At one time or another, parents will need to interview their prospective tutor. This could prove to be a little difficult if the tutor is well established and has a long waiting list. Add to the conundrum the knowledge that the tutor is popular and achieves very good results – why would you want to interview? It is easy. – it is your child and your money.
What has worked for many children may not work for your child. With doubts in your mind about the suitability of the tutor – you then need to prepare some questions.
If you had to list the top three practical ways of achieving good eleven plus results with my child, what would they be?
What practical steps will you take to ensure that my child is happy and contented under your care?
How will you challenge and support my child with eleven plus work?
What pedagogical and organisational transformation do you hope to achieve?
How will any work on the eleven plus help to support and enrich the school’s curriculum?
What will be the main challenges you will face as you work with us a family?
Do you have the ability to be able to communicate with my child’s school?
What are the cost implications for us working with you towards the eleven plus?
Would you accept any input from us, or do you prefer to direct the progress towards the eleven plus?
Can my child bring any problems from home or school to the lessons?
If your prospective tutor answers these questions to your satisfaction – you are on to a winner and must feel confident.
After all you can say to yourself after the interview: “There, it was not so bad wasn’t it?”
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Eleven Plus Status (18/01/09)
A host of factors come into play when we look at status. Most parents will want their children to attend a grammar school in the hope that, in time, their child will achieve a `satisfactory status’. Factors such as occupation, education, source of income, neighbourhood, house type and income will all come into play.
Many of us would love the idea of our children maintaining a lifestyle guaranteed by inherited income. (Especially if is our money and is not secured by a national lottery win.) If, sadly, you have had to continue to work for your living, then you will naturally hope that your child will go on to do well in life. How then will you measure your child’s success and status?
It is likely that the kind of home your thirty year old, ex grammar school child, lives in will give some indication of status.
The owner of two houses, both with fashionable addresses, must be top of the status list.
Having a lavish home in millionaire’s row will make you feel proud.
A good house with four or five bedrooms in a good neighbour hood must help.
Most us will be pretty happy in an `ordinary’ suburban home.
Of course we should judge people by far more than individual wealth but a successful ex grammar school pupil must be worth something.
Many of us would love the idea of our children maintaining a lifestyle guaranteed by inherited income. (Especially if is our money and is not secured by a national lottery win.) If, sadly, you have had to continue to work for your living, then you will naturally hope that your child will go on to do well in life. How then will you measure your child’s success and status?
It is likely that the kind of home your thirty year old, ex grammar school child, lives in will give some indication of status.
The owner of two houses, both with fashionable addresses, must be top of the status list.
Having a lavish home in millionaire’s row will make you feel proud.
A good house with four or five bedrooms in a good neighbour hood must help.
Most us will be pretty happy in an `ordinary’ suburban home.
Of course we should judge people by far more than individual wealth but a successful ex grammar school pupil must be worth something.
Eleven Plus Materials (17/01/09)
Suppose you are mother or a father who likes to know exactly what is going on. You have been told that one set of Eleven Plus books is likely to be more useful than a different set. You gather together all of the parents of prospective eleven plus children at your school and ask them for their co-operation.
Your nephew attends a different school – but the schools are geographically very close together so the children are drawn from similar backgrounds. This then becomes the control group. These children will not be prepared for the eleven plus. (Although the school is only three miles away, the second school is in a different county so there is no eleven plus!
We need to assume that there will be no difference in the results of the children taking the examination. Half the children in the first group will use only the recommended book – while the rest of the school use a variety of eleven plus books and teaching materials.
In the first place it would be wrong to assume that using one particular eleven plus text is better than another. The hypothesis would be that there can be no difference to the test scores.
Secondly we would need to see if working on eleven plus papers actually did make a difference. We would then start with the hypothesis that there can be no difference to the scores of the two schools.
So if a mother or a father tells you that one set of books is better than another you will still need to approach this statement with some caution. What worked for one child may not work for another. The child might have been able to pass the test without having worked through a paper.
Your nephew attends a different school – but the schools are geographically very close together so the children are drawn from similar backgrounds. This then becomes the control group. These children will not be prepared for the eleven plus. (Although the school is only three miles away, the second school is in a different county so there is no eleven plus!
We need to assume that there will be no difference in the results of the children taking the examination. Half the children in the first group will use only the recommended book – while the rest of the school use a variety of eleven plus books and teaching materials.
In the first place it would be wrong to assume that using one particular eleven plus text is better than another. The hypothesis would be that there can be no difference to the test scores.
Secondly we would need to see if working on eleven plus papers actually did make a difference. We would then start with the hypothesis that there can be no difference to the scores of the two schools.
So if a mother or a father tells you that one set of books is better than another you will still need to approach this statement with some caution. What worked for one child may not work for another. The child might have been able to pass the test without having worked through a paper.
Eleven Plus Listening (16/01/09)
We are looking a little way down the line. It is the day of the Eleven Plus. Anxious parents have dropped their children off at school. Last minutes kisses have been exchanged. Instructions to the long suffering child have been repeated ad nauseam. The final words of `Good Luck’ can no longer be heard. Your child skips happily up the school path glad to get away from the cloying murmur of your well meant utterances.
(Your eleven year old is still clutching the good luck charm you offered. He or she is not that grown up.)
The children file into the hall. A lap top with a set of head phones is on every desk. The new style Eleven Plus encompasses mathematics, reasoning and listening skills. Why listening skills? Well if he or she will not listen to you, and does not listen to the teacher at school – what point is there of him or her taking up a place in the grammar school?
The listening test will be indifferent parts.
Part 1
Questions 1 to 5
Listen to the digitised recording.
You will hear five short conversations.
There is one question for each conversation.
Put a tick under the right answer.
Part 2
Questions 6 – 10
Listen to Annie talking to her mother about going on holiday. What will she wear for each stage of the holiday?
For questions 6 – 10, write a letter from A – H from the list.
You will hear the conversation twice.
Part 3
Questions 11 – 15
You will hear some information about a mobile phone.
Complete the questions from 11 – 15.
You will hear the information twice.
Naturally all the marking of the multiple choice tests will be done by computer – so in theory the results are available immediately. The entire cohort of children taking Eleven Plus examinations could be sent their results by email that same day!
Of course the listening test would not count towards the marks – unless there was a tie. This is the point where a grammar school would like a little more information. After all, a child who obtained 15 out of 15 would probably listen in class and at home.
The introduction of this proposed listening test could change your life!
(Your eleven year old is still clutching the good luck charm you offered. He or she is not that grown up.)
The children file into the hall. A lap top with a set of head phones is on every desk. The new style Eleven Plus encompasses mathematics, reasoning and listening skills. Why listening skills? Well if he or she will not listen to you, and does not listen to the teacher at school – what point is there of him or her taking up a place in the grammar school?
The listening test will be indifferent parts.
Part 1
Questions 1 to 5
Listen to the digitised recording.
You will hear five short conversations.
There is one question for each conversation.
Put a tick under the right answer.
Part 2
Questions 6 – 10
Listen to Annie talking to her mother about going on holiday. What will she wear for each stage of the holiday?
For questions 6 – 10, write a letter from A – H from the list.
You will hear the conversation twice.
Part 3
Questions 11 – 15
You will hear some information about a mobile phone.
Complete the questions from 11 – 15.
You will hear the information twice.
Naturally all the marking of the multiple choice tests will be done by computer – so in theory the results are available immediately. The entire cohort of children taking Eleven Plus examinations could be sent their results by email that same day!
Of course the listening test would not count towards the marks – unless there was a tie. This is the point where a grammar school would like a little more information. After all, a child who obtained 15 out of 15 would probably listen in class and at home.
The introduction of this proposed listening test could change your life!
Eleven Plus Reading (15/01/09)
There does not seem to be a central organisation where a parent can find the sort of reading help that is needed. Parents of eleven plus children may occasionally find their children picking up adult books. Some parents may find it acceptable for their eleven year old to read a Dick Francis – but could quiver with trepidation over Jackie Collins.
Collections of children’s book must have built up over the years in libraries, schools and college of education libraries. Some private collectors must have comprehensive libraries. It would not be difficult to imagine that a private collector would have a number of early child centred classics.
“Good morning. I have an eleven year old daughter. She read all the Harry Potter series when she was eight and nine and now wants something different.”
“She is studying for her Eleven Plus. She likes ballet, horses and rock climbing. She does not like the books we call the classics so won’t read books like `Anne of Green Gables’ and `How Green was my Valley’. She thinks they are old fashioned. She hates science fiction.”
“Oh yes. Her grandfather likes the Sharpe series of books and they have watched many of the DVDs together. And yes, I can not interest her in cookery books. She says that she will need to learn to cook when she goes to university and does not want to start now.”
“I have asked at her school for lists of books. She won’t go into the children’s section of our local library. She dismisses the books as being for children. When we offer a teen age book she just mutters `read that’ and won’t entertain any further discussion.
“We already have lots of books at home which information in them. She wants to read a book for pleasure. Please help me to find something for her to read for pleasure.
“Yes I do know that my daughter is dependent on me for books to read. I don’t want her to read unsuitable books. I don’t really know what her tastes are. Yes I do know that the most popular books are those referred by her friends – but then I don’t always know what has been recommended. I don’t like to pry – but I do need to monitor.”
“Of course we have books at home. Of course we read at home. Although my daughter is eleven her reading tastes seem to be in the more adult books. I suppose she has a reading age of around fourteen. I am grateful for a good vocabulary while she is doing verbal reasoning exercises but I don’t like her reading books where there is little natural goodness. She liked to have stories about toadstools and gauzy wings read to her when she was very little – but has grown out of these years ago. Please help.”
Collections of children’s book must have built up over the years in libraries, schools and college of education libraries. Some private collectors must have comprehensive libraries. It would not be difficult to imagine that a private collector would have a number of early child centred classics.
“Good morning. I have an eleven year old daughter. She read all the Harry Potter series when she was eight and nine and now wants something different.”
“She is studying for her Eleven Plus. She likes ballet, horses and rock climbing. She does not like the books we call the classics so won’t read books like `Anne of Green Gables’ and `How Green was my Valley’. She thinks they are old fashioned. She hates science fiction.”
“Oh yes. Her grandfather likes the Sharpe series of books and they have watched many of the DVDs together. And yes, I can not interest her in cookery books. She says that she will need to learn to cook when she goes to university and does not want to start now.”
“I have asked at her school for lists of books. She won’t go into the children’s section of our local library. She dismisses the books as being for children. When we offer a teen age book she just mutters `read that’ and won’t entertain any further discussion.
“We already have lots of books at home which information in them. She wants to read a book for pleasure. Please help me to find something for her to read for pleasure.
“Yes I do know that my daughter is dependent on me for books to read. I don’t want her to read unsuitable books. I don’t really know what her tastes are. Yes I do know that the most popular books are those referred by her friends – but then I don’t always know what has been recommended. I don’t like to pry – but I do need to monitor.”
“Of course we have books at home. Of course we read at home. Although my daughter is eleven her reading tastes seem to be in the more adult books. I suppose she has a reading age of around fourteen. I am grateful for a good vocabulary while she is doing verbal reasoning exercises but I don’t like her reading books where there is little natural goodness. She liked to have stories about toadstools and gauzy wings read to her when she was very little – but has grown out of these years ago. Please help.”
Eleven Plus Food (14/01/09)
Children need to be healthy before the eleven plus. The correct food and taking part in will all play its part. On the Chris Evans show on Radio 2 yesterday there was an announcement that the best physical exercise a child or an adult could do was swimming and bouncing on a trampoline.
This will offer some parents a problem. They will not only have to buy a house close to a grammar school, but will need to add swimming polls and access to a well made trampoline. Eleven Plus fees will rise with the addition of a personal swimming coach and an Olympic trained trampoline trainer. This will make for an even busier life for many parents.
Monday:
School
School netball team until 4.15.
Into the car.
Swimming training.
Into the car.
Eleven Plus tutorial.
Into the car.
Home.
School homework.
Food.
Take the dog for a walk.
Clean the rabbit cage.
Bath and Bed. (Somewhere in the schedule reading and listening to a lecture from mum.)
Tuesday
Change netball for drama.
Swap swimming for trampoline.
Change extra lesson for eleven plus paper.
Change taking the dog for a walk for “Why me?”
The rest of the week must pass in a blur. No wonder mothers have to multitask!
To fit healthy food into the already overloaded schedule must take a monumental effort. We know that a snack in the car between school and the next activity must exclude certain foods. No more:
White and brown bread or flour
White pitta bread
Naan bread
Croissant
Cream crackers
Water crackers
Crisps
Buttery popcorn
Ice cream
Chocolate
Sugary fizzy drinks
Cakes
Doughnuts
Sugary sweets like wine gums and jelly babies
We have to ensure that the eleven plus candidate has plenty of:
Fresh Fruit
Dried fruit
100% pure fruit juices
Tomatoes
Carrots
Beetroots.
Parents sharing an eleven plus course with their children will need fortitude and vision. Who said it was easy to be an Eleven Plus parent?
This will offer some parents a problem. They will not only have to buy a house close to a grammar school, but will need to add swimming polls and access to a well made trampoline. Eleven Plus fees will rise with the addition of a personal swimming coach and an Olympic trained trampoline trainer. This will make for an even busier life for many parents.
Monday:
School
School netball team until 4.15.
Into the car.
Swimming training.
Into the car.
Eleven Plus tutorial.
Into the car.
Home.
School homework.
Food.
Take the dog for a walk.
Clean the rabbit cage.
Bath and Bed. (Somewhere in the schedule reading and listening to a lecture from mum.)
Tuesday
Change netball for drama.
Swap swimming for trampoline.
Change extra lesson for eleven plus paper.
Change taking the dog for a walk for “Why me?”
The rest of the week must pass in a blur. No wonder mothers have to multitask!
To fit healthy food into the already overloaded schedule must take a monumental effort. We know that a snack in the car between school and the next activity must exclude certain foods. No more:
White and brown bread or flour
White pitta bread
Naan bread
Croissant
Cream crackers
Water crackers
Crisps
Buttery popcorn
Ice cream
Chocolate
Sugary fizzy drinks
Cakes
Doughnuts
Sugary sweets like wine gums and jelly babies
We have to ensure that the eleven plus candidate has plenty of:
Fresh Fruit
Dried fruit
100% pure fruit juices
Tomatoes
Carrots
Beetroots.
Parents sharing an eleven plus course with their children will need fortitude and vision. Who said it was easy to be an Eleven Plus parent?
Eleven Plus Girls (13/01/09)
We need to look back to 1868 – over 140 years ago. The Taunton Commission looked at 800 endowed grammar schools. At the time there were only thirteen schools for girls.
The commission recommended three types of school to serve three classes of society – with leaving ages at 14, 16 and 18. Each type of school would need to have its own curriculum.
Class 1
Classics and Preparation for University. (For upper and upper middle class boys.)
Class 2
Requirements of the army, professions and business. (Middle class boys.)
Class Three
Rather more practical work. (Lower middle class boys.)
The Taunton Commission also undertook the first official comparison of girls and boys. The commission found that girls were more willing to learn – and learnt more than boys. “Girls come to learn and boys have to be driven” was one of the findings of the commission.
The Eleven Plus examinations, after the Second World War, were designed to allow children from all classes to have access to grammar schools. Thus children from the lower classes could gain access to education.
Today there must still be boys and girls unable to benefit from a grammar school education because entrance to a grammar school is highly prized among the middle class. The middle class can, to a degree, afford the fees of tutors, have access to the internet and can purchase a wide selection of eleven plus books and papers.
One hundred and forty years after the Taunton Commission:
Grammar schools still prepare children for university.
Girls still outperform boys.
Some bright children still are denied a place in the grammar school.
The commission recommended three types of school to serve three classes of society – with leaving ages at 14, 16 and 18. Each type of school would need to have its own curriculum.
Class 1
Classics and Preparation for University. (For upper and upper middle class boys.)
Class 2
Requirements of the army, professions and business. (Middle class boys.)
Class Three
Rather more practical work. (Lower middle class boys.)
The Taunton Commission also undertook the first official comparison of girls and boys. The commission found that girls were more willing to learn – and learnt more than boys. “Girls come to learn and boys have to be driven” was one of the findings of the commission.
The Eleven Plus examinations, after the Second World War, were designed to allow children from all classes to have access to grammar schools. Thus children from the lower classes could gain access to education.
Today there must still be boys and girls unable to benefit from a grammar school education because entrance to a grammar school is highly prized among the middle class. The middle class can, to a degree, afford the fees of tutors, have access to the internet and can purchase a wide selection of eleven plus books and papers.
One hundred and forty years after the Taunton Commission:
Grammar schools still prepare children for university.
Girls still outperform boys.
Some bright children still are denied a place in the grammar school.
When to start on Eleven Plus Work (12/01/09)
You have sat with your child and have worked though a set of verbal reasoning exercises. You think that all is well. Your child has shown enthusiasm and has responded in a positive manner. All is rosy.
In the back of your mind, however, you have a little niggle. Has the hard won information been retained? Will your child be able to apply what he or she has learnt in the actual examination? When should you revise and check?
Method One
Daily practice until you and your child are sure.
For
Repetition will help to consolidate the learning.
Against
Where will you find interesting and stimulating exercises of a similar nature? After all if you are simply using the same exercise that by day two your child will have lost interest.
Method Two
One quick revision on a different occasion – and then revisit the problem area after a month.
For
You may never be able to recreate the stimulation and excitement of tackling a new task again.
Against
We all learn differently. One child may need a concentrated blast of learning. Another child may prefer to revisit a topic on a monthly basis. A different child may simply say: “Done it. I know it. Let us move on.”
This brings us to the point: “When should we start on studying for the eleven plus?
Back in 1941 a man called Burtt described an experiment with his son he read the boy passages in Greek, from Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus. There were three selections of twenty lines each. For a period of time he read to the boy every day. The boy was less than two years old. Sic years later his son was required to learn by rote these selections, plus some new selection from the same source. It took the boy on average 435 repetitions to learn the new selections, but only 317 repetitions to learn the old ones. The saving was around 25%. A saving of 25% could make an enormous difference in the actual eleven plus examination!
If any parents are interested in running a pre-eleven plus experiment with their five year olds, please let me know. We may be able to change the way children are prepared for the eleven plus for ever!
In the back of your mind, however, you have a little niggle. Has the hard won information been retained? Will your child be able to apply what he or she has learnt in the actual examination? When should you revise and check?
Method One
Daily practice until you and your child are sure.
For
Repetition will help to consolidate the learning.
Against
Where will you find interesting and stimulating exercises of a similar nature? After all if you are simply using the same exercise that by day two your child will have lost interest.
Method Two
One quick revision on a different occasion – and then revisit the problem area after a month.
For
You may never be able to recreate the stimulation and excitement of tackling a new task again.
Against
We all learn differently. One child may need a concentrated blast of learning. Another child may prefer to revisit a topic on a monthly basis. A different child may simply say: “Done it. I know it. Let us move on.”
This brings us to the point: “When should we start on studying for the eleven plus?
Back in 1941 a man called Burtt described an experiment with his son he read the boy passages in Greek, from Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus. There were three selections of twenty lines each. For a period of time he read to the boy every day. The boy was less than two years old. Sic years later his son was required to learn by rote these selections, plus some new selection from the same source. It took the boy on average 435 repetitions to learn the new selections, but only 317 repetitions to learn the old ones. The saving was around 25%. A saving of 25% could make an enormous difference in the actual eleven plus examination!
If any parents are interested in running a pre-eleven plus experiment with their five year olds, please let me know. We may be able to change the way children are prepared for the eleven plus for ever!
Eleven Plus Curriculum (11/01/09)
If there is a strong enough call to change the present system of how children are selected for the Eleven Plus, then one of the issues that will have to be faced is: “What is the Eleven Plus curriculum?”
There must be many different definitions of the word curriculum – but we need to find one that will apply reasonably easily to the eleven plus.
There can be no call for a discovery type of curriculum where the eleven plus children become involved in discovery type activities. At the other end of the spectrum there should be no desire to change the eleven plus into an examination that follows a prescribed syllabus.
A simple definition of an Eleven Plus curriculum would be one where the children follow an organised plan of activities.
This is one of the problems that parents face when their children prepare for the eleven plus by working through book after book of selection papers. Selection papers can cover all the topics in an eleven plus syllabus – but may not work in a planned sequence.
We hear of children being prepared for the eleven plus with different teachers for each subject. One teacher will teach mathematics while a different teacher will teach reasoning skills. There could even be a third teacher working on English. How then is the curriculum integrated?
It is hard to argue that children prepared by having different tutors will be disadvantaged. The concept of subject specialist is enshrined in senior schools – and specialist work happily in cross curricula activities in primary school.
One problem that could occur, whether the eleven plus child is prepared by one teacher or three, is that the eleven plus examination is not intended to be knowledge based. There should, however, be no need to compartmentalise the different subjects because this could restrict children’s thinking and limit what they learn.
A different problem is that grammar schools have looked for a certain type of child. Of course a grammar school will want, and need, articulate, hardworking and able children. The eleven plus examination, however, has changed little over the past fifty years. We still see very similar types of question. The way that children are taught in schools today plays very little resemblance, however, to how children were taught fifty years ago.
Even a very traditional grammar school will teach in very different ways to those employed fifty years ago. We have a bright eleven year old who has passed her eleven plus examinations and will enter a very good grammar school in September. She recently scored 96% on an Edexcel GCSE Foundation mathematics paper. How will the chosen grammar school cope with enriching and extending this ultra bright child? She reached a standardised score of 140 on last September’s eleven plus mathematics paper.
This presents us with a problem, if we are to change the Eleven Plus examination, and hence the eleven plus curriculum, we will have to face some questions that can not readily be answered.
There must be many different definitions of the word curriculum – but we need to find one that will apply reasonably easily to the eleven plus.
There can be no call for a discovery type of curriculum where the eleven plus children become involved in discovery type activities. At the other end of the spectrum there should be no desire to change the eleven plus into an examination that follows a prescribed syllabus.
A simple definition of an Eleven Plus curriculum would be one where the children follow an organised plan of activities.
This is one of the problems that parents face when their children prepare for the eleven plus by working through book after book of selection papers. Selection papers can cover all the topics in an eleven plus syllabus – but may not work in a planned sequence.
We hear of children being prepared for the eleven plus with different teachers for each subject. One teacher will teach mathematics while a different teacher will teach reasoning skills. There could even be a third teacher working on English. How then is the curriculum integrated?
It is hard to argue that children prepared by having different tutors will be disadvantaged. The concept of subject specialist is enshrined in senior schools – and specialist work happily in cross curricula activities in primary school.
One problem that could occur, whether the eleven plus child is prepared by one teacher or three, is that the eleven plus examination is not intended to be knowledge based. There should, however, be no need to compartmentalise the different subjects because this could restrict children’s thinking and limit what they learn.
A different problem is that grammar schools have looked for a certain type of child. Of course a grammar school will want, and need, articulate, hardworking and able children. The eleven plus examination, however, has changed little over the past fifty years. We still see very similar types of question. The way that children are taught in schools today plays very little resemblance, however, to how children were taught fifty years ago.
Even a very traditional grammar school will teach in very different ways to those employed fifty years ago. We have a bright eleven year old who has passed her eleven plus examinations and will enter a very good grammar school in September. She recently scored 96% on an Edexcel GCSE Foundation mathematics paper. How will the chosen grammar school cope with enriching and extending this ultra bright child? She reached a standardised score of 140 on last September’s eleven plus mathematics paper.
This presents us with a problem, if we are to change the Eleven Plus examination, and hence the eleven plus curriculum, we will have to face some questions that can not readily be answered.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Eleven Plus Aliens 09/01/09
About a year ago it was obvious that a class was using this blog for some kind of insight into one form of education in England. Every week for around three months number of people logged on from a university in California. No one ever made a comment – but the majority of the readers stayed on the site for around three minutes. We wondered if this gave them enough time to read the previous week’s work.
Think of these Americans reading about the Eleven Plus.
What is the examination that is done on eleven year old children in England?
Do you think that it is really true that the examination has changed very little in the last fifty years?
Are all eleven year old children ready at the some time?
How do parents reward the children who pass?
How do parents counsel the children who do not pass?
What is a grammar school?
Compare and contrast the education and extra curricular activities in England and California
In our devotion to the eleven plus, we must see to be rather alien to educators looking at us from afar. Even if we are not aliens the eleven plus examination certainly different!
Think of these Americans reading about the Eleven Plus.
What is the examination that is done on eleven year old children in England?
Do you think that it is really true that the examination has changed very little in the last fifty years?
Are all eleven year old children ready at the some time?
How do parents reward the children who pass?
How do parents counsel the children who do not pass?
What is a grammar school?
Compare and contrast the education and extra curricular activities in England and California
In our devotion to the eleven plus, we must see to be rather alien to educators looking at us from afar. Even if we are not aliens the eleven plus examination certainly different!
Eleven Plus Comments 10/01/09
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25-34
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Do your children already attend the Extra Tuition Centre?
Why did you come onto this blog in the first place?
Is the blog addressing areas of interest to you?
Did the blog exceed your expectations?
Local knowledge is important. While every effort is made to make the information in this blog as accurate as possible, should you notice any inaccuracies please detail them below.
About You:
Which age group are you in?
Under 25
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
Do your children already attend the Extra Tuition Centre?
A Fair Eleven Plus 08/01/09
The eleven plus examination was once an examination that was universally necessary. The examination was operated with great fairness.
Even in the areas where the eleven plus is still used as a form of assessment, the KS2 SATs tests at eleven still exist. The KS3 SATs tests have been abandoned throughout the country.
One day the some one will come up with a plan to call the GCSE examinations by a new name.
`A’ Level examinations are already being replaced in some schools by the Baccalaureate. The argument is that it is too early for a sixteen year old to specialise. At the moment all a university has to do is to say `Two A’s and a B’.
Some parents maintain that it is unfair for children to be selected for grammar school on the basis of only asking for mathematics and verbal reasoning marks.
Even in the areas where the eleven plus is still used as a form of assessment, the KS2 SATs tests at eleven still exist. The KS3 SATs tests have been abandoned throughout the country.
One day the some one will come up with a plan to call the GCSE examinations by a new name.
`A’ Level examinations are already being replaced in some schools by the Baccalaureate. The argument is that it is too early for a sixteen year old to specialise. At the moment all a university has to do is to say `Two A’s and a B’.
Some parents maintain that it is unfair for children to be selected for grammar school on the basis of only asking for mathematics and verbal reasoning marks.
Eleven Plus Questions 07/01/09
Answer these questions as truthfully as possible. Try not to give deliberate wrong answers. If you are in doubt about answering a particular question, then read two are three further questions. Begin with Question 1.
Looking back on your childhood, up to the age of about ten, were you:
A Happy
B Unhappy.
Looking at your child preparing for the eleven plus, is he or she:
A Happy
B Unhappy.
In the light of your child’s present position would you say that your child’s examination preparation is:
A Successful
B Struggling
Does your child’s mind wander frequently?
A Yes
B No
Do you keep a personal diary or blog?
A Yes
B No
Can you manage all the verbal reasoning questions easily?
A Yes
B No
Is your mathematics good enough to be able to pass an eleven plus examination?
A Yes
B No
Does your child enjoy eleven plus work?
A Yes
B No
Do you sometimes find that you are amazed that your child tries so hard?
A Yes
B No
Would your child ever look at the answers illegally?
A Yes
B No
If you can work out the scoring and where these questions are going please make a comment that would be helpful to all of us. After all your child must sometimes feel the same sort of bewilderment and frustration when he or she looks at some of the really silly eleven plus questions.
Write down the letter that occurs in each word:
Elephant, varnish, many, peculiarity, wealthy
Looking back on your childhood, up to the age of about ten, were you:
A Happy
B Unhappy.
Looking at your child preparing for the eleven plus, is he or she:
A Happy
B Unhappy.
In the light of your child’s present position would you say that your child’s examination preparation is:
A Successful
B Struggling
Does your child’s mind wander frequently?
A Yes
B No
Do you keep a personal diary or blog?
A Yes
B No
Can you manage all the verbal reasoning questions easily?
A Yes
B No
Is your mathematics good enough to be able to pass an eleven plus examination?
A Yes
B No
Does your child enjoy eleven plus work?
A Yes
B No
Do you sometimes find that you are amazed that your child tries so hard?
A Yes
B No
Would your child ever look at the answers illegally?
A Yes
B No
If you can work out the scoring and where these questions are going please make a comment that would be helpful to all of us. After all your child must sometimes feel the same sort of bewilderment and frustration when he or she looks at some of the really silly eleven plus questions.
Write down the letter that occurs in each word:
Elephant, varnish, many, peculiarity, wealthy
Eleven Plus Adrenalin 06/01/09
Some of us have been taught for many years that adrenalin prepares us for `fight, flight or fright’.
When a mum reassures her child that it will be `all right on the day’, we can possibly presume that the mum hopes that adrenalin will kick in. Some force will help her child to conjure up the right answers from the ether.
There have been many attempts to try to invent and build machines that can re-create themselves. Computers can be constructed to perform series of complicated calculations that would take the human brain almost a lifetime to perform.
Would it be possible to build a machine that would help a child to pass the eleven plus? The inventor would need to be able to store every single question that had been asked in actual examinations. All questions would need to be collected from all eleven plus specimen and practice papers. It would possibly also help if all the different explanations of eleven plus questions that given by teachers, tutors and parents were stored.
We would then have a vast database of information about the eleven plus. We could then ask the machine to prepare possible answers to the possible questions.
The machine would then need to be able to pass this information to your child. This simple act would save many hours of study, argument, frustration and joy. Could such an eleven plus machine exist?
It is far more likely that a well prepared child writing the eleven plus will have a much greater chance of passing the examination. After all before the eleven plus examination our eleven plus candidate will show lots of evidence of:
Fight
Flight
Fright.
When a mum reassures her child that it will be `all right on the day’, we can possibly presume that the mum hopes that adrenalin will kick in. Some force will help her child to conjure up the right answers from the ether.
There have been many attempts to try to invent and build machines that can re-create themselves. Computers can be constructed to perform series of complicated calculations that would take the human brain almost a lifetime to perform.
Would it be possible to build a machine that would help a child to pass the eleven plus? The inventor would need to be able to store every single question that had been asked in actual examinations. All questions would need to be collected from all eleven plus specimen and practice papers. It would possibly also help if all the different explanations of eleven plus questions that given by teachers, tutors and parents were stored.
We would then have a vast database of information about the eleven plus. We could then ask the machine to prepare possible answers to the possible questions.
The machine would then need to be able to pass this information to your child. This simple act would save many hours of study, argument, frustration and joy. Could such an eleven plus machine exist?
It is far more likely that a well prepared child writing the eleven plus will have a much greater chance of passing the examination. After all before the eleven plus examination our eleven plus candidate will show lots of evidence of:
Fight
Flight
Fright.
Eleven Plus - Moving Home 05/01/09
You hear of a good school. You then receive an offer on your house that is simply too good to be true. You don’t prevaricate or ask for a higher offer, you take the money and run. Where could you go? Close to that `wonderful’ school. You surmise that this is the school that will bring out the best in your child. (Last year 32 children out of 60 passed the Eleven Plus. Only 3 passed in the school your children are in at the moment.)
If over half the children passed last year – what are the chances of the same happening this year?
You know that last year, Year 6 had a gifted teacher who loved the Eleven Plus and loved working children hard. 26 out of thirty in her class passed last year. In the new school you hear that the good teacher has been moved to different class lower down the school. The teacher who is taking the present pre Eleven Plus children is more interested in drama and sport. She never sets any extra homework unless the children remind her.
If we had to use statistical tools to work out if the was worth moving to the new school we would need to be able to look at the numbers of children who won grammar school places over some time. It may also be useful to look at the difference is scores between the two groups of children. One method would be to apply some of the many different formulas associated with correlation. After all if you are going to take the plunge and move, you will want to be sure that the data is both accurate and meaningful.
The statistically informed test expert will need to be able to use clear and appropriate language when offering you conclusions.
We know that it must be possible to correlate success in eleven plus examinations with future success at `A’ level. To do well at `A’ level requires much more than attending a grammar school. We must presume that a certain percentage of children who pass the Eleven Plus will be successful. There must also be other children who did not pass the eleven plus – yet do go on to have a successful school career.
To help parents make their decision `to move or not to move’ the mothers and fathers will need to look at the new school in terms of:
Children who if selected would succeed at grammar school.
Children who were rejected by the grammar school system did succeed.
Children who if selected would fail academically at grammar school.
Children who were rejected, and then went on to fail.
There are very real problems for parents to try to face when they are deciding whether to move into an area which has a successful school.
If over half the children passed last year – what are the chances of the same happening this year?
You know that last year, Year 6 had a gifted teacher who loved the Eleven Plus and loved working children hard. 26 out of thirty in her class passed last year. In the new school you hear that the good teacher has been moved to different class lower down the school. The teacher who is taking the present pre Eleven Plus children is more interested in drama and sport. She never sets any extra homework unless the children remind her.
If we had to use statistical tools to work out if the was worth moving to the new school we would need to be able to look at the numbers of children who won grammar school places over some time. It may also be useful to look at the difference is scores between the two groups of children. One method would be to apply some of the many different formulas associated with correlation. After all if you are going to take the plunge and move, you will want to be sure that the data is both accurate and meaningful.
The statistically informed test expert will need to be able to use clear and appropriate language when offering you conclusions.
We know that it must be possible to correlate success in eleven plus examinations with future success at `A’ level. To do well at `A’ level requires much more than attending a grammar school. We must presume that a certain percentage of children who pass the Eleven Plus will be successful. There must also be other children who did not pass the eleven plus – yet do go on to have a successful school career.
To help parents make their decision `to move or not to move’ the mothers and fathers will need to look at the new school in terms of:
Children who if selected would succeed at grammar school.
Children who were rejected by the grammar school system did succeed.
Children who if selected would fail academically at grammar school.
Children who were rejected, and then went on to fail.
There are very real problems for parents to try to face when they are deciding whether to move into an area which has a successful school.
Eleven Plus Endings 04/01/09
What makes an Eleven Plus winner? Some parents will have all the answers straight away. The rest of us may struggle just a little at times.
Method 1
Eleven Plus Child – I don’t feel like doing a paper today. I worked hard at school and I’m tired.
Parent – We will just do part of a paper today. You can do the rest tomorrow.
Eleven Plus Child – No, I just don’t want to do any extra work today. We did maths all day today. I don’t want to do a paper today.
Parent – But we agreed yesterday that you would do the mathematics paper today. You said yesterday that you are tired.
Eleven Plus Child – Well I don’t want to do it today.
Parent – I am getting fed up with this. You said you wanted to go to grammar school. You said you would do the paper today. Go to your room and get started.
Eleven Plus Child – No, I don’t want to do it. I told you I was tired. Please listen, Mum.
Parent – No. Go and do the paper now. If you don’t do it now I will stop your pocket money.
Eleven Plus Child – All right. You win. I am not happy.
The parent won and the child lost!
Method 2
Eleven Plus Child – I don’t feel like doing a paper today. I worked hard at school and I’m tired.
Parent – We will just do part of a paper today. You can do the rest tomorrow.
Eleven Plus Child – No, I just don’t want to do any extra work today. We did maths all day today. I don’t want to do a paper today.
Parent – But we agreed yesterday that you would do the mathematics paper today. You said yesterday that you are tired.
Eleven Plus Child – I hate mathematics paper. I hate the Eleven Plus. I am nor doing a paper today. You can not force me.
Parent – Oh, I give up. Leave the paper today. I don’t want to argue with you any more. You win.
The child wins and the parent loses.
The parent and the child both want to win. They are both prepared to fight to win. One side has to give way. The other side goes away feeling defeated and angry.
In both scenarios there is very little motivation for either party to work peacefully together.
If any one can suggest a different ending … please share it with us.
Method 1
Eleven Plus Child – I don’t feel like doing a paper today. I worked hard at school and I’m tired.
Parent – We will just do part of a paper today. You can do the rest tomorrow.
Eleven Plus Child – No, I just don’t want to do any extra work today. We did maths all day today. I don’t want to do a paper today.
Parent – But we agreed yesterday that you would do the mathematics paper today. You said yesterday that you are tired.
Eleven Plus Child – Well I don’t want to do it today.
Parent – I am getting fed up with this. You said you wanted to go to grammar school. You said you would do the paper today. Go to your room and get started.
Eleven Plus Child – No, I don’t want to do it. I told you I was tired. Please listen, Mum.
Parent – No. Go and do the paper now. If you don’t do it now I will stop your pocket money.
Eleven Plus Child – All right. You win. I am not happy.
The parent won and the child lost!
Method 2
Eleven Plus Child – I don’t feel like doing a paper today. I worked hard at school and I’m tired.
Parent – We will just do part of a paper today. You can do the rest tomorrow.
Eleven Plus Child – No, I just don’t want to do any extra work today. We did maths all day today. I don’t want to do a paper today.
Parent – But we agreed yesterday that you would do the mathematics paper today. You said yesterday that you are tired.
Eleven Plus Child – I hate mathematics paper. I hate the Eleven Plus. I am nor doing a paper today. You can not force me.
Parent – Oh, I give up. Leave the paper today. I don’t want to argue with you any more. You win.
The child wins and the parent loses.
The parent and the child both want to win. They are both prepared to fight to win. One side has to give way. The other side goes away feeling defeated and angry.
In both scenarios there is very little motivation for either party to work peacefully together.
If any one can suggest a different ending … please share it with us.
Eleven Plus and Financial Climate 03/01/09
It is going to be very interesting to see the effect that the general social and political conditions that exist today have on future developments within the Eleven Plus.
`Building Schools for the Future’ has already revolutionised far more than the design and intent of schools. The curriculum too has changed with information technology playing a larger part.
Would there be a big outcry if one of the political parties developed a new case for changes within the grammar school system?
Would prospective and existing grammar school parents react if the curriculum within their school was altered?
Will children continue to be prepared by traditional methods for Eleven Plus examinations?
Will families have time to be able to be involved in social ferment if they are in fear of their jobs and savings?
Will the middle class develop a new group of activists who will strive for change to the existing grammar school system?
How can parents be mobilised to demand changes to the system?
Will a grammar school ever become an academy?
Will an academy ever become a grammar school?
We saw in the recent American elections that the new tools of change included blogs, Face Book and Twitter. The `Friends of the Eleven Plus’ could develop large families that would be able have contrasting opinions to the `Stop the Eleven Plus’ community.
One thing we can be certain of is that there is very little chance of change becoming ossified. None of us can remain impervious to developments we have little control over.
`Building Schools for the Future’ has already revolutionised far more than the design and intent of schools. The curriculum too has changed with information technology playing a larger part.
Would there be a big outcry if one of the political parties developed a new case for changes within the grammar school system?
Would prospective and existing grammar school parents react if the curriculum within their school was altered?
Will children continue to be prepared by traditional methods for Eleven Plus examinations?
Will families have time to be able to be involved in social ferment if they are in fear of their jobs and savings?
Will the middle class develop a new group of activists who will strive for change to the existing grammar school system?
How can parents be mobilised to demand changes to the system?
Will a grammar school ever become an academy?
Will an academy ever become a grammar school?
We saw in the recent American elections that the new tools of change included blogs, Face Book and Twitter. The `Friends of the Eleven Plus’ could develop large families that would be able have contrasting opinions to the `Stop the Eleven Plus’ community.
One thing we can be certain of is that there is very little chance of change becoming ossified. None of us can remain impervious to developments we have little control over.
Eleven Plus Common Sense 02/01/09
It is sometimes quite difficult to work out whether some eleven plus questions can be answered with common sense. If we have some knowledge of a topic then is seems likely that common sense can be used to answer a question.
We usually take common sense for granted and accept an answer based on common sense without much discussion.
If we try to teach an eleven plus topic so that it can be used in the examination by simply using common sense, then we would probably have had to break the topic into small but logical pieces. After all if there is little logic to the answer then it is unlikely that common sense can be applied.
What then is a common sense answer to a question? The book: “Essentials of Verbal Reasoning (O.B. Gregory) gives some 11+ exercises:
Look at the first pair of words and decide the relationship between them. Then write a pair of words from inside the brackets with the same relationship:
Small, little (rich, poor, money, expensive, wealthy)
The right answer is rich and wealthy. Is this a common sense solution?
Some children will choose rich and poor because they will not have read the question carefully.
Others may choose expensive and wealthy – because they know what the words mean, and they have read the question, but they may just have become a `little confused’. A number of words are similar. Would common sense help here?
Some children may prefer to have the question, and the answer, explained carefully – rather than hear the words:
“Just use your common sense.”
We usually take common sense for granted and accept an answer based on common sense without much discussion.
If we try to teach an eleven plus topic so that it can be used in the examination by simply using common sense, then we would probably have had to break the topic into small but logical pieces. After all if there is little logic to the answer then it is unlikely that common sense can be applied.
What then is a common sense answer to a question? The book: “Essentials of Verbal Reasoning (O.B. Gregory) gives some 11+ exercises:
Look at the first pair of words and decide the relationship between them. Then write a pair of words from inside the brackets with the same relationship:
Small, little (rich, poor, money, expensive, wealthy)
The right answer is rich and wealthy. Is this a common sense solution?
Some children will choose rich and poor because they will not have read the question carefully.
Others may choose expensive and wealthy – because they know what the words mean, and they have read the question, but they may just have become a `little confused’. A number of words are similar. Would common sense help here?
Some children may prefer to have the question, and the answer, explained carefully – rather than hear the words:
“Just use your common sense.”
Friday, January 02, 2009
Eleven Plus Grades 01/01/09
The Eleven Plus examination is designed to find children who would benefit from a grammar school education. The difficulty of the examination is attributable to a number of factors:
The nature of the questions
The severity of marking
The time allowed
If the questions in the examination are hard, then the value in passing is enhanced. In other words we expect the eleven plus examination to be difficult to all but the brightest. When children achieve full marks on an Eleven Plus examination we know that we are discussing seriously able children.
There will be some children entering grammar school this year who will, however, have `scraped’ through the examination. This does not, however, mean that these children will not go on to do extremely well within the grammar school environment. Hard work, love of learning and old fashioned dedication will all play a part in the school career of a grammar school child.
In many eleven plus areas parents are simply offered a pass or fail situation. This is good enough for most. Parents and children are offered the marks but are not usually presented with the information about how many other children achieved similar scores. Eleven plus examiners, however, are not obliged to report the results with any degree of precision.
In education we often grade results with the letters A, B, C, D and E. If we assume that A is better than B which in turn is better than C, then an E grade will show the lowest scores. In Eleven Plus examinations we do not need the grades to stretch over the whole spectrum of children who sat the examination. The grades only need to cover the children who have passed. Thus an `A’ grade means a very good candidate. An `E’ grade does not then mean a failure – but suggests a child who has just passed the examination.
The percentage of marks attributed to each Eleven Plus grade could be completely arbitrary. If, however, an A grade was designed to describe the top ten per cent of children, and the E grade the ten percent of children who `just’ passed, then there is no need for the candidates at levels B, C and D to know their grades.
Never the less some parents may find it very helpful to know that their child passed with a score of 129 – and that that was a `C’ grade.
If we had this additional information about grades, and could use it for helping the examination to improve and develop, then there could be some point in adding extra pass levels. After all, an examination that has been around for many years must need a strong degree of introspection and re-evaluation.
The nature of the questions
The severity of marking
The time allowed
If the questions in the examination are hard, then the value in passing is enhanced. In other words we expect the eleven plus examination to be difficult to all but the brightest. When children achieve full marks on an Eleven Plus examination we know that we are discussing seriously able children.
There will be some children entering grammar school this year who will, however, have `scraped’ through the examination. This does not, however, mean that these children will not go on to do extremely well within the grammar school environment. Hard work, love of learning and old fashioned dedication will all play a part in the school career of a grammar school child.
In many eleven plus areas parents are simply offered a pass or fail situation. This is good enough for most. Parents and children are offered the marks but are not usually presented with the information about how many other children achieved similar scores. Eleven plus examiners, however, are not obliged to report the results with any degree of precision.
In education we often grade results with the letters A, B, C, D and E. If we assume that A is better than B which in turn is better than C, then an E grade will show the lowest scores. In Eleven Plus examinations we do not need the grades to stretch over the whole spectrum of children who sat the examination. The grades only need to cover the children who have passed. Thus an `A’ grade means a very good candidate. An `E’ grade does not then mean a failure – but suggests a child who has just passed the examination.
The percentage of marks attributed to each Eleven Plus grade could be completely arbitrary. If, however, an A grade was designed to describe the top ten per cent of children, and the E grade the ten percent of children who `just’ passed, then there is no need for the candidates at levels B, C and D to know their grades.
Never the less some parents may find it very helpful to know that their child passed with a score of 129 – and that that was a `C’ grade.
If we had this additional information about grades, and could use it for helping the examination to improve and develop, then there could be some point in adding extra pass levels. After all, an examination that has been around for many years must need a strong degree of introspection and re-evaluation.
Eleven Plus Reading 31/12/08
Many Eleven Plus children will have been given books over the Christmas period. Parents, family and friends will have chosen books from bookshops, the internet, personal recommendation and sometimes nostalgia will have played a part.
Eleven Plus children need to read. Reading, however, is a means to an end and not an end in itself. It is important that the books a child reads are interesting and worth the effort of reading them. Children, however, could read book after book and never become exposed to a key word that could emerge in an eleven plus examination.
When children are learning to read, the books that they are supplied with are both blessed and inhibited by a highly limited vocabulary. The Janet and John books, for example, were first introduced in Britain in 1949. Teachers found that the attractive illustrations were enjoyed by children and parents alike – especially when the books were compared with rather old fashioned looking phonic books. The basis of the Janet and John approach was that the child first associated pictures and words – and then memorised them by controlled practice. A lot of children were taught to read using the Janet and John books.
Many other reading schemes followed – some stressing look and say, others whole word methods and some phonic. Most children who are at the Eleven Plus stage will have been taught to read using a combination of methods. If your eleven plus child finds reading a chore then you would be hard pressed to blame the reading methods taught by the school.
One primary objective in reading is extracting knowledge from the printed page. You may find your child reading for pleasure, trying to find information – or performing a task he or she finds time consuming and unappetising.
Some very worthy eleven plus teachers have produced lists of key words eleven plus children will meet in examinations and on practice papers. Learning to apply these words could be a worth while exercise for some children. The difference between a pass and a fail, however, could be a word that is not on the list.
Perhaps one day our Eleven Plus children will have lists of recommended books.
“Read these fifteen books and you will be exposed to all the words that you will find in the Eleven Plus Examination.”
This could be shortened to:
“Special offer! Five important Eleven Plus books for only £3.50 each. Buy all five for £15.00. You will meet over 95% of all the words your child will meet in the examination.”
I would be very grateful for any lists of `useful and important’ eleven plus books. I bet, however, that if your pre eleven plus child read `The Three Musketeers’ and “Two Years Before the Mast” then you would have covered a very large proportion of key Eleven Plus words.
Eleven Plus children need to read. Reading, however, is a means to an end and not an end in itself. It is important that the books a child reads are interesting and worth the effort of reading them. Children, however, could read book after book and never become exposed to a key word that could emerge in an eleven plus examination.
When children are learning to read, the books that they are supplied with are both blessed and inhibited by a highly limited vocabulary. The Janet and John books, for example, were first introduced in Britain in 1949. Teachers found that the attractive illustrations were enjoyed by children and parents alike – especially when the books were compared with rather old fashioned looking phonic books. The basis of the Janet and John approach was that the child first associated pictures and words – and then memorised them by controlled practice. A lot of children were taught to read using the Janet and John books.
Many other reading schemes followed – some stressing look and say, others whole word methods and some phonic. Most children who are at the Eleven Plus stage will have been taught to read using a combination of methods. If your eleven plus child finds reading a chore then you would be hard pressed to blame the reading methods taught by the school.
One primary objective in reading is extracting knowledge from the printed page. You may find your child reading for pleasure, trying to find information – or performing a task he or she finds time consuming and unappetising.
Some very worthy eleven plus teachers have produced lists of key words eleven plus children will meet in examinations and on practice papers. Learning to apply these words could be a worth while exercise for some children. The difference between a pass and a fail, however, could be a word that is not on the list.
Perhaps one day our Eleven Plus children will have lists of recommended books.
“Read these fifteen books and you will be exposed to all the words that you will find in the Eleven Plus Examination.”
This could be shortened to:
“Special offer! Five important Eleven Plus books for only £3.50 each. Buy all five for £15.00. You will meet over 95% of all the words your child will meet in the examination.”
I would be very grateful for any lists of `useful and important’ eleven plus books. I bet, however, that if your pre eleven plus child read `The Three Musketeers’ and “Two Years Before the Mast” then you would have covered a very large proportion of key Eleven Plus words.
Eleven Plus Questions 30/12/08
Would the results of a questionnaire help to mould opinion on the Eleven Plus? Here are some suggestions:
Can you tell me three things that you like about education today?
1
2
3
Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the Eleven Plus?
Satisfied 1 Dissatisfied 2 Don’t know 3
Do you think that the present Eleven Plus examini)ations are fair?
Satisfied 1 Dissatisfied 2 Don’t know 3
Do you approve or disapprove of the Eleven Plus?
Approve 1 Disapprove 2 Don’t know 3
Are you satisfied with the present number of grammar schools?
Satisfied 1 Dissatisfied 2 Don’t know 3
The Eleven Plus should only test verbal reasoning.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
The Eleven Plus should look at mathematics and verbal reasoning.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
The fairest test at the Eleven Plus level would cover mathematics and English – as well as verbal and non verbal reasoning.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
Which party should bite the bullet and curtail the Eleven Plus?
Labour 1 Conservative 2 Liberal 3 Don’t know 4
Which political party should expand the Eleven Plus?
Labour 1 Conservative 2 Liberal 3 Don’t know 4
Schools should support the Eleven Plus
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
Parents should be paid a grant to cover the cost of preparing a child for the Eleven Plus.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
Fees for Eleven Plus tuition should be capped – to make it fairer for some children.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
New Eleven Plus tests should be developed.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
Are you a Man? 1
Woman
Housewife 2
Not housewife 3
16-20 4
21-24 5
25-29 6
30-34 7
35-44 8
45-49 9
50-54 10
55-59 11
60-64 12
65 and over 13
Parent/Guardian with an Eleven Plus Child 1
Parent/Guardian without an Eleven Plus Child 2
Not Parent/Guardian 3
Married 4
Single 5
Other 6
Now one or two questions about yourself:
Do you smoke?
Yes 1
No 2
Do you think that this interview will reflect a true picture of current opinion?
Yes 1
No 2
Of course these questions would represent the start of a pilot survey. Other questions and thoughts about the Eleven Plus would, no doubt, emerge in time.
Can you tell me three things that you like about education today?
1
2
3
Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the Eleven Plus?
Satisfied 1 Dissatisfied 2 Don’t know 3
Do you think that the present Eleven Plus examini)ations are fair?
Satisfied 1 Dissatisfied 2 Don’t know 3
Do you approve or disapprove of the Eleven Plus?
Approve 1 Disapprove 2 Don’t know 3
Are you satisfied with the present number of grammar schools?
Satisfied 1 Dissatisfied 2 Don’t know 3
The Eleven Plus should only test verbal reasoning.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
The Eleven Plus should look at mathematics and verbal reasoning.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
The fairest test at the Eleven Plus level would cover mathematics and English – as well as verbal and non verbal reasoning.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
Which party should bite the bullet and curtail the Eleven Plus?
Labour 1 Conservative 2 Liberal 3 Don’t know 4
Which political party should expand the Eleven Plus?
Labour 1 Conservative 2 Liberal 3 Don’t know 4
Schools should support the Eleven Plus
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
Parents should be paid a grant to cover the cost of preparing a child for the Eleven Plus.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
Fees for Eleven Plus tuition should be capped – to make it fairer for some children.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
New Eleven Plus tests should be developed.
Agree 1 Disagree 2 Don’t know 3
Are you a Man? 1
Woman
Housewife 2
Not housewife 3
16-20 4
21-24 5
25-29 6
30-34 7
35-44 8
45-49 9
50-54 10
55-59 11
60-64 12
65 and over 13
Parent/Guardian with an Eleven Plus Child 1
Parent/Guardian without an Eleven Plus Child 2
Not Parent/Guardian 3
Married 4
Single 5
Other 6
Now one or two questions about yourself:
Do you smoke?
Yes 1
No 2
Do you think that this interview will reflect a true picture of current opinion?
Yes 1
No 2
Of course these questions would represent the start of a pilot survey. Other questions and thoughts about the Eleven Plus would, no doubt, emerge in time.
Eleven Plus Winners 29/12/08
It is a comforting thought that bright children are more likely to have their opinions changed by factual information than duller ones. It should also make us feel better about our bright children when we think that clever children are likely to be more critical of arguments and are also likely to be more sceptical.
We see this all the time with the TV cooks. When we watch a TV chef in action he or she is trying to teach without lecturing. If a TV chef simply sat in front of a passive audience and declaimed recipes for half an hour we would possibly have a strong urge to switch off. When we are invited to adopt one of the culinary masterpieces made by a celebrity chef, we would probably be more to embrace a recipe if we could also make a contribution.
This leads us to wondering if there is a recipe to latch on to that will help us to change the attitude of some ten year old boys towards work.
We know that an emotional argument will only work once or twice – and then a hint of reserve will creep in. (“How can you do this to me? I am your mother!”)
We know that as adults we need to be able to marshal an array of facts to help us to support any arguments we may be drawn into.
“It is a fact that child can not study effectively if the TV is on.”
“No, fast foods are a treat – they are not a viable alternative.”
“I am not criticising the clothes you are wearing – I am simply commenting that alternative dress may be more appropriate.”
There must still be some situations when you require your child to conform to your rules without question. You may even need to demand obedience where there are penalties for failure to obey your rules. (“If you don’t do what I say, you will not be able to …..”)
There may be times, however, when we want our bright eleven plus children to be non conformists. The idea of a sedated child going purposefully to complete an eleven plus paper seems incongruous in today’s world. If we try to encourage our eleven plus children to conform all the time then we may be excluding them from the possibility of developing their own attitudes and standards. Parents, however, can not expect their children to develop in a ‘Conforming Eleven Plus Manner’ all the time.
Eleven Plus children must be able to see the value in studying and work. They also need to feel that they can challenge their parents and teachers and, at the same time, assert and defend their own views.
To some parents the whole point of doing any extra work with their children towards the eleven plus examinations is an attempt to provide stimulating and interesting work. Parents want their eleven plus child to enjoy the work, take an interest in the subject matter and adopt an open mind.
All this to say: “Children do need to be allowed win sometimes.”
We see this all the time with the TV cooks. When we watch a TV chef in action he or she is trying to teach without lecturing. If a TV chef simply sat in front of a passive audience and declaimed recipes for half an hour we would possibly have a strong urge to switch off. When we are invited to adopt one of the culinary masterpieces made by a celebrity chef, we would probably be more to embrace a recipe if we could also make a contribution.
This leads us to wondering if there is a recipe to latch on to that will help us to change the attitude of some ten year old boys towards work.
We know that an emotional argument will only work once or twice – and then a hint of reserve will creep in. (“How can you do this to me? I am your mother!”)
We know that as adults we need to be able to marshal an array of facts to help us to support any arguments we may be drawn into.
“It is a fact that child can not study effectively if the TV is on.”
“No, fast foods are a treat – they are not a viable alternative.”
“I am not criticising the clothes you are wearing – I am simply commenting that alternative dress may be more appropriate.”
There must still be some situations when you require your child to conform to your rules without question. You may even need to demand obedience where there are penalties for failure to obey your rules. (“If you don’t do what I say, you will not be able to …..”)
There may be times, however, when we want our bright eleven plus children to be non conformists. The idea of a sedated child going purposefully to complete an eleven plus paper seems incongruous in today’s world. If we try to encourage our eleven plus children to conform all the time then we may be excluding them from the possibility of developing their own attitudes and standards. Parents, however, can not expect their children to develop in a ‘Conforming Eleven Plus Manner’ all the time.
Eleven Plus children must be able to see the value in studying and work. They also need to feel that they can challenge their parents and teachers and, at the same time, assert and defend their own views.
To some parents the whole point of doing any extra work with their children towards the eleven plus examinations is an attempt to provide stimulating and interesting work. Parents want their eleven plus child to enjoy the work, take an interest in the subject matter and adopt an open mind.
All this to say: “Children do need to be allowed win sometimes.”
Eleven Plus Questions 28/1208
Some schools add an interview to the selection process. This would strike fear into the hearts of some parents of pre eleven plus children. What happens if their child does not react well in the interview? There is enough to worry about how well a much loved child will complete in the right answers without worrying that the interview will not show the candidate in the best possible light.
What can go wrong?
Your child may talk too much.
Your child may talk too little.
Your child may be inattentive.
Your child may not listen.
On the other hand:
Your child may argue convincingly.
Your child may be able to demonstrate that he or she can solve a problem.
Your child may appear to be relaxed and articulate.
Your child may be able to demonstrate that he or she is aware of the importance of the interview.
So what words of advice can you offer?
Wait for the interviewer to finish the sentence. (Some child does seem to be inclined to butt in at times.)
If you do not understand the question ask for it to be repeated or reiterated.
Try to avoid being too dogmatic. (Even in an interview some one else can have a point of view.)
What questions might your child be asked?
What do you know about this school? (We once helped a pre 12+ pupil with ‘interview techniques’ and it was clear that he had no knowledge of the school at all. WE suggested that he should at the very least look at the web site!)
Do you like school?
Do you have any particular reasons for wanting to come to this school?
What ambitions do you have?
What books have you read lately?
Finally we come to the questions for the parents. (We presume they will be able to be interviewed too?)
Why do you want your son / daughter to come to this school?
Will you support the PTA?
How close to the school do you live?
Do you resent being interviewed?
What can go wrong?
Your child may talk too much.
Your child may talk too little.
Your child may be inattentive.
Your child may not listen.
On the other hand:
Your child may argue convincingly.
Your child may be able to demonstrate that he or she can solve a problem.
Your child may appear to be relaxed and articulate.
Your child may be able to demonstrate that he or she is aware of the importance of the interview.
So what words of advice can you offer?
Wait for the interviewer to finish the sentence. (Some child does seem to be inclined to butt in at times.)
If you do not understand the question ask for it to be repeated or reiterated.
Try to avoid being too dogmatic. (Even in an interview some one else can have a point of view.)
What questions might your child be asked?
What do you know about this school? (We once helped a pre 12+ pupil with ‘interview techniques’ and it was clear that he had no knowledge of the school at all. WE suggested that he should at the very least look at the web site!)
Do you like school?
Do you have any particular reasons for wanting to come to this school?
What ambitions do you have?
What books have you read lately?
Finally we come to the questions for the parents. (We presume they will be able to be interviewed too?)
Why do you want your son / daughter to come to this school?
Will you support the PTA?
How close to the school do you live?
Do you resent being interviewed?
Eleven Plus Attributes 27/12/08
Many years ago, before even the much vaunted Eleven Plus was born lived a man called John Locke. He thought that true education was gaining self control by the individual. Intellectual self control was to be fostered by giving experience and practice. (Sounds familiar?)
He thought that the tutor should answer questions truthfully when ever the thirst for knowledge appeared genuine.
He thought that children hated to be idle and that it was the tutor’s task to tempt or trick them into worthwhile pursuits.
Locke wanted the content of education to cover virtue, wisdom, breeding and learning.
Virtue
Keep speaking the truth and be good natured. (No fighting with mum and dad about doing an eleven plus paper!)
Wisdom
To raise a child’s mind to true and worthy thoughts. (No sharp little comments from the much loved eleven year old.)
Breeding
Showing good will and regard for all people. (Respecting that mother and father can have an opinion – and really do know how to do long division and algebra.)
Learning
Many years are spent on it, and what a noise and business it makes to no purpose. (Having to persist with eleven plus questions that rely on rote rather than thought.)
Now Locke lived between 1632 and 1704. We still want our eleven plus children to be virtuous, wise, and able to demonstrate good breeding and manners as well as be imbued with a fierce desire to learn. These are all good eleven plus attributes. It is a pity that the Eleven Plus examination itself can not gives more credit to the whole child.
He thought that the tutor should answer questions truthfully when ever the thirst for knowledge appeared genuine.
He thought that children hated to be idle and that it was the tutor’s task to tempt or trick them into worthwhile pursuits.
Locke wanted the content of education to cover virtue, wisdom, breeding and learning.
Virtue
Keep speaking the truth and be good natured. (No fighting with mum and dad about doing an eleven plus paper!)
Wisdom
To raise a child’s mind to true and worthy thoughts. (No sharp little comments from the much loved eleven year old.)
Breeding
Showing good will and regard for all people. (Respecting that mother and father can have an opinion – and really do know how to do long division and algebra.)
Learning
Many years are spent on it, and what a noise and business it makes to no purpose. (Having to persist with eleven plus questions that rely on rote rather than thought.)
Now Locke lived between 1632 and 1704. We still want our eleven plus children to be virtuous, wise, and able to demonstrate good breeding and manners as well as be imbued with a fierce desire to learn. These are all good eleven plus attributes. It is a pity that the Eleven Plus examination itself can not gives more credit to the whole child.
Eleven Plus Children 26/12/08
I looked today on Amazon for the date when a book called “The Practical Junior Teacher” by Potter was published. There is no date in the copy I have. Amazon had four copies at £18.00 each. The book, according to Amazon, was first published in 1931. The Editor’s Note in my copy, however, discusses the 1944 Education Act.
Potter had strong views on education. Of history he said “Class textbooks can kill interest and enjoyment if they are used for the valueless drudgery of learning facts by heart, but books that can be read for enjoyment and used for reference are excellent and the children must learn to use them.”
Mr Potter might have been talking about parts of today’s Eleven Plus. Some bright eleven years olds still have to put up with working through rather old fashioned eleven plus exercises and answering dated questions.
He discussed the Eleven Plus in terms of the eleven plus being based on a belief that formal examinations are able to forecast future academic success. Mr Potter wrote: “It is now realised that a child’s general attainment at school depends largely on his intelligence, or innate intellectual ability.”
Mr Potter was concerned with the selective examinations that took place at the end of a child’s junior school career. He explained that in some schools education had been abandoned in favour of continual practice in the basic subjects. He put forward the concept of a record card that would replace the formal examination in arithmetic, English and General Intelligence at the age of eleven.
He hoped that a child’s future education would be decided by his `potentialities’ instead of by his attainment in basic subjects. “Thus the temptation for teachers in Junior schools to overemphasise the basic subjects of the curriculum would be eliminated.”
If only we could find a way to eliminate some of the father vacuous questions our children have to face. A successful eleven plus child has to be bright, with a good vocabulary and sound problem solving skills. But being able to answer a question based around ‘mouse is to cat as rabbit is to …’ is surely an over rated eleven plus skill.
There does seem to be a strong case for the eleven plus examination to be looked at with fresh eyes. I suppose `don’t rock the boat’ could be an answer. Some teachers and publishers may not like the idea of a fresh examination that challenges present views on the eleven plus. No one would argue change for change’s sake. Some extremely bright children, however, could miss out because the present examination looks for a certain type of grammar school child.
Potter had strong views on education. Of history he said “Class textbooks can kill interest and enjoyment if they are used for the valueless drudgery of learning facts by heart, but books that can be read for enjoyment and used for reference are excellent and the children must learn to use them.”
Mr Potter might have been talking about parts of today’s Eleven Plus. Some bright eleven years olds still have to put up with working through rather old fashioned eleven plus exercises and answering dated questions.
He discussed the Eleven Plus in terms of the eleven plus being based on a belief that formal examinations are able to forecast future academic success. Mr Potter wrote: “It is now realised that a child’s general attainment at school depends largely on his intelligence, or innate intellectual ability.”
Mr Potter was concerned with the selective examinations that took place at the end of a child’s junior school career. He explained that in some schools education had been abandoned in favour of continual practice in the basic subjects. He put forward the concept of a record card that would replace the formal examination in arithmetic, English and General Intelligence at the age of eleven.
He hoped that a child’s future education would be decided by his `potentialities’ instead of by his attainment in basic subjects. “Thus the temptation for teachers in Junior schools to overemphasise the basic subjects of the curriculum would be eliminated.”
If only we could find a way to eliminate some of the father vacuous questions our children have to face. A successful eleven plus child has to be bright, with a good vocabulary and sound problem solving skills. But being able to answer a question based around ‘mouse is to cat as rabbit is to …’ is surely an over rated eleven plus skill.
There does seem to be a strong case for the eleven plus examination to be looked at with fresh eyes. I suppose `don’t rock the boat’ could be an answer. Some teachers and publishers may not like the idea of a fresh examination that challenges present views on the eleven plus. No one would argue change for change’s sake. Some extremely bright children, however, could miss out because the present examination looks for a certain type of grammar school child.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Just a thought. Perhaps even a `pre Eleven Plus’ thought. Sir Cyril Burt, some time ago, had a number of thoughts about parents and children. He tested the intelligence of parents and children – and tried to organise his results.
Professional Group IQ Parents IQ Children
1. Higher professional and administrative 153 120
2. Lower professional, technical and executive 132 115
3. Highly skilled, clerical 117 110
4. Skilled 109 105
5. Semi skilled 98 97
6. Unskilled 87 92
7. Casual 82 89
This table excited lots of different comments. The main one was that because they were average figures for all the groups, there must be considerable overlap between the members of one group and another. Eysenck, back in 1960, said: `The brightest dustman would undoubtedly score much higher than the dullest lawyer, brightest tramp higher than the dullest physician’. He went on to say `if you try to predict a person’s intelligence from knowing his job you would be right more frequently if you were guessing by chance’.
The relevance for the eleven plus is that there was a feeling back in the early 1960s that if you gave a grammar school education to one child, it assumes he or she will remain brighter for the rest of his or her life.
“If we make this assumption, which is clearly implied in such procedures as the 11+ examination, we must be able to show that the I.Q. remains relatively constant from year to year. We hope that the child who has an I.Q. of 120 when he or she goes for the 11+ does not turn out to have one of 80 when he or she leaves grammar school.”
Eysenck went on to say that those who condemn the 11+ on the grounds that a child’s education is not sufficiently settled down by the age of eleven are wrong because prediction does work. He asked for better tests to be evolved that would give better predictive accuracy than the present ones.
Today – nearly fifty years on from Eysenck’s plea for better tests - we find ourselves still involved in preparing children for tests that will contain very similar questions to those in use fifty years ago.
Here is a question from 50 years ago:
S + (piece of furniture) = (building)
S + Table = stable.
We all know of the old idiom `closing the stable door after the horse has bolted’. How many really bright children has the Eleven Plus failed? What has happened to the really bright children in the counties where there is no eleven plus?
Professional Group IQ Parents IQ Children
1. Higher professional and administrative 153 120
2. Lower professional, technical and executive 132 115
3. Highly skilled, clerical 117 110
4. Skilled 109 105
5. Semi skilled 98 97
6. Unskilled 87 92
7. Casual 82 89
This table excited lots of different comments. The main one was that because they were average figures for all the groups, there must be considerable overlap between the members of one group and another. Eysenck, back in 1960, said: `The brightest dustman would undoubtedly score much higher than the dullest lawyer, brightest tramp higher than the dullest physician’. He went on to say `if you try to predict a person’s intelligence from knowing his job you would be right more frequently if you were guessing by chance’.
The relevance for the eleven plus is that there was a feeling back in the early 1960s that if you gave a grammar school education to one child, it assumes he or she will remain brighter for the rest of his or her life.
“If we make this assumption, which is clearly implied in such procedures as the 11+ examination, we must be able to show that the I.Q. remains relatively constant from year to year. We hope that the child who has an I.Q. of 120 when he or she goes for the 11+ does not turn out to have one of 80 when he or she leaves grammar school.”
Eysenck went on to say that those who condemn the 11+ on the grounds that a child’s education is not sufficiently settled down by the age of eleven are wrong because prediction does work. He asked for better tests to be evolved that would give better predictive accuracy than the present ones.
Today – nearly fifty years on from Eysenck’s plea for better tests - we find ourselves still involved in preparing children for tests that will contain very similar questions to those in use fifty years ago.
Here is a question from 50 years ago:
S + (piece of furniture) = (building)
S + Table = stable.
We all know of the old idiom `closing the stable door after the horse has bolted’. How many really bright children has the Eleven Plus failed? What has happened to the really bright children in the counties where there is no eleven plus?
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Eleven Plus Non Verbal Aids
At last some relief for parents and children engaged in struggling with certain types of non verbal reasoning questions.
We need to go back to Leonardo Da Vinci who listed the devices known to painters to show how far away objects are – called depth or distance. He commented on `Linear Perspective’ – where lines converge in the distance. He also talked about `Ariel Perspective’ where distant objects appear to be more hazy and blurred than near ones.
He noted that our two eye vision enables us to see behind a certain object – but did not understand that each eye receives a different image. (This is the reason why you will sometimes see one of the members of the family closing an eye when looking at an image.)
Back in 1838 a British physicist called Charles Whetstone invented an apparatus that he called a `stereoscope’. He used mirrors to present slightly different pictures to the right and the left eye. The pictures could be adjusted to give an impression of depth. (This is a bit like grand dad putting his glasses on when he is involved in helping to solve eleven plus problems.)
Buoyed by this information, the vast army of `Eleven Plus’ experts will soon be delivering their new non verbal reasoning books – along with custom made stereoscopes. We can see the emergence of new advertisements:
“The New Non Verbal Reasoning Book.
All new visual questions.
Your very own stereoscope.
Eye patches supplied as optional extras.
The Must Have Non Verbal Tool of 2009.
Remember you read it here first!"
By the way you can make your own home made stereoscope by using the time honoured Blue Peter props – two empty toilet rolls taped together. More affluent parents may prefer to use their opera glasses.
We can just see children walking into their lessons in the New Year. The tools of their trade will be attached to their heads. Some will be wearing diamond encrusted opera glasses while others eye patches made from the softest man made material. The more intelligent parents will simply have supplied a pair of grand father’s glasses. If your eleven plus child wears these glasses – any non verbal reasoning question would look a little hazy.
We need to go back to Leonardo Da Vinci who listed the devices known to painters to show how far away objects are – called depth or distance. He commented on `Linear Perspective’ – where lines converge in the distance. He also talked about `Ariel Perspective’ where distant objects appear to be more hazy and blurred than near ones.
He noted that our two eye vision enables us to see behind a certain object – but did not understand that each eye receives a different image. (This is the reason why you will sometimes see one of the members of the family closing an eye when looking at an image.)
Back in 1838 a British physicist called Charles Whetstone invented an apparatus that he called a `stereoscope’. He used mirrors to present slightly different pictures to the right and the left eye. The pictures could be adjusted to give an impression of depth. (This is a bit like grand dad putting his glasses on when he is involved in helping to solve eleven plus problems.)
Buoyed by this information, the vast army of `Eleven Plus’ experts will soon be delivering their new non verbal reasoning books – along with custom made stereoscopes. We can see the emergence of new advertisements:
“The New Non Verbal Reasoning Book.
All new visual questions.
Your very own stereoscope.
Eye patches supplied as optional extras.
The Must Have Non Verbal Tool of 2009.
Remember you read it here first!"
By the way you can make your own home made stereoscope by using the time honoured Blue Peter props – two empty toilet rolls taped together. More affluent parents may prefer to use their opera glasses.
We can just see children walking into their lessons in the New Year. The tools of their trade will be attached to their heads. Some will be wearing diamond encrusted opera glasses while others eye patches made from the softest man made material. The more intelligent parents will simply have supplied a pair of grand father’s glasses. If your eleven plus child wears these glasses – any non verbal reasoning question would look a little hazy.
Monday, December 22, 2008
The Eleven Plus and the Colour Green
Very few of today’s Eleven Plus children will be able to go on to accomplish everything that Davy Crockett managed to get through in his life.
Verse one of `The Ballard of Davy Crockett’ presents us with a picture of a child who grew to become a king of all he surveyed.
Born on a mountain top in Tennessee
Greenest state in the Land of the Free
Raised in the woods so's he knew every tree
Kilt him a b'ar when he was only three.
Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the wild frontier!
The great majority of our Eleven Plus children will grow up in good homes with loving and concerned parents. Our children will be offered every opportunity to do well academically at school and at home. (Davy ran away from school – and only returned home some years later when he was fifteen.)
Parents have the ability to learn about the eleven plus examination. They can then go out to the shops and buy books and teaching materials to help their children to prepare. The internet offers the ability to communicate with other parents in locations well outside of the school gate. Children and adults can download free papers with the minimum of fuss.
The Eleven Plus has become a growth industry – but may never grow to the extent that interest in Davy Crockett developed back in 1955. The Davy Crockett fad of 1955 grew to 300 products – and $300 000 000. In today’s terms three hundred million dollars would be worth a lot more! The craze suddenly died away and businessmen were left with warehouses full of raccoon tails and buckskin fringes.
Children `needed’ to have the Davy Crockett products. Parents `needed’ to buy everything to do with Davy Crockett.
The challenging task for the future of the eleven plus is to fan the desire of some parents to maintain the ethos of the grammar school. These parents then have the task to try to capture the imagination of the rest of the country.
So if after Christmas you see a new craze hit the playgrounds of England, you will know that a new eleven plus fad has started. Mothers will be wearing silky raccoon tails. Fathers will be swathed in best buckskin fringes. Parents will be carrying little brown parcels under their arms – and will be surreptitiously exchanging the secret offering in the playground. Grandparents will be wearing outer clothes in Tennessee Green – to represent their involvement in the eleven plus movement. Siblings will be smothered in little badges of bears and the number three – to recall the bear that Davy killed when he was only three.
Verse one of `The Ballard of Davy Crockett’ presents us with a picture of a child who grew to become a king of all he surveyed.
Born on a mountain top in Tennessee
Greenest state in the Land of the Free
Raised in the woods so's he knew every tree
Kilt him a b'ar when he was only three.
Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the wild frontier!
The great majority of our Eleven Plus children will grow up in good homes with loving and concerned parents. Our children will be offered every opportunity to do well academically at school and at home. (Davy ran away from school – and only returned home some years later when he was fifteen.)
Parents have the ability to learn about the eleven plus examination. They can then go out to the shops and buy books and teaching materials to help their children to prepare. The internet offers the ability to communicate with other parents in locations well outside of the school gate. Children and adults can download free papers with the minimum of fuss.
The Eleven Plus has become a growth industry – but may never grow to the extent that interest in Davy Crockett developed back in 1955. The Davy Crockett fad of 1955 grew to 300 products – and $300 000 000. In today’s terms three hundred million dollars would be worth a lot more! The craze suddenly died away and businessmen were left with warehouses full of raccoon tails and buckskin fringes.
Children `needed’ to have the Davy Crockett products. Parents `needed’ to buy everything to do with Davy Crockett.
The challenging task for the future of the eleven plus is to fan the desire of some parents to maintain the ethos of the grammar school. These parents then have the task to try to capture the imagination of the rest of the country.
So if after Christmas you see a new craze hit the playgrounds of England, you will know that a new eleven plus fad has started. Mothers will be wearing silky raccoon tails. Fathers will be swathed in best buckskin fringes. Parents will be carrying little brown parcels under their arms – and will be surreptitiously exchanging the secret offering in the playground. Grandparents will be wearing outer clothes in Tennessee Green – to represent their involvement in the eleven plus movement. Siblings will be smothered in little badges of bears and the number three – to recall the bear that Davy killed when he was only three.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Eleven Plus Teachers
The British Medical Journal, back in 1936, reported on an organisation called the `Population Investigation Committee.’ The committee was set up to examine the problem of population and the circumstances that led to it.
A man called Douglas reported on more than five thousand children born during the first week of March 1946. He was concerned with the progress children made until they sat their Eleven Plus examination.
The theory was that admission to grammar school could be helped by the class of the children taking the tests, the geographical area the family lived in and key characteristics of the teachers.
It is difficult to work out how much has changed today. Class and proximity to the grammar school may still affect results. An outstanding Eleven Plus teacher must also make a difference.
A man called Douglas reported on more than five thousand children born during the first week of March 1946. He was concerned with the progress children made until they sat their Eleven Plus examination.
The theory was that admission to grammar school could be helped by the class of the children taking the tests, the geographical area the family lived in and key characteristics of the teachers.
It is difficult to work out how much has changed today. Class and proximity to the grammar school may still affect results. An outstanding Eleven Plus teacher must also make a difference.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Eleven Plus Change
There was a Royal Commission on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration back in 1958.
"Medicine would lose immeasurably if the proportion of middle class students in the future were reduced in favour of precocious children who qualify for subsidies from local authorities and the Sate, purely on the basis of examination results."
The Eleven Plus was developed to try make grammar education available to children who needed a chance.
Schools are beginning to change radically.
As learning becomes more individualised and personalised the ethos behind the Eleven Plus examination should also change. There should be far more emphasis on embracing change - and the content of the examination should rely less on declaiming that there is just one way to test Eleven Plus children. A new look examination could take far more into account than a pass or fail score on an eleven plus paper.
"Medicine would lose immeasurably if the proportion of middle class students in the future were reduced in favour of precocious children who qualify for subsidies from local authorities and the Sate, purely on the basis of examination results."
The Eleven Plus was developed to try make grammar education available to children who needed a chance.
Schools are beginning to change radically.
As learning becomes more individualised and personalised the ethos behind the Eleven Plus examination should also change. There should be far more emphasis on embracing change - and the content of the examination should rely less on declaiming that there is just one way to test Eleven Plus children. A new look examination could take far more into account than a pass or fail score on an eleven plus paper.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Eleven Plus in The News
A provocative article on the Eleven Plus engendered considerable debate.
The comments from the public describe the complexity of the subject.
Emotions run high because there are winners and losers.
It looks as if having a tutor helps a number of children!
I hope so because we have been tutoring around 600 Eleven Plus children a year for some time!
There was an article about the content of the Eleven Plus a few days ago.
More information can be found here about coaching for the Eleven Plus.
The comments from the public describe the complexity of the subject.
Emotions run high because there are winners and losers.
It looks as if having a tutor helps a number of children!
I hope so because we have been tutoring around 600 Eleven Plus children a year for some time!
There was an article about the content of the Eleven Plus a few days ago.
More information can be found here about coaching for the Eleven Plus.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Eleven Plus Freedom
When we look at a bright child learning, happy, excited and involved we are often drawn to want to share in the whole experience. New information seems to be assimilated and absorbed – as if by osmosis.
Of course educationalists have a `proper’ term. (Osmosis is for biologists.) `Experiential learning’ was an education buzzword, at one time. In the one sense experiential learning is all about coming to understand and made sense of one’s own experiences. Of course this definition would upset many of our more erudite community; unless it was accompanied by the rider that we use experiential learning to try to develop the whole person. In Eleven Plus terms this means parents and tutors trying hard to provide the necessary emotional support. In other words – setting up a garden of opportunity where the little eleven plus flower will flourish and grow.
Another meaning of experiential learning is concerned with encouraging the child to learn. Here every effort would need to be made to try to motivate the eleven plus child to do well academically.
We are all trying to give the eleven plus child the opportunity to be totally immersed in a powerful experience – and we hope that this, in turn, will helps to activate cognitive understanding.
(The more `cogs’ turning in the Eleven Plus brain – the more likely the child will pass the eleven plus.)
An eleven plus tutor may be under pressure, at times, to deliver a typical form of an eleven plus lesson. This type of lesson would possibly contain strong elements of exposition and interpretation. This must work very well for some types of bright children.
We need, sometimes but not always, the eleven plus tutor to be a person of authority. Some teachers will still, however, try to develop in an eleven plus lesson, a climate where academic knowledge and understanding are of fundamental importance.
(You pay your money or you take your choice.) As a parent you are paying the money so you need to keep seeking for the `right’ kind of tutor. While you may prefer a perfectly eleven plus lesson, your child may enjoy, on some days, a little more freedom of thought and deed.
Of course educationalists have a `proper’ term. (Osmosis is for biologists.) `Experiential learning’ was an education buzzword, at one time. In the one sense experiential learning is all about coming to understand and made sense of one’s own experiences. Of course this definition would upset many of our more erudite community; unless it was accompanied by the rider that we use experiential learning to try to develop the whole person. In Eleven Plus terms this means parents and tutors trying hard to provide the necessary emotional support. In other words – setting up a garden of opportunity where the little eleven plus flower will flourish and grow.
Another meaning of experiential learning is concerned with encouraging the child to learn. Here every effort would need to be made to try to motivate the eleven plus child to do well academically.
We are all trying to give the eleven plus child the opportunity to be totally immersed in a powerful experience – and we hope that this, in turn, will helps to activate cognitive understanding.
(The more `cogs’ turning in the Eleven Plus brain – the more likely the child will pass the eleven plus.)
An eleven plus tutor may be under pressure, at times, to deliver a typical form of an eleven plus lesson. This type of lesson would possibly contain strong elements of exposition and interpretation. This must work very well for some types of bright children.
We need, sometimes but not always, the eleven plus tutor to be a person of authority. Some teachers will still, however, try to develop in an eleven plus lesson, a climate where academic knowledge and understanding are of fundamental importance.
(You pay your money or you take your choice.) As a parent you are paying the money so you need to keep seeking for the `right’ kind of tutor. While you may prefer a perfectly eleven plus lesson, your child may enjoy, on some days, a little more freedom of thought and deed.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Eleven Plus Redemption
What would happen to the world if eleven plus children were allowed to go into `The Den of the Appeal’ to hear their parents talking and listening to the panel?
“Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. X. Hello P. I don’t want you to worry now; you will have your chance to speak a little later on.”
Presumably the child would only be allowed to speak when offered the opportunity.
“Now tell me, P., why did you score too few marks on the verbal reasoning test?” (Straight to the point?)
Meanwhile one of the panel is quietly filing in an observation sheet. There would be nothing new about a sheet like this because in a classroom situation, GCSE children are often assessed for the `Speaking and Listening’ section of GCSE English.
(Mrs. X does tend to repeat herself. She also keeps saying that P. deserves an opportunity to go to grammar.
Mr. X. does not say much. He has looked at all of us but he does not talk. If he is asked a question, Mrs. X usually answers for him.
P. keeps whispering to her mother. I think that she thinks that she is on a talent show. Any way, I think that dusted stocking are a little inappropriate for a grammar school interview.)
All this meticulous attention to detail could be wasted. After all an appeal board is only allowed to deal with marks that translate into pass or fail grades.
By the time that the family leave, the appeal board will have built up a considerable amount of valuable information about the child, the parents, the teachers at the school and the degree of support of the head teacher. (And what happened in the examination.)
It is a real pity that all the expertise of the appeal panel can not then be channelled into a small body of true eleven plus contenders and thus give `the children who have not passed’ a chance of redeeming themselves.
“Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. X. Hello P. I don’t want you to worry now; you will have your chance to speak a little later on.”
Presumably the child would only be allowed to speak when offered the opportunity.
“Now tell me, P., why did you score too few marks on the verbal reasoning test?” (Straight to the point?)
Meanwhile one of the panel is quietly filing in an observation sheet. There would be nothing new about a sheet like this because in a classroom situation, GCSE children are often assessed for the `Speaking and Listening’ section of GCSE English.
(Mrs. X does tend to repeat herself. She also keeps saying that P. deserves an opportunity to go to grammar.
Mr. X. does not say much. He has looked at all of us but he does not talk. If he is asked a question, Mrs. X usually answers for him.
P. keeps whispering to her mother. I think that she thinks that she is on a talent show. Any way, I think that dusted stocking are a little inappropriate for a grammar school interview.)
All this meticulous attention to detail could be wasted. After all an appeal board is only allowed to deal with marks that translate into pass or fail grades.
By the time that the family leave, the appeal board will have built up a considerable amount of valuable information about the child, the parents, the teachers at the school and the degree of support of the head teacher. (And what happened in the examination.)
It is a real pity that all the expertise of the appeal panel can not then be channelled into a small body of true eleven plus contenders and thus give `the children who have not passed’ a chance of redeeming themselves.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
An Eleven Plus Pass
The term `I.Q. has probably entered the conversation of a number of eleven plus mothers and fathers over the years. The term is not a new one. The journey to today started with Alfred Binet, a Frenchman, back in 1904 who published the first intelligence test. His work was taken further by Terman, an American, who translated Binet’s work and published The Measurement of Intelligence in 1916. A German, Stern, suggested in 1912 that the Intelligence Quotient could be calculated by dividing the child’s mental age by his chronological age.
Terman adopted the idea and the abbreviation I.Q. was accepted. A mental age of 8 years 3 months and a chronological age of 8 years three months suggested around average ability.
For those of us who left the eleven year old years behind some time ago, one early psychologist found that the greatest difference in mental ability between younger and older persons lies in speed rather than accuracy. “Don’t rush grand dad, he will get there in the end.”
The psychologist of yesteryear also found that children from better homes gained many points. No surprise there!
Today we see intelligence tests quite differently. Yet selection at the Eleven Plus stage is somewhat based on tests devised fifty years ago. A good score on a verbal reasoning test does measure some for of mental alertness. A good score on a verbal reasoning test does not take into account:
Personality
Special aptitudes
Achievements
Social Adjustment
If a child does well on a verbal reasoning test does it mean that he or she will be a better doctor or a surgeon?
What about honesty or persistence?
We know that a good score on a verbal reasoning test is supposed to be able to predict future academic success – otherwise why would the good and learned in the grammar schools rely on verbal reasoning results?
Could we expect bright eleven plus children to?
Show an interest in solving problems
Enjoy lots of mental energy
Demonstrate a mature use of language.
Essentially we would all like our children to be healthy, physically able and socially adjusted.
The must be an argument, somewhere, that a pleasant, hardworking and attractive child, with a verbal reasoning score of 117 should be welcomed by a grammar school over a sulky, rude and bad tempered child with a score of 118?
Terman adopted the idea and the abbreviation I.Q. was accepted. A mental age of 8 years 3 months and a chronological age of 8 years three months suggested around average ability.
For those of us who left the eleven year old years behind some time ago, one early psychologist found that the greatest difference in mental ability between younger and older persons lies in speed rather than accuracy. “Don’t rush grand dad, he will get there in the end.”
The psychologist of yesteryear also found that children from better homes gained many points. No surprise there!
Today we see intelligence tests quite differently. Yet selection at the Eleven Plus stage is somewhat based on tests devised fifty years ago. A good score on a verbal reasoning test does measure some for of mental alertness. A good score on a verbal reasoning test does not take into account:
Personality
Special aptitudes
Achievements
Social Adjustment
If a child does well on a verbal reasoning test does it mean that he or she will be a better doctor or a surgeon?
What about honesty or persistence?
We know that a good score on a verbal reasoning test is supposed to be able to predict future academic success – otherwise why would the good and learned in the grammar schools rely on verbal reasoning results?
Could we expect bright eleven plus children to?
Show an interest in solving problems
Enjoy lots of mental energy
Demonstrate a mature use of language.
Essentially we would all like our children to be healthy, physically able and socially adjusted.
The must be an argument, somewhere, that a pleasant, hardworking and attractive child, with a verbal reasoning score of 117 should be welcomed by a grammar school over a sulky, rude and bad tempered child with a score of 118?
Monday, December 15, 2008
Eleven Plus Change of Rules
Three couples are competing for two places in the final.
A number of couples have been eliminated week by week by a combination of the public vote and the judges.
Earlier on in the series one couple had to drop out because they might have won. It seems that the public liked them very much but the judges thought that the male dancer was not a very good.
Last Saturday night the remaining three couple danced their hearts out. Their bodies twisted and gyrated. There were smiles and set faces. There were the usual hugs and kisses.
Two couples were given equal scores by the judges. One couple was clearly in third place.
The public were then given their chance to vote. The public paid good money to vote for their favourites.
Ten minutes before the end of the program there was a brief announcement. All three couples had passed on the final stage. All votes would be carried over until the next week. Everyone had passed.
THE RULES WERE CHANGED.
It seems that because one couple’s marks were so low, there was no chance of them gaining enough marks to pass. The judges’ marks were:
B + L = 3
L + V = 3
T + C = 1
So even if the public had voted for T + C they still could not have earned enough points to go through to the final.
Just imagine how we would feel if our eleven plus children were subjected to the same rules. Two children pass the eleven plus. There are two places. Some one in authority thinks that it is not fair that the third child can not win a place. The rules are changed. All three children have to take the examination again. The appeal board sits to hear the cases.
The children do their best yet again. This time there could be a different outcome to the eleven plus results because the content of the examination could change. (The dancers, for example, may need change their routines.)
Child 1 Passes first time and passes second time
Child 2 Passes first time and fails second time
Child 3 fails first time but passes second time.
The appeal board add up all the marks from the two examinations. Child 1 and Child 3 are offered places. Child 2, who passed first time, is not offered a place.
The appeal board say an urgent review is necessary.
The public are allowed their say. (Look at the forums on the BBC Strictly web site.)
The candidate who was really popular early on (John S.) comes back to dance again – he wins all the votes.
He wins. Someone decides to change the rules gain. The producer resigns. The show is scrapped.
The eleven plus continues because it is so popular with a certain group of parents.
What happens to Child 2 who passed the first time? She is offered compensation from the BBC. The money for the compensation comes from the licence payers – who are the watching public.
Child 2 lands up at a top independent school. She goes on to gain top A level results and a first class honours degrees from Cambridge. In time she become a surgeon and operates on the producer of the program – who all those years ago changed the rules.
It is all a fantasy isn’t it?
A number of couples have been eliminated week by week by a combination of the public vote and the judges.
Earlier on in the series one couple had to drop out because they might have won. It seems that the public liked them very much but the judges thought that the male dancer was not a very good.
Last Saturday night the remaining three couple danced their hearts out. Their bodies twisted and gyrated. There were smiles and set faces. There were the usual hugs and kisses.
Two couples were given equal scores by the judges. One couple was clearly in third place.
The public were then given their chance to vote. The public paid good money to vote for their favourites.
Ten minutes before the end of the program there was a brief announcement. All three couples had passed on the final stage. All votes would be carried over until the next week. Everyone had passed.
THE RULES WERE CHANGED.
It seems that because one couple’s marks were so low, there was no chance of them gaining enough marks to pass. The judges’ marks were:
B + L = 3
L + V = 3
T + C = 1
So even if the public had voted for T + C they still could not have earned enough points to go through to the final.
Just imagine how we would feel if our eleven plus children were subjected to the same rules. Two children pass the eleven plus. There are two places. Some one in authority thinks that it is not fair that the third child can not win a place. The rules are changed. All three children have to take the examination again. The appeal board sits to hear the cases.
The children do their best yet again. This time there could be a different outcome to the eleven plus results because the content of the examination could change. (The dancers, for example, may need change their routines.)
Child 1 Passes first time and passes second time
Child 2 Passes first time and fails second time
Child 3 fails first time but passes second time.
The appeal board add up all the marks from the two examinations. Child 1 and Child 3 are offered places. Child 2, who passed first time, is not offered a place.
The appeal board say an urgent review is necessary.
The public are allowed their say. (Look at the forums on the BBC Strictly web site.)
The candidate who was really popular early on (John S.) comes back to dance again – he wins all the votes.
He wins. Someone decides to change the rules gain. The producer resigns. The show is scrapped.
The eleven plus continues because it is so popular with a certain group of parents.
What happens to Child 2 who passed the first time? She is offered compensation from the BBC. The money for the compensation comes from the licence payers – who are the watching public.
Child 2 lands up at a top independent school. She goes on to gain top A level results and a first class honours degrees from Cambridge. In time she become a surgeon and operates on the producer of the program – who all those years ago changed the rules.
It is all a fantasy isn’t it?
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Eleven Plus Rules
We use the phrase the `goal posts were moved’ in a number of different ways.
A key use in Eleven Plus terms is that we change the rules to try to gain an advantage.
The Vigo Rugby Football Club is located between Maidstone and Gravesend. The club was named after the pub in which someone had a great idea one boozy Sunday lunchtime. The idea was to start a rugby club.
The founders had a major problem when they tried to find a set of goal posts.
The Vigeons sent out begging letters to as many people as possible. No posts were forth coming. The men decided to make their own posts. They used the wood from some diseased elms in the nearby woods. The posts were trimmed and erected on the field loaned by the landlady of the Vigo pub.
The rugby players washed using a free standing tap in the field – and some changed in a nearby chicken coop. The club moved premises and fields a few times over the years – and then found a benefactor who bequeathed a ground large enough to build a clubhouse and fields. I wonder if the goal posts moved too?
I heard a story of two girls who went before an appeal board. One girl came from a good solid family.
The other girl, who had the same marks, had an emotional case made for her. The family were going through upheaval as the parents were in the process of an acrimonious separation. There had been a major row on the morning of one of the tests. The case that was made to the appeal board was that it was likely that the girl would possibly have done better if the parents had not yelled and screamed at each other.
If the appeal board took the separation into account – were the goal posts moved?
Did one of the girls gain an unfair advantage? (It is not difficult to work out which girl was offered the place.)
A key use in Eleven Plus terms is that we change the rules to try to gain an advantage.
The Vigo Rugby Football Club is located between Maidstone and Gravesend. The club was named after the pub in which someone had a great idea one boozy Sunday lunchtime. The idea was to start a rugby club.
The founders had a major problem when they tried to find a set of goal posts.
The Vigeons sent out begging letters to as many people as possible. No posts were forth coming. The men decided to make their own posts. They used the wood from some diseased elms in the nearby woods. The posts were trimmed and erected on the field loaned by the landlady of the Vigo pub.
The rugby players washed using a free standing tap in the field – and some changed in a nearby chicken coop. The club moved premises and fields a few times over the years – and then found a benefactor who bequeathed a ground large enough to build a clubhouse and fields. I wonder if the goal posts moved too?
I heard a story of two girls who went before an appeal board. One girl came from a good solid family.
The other girl, who had the same marks, had an emotional case made for her. The family were going through upheaval as the parents were in the process of an acrimonious separation. There had been a major row on the morning of one of the tests. The case that was made to the appeal board was that it was likely that the girl would possibly have done better if the parents had not yelled and screamed at each other.
If the appeal board took the separation into account – were the goal posts moved?
Did one of the girls gain an unfair advantage? (It is not difficult to work out which girl was offered the place.)
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Eleven Plus Praise
Years and years ago (in 1925!) Hurlock conducted an experiment on children in America. She took four groups of children and gave them a test of addition. Initially all four groups reached around the same score.
The first group were praised for performance.
The second group were reproved for the mistakes they had made.
The third group were ignored – even through they heard the praise and reproof meted out to the others.
The fourth group were taken out of the class room.
The children were retested after a period.
The praised group had a mean of 20.
The reproved group reached a mean of 14.
The ignored group stayed the same at 12.
The control group reached a mean of 11.
The children who were criticised had a decline in their test scores – until their marks dropped back.
Parents working with their children at home could consider these results. Children need praise when it is due. Praise is not necessarily saying: “Of course you will pass!”
If you help your child to be realistic about progress towards the eleven plus then it is likely that the level of aspiration will about equal the possibilities. If your child has experienced considerable failure – then he or she could develop a much lower level of aspiration. If the goals were too high then your child may aim much lower – as a form of self protection against failure.
The occasional failure can not be bad for your child. If the failure is part of a long chain of failures you may find that your child attitude to study and work will be affected.
“We have reached 85% and above on these papers over the last three weeks. 56% is simply not good enough.”
“Why can’t you achieve more than 56%? You know you can do it. Just try harder. I told you yesterday that you needed to do better today.”
There must be some support of the idea that a child needs to be mildly anxious at the eleven plus stage. Too much anxiety, however, could inhibit progress.
It does seem likely, but this has yet to be proven, that when a parent becomes too anxious about the eleven plus examinations, then his or her child may suffer.
The first group were praised for performance.
The second group were reproved for the mistakes they had made.
The third group were ignored – even through they heard the praise and reproof meted out to the others.
The fourth group were taken out of the class room.
The children were retested after a period.
The praised group had a mean of 20.
The reproved group reached a mean of 14.
The ignored group stayed the same at 12.
The control group reached a mean of 11.
The children who were criticised had a decline in their test scores – until their marks dropped back.
Parents working with their children at home could consider these results. Children need praise when it is due. Praise is not necessarily saying: “Of course you will pass!”
If you help your child to be realistic about progress towards the eleven plus then it is likely that the level of aspiration will about equal the possibilities. If your child has experienced considerable failure – then he or she could develop a much lower level of aspiration. If the goals were too high then your child may aim much lower – as a form of self protection against failure.
The occasional failure can not be bad for your child. If the failure is part of a long chain of failures you may find that your child attitude to study and work will be affected.
“We have reached 85% and above on these papers over the last three weeks. 56% is simply not good enough.”
“Why can’t you achieve more than 56%? You know you can do it. Just try harder. I told you yesterday that you needed to do better today.”
There must be some support of the idea that a child needs to be mildly anxious at the eleven plus stage. Too much anxiety, however, could inhibit progress.
It does seem likely, but this has yet to be proven, that when a parent becomes too anxious about the eleven plus examinations, then his or her child may suffer.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Eleven Plus Scores
When you chat to your class teacher about results you may be sometimes talking about tests designed by the teacher. The teacher would know the content of the material in the test, the raw score, the highest and the lowest scores and the average score. Your class teacher would also know about the past performance of your child.
The words “Oh yes, he is doing well,” will mean something to the teacher – and helpfully to you.
If, however, the teacher is commenting on standardised test results then the raw score is not as important. You would still, probably, like to know how many and were correct – but you would be more interested in the results following the norm tables provided by the publisher of the tests. A standardised score takes into account the age in years and months of the child.
The results on 11+ papers are less easy to comment on. If your child, for example, has completed the classroom test in half the allotted time it is likely that the teacher will remember this and comment on timing to you. It would be more difficult to talk about timing on a standardised test – because although the teacher would have administered the test – there is no provision for taking time into account when working out the standardised score.
If, however, your child sat with you and then achieved 85% on an 11+ paper – and reached this score in half the given time - you would then be in a position to comment in a number of different ways:
“You could have checked the paper over.”
“Use your watch and think about timing – there is no need to hurry through the paper.”
“Well done. A fantastic result! You do still have time to look over your work.”
Eleven plus papers from the book shops and the internet are not standardised. One test could be easier than another. How are you to know?
Your child may have a strong desire to perform well on the practice 11+ test – for a variety of reasons.
It could be that the paper in question was the first in a series – so it would be possible to build on the result. On the other hand your child may have completed four similar papers previously – so knew the format and the sequence of the questions.
If there were any mistakes you would hope that the errors were made on questions like this:
In a group of 12 students, 8 are wearing pullovers, 7 are wearing jackets and 6 are wearing scarves. Four are wearing pullovers and jackets, 3 jackets and scarves and 5 pullovers and scarves. Each student is wearing at least one of these garments. How many were wearing all three?
A number of eleven plus children would be delighted to feel challenged with a question like the one above. Achieving 85% on a paper made up of questions like this would be quite a feat! (Especially if you were able to work out why the answer is 3!)
The words “Oh yes, he is doing well,” will mean something to the teacher – and helpfully to you.
If, however, the teacher is commenting on standardised test results then the raw score is not as important. You would still, probably, like to know how many and were correct – but you would be more interested in the results following the norm tables provided by the publisher of the tests. A standardised score takes into account the age in years and months of the child.
The results on 11+ papers are less easy to comment on. If your child, for example, has completed the classroom test in half the allotted time it is likely that the teacher will remember this and comment on timing to you. It would be more difficult to talk about timing on a standardised test – because although the teacher would have administered the test – there is no provision for taking time into account when working out the standardised score.
If, however, your child sat with you and then achieved 85% on an 11+ paper – and reached this score in half the given time - you would then be in a position to comment in a number of different ways:
“You could have checked the paper over.”
“Use your watch and think about timing – there is no need to hurry through the paper.”
“Well done. A fantastic result! You do still have time to look over your work.”
Eleven plus papers from the book shops and the internet are not standardised. One test could be easier than another. How are you to know?
Your child may have a strong desire to perform well on the practice 11+ test – for a variety of reasons.
It could be that the paper in question was the first in a series – so it would be possible to build on the result. On the other hand your child may have completed four similar papers previously – so knew the format and the sequence of the questions.
If there were any mistakes you would hope that the errors were made on questions like this:
In a group of 12 students, 8 are wearing pullovers, 7 are wearing jackets and 6 are wearing scarves. Four are wearing pullovers and jackets, 3 jackets and scarves and 5 pullovers and scarves. Each student is wearing at least one of these garments. How many were wearing all three?
A number of eleven plus children would be delighted to feel challenged with a question like the one above. Achieving 85% on a paper made up of questions like this would be quite a feat! (Especially if you were able to work out why the answer is 3!)
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Eleven Plus Books
There are some eternal questions that seem to be more eternal than others.
“What is the best Eleven Plus book to buy?”
Delia Smith in her 1978 `Complete Cookery Course’ started with the words:
“It would be quite unthinkable for a carpenter or a dressmaker or even an amateur gardener to attempt the create anything worthwhile without the right tools for the job.” (Delia managed 711 pages in this edition.)
Our 1942 edition of `Women’s Home Companion Cook Book’ starts Chapter 1 with the words: “The experienced friend who knows by the feel when the dough is right and advises you to put in about as much butter as you need has been the despair of the beginner.” (This leaves a further 950 pages to work through!)
Going a little further back, 1938, we have a copy of `Modern Cookery Illustrated’ by Lydia Chatterton. (This is a mere 640 pages.) This cook book starts with the words: `To the modern housewife the kitchen is the workshop of the home, compact, well arranged, efficient.”
Choosing an Eleven Plus book to pin your hopes on is therefore rather like choosing a recipe that will work for all occasions.
Delia reminded us that we have to have the right tools for the job.
The Women’s Home Companion mentions the `experienced friend’.
Lydia stresses the need to be organised and efficient.
In answer, therefore, to which is the right book we need to consider that you may need to buy a selection of books. By all means make shameless use of your friends who have been there before. And finally, don’t be afraid to organise your child for that crucial Eleven Plus year, to within an inch of his or her life.
“What is the best Eleven Plus book to buy?”
Delia Smith in her 1978 `Complete Cookery Course’ started with the words:
“It would be quite unthinkable for a carpenter or a dressmaker or even an amateur gardener to attempt the create anything worthwhile without the right tools for the job.” (Delia managed 711 pages in this edition.)
Our 1942 edition of `Women’s Home Companion Cook Book’ starts Chapter 1 with the words: “The experienced friend who knows by the feel when the dough is right and advises you to put in about as much butter as you need has been the despair of the beginner.” (This leaves a further 950 pages to work through!)
Going a little further back, 1938, we have a copy of `Modern Cookery Illustrated’ by Lydia Chatterton. (This is a mere 640 pages.) This cook book starts with the words: `To the modern housewife the kitchen is the workshop of the home, compact, well arranged, efficient.”
Choosing an Eleven Plus book to pin your hopes on is therefore rather like choosing a recipe that will work for all occasions.
Delia reminded us that we have to have the right tools for the job.
The Women’s Home Companion mentions the `experienced friend’.
Lydia stresses the need to be organised and efficient.
In answer, therefore, to which is the right book we need to consider that you may need to buy a selection of books. By all means make shameless use of your friends who have been there before. And finally, don’t be afraid to organise your child for that crucial Eleven Plus year, to within an inch of his or her life.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Eleven Plus Cowboys
We have a rather romantic image of the cowboy. He lived on horseback.
He fought on horseback too – rather like the knights of old.
He fought with guns and had a strange sense of chivalry. He could often shoot with both hands.
He was gracious to ladies, reserved with strangers, generous to friends and brutal to his enemies.
He belonged to a certain time and place. His time has gone for ever. We can, however, remember him fondly.
It is likely that some of us have a fond recollection of the Eleven Plus. Some readers will remember passing the examination when they were young. Others will be grateful for the fact that they failed the examination – and still made something of themselves.
They will remember the verbal reasoning questions. (Dry is to wet and smooth is to ….)
They will still be able to do some of the more unfulfilled eleven plus questions – do you remember the one about a car leaving London and travelling at 60 mph, while different car left Birmingham travelling at 40 mph? (The question was what time did they cross.)
We can look back today at figures like John Wayne and James Stewart with affection. They epitomised the cowboy.
Perhaps one day our great grand children will look back at the Eleven Plus examination with the same affection and exasperation. One day the eleven plus examination will change. Change is inevitable. The rather self important eleven plus figures of today will fade into memory.
I can’t wait for a fresh look at the whole premise of the eleven plus. There should be new ideas on selection. A fresh approach to what type of pupils will benefit most from an academic education in the grammar schools. Instead of the self conscious images on the front of some of the eleven plus books we will have an image of John Wayne raising his hand and riding into the sunset. As the credits come up we will know that the next episode will manifest itself with elements of the new and fresh approach to eleven plus selection.
He fought on horseback too – rather like the knights of old.
He fought with guns and had a strange sense of chivalry. He could often shoot with both hands.
He was gracious to ladies, reserved with strangers, generous to friends and brutal to his enemies.
He belonged to a certain time and place. His time has gone for ever. We can, however, remember him fondly.
It is likely that some of us have a fond recollection of the Eleven Plus. Some readers will remember passing the examination when they were young. Others will be grateful for the fact that they failed the examination – and still made something of themselves.
They will remember the verbal reasoning questions. (Dry is to wet and smooth is to ….)
They will still be able to do some of the more unfulfilled eleven plus questions – do you remember the one about a car leaving London and travelling at 60 mph, while different car left Birmingham travelling at 40 mph? (The question was what time did they cross.)
We can look back today at figures like John Wayne and James Stewart with affection. They epitomised the cowboy.
Perhaps one day our great grand children will look back at the Eleven Plus examination with the same affection and exasperation. One day the eleven plus examination will change. Change is inevitable. The rather self important eleven plus figures of today will fade into memory.
I can’t wait for a fresh look at the whole premise of the eleven plus. There should be new ideas on selection. A fresh approach to what type of pupils will benefit most from an academic education in the grammar schools. Instead of the self conscious images on the front of some of the eleven plus books we will have an image of John Wayne raising his hand and riding into the sunset. As the credits come up we will know that the next episode will manifest itself with elements of the new and fresh approach to eleven plus selection.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Eleven Plus Reasoning
We all know story of the chicken and the egg. Your bright Eleven Plus child probably asked you to explain the chicken and the egg story at least ten times before he or she was three. An off shoot of the tale was probably: “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
This would no doubt have led to the old story about Nasrudin. He was sitting beside the road side watching chickens feeding furiously. A canal ran beside the road. A child, who was guarding the chickens, shouted to him from the opposite side of the canal: “How do I get to the other side?”
Nasrudin yelled back: “You are on the other side!”
This would lead another member of the family to come up with the story about Nasrudin who was looking for his house keys under a street light.
Two friends came on their home and asked him: “Where did you actually lose the keys?”
Nasrudin pointed an area some distance away where it was dark.
One of his friends said: “Why are you looking under the light? The keys are not here.”
Nasrudin replied: “Because it is much easier to see under the light.”
This story could lead in turn to the well known, but possibly apocryphal, Eleven Plus tale.
Nasrudin was sitting with some parents at the school end of year party. He was reading through a verbal reasoning book.
One of the parents asked him: “Nasrudin. Why are you reading through a verbal reasoning book at a party?”
“Because reasoning can be taught,” replied Nasrudin.
Almost everyone would agree that it is very difficult to teach the act of reasoning. It is, however, possible to teach the technique of answering different types of reasoning question.
This would no doubt have led to the old story about Nasrudin. He was sitting beside the road side watching chickens feeding furiously. A canal ran beside the road. A child, who was guarding the chickens, shouted to him from the opposite side of the canal: “How do I get to the other side?”
Nasrudin yelled back: “You are on the other side!”
This would lead another member of the family to come up with the story about Nasrudin who was looking for his house keys under a street light.
Two friends came on their home and asked him: “Where did you actually lose the keys?”
Nasrudin pointed an area some distance away where it was dark.
One of his friends said: “Why are you looking under the light? The keys are not here.”
Nasrudin replied: “Because it is much easier to see under the light.”
This story could lead in turn to the well known, but possibly apocryphal, Eleven Plus tale.
Nasrudin was sitting with some parents at the school end of year party. He was reading through a verbal reasoning book.
One of the parents asked him: “Nasrudin. Why are you reading through a verbal reasoning book at a party?”
“Because reasoning can be taught,” replied Nasrudin.
Almost everyone would agree that it is very difficult to teach the act of reasoning. It is, however, possible to teach the technique of answering different types of reasoning question.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Eleven Plus Opportunities
Where and how does the influence of the Eleven Plus examinations enter the lives of our children?
We teach our children mathematics – and expect them to learn to be accurate and check their work.
We teach our children language skills – and hope that they will say what they mean.
We teach our children to be honest (and not look at the answers) – and hope that fair play and truthfulness will be part of their lives for ever.
We teach good manners – and hope that our children will show good manners to their peers.
We teach our children that sometimes being practical can lead to understanding.
We teach our children that sometimes we can learn at the same time as them.
Some children seem to have difficulty with aspects of the metric system. Some parents also express a degree of concern when faced with a problem containing metric units.
You need some apparatus for the lesson (Another word for a pre Christmas party.)
Sweets, canned and bottled drinks, cakes, whistles, sausage rolls and sandwiches will all contribute to the lesson.
Look at the `g’ label on the sweets and packets. Compare weights. See how it is possible to gather all the ingredients to build a Kilogram of sweets.
Encourage your children to estimate how much chocolate there is in the chocolate fountain.
Think carefully about the decibels emanating from the disco speakers – and ask you child to monitor the decibels.
Discuss carefully and wisely the amount of alcohol in a spirit measure.
Order a fleet of limos to carry any fellow inebriated Eleven Plus guests home.
With all this to think about parents will be able to see just how easy it is to throw a big pre Christmas party. Organising, holding and clearing up after the party will give a multitude of opportunities for parents to help their children with Eleven Plus problems.
At the very least the party will encompass mathematics, language skills, honesty, manners and the ability to share experiences. Instead of driving your child off to the study to work through an eleven plus paper on Christmas Eve, simply throw a wonderful party.
We teach our children mathematics – and expect them to learn to be accurate and check their work.
We teach our children language skills – and hope that they will say what they mean.
We teach our children to be honest (and not look at the answers) – and hope that fair play and truthfulness will be part of their lives for ever.
We teach good manners – and hope that our children will show good manners to their peers.
We teach our children that sometimes being practical can lead to understanding.
We teach our children that sometimes we can learn at the same time as them.
Some children seem to have difficulty with aspects of the metric system. Some parents also express a degree of concern when faced with a problem containing metric units.
You need some apparatus for the lesson (Another word for a pre Christmas party.)
Sweets, canned and bottled drinks, cakes, whistles, sausage rolls and sandwiches will all contribute to the lesson.
Look at the `g’ label on the sweets and packets. Compare weights. See how it is possible to gather all the ingredients to build a Kilogram of sweets.
Encourage your children to estimate how much chocolate there is in the chocolate fountain.
Think carefully about the decibels emanating from the disco speakers – and ask you child to monitor the decibels.
Discuss carefully and wisely the amount of alcohol in a spirit measure.
Order a fleet of limos to carry any fellow inebriated Eleven Plus guests home.
With all this to think about parents will be able to see just how easy it is to throw a big pre Christmas party. Organising, holding and clearing up after the party will give a multitude of opportunities for parents to help their children with Eleven Plus problems.
At the very least the party will encompass mathematics, language skills, honesty, manners and the ability to share experiences. Instead of driving your child off to the study to work through an eleven plus paper on Christmas Eve, simply throw a wonderful party.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Eleven Plus Justice
In the very early days of rugby any dispute was in the hands of the captains. On the rare occasions that no agreement could be reached, the aggrieved one would march his team off the field.
Around 1866 umpires were appointed – one for each side. The captains were still the main arbiters of any arguments. In 1882 a neutral referee was appointed for an international match – and the umpires became linesmen.
It was not until 1885 that the referee was given a whistle. In the early days the referee could only blow the whistle if one of the linesmen had raised his flag. Gradually the power and authority of the referee was changed. Today the referee is supposed to be the man in charge.
Today, in the `bigger’ games, following the advent of T.V. and advanced technology, the referee can call upon a fourth official. This official has access to television replays and can allow a try. He can help the referee come to a decision.
The Eleven Plus examination is one of a very select collection of tests where a replay is not allowed. We know that there are events called the `12+’ and the `13+’ – but if a child fails the 11+ there is no second chance.
Some children must be unfairly penalised by the rigid Eleven Plus rule on `one chance only’. Perhaps one day a parent will be able to appeal to the European Court of Justice. The court is designed to make the law fair and consistent right across Europe. It does not matter that no other member of the community is engaged in Eleven Plus examinations. The European Court of Justice seems a logical place for an appeal to what is an obviously unfair situation.
Three years ago we worked with a girl from Sri Lanka. She arrived with us with fifteen months to the examination and with an oral vocabulary of around six years old. We worked on spoken English, vocabulary and comprehension – as well as usual eleven plus fare. In her 11+ examination she reached a score of 140 on the verbal reasoning test. In other words she was outstandingly bright. She failed by two marks on the mathematics test. She passed the non verbal reasoning test. The grammar school, however, would not admit her. She failed on appeal. There was no recourse to any other court of authority.
I should imagine that years ago the captains of the rugby teams would have sat down with a beer to sort the problems out. Surely the girl’s father should have been given the opportunity to sit down with the head of the grammar school and come to some compromise. At the very least the family should have been able to chat to someone from the grammar school outside of the formal appeal situation.
Around 1866 umpires were appointed – one for each side. The captains were still the main arbiters of any arguments. In 1882 a neutral referee was appointed for an international match – and the umpires became linesmen.
It was not until 1885 that the referee was given a whistle. In the early days the referee could only blow the whistle if one of the linesmen had raised his flag. Gradually the power and authority of the referee was changed. Today the referee is supposed to be the man in charge.
Today, in the `bigger’ games, following the advent of T.V. and advanced technology, the referee can call upon a fourth official. This official has access to television replays and can allow a try. He can help the referee come to a decision.
The Eleven Plus examination is one of a very select collection of tests where a replay is not allowed. We know that there are events called the `12+’ and the `13+’ – but if a child fails the 11+ there is no second chance.
Some children must be unfairly penalised by the rigid Eleven Plus rule on `one chance only’. Perhaps one day a parent will be able to appeal to the European Court of Justice. The court is designed to make the law fair and consistent right across Europe. It does not matter that no other member of the community is engaged in Eleven Plus examinations. The European Court of Justice seems a logical place for an appeal to what is an obviously unfair situation.
Three years ago we worked with a girl from Sri Lanka. She arrived with us with fifteen months to the examination and with an oral vocabulary of around six years old. We worked on spoken English, vocabulary and comprehension – as well as usual eleven plus fare. In her 11+ examination she reached a score of 140 on the verbal reasoning test. In other words she was outstandingly bright. She failed by two marks on the mathematics test. She passed the non verbal reasoning test. The grammar school, however, would not admit her. She failed on appeal. There was no recourse to any other court of authority.
I should imagine that years ago the captains of the rugby teams would have sat down with a beer to sort the problems out. Surely the girl’s father should have been given the opportunity to sit down with the head of the grammar school and come to some compromise. At the very least the family should have been able to chat to someone from the grammar school outside of the formal appeal situation.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Eleven Plus Culture
Before the industrial revolution teachers were concerned with `culture'. Children were taught a lot of classical language and literature. The teacher was often a clergyman - and the children were taught at home - or in the public and grammar schools.
Education was, in a sense, `vocational' because it prepared pupils to be `cultured'.
The Eleven Plus, however, is aimed at entry to a grammar school. Every grammar school teacher must hope that their pupils are `cultured'.
In Eleven Plus terms it is possible that culture has something to do with etiquette. A cultured person would have a traditional form of etiquette – and that must have something to do with traditional values.
Selection has to do with guiding children along academic pathways. Future success in potential occupational status becomes important. The whole trend of tests, examinations, tutors, and other selective devices is designed to establish a body of children who have the potential to do well at school.
In the old days teachers were esteemed because they were learned and revered, largely, as wise men and women. The teachers tried to pass on values and attitudes.
If a child leaves a lesson without saying `Thank You’ – this could be simply because the child has come from a strata of society where `Please and Thank You’ are not part of the daily conversation.
Just as a teacher should be able to say thank you to a child after a lesson, so a child should be able to say thank you to the teacher. Is, however, the ability to say please and thank you the mark of a cultured person? As the child grows older, only time will tell.
Education was, in a sense, `vocational' because it prepared pupils to be `cultured'.
The Eleven Plus, however, is aimed at entry to a grammar school. Every grammar school teacher must hope that their pupils are `cultured'.
In Eleven Plus terms it is possible that culture has something to do with etiquette. A cultured person would have a traditional form of etiquette – and that must have something to do with traditional values.
Selection has to do with guiding children along academic pathways. Future success in potential occupational status becomes important. The whole trend of tests, examinations, tutors, and other selective devices is designed to establish a body of children who have the potential to do well at school.
In the old days teachers were esteemed because they were learned and revered, largely, as wise men and women. The teachers tried to pass on values and attitudes.
If a child leaves a lesson without saying `Thank You’ – this could be simply because the child has come from a strata of society where `Please and Thank You’ are not part of the daily conversation.
Just as a teacher should be able to say thank you to a child after a lesson, so a child should be able to say thank you to the teacher. Is, however, the ability to say please and thank you the mark of a cultured person? As the child grows older, only time will tell.
Friday, December 05, 2008
Eleven Plus Opportunities
Back in the nineteenth century Her Majesties Inspectors visited schools and examined children under pre-specified `standards’. A government grant was paid to the school board according to the children’s performance.
“My dear Miss Winters. Your children can all manipulate numbers. Congratulations. We will raise your stipend by two shillings a month.”
“Oh thank you. George has gone to work for Lord Miles. He is the best one at number work. We will miss him.”
`Her Majesties Inspectors’, formerly the `HMI’ now ply their trade under the guise of OFSTEAD – the Office for Standards in Education.
“Good morning Miss Rabbis. Good morning children. I am going to sit at the back of the class. Please do not mind me.”
“Oh, Mrs Watson. Here are my schemes of work. They are all ready as you can see in this folder. My C.V. has also been included. We are working today on an important strand. Please take a seat at the back of the class. Can I bring you anything?”
Parents may feel it unnecessary in these stringent times to pay a weekly levy on each lesson to pay for Eleven Plus tutors to be subjected to a mini OFSTEAD visit. Some parents, however, may find it very reassuring to know that their tutor was going to be inspected.
“Mr. Hobson. I have brought Harry, my oldest to you. You now have Rosina. I am not going to pay you any extra. If you want to be inspected – you pay the fees to the inspectors. I am satisfied with what you are doing.”
It seems, however, to be very unlikely that mere inspections will offer a systematic solution to the problems that appear to exist within the world of the Eleven Plus.
“Mrs. Head Teacher. We have been paying for a tutor for my child. His teacher here, at school, feels that he is improving. She says his marks are now around average. Do you think he will pass the Eleven Plus?”
The Eleven Plus examination, however, is not only to do with performance in an examination. There must be many indirect gains from working towards a competitive examination.
“My son is much happier now. He feels he can concentrate. He loves working on a one to one basis. He really wants to go to grammar.”
The Eleven Plus examination is trying to predict future success – rather than present performance.
“The better the results on a verbal reasoning test, the more likely your child is to do at the `A’ level examinations.”
Efforts to try to measure the competence of experienced and successful eleven plus tutors may occasion fierce resistance. If, however, the Eleven Plus syllabus is to change – then the some input will have to come from the vast and experienced bank of eleven plus tutors.
“You have tutored many children towards the Eleven Plus. What do you think should be in the new examination? Where can we make changes?”
Parents pay the tutors. Parents too will need to be consulted.
“What do you and your child think should be in the examination?”
(It would be wonderful to have the opportunity!)
“My dear Miss Winters. Your children can all manipulate numbers. Congratulations. We will raise your stipend by two shillings a month.”
“Oh thank you. George has gone to work for Lord Miles. He is the best one at number work. We will miss him.”
`Her Majesties Inspectors’, formerly the `HMI’ now ply their trade under the guise of OFSTEAD – the Office for Standards in Education.
“Good morning Miss Rabbis. Good morning children. I am going to sit at the back of the class. Please do not mind me.”
“Oh, Mrs Watson. Here are my schemes of work. They are all ready as you can see in this folder. My C.V. has also been included. We are working today on an important strand. Please take a seat at the back of the class. Can I bring you anything?”
Parents may feel it unnecessary in these stringent times to pay a weekly levy on each lesson to pay for Eleven Plus tutors to be subjected to a mini OFSTEAD visit. Some parents, however, may find it very reassuring to know that their tutor was going to be inspected.
“Mr. Hobson. I have brought Harry, my oldest to you. You now have Rosina. I am not going to pay you any extra. If you want to be inspected – you pay the fees to the inspectors. I am satisfied with what you are doing.”
It seems, however, to be very unlikely that mere inspections will offer a systematic solution to the problems that appear to exist within the world of the Eleven Plus.
“Mrs. Head Teacher. We have been paying for a tutor for my child. His teacher here, at school, feels that he is improving. She says his marks are now around average. Do you think he will pass the Eleven Plus?”
The Eleven Plus examination, however, is not only to do with performance in an examination. There must be many indirect gains from working towards a competitive examination.
“My son is much happier now. He feels he can concentrate. He loves working on a one to one basis. He really wants to go to grammar.”
The Eleven Plus examination is trying to predict future success – rather than present performance.
“The better the results on a verbal reasoning test, the more likely your child is to do at the `A’ level examinations.”
Efforts to try to measure the competence of experienced and successful eleven plus tutors may occasion fierce resistance. If, however, the Eleven Plus syllabus is to change – then the some input will have to come from the vast and experienced bank of eleven plus tutors.
“You have tutored many children towards the Eleven Plus. What do you think should be in the new examination? Where can we make changes?”
Parents pay the tutors. Parents too will need to be consulted.
“What do you and your child think should be in the examination?”
(It would be wonderful to have the opportunity!)
Thursday, December 04, 2008
The Eleven Plus and Christmas
One of the problems some Eleven Plus children face is learning to spread their wings and think laterally. For years the bright child may have been writing imaginative essays. Praise and encouragement, quite rightly, would have flowed. The Eleven Plus child may think that this is the only type of essay to be written.
The child has to be aware that there are many different types of essays. An essay entitled `Sleep’ could be considered from a number of viewpoints.
A descriptive essay on sleep would need to draw a picture in words. The reader would expect lots of adjectives and adverbs. There could be a number of similies (the clouds, disappearing like vampires) or metaphors or even some personification. (The shadow stood over us with long fingers ….)
A narrative essay about sleep would need to tell a story – where the child could relate an incident, or a story set in chronological order. The story would need to build to a climax and have elements of descriptive writing but should not rely too much on long winded descriptions.
The discussion on sleep would need to contain ideas and opinions. The point of the essay would be to arrive at a conclusion. You would want your child to try to give reasons – and write impersonally. This is where you could help your child the need to try to avoid sweeping statements. Why we need sleep, how much sleep children need and when children should go to bed!
A different type of essay on `Sleep’ could be attractive to a child with good knowledge on the subject. Suppose a member of the family had some form of sleep disorder – and that this in turn affected all the family. Your child could write authortively – and give some insight into the impact of a problem with sleeping on the rest of the family.
Then there could be a stimulus story – where your child could be shown a picture of someone asleep in a bed or beside a river. They could be told NOT to write a story.
Some parents may enjoy the challenge of working with their children to develop different styles of writing. Their children could even consider writing thank you letters for Christmas presents in different styles. This could surprise key members of the family!
The child has to be aware that there are many different types of essays. An essay entitled `Sleep’ could be considered from a number of viewpoints.
A descriptive essay on sleep would need to draw a picture in words. The reader would expect lots of adjectives and adverbs. There could be a number of similies (the clouds, disappearing like vampires) or metaphors or even some personification. (The shadow stood over us with long fingers ….)
A narrative essay about sleep would need to tell a story – where the child could relate an incident, or a story set in chronological order. The story would need to build to a climax and have elements of descriptive writing but should not rely too much on long winded descriptions.
The discussion on sleep would need to contain ideas and opinions. The point of the essay would be to arrive at a conclusion. You would want your child to try to give reasons – and write impersonally. This is where you could help your child the need to try to avoid sweeping statements. Why we need sleep, how much sleep children need and when children should go to bed!
A different type of essay on `Sleep’ could be attractive to a child with good knowledge on the subject. Suppose a member of the family had some form of sleep disorder – and that this in turn affected all the family. Your child could write authortively – and give some insight into the impact of a problem with sleeping on the rest of the family.
Then there could be a stimulus story – where your child could be shown a picture of someone asleep in a bed or beside a river. They could be told NOT to write a story.
Some parents may enjoy the challenge of working with their children to develop different styles of writing. Their children could even consider writing thank you letters for Christmas presents in different styles. This could surprise key members of the family!
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Eleven Plus Future
At some stage, and it must have already happened, your Eleven Plus child is going to be asked about the job he or she would like to do.
We know that Jamie Oliver took a City and Guilds course at Westminster Catering College before starting on his restaurant career. He did well in the restaurant trade – and went on to achieve success with his program `The Naked Chef’. He has recently been in the news because of his campaign for better school meals.
You may care to discuss various entry levels with your Eleven Plus child. You could then go on to discuss the qualification that would develop.
Entry Level – Little prior experience, lack of confidence
Level One – Routine Tasks and basic knowledge
GCSE D – G grades
Level Two – Some knowledge or experience
GCSE A – C grades
Level Three – More complex work, supervisory skills
A Levels
Level 4 – A specialist
HND – Foundation Degree
Level 5 – Management Experience
Honours Degree
Level 6 – Senior managers
Masters Degree
Level 7 – The sky is the limit
You could discuss the different levels with your child. Some of you may find that he or she wants to start at the top! You could make the point that no two jobs are the same.
There is a site called http://www.connexions-direct.com/ that has information for children over the age of thirteen – but may be useful for information and discussion points.
Try to arrange for your child to be able to talk to someone who actually does the job every day.
Remind your child that if he or she does make a wrong choice – there is no need to panic. Lots of people have started off on one career and then moved into something else.
Above all – try to help your child to think forward. (Good Eleven Plus Results could equal a good grammar school place and then entry to university – and this could lead to a good job – with lots of security and lots of money!)
We know that Jamie Oliver took a City and Guilds course at Westminster Catering College before starting on his restaurant career. He did well in the restaurant trade – and went on to achieve success with his program `The Naked Chef’. He has recently been in the news because of his campaign for better school meals.
You may care to discuss various entry levels with your Eleven Plus child. You could then go on to discuss the qualification that would develop.
Entry Level – Little prior experience, lack of confidence
Level One – Routine Tasks and basic knowledge
GCSE D – G grades
Level Two – Some knowledge or experience
GCSE A – C grades
Level Three – More complex work, supervisory skills
A Levels
Level 4 – A specialist
HND – Foundation Degree
Level 5 – Management Experience
Honours Degree
Level 6 – Senior managers
Masters Degree
Level 7 – The sky is the limit
You could discuss the different levels with your child. Some of you may find that he or she wants to start at the top! You could make the point that no two jobs are the same.
There is a site called http://www.connexions-direct.com/ that has information for children over the age of thirteen – but may be useful for information and discussion points.
Try to arrange for your child to be able to talk to someone who actually does the job every day.
Remind your child that if he or she does make a wrong choice – there is no need to panic. Lots of people have started off on one career and then moved into something else.
Above all – try to help your child to think forward. (Good Eleven Plus Results could equal a good grammar school place and then entry to university – and this could lead to a good job – with lots of security and lots of money!)
The Eleven Plus and Progress at School 02/12/08
All concerned in the Eleven Plus must sincerely hope that all the hard work that is done in preparation for the examination has some effect on school work. Theoretically it would be possible to set up an experiment to examine academic success, as measured by the KS2 SATs tests.
We would need two sets of children – constituted as an experimental and a control group. We would need to try to make the two groups as nearly identical as possible. The experiment could have as many variables as was thought to be necessary.
There could be, for example, a total of fifty children chosen from a cohort of around three thousand. Twenty five children would take the Eleven Plus and twenty five would simply attend school. (Selecting fifty children from a group as large as three thousand would be very expensive!)
The groups could be matched on present academic success in mathematics and English. There could be a case for verbal and non verbal reasoning to be included. Age and sex could also be matched. Different types of match could be obtained by reading age – and even the numbers of books that are read in a preset period of time.
As we can imagine it would be very difficult to disentangle all the variables. The idea that working on Eleven Plus topics will help a child to do well in KS2 SATs test is a rather abstract concept. In any event we would need to start with the hypothesis that doing additional Eleven Plus work would make no difference what so ever.
All we can do is ask the question. We may not be sure of the answer
We would need two sets of children – constituted as an experimental and a control group. We would need to try to make the two groups as nearly identical as possible. The experiment could have as many variables as was thought to be necessary.
There could be, for example, a total of fifty children chosen from a cohort of around three thousand. Twenty five children would take the Eleven Plus and twenty five would simply attend school. (Selecting fifty children from a group as large as three thousand would be very expensive!)
The groups could be matched on present academic success in mathematics and English. There could be a case for verbal and non verbal reasoning to be included. Age and sex could also be matched. Different types of match could be obtained by reading age – and even the numbers of books that are read in a preset period of time.
As we can imagine it would be very difficult to disentangle all the variables. The idea that working on Eleven Plus topics will help a child to do well in KS2 SATs test is a rather abstract concept. In any event we would need to start with the hypothesis that doing additional Eleven Plus work would make no difference what so ever.
All we can do is ask the question. We may not be sure of the answer
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Eleven Plus Questions 01/12/08
Some Eleven Plus children will have travelled extensively this year with their families on holiday. A number will have reached Pisa. I am sure their parents, or even one of the recognised guides, would have recounted to them the story of Galileo dropping round objects of the same material, but with a different mass, to demonstrate that the time of descent was independent of mass.
There is also the tale of two Eleven Plus boys who climbed part way up the tower and started discussing its height. A possible conversation may have been:
“This looks very high. How high are we?”
“I would guess at about twenty five metres.”
“That is rubbish. How do you know?”
“Well look at that house over there. The roof is about ten metres high – and we must be at least twice as high as that.”
“I know. Let us drop a Euro and time it.”
“Well give me the Euro.”
“No, it was your idea. You supply the Euro.”
The Euro was duly dropped and took around two and a half seconds before it landed.”
“How do we work it out?”
“I don’t know. Let’s ask my sister. She does `A’ Level mathematics.”
“Silly, if it takes two and a half seconds then you must have been around thirty metres off the ground.”
“How did you work that out?”
“Don’t you know any thing? Ask Mum and Dad. They will explain it to you. You won’t pass your Eleven Plus until you start speeding up your problems solving.”
(Just a thought … How will the much loved and highly esteemed eleven plus tutor avoid explaining how a coin dropping for two and a half seconds equates to a height of around thirty metres? After all in some areas Speed, Time and Distance are not officially part of the Eleven Plus syllabus.)
There is also the tale of two Eleven Plus boys who climbed part way up the tower and started discussing its height. A possible conversation may have been:
“This looks very high. How high are we?”
“I would guess at about twenty five metres.”
“That is rubbish. How do you know?”
“Well look at that house over there. The roof is about ten metres high – and we must be at least twice as high as that.”
“I know. Let us drop a Euro and time it.”
“Well give me the Euro.”
“No, it was your idea. You supply the Euro.”
The Euro was duly dropped and took around two and a half seconds before it landed.”
“How do we work it out?”
“I don’t know. Let’s ask my sister. She does `A’ Level mathematics.”
“Silly, if it takes two and a half seconds then you must have been around thirty metres off the ground.”
“How did you work that out?”
“Don’t you know any thing? Ask Mum and Dad. They will explain it to you. You won’t pass your Eleven Plus until you start speeding up your problems solving.”
(Just a thought … How will the much loved and highly esteemed eleven plus tutor avoid explaining how a coin dropping for two and a half seconds equates to a height of around thirty metres? After all in some areas Speed, Time and Distance are not officially part of the Eleven Plus syllabus.)
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