maize, fruit, cattle and a large dairy operation. Every day the milk had to be delivered to a town about twelve miles away. The roads were sandy with no tarmac. There were seven gates that had to be opened and closed between the farm and the nearest town.

One day my grandfather broke his leg.

My brother was sent by train to help out. He walked from the rail station to the police station. He was met by the policeman in charge. My brother, Michael, was invited to climb into the driving seat of the policeman’s car. The driving test followed. They went round the very short block – and Michael passed. There was no theory test and certainly no stop lights in the rather remote town. He did not have to navigate a crossing during the course of the test.

You see the policeman’s wife, and the rest of the town, had run out of milk. There was no one else on the farm who could drive. Late that night 16 year old Michael was dropped on the farm. Early next morning he drove the milk to town.

How we must wish that a head teacher would wake up one morning and say: `We need more children in our school.’

Certain children could be accepted into grammar school without having to go through the pressure of eleven plus examinations.

This could save a lot of spilt milk.

Vote for the 11 Plus

Everyone entitled to vote in an election is sent a poll card to indicate the time and date of the election and the location of their polling station.

People who have indicated their wish to vote by post are sent a voting pack.

The facility is known as absent voting and is available for registered voters who are unable to attend polling stations.

The reasons could be:
-Health
-living abroad
-a student at university

We would like to add the 11+ child who is worried about examinations. Think how easy it would be to fill in a card and ask for a postal 11+ paper.

I was in one of our centres this week and one cheerful ten year was chatting about how she would get flu on the day and then have the paper sent to her at home. She explained that she would be able to look up all the answers on the internet.

Some states in Americans, of course, have a few more categories when they are dealing with absent voters:

-age 60 years old or older
-unable to vote without assistance at the polls
-expecting to be out of town on election day
-in jail awaiting arraignment or trial
-unable to attend the polls due to religious reasons

We sincerely hope that our ten year olds writing 11+ examinations do not fit into too many of the above American categories. On the other hand we can all remember a President elected on a postal vote.

The Golden Key

Children writing the Eleven Plus examinations can be expected to have knowledge and interests beyond the possible content of `11+ Syllabus’. Some chldren will be helped with a careful analysis of language - and and this will include help with how to approach questions. Other children will need to rely on good luck.

It is easy to explain: `Punch hit Judy‘ and `Judy was hit by Punch‘. This fits together very easily.

`The daughter broke the glass.’ and `The glass was broken by the daughter’ also both work.

What is the problem with: `Uncle weighs 85 kilos’ and `85 kilos is weighed by Uncle’?

The story of Punch and Judy goes back a long way. Punch was a jealous man and he murdered his baby daughter. Judy collected a bludgeon and tried to hit Punch.

Punch beat her to death with another bludgeon and then threw the two bodies into the street.

A policeman saw the bodies and came to arrest Punch. Punch ran away - but was arrested. He was thrown into prison but escaped because of a golden key.

How useful it would be for all of us to be able to overcome disaster and escape with the help of a golden key.

Why not make sure your child wears a golden key on the day of the 11+ examination?

When the brain slows down on a question instead of getting upset and trying to bludgeon his or her way through the answer, your child could simply touch the key and all would be right in the world.

Go Bananas!

Many years ago my son worked, for short time, in a banana factory in Kent. The company were major importers of bananas from all over the word. He was involved with a labelling program and with bar codes. It was a wonderful place to work - the people were so pleasant and so helpful.

As the bananas came onto the conveyor belt one person had the unenviable task of looking out for `things’. Occasionally a tarantula would be hiding in a bunch of bananas. Identification was necessary - as was disposing of the creature.

This brings to mind the strange sickness that stuck the southern Italian port of Taranto. It was said to be caused by the bite of the tarantula spider, and the only cure was to dance wildly and sweat out the spider’s poison. (It has to be held in mind that this was before the days of `step’ and `running machines’ in gyms. Otherwise the spider may have been called a Reebok or a Puma. Who knows?)

The special dance was called the tarantella - and composers developed special music to celebrate the death defying nature of the dance.

It is sad to think that in the pre Christian era that Taranto was a cult centre for the rites of the Greek God Dionysus and the Roman Bacchus. It is possible, therefore, that the rites included drunken and frenzied dancing.

On receiving the results please do not let your 11+ child know these last facts about the dance. We would much prefer the modest eleven year old to think that the celebratory dance around the kitchen table was due more to defying death by a spider than to mum’s extra glass of wine.

How not to be a Soppy Mum.

As your child disappears into the class room on the morning of the first eleven plus examination you may feel you just have to shout a last minute piece of advice.

There will have been lots of other mothers and fathers, all willing their children on to greater things.

You don’t want to appear too soppy in front of all the other parents - but you do want to do something special. Why not shout:

`Sturdy Oboe!’

No one but you and your child will know that the words are an anagram of `Do your best!’.

You could follow with a loud: `Bona fortuna!’ - which we all know is good luck in Latin. This will impress all the other parents and make them envious of your child. They will be saying: `What a lucky child to have parents as educated as that.’ They will drive away in their lovely big cars muttering:

`Sturdy Oboe, Bona fortuna.’

`That was not in any of the 11+ papers. I told you we should have bought that extra set.’

When they pick their child up after the examination they will not be saying:

`Hello dear, was it all right?’

They will ask anxiously:

`Did sturdy oboe, bona fortuna come up?'

Shades of Light

One of the earliest scanners was made of a machine which allowed three dimensional pictures of the human brain. The scanner allowed doctors to see the living brain in action for the first time.

The machine scanned the brain with X-rays and linked to a computer and a Polaroid camera. The photographs could look at the effects of a stroke, a tumour or a skull injury in just a few minutes.

The scanner took only four minutes to rotate around a person’s head in 180 steps of one degree.

We know that here are much more up to date scanners around today.

It would a wonderful sight, however, to see the results of a room full of 11+ children, all wearing light weight scanners, working on the same paper under the stress of a competitive selection test. Just think of the nervous energy that could be captured. Think of what value it would be to examiners to see a grey mist coming over children’s eyes on question 14.

Remember that Question 14 was the question that asked: `The number of bacteria in a large sealed jar doubles every minute. An hour after the first bacterium was put into the jar and sealed in, the jar is full. When was the jar half full?’

Thank too of the colours on the screen on Question 23.

A horse was tied to a 30 foot rope. How did the horse manage to eat a pile of hay 50 feet away without biting through the rope?

(Answers at the bottom of the blog of the 18th.)

Ratios

An 11+ child will meet ratios during lessons and doing papers. Ratios are usually expressed in Lowest Terms. A Ratio of 16:8 is usually written as 2:1.

Ratios express a relationship between one set of figures and another. It is also rather important that the relationship between the ratios is real - otherwise the result would be meaningless.

In real life we look at one crucial ratio very often. This is our `Quick’ or `Acid’ test. We look at our current assets and our current liabilities. For ten year old children current assets might include: savings, money dad owes and the money big sister owes. Current liabilities could possibly include the loan from mum because dad had not paid back the money he had borrowed.

The assets of your ten year old could be £75. The liabilities could be £25. The current ratio is 75:25 or 3:1. This means that your ten year old is liquid! Long may that last!

A simple 11+ question could be: `You have a ratio in a classroom of two adults to 18 children. How many children does each adult have to look after?’

A more complex question could be: The ratio of computers to children in one class is 15:20. Is this a better ratio than 40:20?

Anyway, forget the ratio, how do I write a fraction in lowest terms?




Answers to the blog of the 19th: One minute to the hour and it was not tethered.)

England played rugby in Chicago in the 1982 tour of America. The team were astonished when the referee blew for supposed infringement during an open passage of play.

The England team queried the decision. The referee explained that the match was sponsored by the local television company - so a suitable intervals they had to stop for commercial breaks. He showed the team his bleeper. When he heard three bleeps he had to stop the game for one minute.

Some mums and dads could influence key segments of the 11+ examination through the use of technology.

Take the verbal reasoning test. We know that in some areas there will be 75 questions and there are 50 minutes. We know that you will suggest to your child that he or she should be around Question 35 after 25 minutes. (Should half way be one beep or two?)

We know too that you warned your child not to take too long over the first ten questions. (I can’t remember … was that two beeps or one beep?)

We know too that you will have reminded your child to go back over key questions - if there was time at the end. Now this is where it gets tricky. `Remember’ in Morse Code is:

.-. . -- . -- -... . .-.

But half way is:

.... .- .-.. ..-. / .-- .- -.--

Why not simply make sure that your child knows how to use a watch?

A Day Dream

Some books on `How To Study’ suggest methods of trying to cut out day dreaming. In a test situation a child may become stuck on a problem and lose focus while he or she is trying to develop an answer. This is when the day dream can strike.

You may have suggested that your child reads over and over some notes the two of you have developed on percentages. Perhaps a day dream might creep in because the work may have been too easy or too repetitious.

The problem is that we need day dreamers. In every profession we need some one who can create. In some people the act of creation must be very close to a day dream.

Rupert Brook, when talking about `The Soldier’ gave us:

If I should die think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.

The poem goes on to remind us that `her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;’.Would Rupert Brook have had to have been a day dreamer to be able to create this poem? Did he write wonderful poetry because he did not have access to a book called: `The Poets’ Guide to Stopping Day Dreaming’.

Making Time for Everything

Able children studying for examinations often have full and varied lives. Their activities can range from music lessons to sport.

How on earth do you and your child budget time to do a little extra study and work?

Some parents find a formal weekly meeting is very useful. Write down the times of the activities, the possible amount of homework and how much studying is going to be done. Work out too time for reading, relaxing, TV. and family time. Think too about time for your child and one or two of his or her friends to get together to `chat and chill’.

Discuss the need to keep work in one place.

Set mini goals – that are achievable.

Be very specific about when additional work is to done – and exactly what is to be done.

On Wednesday evening at, 6.30, do Non Verbal Reasoning Test 5, from questions 16 – 32.

This means that time is allocated in everyone’s mind.

You know that you too have a commitment on a Wednesday evening at 6.30 to help, advise, answer, cajole and simply be there.

We had a teacher at primary school who urged us to learn parts of: `The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. His name was Mr. Green. He once threw a blackboard ruler at me. I did not like Mr. Green.

I can still remember his scathing tongue when I put the word `Not’ instead of: `Nor’ in the line `Nor any drop to drink’.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

At the time I could not understand why he wanted us to learn chunks from a wide variety of poems. I did not connect learning poetry with studying mathematics.

Take the learning involved in learning how to divide fractions:

When dividing fractions, turn the second fraction upside down, and multiply.

Do you think there is any carry over between learning verses of poetry and learning mathematics rules?

Can you think of elements of key poems for your child to learn before the 11+ examinations?

We don't want rulers thrown around. We want words and ideas to stretch and develop. We want uplifting words. We want words that could pass through their minds when they hit a problem in the examination.

Any ideas?

We Just Want The Best

Our headquarters building looks over the River Thames. We landed up in an Industrial Park because we needed room for our children, the testing department and our administration. Above all we needed parking.

In front of us lies some open ground – and we were visited by a group of travellers. The large family was from Ireland. There was some degree of suspicion on both sides as the travellers became more settled. Cars arriving to drop children off for lessons sometimes had to weave between toys and vehicles. The traveller children sometimes had to move their games and activities to accommodate the cars arriving and driving away.

The council and the police were tireless and endlessly correct. The travellers were polite and determined. Both sides knew their rights.

The Human Rights Act
Travellers’ rights in the Human Rights Act also have to be considered when councils take action. These include rights to:

• Respect for private and family life
• Protection of property
• Education
• Freedom from discrimination

The travellers had landed up in Gravesend because it was the school holidays – and the family had had holidays in Gravesend for many years. The vans had to move on within 28 days.

Towards the end of the stay the traveller children began walking up to the cars and talking to our families and children. Some of our mothers were simply magnificent in the manner in which they communicated with children from very different backgrounds and aspirations.

The traveller children asked me on a number of occasions about what our children were doing, what they were learning and why they were working in the holidays. One articulate little girl took the time to explain why she simply did not like mathematics.

Some of our children will go on to grammar school. They, like the travelers, will have protection under the Human Right Act. All we can hope is that the education offered to both sets of children is the best education possible.

A Hairy Problem

One of the great advantages of the11+ examination is that parents can say – with a correct and solemn face: `You know you really do have to read to develop your vocabulary.’ What sort of book would your child need to read if the word `Trichology’ appeared as part of the plot? As adults we know that the word is to do with the study of hair.

My Microsoft Word immediately underlined `Trichology’ with a serrated red line – indicating that the word is not in this version of Microsoft’s dictionary. Naturally a number of the old fashioned book dictionaries were able to define and explain the meaning of the word. The word did not, however, appear in a well known children’s dictionary.

This then is the problem. Sometimes when our children are learning they are children and they are expected to use children’s words. At other times they have to cross the thin red line and use words and concepts like much older people. It is perfectly correct for child to be able describe a person as being `bald’. It may not be very good taste to describe someone as being `follically challenged’.

If, however, we had used the word `tresses’ we may have thought of a woman’s hair – but `pelt’ could have brought a man’s head to mind.

To be perfectly honest it is extremely unlikely that a word like `Trichology’ will appear in an 11+ paper. If the word did sneak onto the paper it would only be in a question like: `Which letter appears in the first word but not in the second?’

What a waste of a perfectly valuable word.

Mum, I think I ate it!

The newsreader today was obviously using an autocue. Television has a lot to answer for – but the introduction of a device where words flow over a screen must have saved many embarrassing moments. The news reader can read without looking down or fidgeting with papers.

We know of some actors who have prompts pinned to various bits of furniture. It must take great skill to remember to be in the correct position to be able to remember to read the next cue.

Generations of children have used words, or reminders, written in indelible ink onto wooden rulers. It must have been a very sad day for some children when wooden rulers were replaced by plastic rulers – because then the evidence could not be eaten so easily.

Just imagine the riches some inventor could accrue if he or she could invent an edible 11+ autocue.

Think of the frustration if your child ate the wrong cue! Who would be to blame?

Just A Big Drip

A bathroom tap went today. A drip appeared and became a little flood. Action was needed.

It started with a trip to the loft. There were six taps to control the outer workings of the cold water tanks. The Reader’s Digest 1001 DIY Hints suggested a carrot could be stuck in the relevant outlet pipe and then the pipe could be drained. I ate the carrot while I was looking for the correct tank tap.

Here follows a little mathematics exercise. The drip took just on a minute to fill a half litre jug. If the basin was able to accommodate four litres of dripped water – how long would it take to fill the basin? But – it took just on thirty minutes to drive to the nearest DIY store to buy a new tap. The old tap was not in good condition. How much water flowed away while I was on the round trip? Answers by email please.

(Actually none flowed while I was away because the water had been turned off.)

A more useful 11+ examination tip to recall would be contained in the following question:

If one litre of water has a mass of one kilogram, what would be the mass of 500 litres?
Please remind your child that one litre of water has a mass of one kilogram.

P.S. Did you know that?

Simply The Best

The decision to transfer a child to a particular type of secondary school will, to a certain extent, determine the kind of curriculum he or she will follow.

Attending grammar school may also affect chances of proceeding to higher education.

All parents will hope that the words `Grammar School’ on an application form will also help to open up a wider range of vocational opportunities.

It would be so much easier for some children if the transfer to secondary school was simply one phase in a continuous process of education. Would it work if all marks from school were rolled into one big ball? Could the results from Standard Assessment Tests, produced by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in May of each year, play a part?

Should the fact that a boy plays cricket for his country be considered as recognition of prowess and ability?

Is there any way that a wonderfully proficient girl, on Grade 5 on the piano, could be considered to be a suitable candidate?

We all simply want the best for our children. The best teachers. The best schools. The best education. The best university. The best possible future. A good grammar school may give some of our children the best possible opportunity.

Essays and Assessment

Some authorities use English essays as a method of assessment. We suppose one of the reasons for this is to encourage children who may be faced with objective tests to think creatively.

Learning to plan stories and essays, and preparing to write, plays a large part in today’s schools.

We all know of teachers who are able to make a sound appraisal of levels of ability and attainment. Some teachers are remarkably accurate in predicting chances of success at grammar school. The problem comes when the proportion of candidates in one school is not necessarily the same in another.

What happens to the 11+ children when the teacher at one school is a gifted teacher of English and at another school the teacher is simply wonderful at teaching mathematics? If we rely completely on teachers’ assessment it remains a difficult task to try to ensure the `fairness’ of the system.

It would be interesting to hear about up to date evidence of the fairness a system that uses a combination of the assessment by the teacher and the examination results of a battery of tests. If you do hear of an essay on the subject please let us know.

It Has Only Taken 50 Years!

On the news today the government announced that phonics would be the primary approach to teaching reading. This will be great news for some children with reading problems when they are approaching the 11+ examinations.

So many verbal reasoning exercises depend on the ability to look at words closely and see differences between words and parts of words.

A few weeks ago, in a second hand bookshop, I found a first edition copy by `Gagg’ on the teaching of reading. The book dates back over 50 years. Gagg explained the difference between learning to read by whole word methods and learning by phonics. This is how Mr Gagg, fifty years ago, explained the two approaches:

`We have in these two pictures, described the two common extremes in the early teaching of reading nowadays. There is the school of thought which thinks that `modern methods' mean `no phonics'; and there is the school of thought which still sticks painfully to the ridiculous building of three letter words'.






In Etc we have just had our twenty nine thousandth pupil. We have seen some children who have been taught `look and say’ and others phonics. Some children have even been taught by a combination of methods!

It would be make an interesting study to see which group of readers could cope with finding hidden words. (Find a four letter word that is hidden between two words that are next to each other.)

I wish I could introduce the person or persons in the government who made the decision about phonics to Mr Gagg so they could benefit from his insight and early research.

A Mathematics Problem to Solve

We had a girl in a few weeks ago and her results have been preying on my mind. We tested her using Standardised Tests. On the reasoning test she achieved a Standardised Score of 138 – which is 99%. She struggled on the mathematics test and achieved a Standardised Score of 83 or 13%.

Children have difficulty leaning mathematics for a variety of reasons. Her mother explained that the girl had difficulty with telling the time and working out change in shops. We noticed that she used her fingers when she was doing a subtraction exercise.

She attends a very good school where the majority of children constantly achieve well above average SATs results. Her parents are professionals and she is an only child.

What can be done? The 11+ examinations are only a few months away. The first objective must be to try to build her confidence and improve her self esteem. It would help her to revise and possibly learn some arithmetic facts – her tables and number bonds.

Perhaps too we simply need to think about a little touch of mathematics anxiety. Perhaps even test worry?

How many 11+ papers has she done? What are her scores at school?

What a worry for her parents!

We Need a Good Walk

In 1979 the `Women’s Squash Rackets Association’ published a Revised Edition of `A Guide to Group Coaching’.

`Children need constant activity, variety and encouragement from the coach, but at the same time can not absorb a mass of new material.’

`Young players become bored with practising shots, yet respond very well to competitive practices and game-like situations.’

`Spend as little time talking as possible – use a good demonstration with verbal explanation drawing attention to the main points to be observed. Too much talking is not only an inefficient waste of time but very boring for the players.’

These comments, observation and precepts from the world of Squash would work very well for parents helping their children with 11+ tuition. Try to develop a balance between work and physical activity.

We all know the value of a good walk the night before an examination. The walk takes the mind off the exam and gives the basis of a good sleep. It also allows the family to talk about other things than the examination. Perhaps most importantly of all the ritual of a pre examination walk stops any last minute cramming.

Remember that the study habits your child is gaining will be used for tests and examinations at school – even during GCSE and `A’ level years.

Card Games

The eleven plus examination cover a wide range of topics. As the dates of the examinations grow closer it becomes more important to think about what needs to be done.

One way is to develop a bank of cards with detailed explanations designed to improve understanding of key topics.

Purchase a set of 5 by 3 cards.

Take the Verbal Reasoning topic of Compound Words. On the front of one card write the topic: `Compound Words’. On the reverse write examples and key facts to remember:

The word on the left usually come first.

Look for a connection between words.

Look for common beginnings and endings.

A Non Verbal Reasoning Topic could be `Shaded Fractions’. The reverse of the card could have:

Check the size and shape of the parts.
Use diagonals when necessary.
Above all – remember lowest terms.

The cards will allow you to focus on the topics that need most attention. You may find that you need to colour code the topics as the number of cards builds up.

You are aiming at trying to reinforce good study habits.

A Hug in Time

Babies just love to be touched and rubbed. Many parents will remember with pleasure the little rubs and pats to the back after food. There was that great feeling of triumph when, a last, a musical sound was willed from the little body.

It seems to become more difficult for some parents to offer a little hug as their child becomes older.

When your ten year leaves you on the day of the Eleven Plus examination, why not deliver the following lines with great love and meaning:

“Remember to check your work over.”

“No, you can not take chocolates into the examination.”

“Read the questions carefully – and don't be afraid to read some questions again.”

“Good luck.”

“Of course we will go to …… to night.”

“Come here – I just want to give you a hug.”

Mum - I think I have strained myself

I have a 1967 copy of a book on `Accidents to Children’. There is a section on injuries caused by the washing machine. There are graphic descriptions of children whose fingers, forearms and arms have been caught between the rollers of the automatic wringers supplied by many washing machines.

We are very grateful that our children are spared these horrors. We must all be grateful for the invention of the spin dryer.

We presume that common sense and common observation led us to expect that a child’s school achievement will be determined, to some extent, by the attitudes of the parents. It does seem likely that the attitudes will depend on material circumstances.

We no longer need to worry too much about a child suffering injury from a washing machine. The `material circumstances’ of parents may, however, supply more modern tools for little fingers to dabble in.

Repetitive Strain Injury from a keyboard is also to be feared – especially as the Eleven Plus examinations grow closer.

The Good Old Days

`I am going to read you some sentences. Listen carefully and you will notice that some of them say things that are always new and sensible, while others say things which are always false and foolish. I shall read a third kind of sentence also, a kind which says a thing sometimes true and sometimes false.

If the sentence is always true and sensible, put a tick. When I read one that is always false and foolish, put a cross. If you do not know, put a tick and a cross. I will read each item twice and give you ten seconds to write your answer.’

If a caller comes to your house, whom you do not want to see, it is best to go out and tell him you are out.

As a boy gets taller his height becomes greater.

Every man is his father’s son.

It is wrong for a dog to keep barking.

My cousin’s mother is my mother’s sister.

Some 11+ children would love to have test of this nature. They would enjoy the rhythmic and orderly presentation of the test. Oral presentation would certainly relieve the time constraints some children feel pressured over.

Dr J Cornwell, back in 1952, devised such a system for testing children. That was over fifty years ago. I wonder if it is time for the `good old days’ to return.

We can only live in hope.

Degree courses cost money. Many of our ten and eleven year old children writing their Eleven Plus examinations will be soon be attending university. If the 2006 estimated cost of three years of university education is thousands of pounds, how much will the cost of attending university be in seven years time?


Careers Guidance becomes important. Many students will need to repay a lot of money at the end of their degree course. Traditionally a young person thinks of a career area they think will suit them. They then find out about the qualifications required – and then they need to find a job.

Our eleven plus children may need to find jobs that will enable the investment to be repaid.

Parents contemplating the 11+ and future university fees may care to consider:

Insurance Policy
Rich grandparents
Second job
Hope things will change ………

Your Child's CV

I wonder when the results of 11+ examinations will only be part of the selection process. Schools will then need to add some form of pre selection. The schools will then need to consider the curriculum vitae (CV) as well as an application form. Perhaps the chosen few could even be interviewed.

Parents and teachers providing 11+ tuition could remind the ten year olds to bear the following points in mind:

Before completing the application form you are expected to read the school’s web site and literature.

Answer all the questions and you must use the space provided.

Express yourself in good English – and do not just write lists.

Give as much relevant information about yourself as possible.

Help with interview techniques could also be offered:

Why do you wish to attend this school?

What is your favourite music?

What are your opinions on our school uniform?

What clubs would you like to join?

Questions and answers, and thought about the actual school, may help to focus the child’s mind!

Unexpected Order

In 11+ verbal reasoning exercises we often need to show some flexibility. There is a difference between placing types of boats and ships into alphabetical order and into order of size.

Sampan
Schooner
Shell
Sloop
Supertanker

Very able children will sometimes produce an unexpected order. The question may want a range from largest to smallest but the answer, inadvertently, could be reversed. If one mark is allocated for each correct answer then precious points could slip away.

Try to work out which type of questions may be misread. Work on techniques for helping your child to analyse the question.

Read the questions carefully.

Don’t assume facts (A large sloop may be bigger than a small schooner but one mast versus two masts may be the intent of the question.)

Pay special attention to detail. (Smallest first!)

Last Minute Advice

Babies just love to be touched and rubbed. Many parents will remember with pleasure the little rubs and pats to the back after food. There was that great feeling of triumph when, a last, a musical sound was willed from the little body.

It seems to become more difficult for parents to offer a little hug as their child becomes older.

When your ten year leaves you on the day of the Eleven Plus examination, open your heart. By all means deliver the following lines with great love and meaning:

“Remember to check your work over.”

“No, you can not take chocolates into the examination.”

“Read the questions carefully – and do be afraid to read some questions again.”

“Good luck.”

“Of course we will go to …… to night.”

Remember to add:

“Come here – I just want to give you a hug.”

Last Minute Advice

Babies just love to be touched and rubbed. Many parents will remember with pleasure the little rubs and pats to the back after food. There was that great feeling of triumph when, a last, a musical sound was willed from the little body.

It seems to become more difficult for parents to offer a little hug as their child becomes older.

When your ten year leaves you on the day of the Eleven Plus examination, open your heart. By all means deliver the following lines with great love and meaning:

“Remember to check your work over.”

“No, you can not take chocolates into the examination.”

“Read the questions carefully – and do be afraid to read some questions again.”

“Good luck.”

“Of course we will go to …… to night.”

Remember to add:

“Come here – I just want to give you a hug.”

Counting Sheep in a Pen

Think back in time. A shepherd is counting his flock. He thinks that one is missing. He places pebbles in little piles so show just how many sheep he is responsible for. He carries his pebbles in little bags. The bags get heavier as the numbers of sheep grow.

The shepherd in the next valley uses a notch on a stick. This works very well until the herd grows so big that he needs a very long stick.

The third shepherd uses his fingers. He asks one of his fellow herders to raise a finger as soon as ten sheep have passed.

Every now and again, before your children go to bed, please remind them that the number 5 is 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, and that it equals 5 times 1. Suggest too that the shepherd would be hard pressed to explain to one of his family that he had 7 times 8 sheep. Surely he should have said that he had 56 sheep?

This is important because he may have asked his son the following question:

If one sheep needs one square metre – and the perimeter of the sheep pen is 24 metres – how many sheep could he fit into the pen?

Carla's Thoughts

If you had to choose a career for your nine year old – what would you want? Carla recently did an assessment with us. Here is her account:

I went into the testing room and the teacher, called Michelle, gave me the first test and explained it.

I found some parts hard and some parts easy. I finished the test with 15 minutes to spare.

Most of the maths was easy but the hardest thing was the algebra. I also found the non verbal reasoning quite hard as I have never practiced that before. The verbal reasoning was easy.

I finished all the tests early because I answered the questions I could do quickly.

I speak Spanish, French and English. I like school and rock climbing.

Which of these jobs do you think that Carla will be doing when she is thirty five years old?

Accounting
Management
Sales
Engineering
Consulting
Other?

A Question of Comprehension

In Looking Glass Land words are read by holding the words up to a mirror. Our 11+ children are very lucky to have to answer comprehension question based on `Standard English’ rather than try to explain and understand the Anglo Saxon English of the `Jabberwocky’.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wade;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

We can appreciate the value and the sincerity of simple comprehension questions like:

1. Why was it brillig?
2. Why were the borogoves mimsy?

Comprehension of this nature can be taught.

Children, however, will need strong comprehension and reading vocabulary skills when they have to cope with `Cloze’ comprehension. One type of Cloze activity is filling blanks from a given list of words. A different `Cloze’ activity is providing an open ended solution.

Imagine an 11+ paper where children have to make up the missing words:

'Twas_______, and the slithy _______

Did gyre and _______ in the wade ………

A Nutty Problem

An old custom, often revived on Halloween night, was to roast two chestnuts on a fire. There was one nut for a boy and one for a girl. If the nuts cooked without any problem the couple would marry.

If one exploded, or fell in the fire, the marriage, if it took place, would fail.

Some children enjoy the routine of a systematic approach to the examinations. They like feeling prepared.

Other children seem to enjoy the challenge of leaving every thing to the last moment.

Some parents like the idea of regular lesson – so that they feel they have given their child the best possible chance. (Some parents are also very competitive.)

Other parents feel that if they leave their child to choose when and what to work on they are making sure that if their child does pass the child really does deserve to win a place in grammar school.

Both extremes are probably a bit nuts – most parents and children are somewhere in the middle.

A Problem with Nine Times Table

My grandfather was a clerk on the Dover to London Road. He lived in Wingham in Kent. His headstone lies in Wingham’s church. We visit him every few years.

He worked in the days before calculators. He could add a column of figures in his head: In those days money had pounds, shillings, pence, halfpennies and farthings. He was proud that he could run his finger down the page adding five different variables at the same time.

Thank goodness that the current 11+ examinations do not allow the use of calculators. Our children may lose the use of being able to manipulate numbers altogether if all they have to do in the examination is whip out their mobile phone and press the buttons.

I watched a reasonably competent 11+ child write:

£34.96
£34.96
+ £34.96

She said she could do multiplication but she was not sure of her nine times table. She explained she could manage 6 x 3 but was unsure of 9 x 3 or even 3 x 9. She said that it was easier and quicker just to add it up! Any advice to the child and her teacher?

A Last Minute Reminder.

My wife’s father was a tool maker. Tool makers do what it says on the label. They build the tools to make the moulds to do the jobs. Grandfather Coombe worked on radar during the war. He never talked much about what he did but we know that his team was involved in installing radar for the Ark Royal.

He used a tool called a Vernier Gauge. This is a small moveable scale attached to a larger graduated scale. The gauge is used to measure fractional parts of subdivisions of the larger scale. His work needed to be remarkably accurate. He was content to spend time trying to get his work to be as accurate as possible. He needed to check and recheck his work.

Some eleven plus children are in so much of a hurry to complete their work they do not budget enough time to check their work over. Good study habits and examination technique are built before the examination.

A last minute exhortation to: `Check your work over!’ is unlikely to bear fruit unless the act of checking has been rehearsed.

A Useful Hint

My grandmother was a farmer’s wife. As the senior woman on the farm she had many responsibilities.

I can remember one Saturday night the family being woken by hammering on the door. There had been an axe attack and a young woman had been carried over three miles on a bicycle to the farm house.

She had a gaping wound in her shoulder that was about four inches long.

The nearest hospital was twelve miles away. It would take well over two hours to drive in the nearest town because the rivers were swollen. Ouma, (Grandmother), took out her sewing box, sterilised some needles and used good honest cotton to sew the wound.

We all know there are about two and a half centimetres to the inch. If each stitch was about 3mm apart, how many stitches did Ouma have to sew to close the wound?

Some of our young eleven plus candidates will grow up to be surgeons, doctors and nurses. They too will be involved in sewing and saving lives. Please remind your child, on a weekly basis, that there are 2.5 cms in an inch. It may come in useful one day.

Just a Question of Practice

Some 11+ children actually like questions like:

How many centimetres are there in six kilometres?

But is it a worthy eleven plus question to demand:

Change 4.5 million centimetres to kilometres and metres.

It is a pity that the 11+ examination does not only ask useful questions like:

Three children divide 280 sweets among them so that Julie gets 40 more than either of the others. How many does Julie get?

Unequal sharing could come up in real life in the years ahead. Changing centimetres to kilometres may appeal to a more limited audience.

When the thorny question of inheritance comes up it must be useful for someone in the family to be able to divide £6000000 between two people so that one gets half as much as the other. Perhaps the extra practice with the number of zeros in the metric questions will help on the sharing question.

It would be very sad for one party to leave a zero out on the sharing question!

Keeping a Balance

Mark out two lines with a start and a finish. Don’t let the lines grow too far apart – because then you lose the opportunity of explaining parallel lines. Divide the children into two teams. Appoint yourself as the referee.

Encourage the children to drop onto their hands and knees at the start line. Hand the first child in each team an apple. When `Go’ is given the children have to push the apples using their noses.

Naturally you will need a simple rule. `If you touch the apple with any part of your body – other than your nose - return to the beginning.’

It would be interesting to see if children learnt to use and apply this rule faster than: `To find ten percent simply divide by ten.’

Divide the children into two teams. Give one team the apple rule and the other the percentage rule.

Give one team a little more practice and the other a little more theory and see …….

Train problems

In only seven years our ten year olds will be grappling with a very different sort of language.

`Gear Changing
Effective acceleration is only possible when a useful and economical increase in engine revolution is obtainable. The use of the gearbox must therefore be considered in conjunction with the capabilities of the vehicle.’ (Road Craft 1977)

This year our children are expected to cope with a range of ideas and language.

Train A leaves Manchester at 0805. The train takes about two and a half hour to reach London. Train B leaves London at 0910. If the distance from London to Manchester is 185 miles, when will the trains meet?

Should we expect ten year children take this question at face value? Did both engine drivers accelerate at the same speed? What happens if the 8.05 was five minutes late? To how many decimal points should the average speed be worked out?

Does our 11+ teaching cater for children who want to explore outside of the confines of the syllabus? Would intensive coaching from driver training school for seven years deliver us better drivers? Should 11+ papers encourage more creative thinking?

On holiday!

Tarzan was a hero. He was the son of an English noble – but was abandoned in the jungle and raised by apes.

We know too that he learnt the language of animals and we would like to believe that he lead a happy life.

He married Jane. `Me Tarzan – you Jane,’ has been part of our legacy for many years. Tarzan and Jane had a son.

Tarzan had superhuman strength. This is exactly the same strength that a child will need to be able to display when Eleven Plus papers are taken on holiday. `We are off to Greece for the week. What papers should we take?’

`Oh Mother dear, please give me a break from papers. I want to have a holiday. We have not had a holiday for a full year. One week’s break will not make a difference. Please, please – I will do a paper every day when we return.’

I wonder what Jane and Tarzan’s son had to say?

Give me a break!

What a Good Girl!

In the Shona language of Zimbabwe the word for a `girl’ is `musikana’.

`Musikana’ is a musical sounding word. The shape and pattern of the word seems to suggest a wonderful innocence.

There is a big difference between: `Now you will have to face the music!’ and: `This is music to my ears.’

It will never be easy for any parent to have to turn to a ten year old and explain the consequences of not winning a place at grammar school. It must also be an agonising interval of time when a child lands up on the waiting list. The uncertainty must be even greater if one’s child is number four or five on the list.

The pleasure to all the family on receiving the news that a place has been won must surely be a cause for celebration. What pleasing words: `Well done my girl!’

Please just try your best.

When Longfellow shot his arrow in the sky he was not sure where the arrow was going to fall.

`I shot an arrow into the air –
It fell to earth, I know not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.'

When you have children you never really know where the arrow will fall. I recently heard a grandparent saying to the much loved grandchild: `The honour of the family lies in your hands. You have to pass the eleven plus. The whole family relies on you.’

Who knows what pressure is being put on that child. The burden of family expectations is a very heavy one for a ten year old.

We hope the parting words before the 11 Plus examination were: `Just do your best. That is all we pray for.’

If the honour of the family was not satisfied would the child have been comforted or received a verbal arrow?

Please Sir. Can we have a new exam?

We can try to `fast track’ a development through a planning authority. We can appreciate too that our child’s teacher is on a `fast track’ and has been recognised as a future leader in the profession. In America the term `fast track’ is used when the President is given powers that Congress will vote on later on.

Do we really need to `fast track’ children? Why do we have to make children pass an examination at ten or eleven years old? The same child can pass a swimming examination earlier than at eleven. There are other tests that a child can pass that are not age related. Why can’t we develop a new style called `The Fast Track 11+ Examination’?

We can, however, imagine the problems that may arise if a bright nine year old is `fast tracked’ through the selective examination system. Intellectually the child may be able enough to cope with the syllabus of a grammar school. Emotionally there may be problems at times.

Whay are we are all so pleased when a bright, cheerful eleven year old wins a place in a grammar school? Why aren’t we as happy if the child is surly and uncommunicative? Maybe one day the powers that be will develop an emotional and social 11+ test. This could allow the happy and hardworking child to be fast tracked into grammar.

We could test the children on: How wide is your smile? Do you laugh at my jokes? Do you like working hard? Do you love school?

A Childish Discovery

Please remind your children of the decorum of the 11+ examination room. By all means remind your child of Archimedes. He solved a problem of the amount of gold in a crown when he saw how much water he displaced as he climbed into his bath.

Archimedes jumped from his bath and, without stopping to dress himself, he ran through the streets to the king's palace shouting, "Eureka! Eureka! Eureka!" In English this means, "I have found it! I have found it! I have found it!"

When your little one solves a problem in the examination please urge him or her not to tear off their clothes and run down the class room shouting at the top of their voice.

I am not sure what the examining board would say if it received a report: `Candidate 3456 ran shouting down the classroom.’

The Numbers Game

I wonder why all ten year old children do not know that numbers up to one hundred should be written as words. Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs does not have quite the same ring as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

We are used to seeing the range: 11+ or 11 Plus or Eleven + or Eleven Plus. If a number is used as a figure it can be written as a number. I suppose we could write 11+ in Roman numerals as XI +. There is a convention that names of Kings, Popes and Emperors have Roman numerals as in Henry VIII. Of course we can also write Henry the Eighth.

We can allow our children to become little emperors for very short periods. An emperor is a ruler. We do not want our children to dictate what and when they are going to learn. They should, however, learn to write some numbers as words.

It does seem better that we think about our children as little princes or princesses. This allows us to remind our children that they have not yet attained the throne. Children do need to work towards winnings the hearts and minds of the people (especially their parents).

Don't worry - just turn up on the day.

Mr Wilkins Micawber is a famous character in Dickens’ David Copperfield. He had many ideas about schemes that would lead to wealth. His ideas constantly failed – but Micawber never gave up – he was always hoping that something would turn up.

There will be questions your child will face in the 11+ examinations that you can not have planned for. Naturally we hope that something will turn up in the examination that none of us can have forecast. Some very bright children will be sitting the 11+ examinations. They need to be stretched and stimulated. Some of the very able children will be delighted and excited to be able to leave an examination without being able to answer all the questions.

Micawber’s famous maxim will give many opportunities for discussions on maths, credit, pocket money, moving house and rising inflation:

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

It does seem a good idea to be able to explain to your child that wealth is more likely to come with hard work. If you work with your child over a period of time it is likely that a lot of the work you have done together will turn up in the examination. All of us can dream.

Will You? Won't You?

The apostrophe has a number of functions. The (‘) shows the possessive case. This is why we write Lord’s (the cricket ground) and not Lords’ or Lords because Lord’s was once the meadow of John Lord. The (‘) also is used to take the place of abbreviations as well as omitted letters.

Some 11+ examinations ask for a written paper where the children may write a story or an account or a description. The children have to learn to proof read their output. Eleven Plus children would be expected to cope with the girl’s dress – as in the dress of the girl. We hope too they will remember that they need an apostrophe if a letter is left out – as in couldn’t. How do we explain won’t? If it is an abbreviation of will not why do we not write willn’t?

As teachers and parents whenever we are short of knowledge or information we always have the invaluable option of saying `because’. Perhaps won’t came about because it rhymes with don’t. Who knows? Who cares, as long as the apostrophe is used in the right place. Just remind your children that if they are writing about a rhinoceros it sounds better to say the horn of a rhinoceros rather than a rhinoceros’s horn. (This information just might come in useful.)

One Step Nearer to our Graves.

Gravesend, the headquarters of Etc, is an industrial town on the bank of the Thames. The name wrongly suggests `graves’ when it should have been `groves’. The name means `place at the end of the grove’. The original grove was perhaps located to the east of Gravesend where the Fort Gardens are now. Would the town be better liked if it had been called `Grovesend’? This last name brings up a picture of rolling orchards, gentle walks and a tranquil sleepy town.

How would we regard the 11 Plus if the name 11 Minus had been adopted. Would this make us think of all the children who had failed rather than those who have passed? How about 11 First? We could then dream of our children obtaining first class honours degrees on graduation. What about 11 Hundred? `If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times.’ Familiar words to all parents.
Perhaps we can apply to our councils to have a `style counsellor’ look over the words Eleven Plus. A style counsellor would be able to dictate what is and what is not a fashionable term for an examination at the age of eleven. We could have different names for the 11+ in all the towns and districts offering 11+ examinations. This could help to make the 11+ a little more confusing for parents. After all helping children through the 11+ examination does bring all of us nearer to the grave

Please Miss. I don't know what you mean.

It seems likely that some children will be prepared for the 11+ examinations by experienced and gifted teachers. Other children will have to compete for the same prize with very different expectations and preparation.

Non verbal reasoning plays a part in a number of 11+ examinations. Most non verbal tests look at the ability to recognise similarities, analogies and patterns in unfamiliar designs.

Language knowledge is not supposed to play a significant part on the results - providing that the initial instructions have been understood. The initial instructions may be couched in terms like these:

Each of the questions below starts with a pair of shapes on the left hand side. These two shapes have something in common. Decide what it is, then look at the rest of the shapes in the boxes on the right. Mark your answer with the letter that goes best with the shapes on the left.

Learning to follow instructions may be a major benefit of 11+ examinations.

Beyond your control – Are exams fair?

A number of parents will approach the 11+ examinations with some considerable degree of disquiet and concern. How far will their child’s future, at such a tender age, be affected by a largely irrevocable decision? Is the way we use the examination’s results really fair on all children?

If verbal reasoning tests are designed to give useful information about a child’s ability then the verbal reasoning element of the 11+ examinations may need to investigate areas different from normal classroom work. Children with reading problems or who are not fully fluent with the English language, may sometimes be at a disadvantage when attempting verbal reasoning tests.

There are many factors that are far outside the control of a teacher or parent. The death of a loved one or a family break up can affect performance. No matter how many practice papers a child may have done – if the child does not feel up to the examination then the content of the following years of education could be altered for ever.

A simple comprehension problem, however, could affect the progress of your child through school – and into the examination hall. The words `It is not fair - the dog ate my paper,’ will be offered by some children when they have not done as well as possible. Lots of quality reading may help to save the day.

Numbers, Levels and Words

Your child’s teacher at school may discuss `National Curriculum levels’ with you. Your child’s tutor may talk about `11+ levels’. To all of us it is just a numbers game. Some 11+ work can be floated between different levels.

We are all used to dealing with a house number, or a registration number, or a telephone number. Each one of these types of numbers suggests a different kind of numbering system. Moving between Level Numbers in the National Curriculum and the levels a child is aiming to reach in 11+ examinations is an inexact science. At first glance it may look as if an 11+ candidate needs to be preparing for an examination a whole level higher than the National Curriculum. This could be a red herring.

Take the two words bark and barque. A ship can be a bark – because this is a word that can be used for a ship. The word barque is largely a rather technical term used for a type of rigging of a ship – or even a ship. The word bark does not need to need to be anything to do with a tree or the sound of a dog or even barking up the wrong tree! At what National Curriculum Level number should a child be able to define or even comprehend the difference? Should children working towards the 11+ need to know the intricacies of the word?

National Curriculum Level

Year 3 Achieving Level 2 Working mainly at Level 3 in class.
Year 4 Achieving Level 3 Starting to work at Level 4 in class.
Year 5 Achieving Level 3 Working at Level 4 in class.
Year 6 Achieving Level 4 Starting Level 5 in class

In National Curriculum terms each level represents 2 school years, therefore a child is not expected to progress a whole level per year. Levels may have an A, B or C grading – where A is the highest.

11+ Examination

Year 3 Achieving Level 3 Working mainly at Level ¾ in Lessons
Year 4 Achieving Level 3/4 Starting to work at Level 4 in Lessons
Year 5 Achieving Level 4 Starting Level 5 in Lessons
Year 6 Achieving Level 4/5 Working mainly Level 5 in Lessons. Revising Level 4.

All parents can do is encourage their children to read as wide a range of books as possible. Some Year 3 children will naturally pick up a wide vocabulary. Other children may meet the word `barque’ for the first time on an 11+ paper. All parents can do is try to add as many words and their meanings to their child’s vocabulary as is sensible. Anyway all parents are sensible all of the time!

Parents as Teachers

Some questions demand good skills of analysis and interpretation. – as well as powerful deduction. We do expect children to solve verbal reasoning questions like this:

A group of children were enjoying a birthday party. One-quarter asked for vanilla ice cream, and one third of the remainder asked for drinks. The other children asked for orange juice. If 12 children asked for orange juice, how many were at the party?

A question like this asks for flexibility. Teachers and parents will naturally adopt different styles of teaching to embrace differing needs and requirements.

The problem for a child doing 11+ work comes when mum or dad becomes `Mum the Teacher’ or `Dad the Teacher’ because these are different roles for children to cope with. Parents simply take this in their stride. Every parent knows what is best for their child.

Examination

I was asked today by a bright, smiling ten year old where the word `examination’ came from. We were chatting casually before our latest 11+ course started. We looked up dictionary definitions and then went to an old faithful.

My trusted copy of `Brewer’ – The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable’ – offered:

Examination Examen is Latin for the needle indicator of a balance. To examine is to watch the indicator, so as to adjust the balance.

We discussed the balance of life – the need to humour parents and the need to work hard for one self. We then chatted about what balancing indicators a ten year old could recognise.

It is important that life does not become too centred around the 11+ examination. I am often staggered by the capacity for original thought by our ten year olds.