11+ Magic

King Arthur, or so the legend goes, had a round table. This meant that no one sat in a privileged position. The story goes that at every meeting King Arthur allowed his knights to sit in random places so that one knight was no more important than another.

One day five of the knights arrived early. Perhaps there had not been too much traffic along the way. They may even had taken one of the new toll roads. It was a long way ago - and our memories are weak.

They sat cheerfully at the round table and called for small beers. The knights were: Sir Agravain who was a handsome and capable fighter, Sir Bors was a fine knight, Sir Calogrenant was courteous and eloquent, Sir Daniel engaged in fantastic adventures while Sir Elyan was known as an excellent knight.

The middle knight sat between Sir Calogrenant and a knight. The first letter of his name was later in the alphabet that either Sir Calogrenant’s or his own. There was a large space between Sir Bors and Sir Elyan but the order was not alphabetical. Only one knight was in his correct place according to the first letter of his name.

This is a `easy’ 11+ question. All you have to do is to write down the positions and names of the five knight.

It is worth five marks - so you can’t spend more than three minutes on the exercise.

Naturally you will be able to strip the un-necessary words. We know we have to draw a plan and will need to sketch a `sector‘. (This leads to even more 11+ revision as a sector is a geometric figure bounded by two radii and the included arc of a circle.)

Use the hint about the large space.

King Arthur could call on Merlin for help and advice. Merlin was a wise magician and, as a your child looks to you for help, you will need to draw on your own magic.

Following Instructions

There will be a number of men, and some women, who will immediately recognise the work being done on this car:

To dismantle the brakes proceed as follows:

For front brakes, apply the hand brake, jack up the front of the car and remove the road wheel.
Take out the two brake drum retaining screws, back off the adjusters and remove the brake drums.
Mark the position of the pull off springs, and also mark the brake shoes to make sure they return to their correct positions.

Equally there will be a number of women, and some men, who will recognise these instructions:

Working from right to left, insert the tapestry needle into the first stitch.
Pull the yarn through first stitch.
Insert the needle into the first stitch on the top piece from front to back and second stitch from back to front.

In an English examination a child could be called up on to:

Write the actual words that Caspian said:

Caspian said that he could not pull his sweater over his head.

In all three examples of instruction there is lot left unsaid.

In the case of the car there is no mention of how to cope with nut that will not be moved.
Counting and recounting stitches takes concentration and effort.
To change reported speech to direct speech we need to think as much about a change of tense as the use of inverted commas.

Nothing is easy is it?

Just a Little Patience

We used to use yards and feet because these measures come from man himself - the length of a foot and so on. The length of fields used to be measured in yards. So 10 feet is three yards and one foot. Man has also developed a way of measuring time.

Time, however, is difficult to teach. When we are adding weeks and days we need to know how many days there are in a week. There are seven days in a week. So three days plus five days makes one week and one day.

5 weeks 3 days
+2 weeks 5 days
----------------

Sometimes teachers and parents try to help children to `discover’ and `problem solve‘. Part of the theory behind this approach is that if we help children to `discover’ we will save boredom and inattention. It must be very difficult for any of us to feel really excited about adding days and weeks. (Unless we are going on holiday.)

In the eleven plus examination your child will have to solve problems. What we are trying to achieve is to help our children develop the ability to reconstruct a mathematical problem and then solve it. We can go into a field and work our way through problems yards and feet. It not so easy with time.

In the time example above you may find you need to ask two or three simple questions. How many days are there in a week? How can you change eight days to weeks and days? You may find it difficult to construct a time machine at home to let your child discover time. You may need a little patience and a little drill.

Children, however, have been solving problems like this for years. Have patience - one day your child will do it all confidently.

Predicting Success

One of the big problems we have, when we are looking at tests like the 11+, is whether the test is measuring the specific ability is claims to be measuring.

Of course the 11+ examinations are partly used to try to predict future success at school in GCSE and A Level examinations.

It is not only the parents, teachers and tutors of children at the primary school age that are interested in the eleven plus results. Naturally the teachers in the grammar schools will be concerned about the quality of the children joining their school in the new school year.

All involved in the examination are asking:

Do the 11+ tests allow us to make predictions?
Do the tests actually measure what they set out to measure?
Does the test appear to be a `good’ test?
Is the test actually a reliable tool?

When two parents lean over towards their own eleven plus candidate and whisper in an encouraging tone: `You do know that if you go to grammar school you will be more likely to get a good job.’ The parents are making a prediction. Time will tell!

One day your child will arrive at your local grammar school. The teachers who look at the new intake will be just as concerned as you that they will be able to obtain good academic results.

Passing an eleven plus examination is really only one more step in your child’s life. There are plenty of real life examinations and tests to tackle in the years ahead. Doing well on verbal and non verbal reasoning tests can not make a child into a hardworking and serious `A’ level student. To be successful in life your child will need a different kind of spark – and that is a little more difficult to measure.

Time and Motion

Back in 1948 Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey produced a book called `Cheaper by the Dozen’. Their premise was that applying the principals of time and motion to a family group would enable a family to interact and respond by pulling together. The film was released in 1950.

I have a 1968 copy of the book in a Pan Books Edition. The inscription reads:


To DAD
Who only reared twelve children
And
To MOTHER
Who reared twelve only children


Do mothers really do everything? Food, clothes, school, homework, 11+ study, recreation, comfort, love, role model - in fact everything. Does this mean that while dads understand that they have children, a mother’s nurturing side enable them understand their children’s needs in a different manner?


What do dads do? A number of dads can do some of the non verbal and some of the maths. Some children even allow their dads to offer tentative solutions to verbal reasoning questions.
This brings us back to time and motion in the home. To fit everything into a early morning scramble for school I can think of a very wide range of activities that the average mum has to manage. This leaves dad able to spend just three minutes a morning revising key concepts.


Can you image the impact on the family as all concerned sit down to cereal and toast and the conversation opens:


“We were able to revise multiplication of factions and proportion this morning. Thanks to dad’s clever methods I think I now know how to do them.”


“I have always thought he was clever, that is why I married him.” (Fondly.)

Solving Problems

When you selling your house you are advised to take on professional advisors. It could be, for example, your accountant to check that you presenting your income correctly. You could also telephone your solicitor about the progress of the sale. The estate agents too are acting professionally on your behalf. While you may rail at times about the unfairness or the iniquities of the system it is the system that exist at the time.


I wonder how often parents are tempted to phone the professional when it is something they can actually do themselves.


Helping a child with 11+ work is, however, very different from selling a house. Both events are probably equally stressful. Selling a house, for example, could involve a chain and with this in place unfair events could happen that are beyond your powers to influence.


The frustration that your child feels when your explanation is not absorbed immediately could sometimes be demonstrated in a slightly pouting lip. Your frustration is also manifest when you have just delivered a perfectly logical and reasoned answer for it to be rejected by a sullenly muttered: `I still don’t understand.’ It is very difficult for you to pick yourself up, smile sweetly and try again.


So before you telephone for professional help think back to when you were able to out think and out wit your child. Do you remember the time in the supermarket when your two year old lay full length on the floor because you had offered a carrot in exchange for a shiny packet of sweets? What did you do? You know you could not get angry - that only would make the matter worse. You could not forcibly remove the sweets from the little one’s hand because that would have brought shrieks of disgust. You were fearful too that you would incur the cumulative censure of the surrounding shoppers.


Do you remember how you distracted your little one? Can you recall how you murmured loving words and offered grateful thanks? Surely that feeling of relief as the onlookers faded away is still engraved on your heart.


When you had your problem with your house you did not telephone the professional. You talked about what you should do. When your two year old decided to express his or her personality you did not call a professional. You talked about what you should do. When your 11+ explanation is rejected - however unfairly - you should simply talk it through.


Keep your cool. Do your thing. Enjoy your child. Do not pick a fight. You know that in time you will solve the problem. Have faith in yourself. Believe in yourself. (Remember that if all else fails bribery usually works with a ten year old.)

After all if you can sell a house and raise a child from two years old to ten years old you will, in time, solve any eleven plus problem.

Dropping Intensity

Many of us make visits to the gymnasium on a regular basis. We go there on the premise that since the brain stores every movement, the more frequently a movement is performed, the more it will stay in the mind. With constant repetition a fast muscular reaction is obtained with lasting effects. At least I think that is what the instructor told me on my induction.

Each time you change gyms you have to have another induction. Every gym you go to has different equipment. This gives your brain a new learning curve and your muscles too. The instructors also remind you to work at 40% of your capacity when you meet new equipment in order that you do not put too much unfamiliar strain on your body.

One of the most reassuring statistics around is that there are remarkably few fatalities in gyms. This must be heartening to the instructors as well as reassuring to the gym users.

What the gym is supposed to do is increase the feeling of physical and psychological well-being.

The brain gym of 11+ papers and exercises is supposed to engender the same feeling of being well conditioned mentally. The ability to concentrate must also be improved if the brain and the body feel fit and healthy.

There is no need, however, to over do it. Try not to allow your child to feel pressured and overstrained. Drop your intensity down to 40% at times - especially when covering a new topic. Think of the smiles and the encouragement offered by your gym instructor. Take their words of praise into your sessions.

The Sands of Time

I am always impressed by the ingenuity of children and their parents. It is no secret that we run 11+ courses. On the courses we talk a lot about timing - and we do practical exercises based on timing. Naturally we encourage the children to bring their own watches.


“Can I use my mobile phone? I have forgotten my watch.”
“ I didn’t bring my watch today. Can I bring it along tomorrow?
“I don’t have a watch. My mother times papers for me.”
“My mother uses our sand timer to make sure I watch the time running out.”


The idea of using a sand timer shows one very sensible mum. The flowing sand seems to start so slowly - but towards the end the sand seems to be ebbing remarkably quickly. It must be quite distracting to look up from an 11+ paper to see just a little bit of sand left in the hour glass.


We know that sermons used to be timed by a sandglass. An hour glass was placed upon the pulpit. The whole congregation could see the preacher speeding up his delivery as time ran out.


Archimedes developed a number system that he felt capable of counting the number of grains of sand which could be fitted into the universe. We know that he was a great educator - and he produced a large number of theorems that have delighted mathematicians, and some school children, for many many years.


Suppose an 11+ question read:


An hour glass holds a large number of grains of sand. Using the number system developed by Archimedes (the myriad is 10 000 and a myriad myriad is 100 000 000 - but you know that already), how many grains of sand would you need for a verbal reasoning test lasting 50 minutes?


So well done to that mum mentioned earlier. It would have been easier for her to have bought a watch for five pounds - but think of the fun she, and her daughter, had watching the sands of time flow by.

The Class Genius

In every class there is always a class genius. This is the person, boy or girl who simply knows everything. The genius knows how to do division of fractions, the length of a football field and how to remain calm under pressure.

When I was at school the `Class Genius’ was Peter Drybrough. Peter was able to do chemistry and this was a great help to all of us.

We had a remarkably pleasant chemistry teacher. He was a young man, as I recall, and he always started the day cheerfully and happily. As the morning went on he became more morose and grumpy.

He collapsed in front of a class one day at about eleven o’clock. Not in front of us I am sorry to say – but we knew all about it. It ensured that in his back room there was a still where he made pure alcohol.

Every class knew that the teacher made frequent trips into his back room over the course of the morning. The chemistry results in the school were not very high in any event. After our teacher had been carried away we were left with no one who could teach chemistry.

Peter, however, knew everything. Is that just not true of all of the genius class? Peter gave some of us help with our chemistry as the examinations grew closer. We did not, however, do all the practicals.

In today’s world we can feel completely sure that no teacher, tutor or parent would ever fall victim to the demon drink. If something did, by chance, go wrong – who could we turn to with a few weeks to go to an examination?

It is simple really, provide as many materials and aids as you can find. Develop a timetable; look for where you can help. If you meet a topic that is really hard just say: `I am sorry, I don’t know – but I know someone who does.’ That gives you a breathing space to phone a friend. Some one will know. You can then go back to your child with the correct answer – and feel good about yourself at the same time.

When the eleven plus examinations are over you can turn to the search engine of your computer and type in the all powerful words: `How do I build a still in my home?’

Spoon Feeding

For many years teachers have been critical of teaching methods that spoon feed children. It seems that there is, however, a perception, among some, that the more often a teacher or a tutor has a child sitting in front of them, the more the child will learn.


Some teachers have had outstanding results with children who have followed independent study programs. The theory is that the more independent the child is, and the more responsibility the child assumes for examination preparation, the more likely the child is to do well in an examination.


What you hope is that children, who have followed a course of designed instruction, and have had the time to engage in independent study, will do better in tests.


The term spoon feeding in Eleven Plus terms could be defined as providing children with answers and information without allowing time for independent thought. But spoon feeding is also implies supplying information in an oversimplified manner.


We sometimes need to remember to walk away once a child knows what to do. All your child may need, at times, is a little space for problem solving and independent thought. In the examination you will not be sitting beside your child with a spoon in your hand. You did that when they were ten months old - not ten years old.


Unless you challenge your child you may find that you land up offering your child the heritage of a wooden spoon rather than the golden spoon your child so richly deserves.

A Traffic Question

We will start with Question 23 on the 2004 verbal reasoning paper.

What do humps, cushions and tables have in common?

a) Speed calming devices
b) Speed humps
c) Traffic calming
d) Necessary evil
e) Challenge to driving ingenuity
f) All of the above.

Question 36 on the 2005 English paper.

With special reference to traffic calming, define the following:

Hump
Cushion
Table

We know that humps, and their cousins, slow down emergency vehicles, we have heard that the humps cause pollution by extra emissions as people speed up between the humps, we have heard stories about subsidence caused by vibrations. We know too that there is not much evidence to support the claim that speed humps save lives and accidents.

You are naturally wondering why speed humps are the `flavour of the day’. Yesterday, being Sunday, we had a 15 strong family gathering in a pub in Ealing in London. There was family from Spain and various far flung parts of England.

I followed a carefully and lovingly restored VW crawl over humps (a block across the road), cushions (a blip in the road) and a table (an area over an intersection). We all know that the engine in a VW is in the rear. The exhaust pipes enjoy a low suspension. The car had to drop down to walking speed to pass over some of the humps and cushions. A line of fifteen cars built up behind the stately progress of the powder blue VW. (Driven by a member of our family.)

So when you are driving with your child, extending vocabulary and coping with traffic, try to discuss calmly, and rationally, the difference and merits of humps, cushions and tables.

11+ Questions

Back in 1983 a Mr William Walker discovered an enormous claw bone in a Surrey clay pit. It was called Baryonyx Walkeri and was the first carnivorous dinosaur to be discovered in England. The claws were about a foot long.

It was not just a lucky find. Finding the dinosaur was a result of hard work and thought. Having a dinosaur named after you mans that your name will live on for a long as records last.

After all the hard work you and your family have done wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a type of verbal reasoning question named after you? Take your child’s first name and your surname as the description of the type of verbal reasoning question.

For example we know that the letters alpha (α) and beta (β) are the names of the first two letters of the classical Greek alphabet. So we could call a new type of 11+ question The Alpha Beta question.

Doing verbal reasoning exercises we sometimes have to put letters in order. Sometimes into alphabetical order.

We will now invent our own reasoning question (called the (First Name : Surname):

Take the following words, translate them, and write the ensuing words in English in order.

Je voudrais manger des escargots.

All you need is a bit of translation, some common sense - and are they not fantastic with garlic?

Languages

One of our local Grammar Schools is a widely recognised language centre. As well as the more usual `European’ languages the school offers courses in a number of languages.

I always enjoy the serenity of the 11+ Verbal Reasoning questions that start:

Gerry and Conner learn Japanese and French,
Connor and Kai learn French and German.
Matthew and William learn Japanese and Chinese.

Answer the following questions:

31 Who learns Japanese but not Chinese?
32 Who learns Japanese but not German?
33 Which languages does Gillian not learn?
34 Which languages does Andrew not learn?
35 Which languages does Harry not learn?
36 Who learns the most languages?

Surely this makes this school an exciting prospect for children to attend? Naturally the school is high in any of the league tables of academic excellence and it also offers boys the opportunity of learning a wide range of exciting languages.

Actually there are two boys who learn three languages. Surely this will be a great advantage to them in the years ahead?

Car Games

I was asked today about what verbally based games could be played in the car while travelling backwards and forwards to school.

The first game that sprang to mind was the old favourite: `I went to the shops and bought …. ‘.

The starting player says: `I went to that shops and bought an apple.’

The player says: `I went to the shops and bought an apple and some bread.’

Each player then adds a new word.

If a player forgets the sequence or fails to add a letter then he or she has to drop out until the game starts again.

I then thought of tongue twisters. I have no idea what so ever what this has to do with 11+ verbal reasoning papers if you have to say very quickly:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

I do know, however, that you will entertain your ten year old with:

I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit.

If however you start with this Tongue Twister as a basis - you can always try to substitute words:

If one doctor doctors another doctor,
does the doctor who doctors the doctor
doctor the doctor the way the doctor
he is doctoring doctors?
Or does he doctor the doctor the way
the doctor who doctors doctors?

Please let me know your suggestions.

Wait a moment. It will come to me.

Compilers of crosswords take heart from their understanding of human nature. It is easier to reach for a pencil and attempt a crossword in the morning than go to the local gym. Crossword addicts maintain, however, that they are exposing their brains to a mind gym.


I suppose the `best’ pleasure obtained from completing a cross word is in satisfaction in over coming a challenge. The will probably always be one or two clues that hold you up - but the fierce enjoyment of completing the crossword more than makes up for the frustration of not being able to give the solution immediately.


Verbal reasoning exercises also call for the ability to solve word problems. I can not see however the satisfaction of completing a number of verbal reasoning questions can compete with the joy of filling in the final letters so that you just know that you have completed the grid.


In a crossword every clue has to have some form of a definition. This means that the answer has to be unique. We have all worked through verbal reasoning exercises where occasionally there have been more than one answer. This gives real pleasure to all concerned - particularly when the answer book has a range of answers.


Once the verbal reasoning tests are over, turning to crosswords may give pleasure and stimulation to young minds for many years to come. The great benefit of a crossword is that it can be cast aside - and then picked up when the mood strikes. We are not quite sure why the brain is sometimes able to solve a problem if there has been a delay or period of incubation.


So when you are working on a verbal reasoning paper, and the answer is not immediately apparent, be reasonably confident that you may be able to solve the problem a little later on.

Random Thoughts

I took my child to an 11+ tutor
Hoping she’d change him from iron into pewter.

The tutor shook her head and said with a sigh,
`Your son’s verbal ability just makes me cry.

Are you sure you want to continue the fight?
He really is trying with all of his might.

The examination date is much too near.
I won’t make a difference at all I fear.

Just go on line and download some work,
At least a few exercises won’t make him berserk.

As the date of the exam is getting quite near
Remove from your mind all thoughts of fear.

Don’t throw him into a bottomless pool,
Just dream of a place at a good modern school.’

Every Mother's Prize

I have just met a mum who was angry and cross.
Her child’s teacher had created a feeling of loss.


She would not recommend a place at the nearest grammar school,
The results weren’t good enough and she wouldn’t break the rule.


The Teacher had said, `Don’t put the grammar school first,
With too much pressure your daughter’s head will burst.’


Now last year’s teacher had said: `Go for grammar,
Your daughter’s so bright she won’t need a crammer.’


This then is a dilemma our Mum has to face,
How can she get her daughter her desired school place?


There is no easy answer to a problem of this size
As grammar school entry is every mother’s prize.

A Matter of Style

Over the weekend I enjoyed reading a boy’s writing.

He planned his work confidently and wrote a rather sensible three paragraphs - just what was asked for.

One aspect of his work stood out. He used an ampersand. The ampersand (&) has been used for at least two thousand years. Why should this symbol stand out on a page - and why not use it in some types of written work?

The origins of the term are shrouded in history. Some writers think that it was Tiro who used a form of shorthand to write down Cicero’s speeches.

Today the ampersand is used in around two hundred different languages. If there is the universal adoption of the term, why should it usage be restricted?

Should the boy lose marks? Should it be commented on?

We know that an ampersand can be used in a headlines like: `Books & The Eleven Plus‘.
It can be used in a official name of a company: `White & White’.

The ampersand should not be used in the text of a passage. `The boy took his sword & his helmet off,’ is simply not acceptable.

We know that 2 + 2 makes 4. A fact. The use of an ampersand, however, is a matter of style. If `style’ is worth 5 marks, how many marks should be deducted for an unruly `ampersand’?

A Matter of Taste

Back in the mid 18th Century a man called Etienne Silhouette became France’s finance minister. I always remember his name because of my art teacher. In my final art examination he, Mr Morgan Davies, offered me a final evaluation of 13%. This was possibly the lowest mark of the year.


At the time I was sure his judgement was in-correct. I had tried to draw a silhouette - and instead of filling the head in with solid paint - as in the definition of the word - had I tried to do many dabs of colour, rather in the style of Pissarro. Mr Morgan Davies did not like the linking of the two styles and thought that I was a remarkably poor artist.


All those years ago Mr Silhouette, who you recall was the Finance Minister, had tried to cut the salaries of the courtiers and their staff. This had made him rather unpopular. After he had been sacked he made portraits by using cheap black paper cut outs. His work became popular and spread to England. We now use the term in a variety of ways.


I thought of these events today when an able and highly literate boy had completed his well presented written assignment. It was beautifully planned and carefully written. He had used a remarkably wide range of words and I simply enjoyed reading his work.


In the margin he had crafted an exquisitely executed silhouette. The essay title, however, had not asked for the illustration. The boy was simply expressing another of his many talents.


Should I have argued against the silhouette - and thus possibly diminishing his pleasure and pride in his work? Was a quiet word more appropriate, pointing out that while the drawing had offered me more insight into his skills, it may not have excited an examiner in the same way.


Creativity is an art and a science. We all know what happens to unpopular Finance Ministers. What should happen to a gifted boy? Do we sack him or praise him?

Unexpected 11+ Results

We know a girl who has had Standardised Scores over 120 all the years of her school life.
Suddenly her marks dropped in one test at school to 115.

She fell from ` dead cert’ to `boarder line’. Just a few short weeks to the 11+ examinations.
What can be done?

More lessons? More papers? More work? A severe talking too?

These solutions are all too simplistic. We need to be bolder and it looks as if a revival of the ducking stool may help to find the answer.

The ducking stool was used years ago for women who did too much scolding. A scold was a woman who argued and quarrelled too much. She was tried by her peers, often the neighbours, and then simply dumped in water until she cried for peace.

The reason for the drop in marks, it transpired, was quite simple. This was a school test.

There had been a little happening in the playground and our super able girl had been involved. The tears and the recriminations had been enough to put her off. She had begun the examination feeling upset and put upon.

So we can’t blame her school ,we can’t blame her parents, we can’t blame the girl’s friends, we can’t even blame the blameless girl.

We can only hope for a right royal ducking for the senseless bully. Will this solve the problem? Possibly not but all of us may feel better!

Problem Solving Skills

Are children who are good at verbal and non verbal reasoning tests likely to be good at solving complex problems?

Are children who pass the eleven plus more likely to be able to solve problems better than children who did not attempt the examination? The answer is quite simply that it depends on the problem.

Coping with the logistics of 150 guests at a wedding, along with the ceremony, the dresses, the bridesmaids, the in-laws as well as the immediate family demands problem solving skills far beyond the requirements of a mere 11+ examination.

An actuary is a member of a profession that requires strong problem solving skills. An actuary deals with risk and uncertainly. Naturally there will be many different types of actuary. One kind of actuary will be one involved in the insurance business. It will be the actuary who will suggest the insurance premium that is needed before a wedding to cover the photographer, the food, the venue and the thousand and one other possible areas of misfortune.

Who then will be better at solving problems? On the day it will certainly be the bride. If there is a problem that has a financial implication it will be the insurance company guided by the actuary.

Could one become a bride without passing the eleven plus? Of course. The fact that the actuary has had to go to university does not necessarily mean that the actuary is better at solving practical problems that are complex in nature.

I am pretty certain that there must be actuaries who never did pass the eleven plus. These actuaries would not have needed to struggle with verbal and non verbal reasoning papers. They would, no doubt, have developed their problem solving skills in other ways.

Does anyone know if you can claim for the best man forgetting the rings?

A Matter of Taste

We had a vast `two family’ roast vegetable dish over the weekend. A similar dish over the summer had segments of nasturtium thrown in for seasoning.

Our family has divided opinions over the nasturtium. My wife thinks upon it as a weed. I have to beg for a segment of the garden. When the plant gets too big towards the end of summer it can only be hacked at and severely reduced.

The strange thing about the nasturtium is that it flourishes in poor soil. No self respecting nasturtium plant likes an abundance of fertiliser. It does not like to be over watered. It just likes to be left alone.

Every now and again we see television shows with bright young children engaging in the act of a spelling test. In some eleven plus examinations, as some parents know, the ability to identify spelling, grammar and punctuation errors is tested.

A syllabus is prepared for GCSE and `A’ level examinations. What happens if a syllabus is prepared for 11+ English examinations? Suppose the 11+ examiner is an acknowledged authority on the Wild Flowers of Britain and Europe?

We will be able to teach words like nasturtium. To me the word sounds and looks nice. A sort of `feel good’ factor word.

A word like trifoliate should also be easy to teach as it means with three leaflets.

The spelling of a world like `saprophyte’ would be more difficult. It would, however, be easy to remember the meaning as a plant lacking in pigment and feeding entirely on decaying matter.

While I would be quite content to throw a nasturtium into a meal I must admit I would think twice about using a saprophyte in a favoured dish. Examiners must have the same feeling about some words.

11+ Harmony

A couple entered one of our local parks last Sunday. Their five year old son drifted in behind them. The man and women were walking about five feet apart. The woman was white faced and very angry. The man was smiling and conciliatory. I just had the feeling he had done something wrong. Both parents were carrying a mobile phone.

Their son addressed them as `Mum’ and `Dad’ respectively. I presumed, therefore, that he was their son. Both parents were able to smile and talk pleasantly with their son. They just had some unfinished business with each other.

I was only in their orbit for about ten seconds - and did not see them again for some time. In fact the next time I saw them was around sixty minutes later when they left the park hand in hand. The woman’s face was glowing and relaxed. The five year was still skipping. All was well in the world.

I was standing by my car and chanced to hear the following snippet as the mother relayed a telephone conversation to her husband:

`She has reached 89% on the paper!’

`Please tell her well done!’

`You are never going to believe this, but she has turned the oven on too so our meal will be ready as soon as we get back.’

`That’s wonderful, I am so pleased, but - what was the answer to number 37?’

`What was the answer to number thirty seven?’

(Pause.)

`She says that I was right.’

`I am sorry, I will never doubt you again.’

Question 37:
A window in a girl’s bedroom measures 1 m by 1.5 m. If she wants her new curtains to have an extra 300cms in length, how much curtain material does she have to buy?

11+ Tessellations

I wonder just how much correlation there is between learning to play chess at an early age and passing the 11+ examinations. Children learn about tessellations, for example, from very early days in the infant school. Tessellations certainly `come up’ on some 11+ papers. We too know that a tessellation is `the careful juxtaposition of shapes into a pattern'.

A knight steps one square horizontally or vertically and then two squares perpendicular to the previous part of the move. Place a knight on a chess board and tessellations will jump out at the onlooker.

Once the young chess prodigy has learnt the concept that a knight can ignore any pieces in its path then imagination and planning can be brought to the fore. A knight can jump directly to the destination square. The knight can rest on the destination square or it can capture an enemy piece. The knight can attack and defend - or it can brood in a corner and wait for events to unfold.

Imagine how the depth of interest in chess would grow if children were asked questions about possible outcomes of moves. An attraction to chess would stimulate a wealth of socially acceptable activities.

We know that while chess requires the ability to plan moves - it also needs the player to remember moves in attack and defence. The `Queens Pawn Opening Gambit’ is taught to all beginners in its execution and defence. Adult Education class throughout the country would gain unparalleled popularity as parents stream in to learn more about chess.

Verbal reasoning books would need to be rewritten.

Question 35 would read: `The king is under attack from the enemy knight. Checkmate is in store. Which squares can the king move to?'

How long for each question?

Solving problems takes some thought.

If the 11+ examiner makes all the questions achievable to bright children then all of them will pass the examination. The examiner has to think of some way of setting problems that can be solved - but only after some thought. When the family sit down to solve some obscure verbal or non verbal reasoning question there is the combined power of a number of minds bearing down on a problem.

Some questions just take time to solve. The words `lets sleep on it’ are not uttered by chance.

The brain has the capacity to think about a problem long after the moment has passed.

An eleven plus examination requires a problem to be solved in a short time. It is possible to come back to a problem - but once again the time available is limited. A child who answers all the questions correctly - but does not finish the paper - may achieve a pass mark ahead of a child who completes the paper and then goes back over the harder questions.

One way to reduce this perceived unfairness could be to set a section of harder multiple choice question where two marks could be awarded for a correct answer. Questions1 - 55 would then be worth one mark - but Questions 56 to 70 would be worth two marks.

You could then teach your child to spend 25 minutes on Question 1 - 50 and 15 minutes on Questions 56 to 70. Or should it be fifteen minutes on Questions 1 - 15 leaving 25 minutes to answer the rather more difficult questions?

Remember bright parents are more likely to make bright children! Some one will solve this problem for us.

Feeling Good on the Day.

One of the `rules’ of doing well in examinations is to feel refreshed on the day.

If your child is feeling tired on the day of the examination then it is likely that you have allowed your child to do too much. (How parents like to feel blamed for everything!)

In the closing stages it is probably best, for example, to only do part of a paper a day after coming home from school . In the last few days before the examination look through sections where there have been problems. Discuss solutions - encourage recall and problem solving.

Unless you are very, very fortunate, and you are supremely confident of your child’s ability, try to avoid saying: `Of course you will pass.’ Sometimes temper a statement of this magnitude with a softer approach: `Just do you best - we know that you will do your best to pass.’

Unfortunately the gift of passing a child through an eleven plus examination does not lie in a parent’s hands.

Too much work on too many papers, at the last minute, can interfere with your child’s ability to do a slightly different set of questions. Over the whole spectrum of an eleven plus examination, with between two and four papers, a number of questions will rely on problem solving skills.

We can anticipate that some questions will be asking for a form of analysis. Other questions may be asking for evaluation.

A tired, irritable, overworked child will struggle to analyse and evaluate. In just the same way: `Of course you will pass,’ will hardly be music in a weary child’s ears.

Please Mum, I need a drink.

There are strange ways that superstitions arise. Some must arise from actual events and others from more fanciful and imaginative musings.

The Marula tree has a fruit which is high in Vitamin C. The fruit is used jelly and jams - as well as potent base for an alcoholic drink. When the fruit falls into the water it can ferment and become a potent drink.

Elephants, so the legend goes, have been known to imbibe a little too much and then stagger away from the tree. There is sometimes great damage to fields and crops. Can you imagine the sight of these huge animals wandering aimlessly as they try to come to terms with the effect of the alcoholic stimulation? The problem is that an elephant drinks around 150 litres a day. They would need to drink vast quantities of fermented marula juice before it would affect their bodies.

We do sometimes need to remind children to drink - because they can feel dehydrated so quickly - and we don’t want that to happen in the middle of the examination. Remind your child that while an adult is encouraged to drink around two litres a day on a `detox’ diet a child walking towards an examination needs much less.

Oh - one more useful fact - baboons too like to eat the marula fruit. They grab great handfuls and literally stuff their mouths.

Very few parents in the leafy suburbs of England, however, will be faced by elephants, marula trees and baboons.

The modern parent has to cope with different pressures. The next time the family is shopping in one of the major supermarkets keep a close watch on your `pre examination’ child. If you see an intelligent head bent over a selection of jam jars be very careful.

There may be a myth circulating among Year 6 children about the virtues of marula based jam. Preserve the myth - it may actually help on the day. Suggest to your child that a couple of mouthfuls of water before an examination may help.

As a parent all you need to do is simply forget to put a few marula seeds or nuts into the `examination lunch box’.

11+ Fears

I have heard that when a woman wants to get married her steps take her unerringly past bridal shops and jewellers. The posture a woman adopts as she looks into the window is unmistakable. She is half leaning forward and half leaning back. She leans forward to become caught up in the excitement of the chase and withdraws as she thinks of the consequences.

Your ten year old approaching eleven plus examinations will feel similar emotions. May I suggest the `drive past’ approach?

This means on a quiet Sunday morning driving past the schools of your choice. Stop well away from the zig zag lines and wonder up towards the gates. Gaze wistfully in and dream together of passing through the hallowed gates. Invite your ten year old to think what it would be like to step through the open gates. Have a little day dream too of how you think you will feel as you wait to collect your loved one after the first day of school.

Stop off for a well earned croissant before embarking on your next tour. Repeat the exercise as you work your way through all the schools on your list.

Think too of a mere six to seven year’s time when your seventeen year old will be driving YOUR car to school - and dreaming about university and life after school. Be reassured that you will regain ownership of your car when the young one has actually left home. Lean forward to embrace the future - and plan carefully for the worst.

Is that not the intent of a pre-nuptial agreement?

11+ Results

11+ results usually come through the post. Often the children are at school so mum and dad have to sit through much of the morning and part of the afternoon before they know the results.
The letter sits silently on the table until the family gathers to read the news.

I know of some parents who take the results to school and open the 11+ envelope in the car. If all is well that is a proud moment to share but if there is a problem ……

Please think about the postman as he carries the letter to you. We know of postmen being bitten by dogs. There can not be many postmen, however, who have been eaten by a shark.

Tin Can Island is a remote island in the Tongan group. Letters were dropped into the sea in sealed containers and the postman swam out to collect the mail. One day the postman was eaten by a shark.

The islanders then supplied a canoe to collect the mail. I feel sure by now that technology has transformed the postman’s lot in Tonga. It probably won’t be long before technology strikes 11+ results here too!

What is going to happen when the 11+ results are sent by email? Do you put your email address so that you can be the first hear the results - or do you put your child’s email so that the 11+ results can be delivered to your child on their own phone at school? Is it your responsibility to charge your child’s phone or should a ten year old be able to remember?

All the Tongan had to do was to remember to look out for sharks. At least you will not have the same problem.

Helping Children Triumph

I watched one of our pupils with some interest yesterday afternoon. He was struggling with an assignment where he was trying to write about a task of great endeavour. The work had been planned carefully and he knew what he wanted to say - but he was trying to take that great leap forward to where your essay actually follows your plan.

This brought to mind two friends of mine who now live in Australia. Rob and Olga have devoted their lives to helping children and adults effect change.

Rob loved Hemmingway. He could remember passages from `The Old Man and the Sea’. We all recall the story of the old man who caught an enormous Marlin and, after an epic struggle, tried to bring the fish to land. The fish left a trail of blood - and sharks attacked - leaving only the carcass of the fish.

Rob, as a teacher and educator, would have tried to enthuse the child with the love of the task, the grandeur of the occasion and the need to be poetical and even lyrical. Olga would have concentrated on the actual task that the child was involved in. She would have developed a step by step approach so that the child actually knew what he had to do.

We tend to think of `The Old Man and the Sea’ as a triumph of indefatigable spirit over exhaustible material resources. When we watch some children strive to reach the standards demanded by the 11+ examination we can understand the words `indefatigable spirit’ when we see the amount of effort some children have to put into their work.

All we can hope is that our children will meet teachers who love their work, who can stimulate minds and also deal with the minutiae of the task.

The Three Card Trick

(Words parents want to hear.)

When your child greets you after school, or after a lesson, you are sometimes offered rather a short reply to your well meaning question.

`Did you have a good day at school?’ Can be followed by:

`Yes.’

Did you learn anything new and interesting?

`No.’

Do you have any homework?

`Yes.’

It is time to take direct action. Insist on a three sentence reply. Here are some answers you really do want to hear: Write the answers on cards, shuffle the cards and hand three cards at random to your child as soon as you make eye contact.

1. `Yes thank you. I had a nice day at school today. I tried hard and did my best.'

2. `My teacher praised me because I did some good mathematics and I was able to help others because I knew how to do the mathematics.'

3. `The new box of pencils granny gave me for my birthday was very useful because no one else had the same shade of pink. I am going to write to granny to thank her.'

4. `I liked assembly today because our Head Teacher told us how easy it is to work hard and do well at school. Our Head Teacher is funny and I like the jokes. I am going to try some of the suggestions.'

5. `We wrote a long story today and my teacher said my spelling is much better. I used the dictionary we bought on holiday and it had all the words I needed.'

6. `The dinner lady made me laugh because she said I have a cheeky face. I like her and I liked the lunch we were given.'

7. `Mummy, Mummy, Mummy I am going to be a cabbage in the school play. I am going to sing the cabbage song. I have to wear a green cabbage costume.' (By tomorrow????)

8. `Everyone liked my new shoes. Thank you for buying them for me. I am going to look after them very carefully.'

9. `We were given lots of homework today. I am going to do the work as soon as we get home. I am looking forward to the homework because I like mathematics.'

11 Plus Multiple Choice

There is a useful hint that is sometimes offered to children taking 11+ examinations.
With multiple choice questions it is best to cover the answers and work out your own before looking at the choices on paper.

This would work very well for a large number of 11+ questions - but what happens if the emphasis changes from knowledge to understanding? Is it still a good idea to cover the answers?

Which is the odd one out?

Trumpet, horn, trombone, tuba.

We know these are all wind instruments. Three of them use a set of valves while one uses a slide.

Are we testing knowledge or understanding? We can know that the trumpet, horn and tuba are members of the wind family. We can understand how a valve works and the slide operates.
As teachers if a child struggles with sections of a verbal reasoning test we say those meaningful words: `You know, you really must read more!”. You wonder just how many children must have heard those words. Should the child read general literature in the hope of gleaning knowledge or should the child be encouraged to sit down with a series of `fact books’ and try to cover as wide a range as possible?

Suppose the question had read:

Arrange these instruments in order of size and then select the one in the middle.

Cello, double bass, violin, harp, lyre.

Now, it does not matter if your 11+ child can distinguish between bowed string instruments and plucked instruments. The question is asking for the one in the middle.

We need a different sort of knowledge to be able to carry out two different operations. But it certainly does not need understanding of the difference between plucking and blowing.

Poor children. Poor parents. What on earth should they read! What on earth is the point of the child remembering to cover the answer - or is this what understanding really is?

11 Plus Fairy

I am asked at least once a week about what books a child should read. I think the children’s librarian in the local library should be able to answer that more comprehensively and competently than I can.

If a child is studying for the 11+ what books should be read? There is no easy answer. One child studying for the 11+ may have a reading accuracy age at least two years above his or her chronological age. The comprehension level could be two years younger. Do you ask the librarian for books at the uplifting 12 to 13 year old level or do you stick with books that a ten year old would enjoy?

Some ten year old girls are delighted to be immersed books like `Little Women’. Other girls could not countenance the language and the pace of the book. They would want to read a swift moving modern book.

Which girl is right? Well naturally the answer is somewhere in between. `Little Women’, for example, has a mention of a fairy when Tina is described by Jo as being a `perfect little fairy’.

There must be generations of children who have read or have heard the poem `Fairies’ by Rose Fyleman.

There are fairies at the bottom of our garden!
It’s not so very, very far away.
You pass the gardener’s shed and you just keep straight ahead -
I do so hope they’ve really come to stay.

We know that a fairy is: `A tiny imaginary being in human form, depicted as clever, mischievous, and possessing magical powers.’ We know too of good fairies - and bad fairies.

It is probably time to invent the 11+ Fairy. This is the fairy that keeps our girls calm and focused. Naturally the 11+ Fairy will be clever and possess magical powers. The 11+ Fairy will pour her heart out and really communicate.

We just need to look back a mere eight years ago to when our bright ten year old was just two. At two she wore a lovely smile and dainty wings. She listened to you reading to her.

She listened to you.

She listened to you!

Multiple Choice Conundrum

Would it not be a whole lot easier if the multiple choice examination was simply true or false.? Just think of all the techniques you could tell your child to employ.

The words examiners would need to use would have to change:

£5.00 is 10% of £50.00. True or False (Delete the wrong answer).

Sadly the 11+ children will need to recognise multiple choice questions with fine distinctions between correct and nearly-correct statements.

Find 10% of 50. ~ 4 ~ 5 ~ 6 ~ 40 (Circle the correct answer.).

Now every child is different. You may care to discuss some of the following suggestions with your child. You will know which points you need to labour. Beware - there may be some points you should not even dream of putting into your child’s mind.

Ten points to 11+ Multiple Choice Questions

Read the question twice before looking at the possible answers.
Think about all the question - not just one or two words.
Look for key words like: `not’
Consider the difference between correct and nearly correct answers.
Remember that you have done selection tests to get used to thinking about different types of questions.
Read all the questions carefully.
When you have done all the easy questions - go back to the more difficult ones.
Guess the really hard questions.
Eliminate any answers that are obviously incorrect.
Remind yourself that you need to understand the text of the questions as well as the options

But why do you have to remind your child to beware?

Well there are multiple choice maths questions, multiple choice English questions as well as verbal and non verbal reasoning questions.

Be strong because sometimes as an adult you have not selected the right answer. Life has told you that. On other occasions you have not studied either the question or the answer carefully enough. If you are not infallible what chance do your offspring have?

11+ Excuses

As your most loved child approaches the 11+ examinations you must look forward to crossing excuses off your list:

Words You Really Do Not Want to Hear
After school, or a lessons, please award yourself five points if you hear:
`The teacher gave us the homework but did not explain it.’
This allows you to get rid of your frustration in one early swoop of anger. You can transfer all your negative thoughts and this will really make you feel better.

Your Teachers/Tutors and Excuses
Naturally your child’s teacher will be waiting with bated breath for the one excuse that is always trotted out in any conversation about a child: `I only want the best for him/her’.

Many teachers must really mourn the passing of home visits by doctors. At the beginning of every school year the staff of many schools have a sweep stake on who will be offered:

`Please excuse little David for not being at school yesterday. His father is away and I could not get him ready because I was in bed with the doctor.’

Excuses your Child does not want to hear:
Your child must admire the artistry of one of your `killer phrases’:
`I don’t mind you going ………… as soon as you have done your homework.’
The next really popular, and possible overworked, phrase must be:
`I’ll have to discuss it with your father/mother first.’

Excuses and the 11+

“Please can you set some homework for my son. He will not do any work for me?”

Sit down with your son. Discuss the amount of work you think is appropriate. Work out a time for study that all concerned agree is convenient. Write down a list of all the exceuses you have heard about doing any extra work. Make sure you have a list of at least seven - to cover every day of the week. Draw up a weekly calendar and write the excuse above the work to be studied.

You now have:
Monday
You promised me that …..
Verbal Reasoning

Tuesday
I don’t feel very well…..
Non Verbal Reasoning

Wednesday
I have too much homework - and any way you said …….



Good Luck!

11 Plus Clothes

There are three basic colours: Red, Yellow and Blue. All other colours emanate from these colours. We learnt, for example, in early lessons at school that Yellow and Blue make Green.

There are the warm colours - Red and Orange along with some Purples and Yellows.

The cool colours are the Greens and the Blues - as well as the remaining Purples and Yellows.

We know that if we add Black to any colour we darken the colour - but when we add white we lighten the colour. We have heard endlessly on the Television, and in the newspapers, that Grey is the colour for clothes for 2006. Grey is made by mixing Black and White so, depending on the shade of Grey, we can lighten or darken the colour.

Use warm colours to make a room warmer
Use dark colours to make a room smaller
Use cool colours to make a room cooler
Use light colours to make a room larger.

We know that to make the colour black we need cyan, magenta and yellow in equal intensity.

Please make sure on the mornings of the 11+ examinations that while you can wear any combination of cyan, magenta and yellow you need to avoid black.

Wear warm colours (because they are more vibrant) if you want your child to feel excited.

Wear cool colours if you want your child to look and behave in a cool and dignified manner on the morning of the examination. This is because the colours are more muted.

Keep off the contrasts of the very dark or the very light. You child may be feeling very sensitive. So, as you look over your clothes on the morning of the examination, spare a thought for your child. Do you really think that Grey is the colour for an examination morning?

Naturally if you do not have the right colours you will NEED to go and spend money on assembling the right ensemble. What a price parents have to pay!

Wise Girls and 11+ Examinations

My wife Susan was born in Tunbridge Wells. Her family emigrated to Africa for 25 years - and Susan returned to live in Kent some thirty miles from her birth place.

Her family, especially her sister Judy in America, have investigated their history and came across a web site maintained by the National Geographic Society. All women can have their mtDNA tested though the Genographic Project. You simply send a swab through the post, along with an amount of money, and some time later a certificate arrives back

Susan belongs to Haplogroup H. All DNAs are descended from Mitochondrial Eve who was born in Africa some 150 000 years ago.

The male `Y’ chromosome polymorphisms are the male line of descent and also point to an African origin - but this dates back to only 60 000 years ago.

Surely this gives all girls approaching their 11+ examination the benefit of greater wisdom? Just remind your ten year old daughter of her long heritage. Sympathise with your son about his shorter heritage.

If you do decide to send a swab away for your female lineage the results will come back a lot quicker than the 11+ results.

Eleven Plus Trust

At this time of year many parents have found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Their heart has pounded to put the top local grammar school as first choice. Their heads, however, have told them to put the second choice grammar school first - and then the top local comprehensive school.

At the same time mothers and fathers have been listening to opinions from their friends, their families, teachers, head teachers - and sometime even the child in question. Naturally any older brother or sister, having passed the examination, will have also offered cogent advice.

I can remember reading about Odysseus who was told how to sail between Scylla and Charybdis. These are the two small islands in the Mediterranean with just the space of an arrow’s flight between them.

Scylla was a narrow pointed rock that had a sharp point reaching into the sky. Half way up the rock there was a dark cave - where Scylla lived. Scylla had twelve feet, six necks, six heads and six mouths. The monster simply ate sailors. Charybdis, the other island, had a monster that swallowed sea water and squirted it back to cause a whirlpool.

We know that the meaning of `between a rock and hard place’ is that someone is in difficulty - faced with a choice between two unsatisfactory options. You will recall that Odysseus sailed between the islands - but lost six men.

Every parent must be comforted by the fact that whatever the outcome of the examinations their children will neither be eaten nor caught up in a whirlpool. In time all parents will rationalise their decisions.

Good luck parents. The great majority of decisions you have made about your children have been correct. Trust your own instincts.

Keeping the Eleven Plus Simple

Naturally with a such a short time to go to the 11+ examinations you will not want your 11+ child to be stuck over books all weekend. You will want a family bonding session to show your love and confidence.

You may decide to go fishing as there are carp to be caught in November. Many fisher folk use breakfast food for bait for carp - including sausages, bacon and bread. I am sure that it is general interest to know that there is considerable discussion about whether the sausages should be cooked or uncooked.

The following applies if one of your family should get caught by a fish hook:

Send the case to the nearest doctor or Accident Unit - if one is available. If not:

Cleanse the wound with an antiseptic.
Do not try to pull the hook out.
If you can, push the point and the barb of the hook through the skin.
Cut the barb off.
Withdraw the hook.
Apply a sterile dressing.

Send the case to the nearest Accident and Emergency centre.

The point of this fishy story is do not try to give too much detail. There may be a need to discuss the state of the sausages - but I can not see any point in discussing pushing the point of a hook through the skin and cutting the barb off. Give help with key 11+ topics but do not go into too much detail. Keep it simple at this stage.

Simplify your own personal routine until the examinations are over to allow you time to savour the build up to the examinations. You will never go through such pressure again. The GCSE and A level examinations are cinch compared to the eleven plus.

Eleven PLus Food

It is likely that there will be some nerves on the day of the examination. We have all felt, at one time or another, that we are simply too excited to eat. As parents we do know that food is important in the morning. What do you do if the cupboard is thrown open, a suspicious eye is thrown over the eleven different types of cereal, and all are rejected? How do you cope when `eggy bread’, scrambled egg, soldiers and any other comfort food is rejected.

You know that your child has to eat something. Well it is time to plan ahead. On the Sunday breakfast before the examination toss, rather casually, a few pancakes onto the plate. Do not explain that you have been up half the night worrying. Just say, in your best and sweetest way: `Did you enjoy those pancakes?’ Naturally you will not wait for any sighs of approbation - you will lean back and watch with delight the pancakes being consumed.

4 ripe bananas
2 eggs
100 g of flour
2 tea spoons of baking powder
175 g of oatmeal
1 tablespoon of oil
150 ml of water.

Keep aside the bananas.
Stir, mix and whisk the other ingredients. Cook for two minutes.

On the morning of the examination you can offer your child an exotic pancake, filled with `good, honest, sustaining’ food.

When you have dropped the children off at school you allow yourself the treat of something sinful.

You could keep the same recipe but change the filling. What about pears marinated overnight in wine? How about a prawn and mango filler? You just need something to keep you comforted while you are waiting for that happy, confident face to appear.

Eleven PLus Rhythms

In the early 1900s a Viennese professor of psychology and a German Doctor independently discovered evidence from studying patients’ records of the existence of calculable life-cycles. In the 1920s an Innsbruck Doctor discovered a third - an intellectual one of 33 days.

This gives us three life cycles, each with a very definite span, a all calculable from the day a person is born. In bio-rhythm terms:

Physical relates to energy, self confidence, drive and physical health.

Emotional refers to moods and feelings, frustrations and outlook.

Intellectual means the ability to absorb knowledge, or reason and to develop skills.

These cycles are supposed to flow through lives like waves. The first half of the phase is called the positive phase - as then someone is at their best. The second half is the negative phase when it is unlikely that a person can better their performance.

What then if a child arrives to do an eleven plus examination when he or she is in the negative phase of the intellectual side? Even worse, take the day when all three phases meet - that is the stay in bed day. If only two phases are meeting that is called `double trouble’.

More worrying is if parents plan ahead at conception that the intellectual side will be strong on the day of the eleven plus examination. (Even couples in love can look ahead ten years.) Then, through circumstance beyond the mother’s control, her baby arrives two weeks early. This then would throw out all calculations.

Even worse - what happens if the date of the eleven plus examination is moved? Can the parents sue the examination board for depriving their child of a fair and honest examination?

Education and The Eleven Plus

`Education is the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.’

When you recall that the other great saying that he is remembered for is: `In the very long run we are all dead.’

His name naturally springs to mind as J. M Keynes. From your own studies you will recall that he went to Eton and from there on to Cambridge to read mathematics.

It does seem to me that it is very unlikely that helping youngsters with 11 Plus work is `inculcation’. There will be times, however, when all of us will wish that we could try to `impress something on the mind by frequent instruction or repetition‘.

The next key word is `incomprehensible’. Some 11+ questions may appear to be incomprehensible on first reading.

Two men, starting at the same point, walk in opposite directions for 4 meters, turn left and walk another 3 meters. What is the distance between them?

2 meters 6 meters 10 meters 12.5 meters 14 meters


This could be incomprehensible until one remembers Pythagoras.

Who are the indifferent? Every year we are amazed by the dignity and commitment of our eleven plus children. Our children care - and the great majority aim high and want the best. Indifference? Never!

But `Incompetent’? This one is easy. Do we teach different kinds of probability to ten year olds on 11+ courses because we think it will come up in the examination or because we think that bright children should be exposed to great ideas? Are we incompetent for not sticking to the `syllabus’ because we try to go on to extend knowledge with `Tree Probability’?

You see the first work at university of J. M. Keynes was on probability. If he had stayed a mathematician we can only wonder about the content of 11+ papers. We know that: `The square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.’ We know too that we are all a long time dead - so why not allow our very brightest to explore and soar?

The Romance of the Eleven Plus

It is a story of kindness to an escaped convict and walking off hand in hand after having won the lady. What a romantic story.

There was young Pip, looking at his parents’ graves, when he met a fearsome man who demanded food and a file. Pip stole the food and the file and helped the convict.

Pip was later apprenticed to Joe - a hard working blacksmith. One day Jaggers, a lawyer from London, told Pip that a mysterious benefactor had provided enough money for Pip to be properly educated.

What a story and what an ending!

We know that every parent in Kent - and some from even further away, will be bringing their children to the marshes near Gravesend over the next few weekends. All will be searching for the hand of fortune. Some children will find the pot of gold by hard work and diligence. Other children will naturally rely on stealing a few hours of work in the hope that the examination will only ask questions that they know how to answer.

What ever route your children will follow in their lives, as parents you will hope for that little bit of luck and good fortune. Remind your children not to be too egocentric while the examinations approach. Remind them too to look kindly on the weak and the homeless - and help the disadvantaged when they can.

You could, as sensible parents, warn them to make an exception for any escaped convicts called Magwitch. You all know that Magwitch, in later years, was found guilty of killing his partner and so Pip lost his fortune. (But Pip did get the girl!)

Eleven Plus and Questions

Thank you all for your remarkable response to the blogs. We have families who return to read the blogs on a regular basis.

We have been emailed with a number of questions and thought we could share just a few with you. If you do have anything you would like to discuss we can only try to help.


My child is doing well at school. We have just had an open evening and his teacher said that while she could not categorically say that he would pass the 11+ examination, she felt that the school would certainly recommend that he should try the selection tests.


I just can not encourage him to do any work at home.

Take away all discussion of long term aims and goals. Do not talk about the advantages of a good education. Do not stress the importance of doing the best work possible. Start with small elements from different papers. Forget all about setting a full paper. Attempting full papers comes towards the end - as the examination grows closer. Simply work together on a few questions from a range of papers.


There is a big difference between a child feeling confident at school and feeling confident that he can pass a competitive selection test. Build him up bit by bit.



My son just rushes through all his work. He is untidy - and he never seems to stop to read questions carefully. He is getting between 60 - 70 percent on the practice papers. I think he can do more.

Start with building a timetable that will last all week. Suggest set times for work, play, homework and 11+ study. Make sure you listen to how much time he wants to devote to different activities.

Ask him to agree to do a certain number of questions every day. Look at the questions together and talk about the amount of time he will need to spend. Go over any difficult questions before he starts any work.

Discuss the rhythm of the questions. You child has to learn how to stop rushing. It will not help if all you say is: `Be more careful and slow down.’ Help him too to understand the concept of time a little better.



When I speak to my teacher he says that my child is doing well at school and is not experiencing any difficulty. Why is my child struggling so much with the 11+ mathematics papers?

In terms of the National Curriculum your child may be doing very well at Level 4. Schools and teachers are aiming to have as many passes as possible at Level 4.

There is a National Curriculum Level 4 element in 11+ examinations. These are probably the questions your child is coping with. Confidence with these questions reflects very well on the school and your child’s teacher.

In addition to the Level 4 mathematics in the eleven plus examination, there is naturally some Level 5 maths. It may be these Level 5 questions that your child is struggling with.

Eleven Plus and Two Left Feet

All sorts of people say that they can not dance and they have: `Two Left Feet.’ This works very well - but what happens when they go to a party? That is the time when the grooving moves come out. Some chemical is liberated in the brain and, after protesting to everyone in ear shot, the dance strut takes place.

Some times it is not the alcohol that brings out the athlete - some times it is simply dancing round handbags that encourages wanton moves.

The day of reckoning comes, however, when different videos show the sprightly `artist’ performing. That then is time for the: `Do you remember?’ chorus to start. Invariably the `Two Left Feet’ brigade are the ones who want to see the re-run of the videos. The viewing is often accompanied by friendly but apposite comments.

The `I can’t dance!’ troupe sometime become the butt of ribald but timely criticism.
The cruel words are easily forgotten - unless they come from an already hated member of the family.

The sweet loving comments are remembered.

Your 11+ child may have to go through the whole routine if unwelcome results emerge. There may be some easily forgotten aunt who mumbles: `Well his father never did it so why should he?’ It could even be: `His second cousin, Aunt Mildred, of course passed her Eleven plus - but you know what they say about that side of the family.’

Simply remind your child not to complain about the tricky paper. Warn too, about your child blaming the teacher for everything and anything including finishing the examination 20 minutes early and allowing a fight in the examination room. `I could not concentrate because of the noise.’ is almost as bad as: `I can’t dance. I have two left feet.’

`Two left feet’ is an idiom meaning that people with two left feet can not dance.’

`The room was noisy and I could not concentrate’ is an idiom for …….’

Extra 11 Plus Tuition from a child's perspective

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

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

11+ Examination Help

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

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

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

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

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

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

11+ and Time Travel

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

Get me there on time!

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cars and Mathematics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11+ Mathematics

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

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

Some straight forward 11+ mathematics follows.

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

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

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

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

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

Just a bit of Padding

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

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

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

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

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

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

`Be careful of that padding, dear.’

`Too much padding and your work becomes unwieldy.’

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

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

`Write a letter complaining about loud music.’

`How do you make a pumpkin pie?’

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

How can we find time in an examination?

A mother sent us a note today:

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

The dialogue in the lesson went as follows:

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

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

`Please could I see your watch?’

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

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

`My mum tells me the time.’

Suggestion 1

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

Suggestion 2

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

Suggestion 3

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

Suggestion 4

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

Suggestion 5

It was Benjamin Franklin who reminded us:

“Lost time is never found again.”

It is just not fair!

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

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

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

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

Ten Tips to Eleven Plus Examinations

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

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

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

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

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

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

`How did it go at school today?’

`Fine.’

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

`Nothing.’

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

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

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

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

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

Building Excitement

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

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

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

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

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

3 17 11 .. 18

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

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

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

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

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