Eleven Plus Advice

I had a fascinating conversation with a mother today. She has a very bright ten year old child. She explained that her daughter wanted to be an accountant. I am sure there are accountants in the family.

As the conversation ranged over the Eleven Plus, school, entrance examinations and `A’ level choices it was clear that ’ level choices it was clear that careers guidance was a mere formality. I am sure that this mum could have written the book. What a pleasure!

When the phone went down I started thinking about what kind of questions would be asked in Accountancy examinations.

“A director is in a fiduciary relationship with his company. Explain the meaning and effect of this statement with reference to decided cases.” (This question came from the Institute of Company Accountants.) I did `Dog Latin’ at school for many years. The word `fides’ means faith. I suppose it means that a director has to be faithful to his company. I wonder if the relation is the same as a dog to his master or that of a cat? They are both animals but have a very different approach to their masters.

So thinking about this led to another question:

Explain by reference to statutory and common law examples what is meant by `lifting the veil of incorporation’. (Chartered Institute of management Accountants) Now I know of some ten year old who would love to debate the topic if they knew what the terms meant. To some people there must be real excitement when there is a seminar on `lifting the veil of incorporation’.

So over the years some of our ten year old will learn more about relationships and decisions. They will also learn about the difference between statutory and common law. We hope they will grow up to be both wealthy and wise. Who knows – perhaps one day one of these ten year old will be advising you on your pension! Oh happy days!

The Sunday Before

The Sunday before the Eleven Plus examinations is approaching. The last thing you want to do is to mention the examination. By now you will have done your best. Your child will have done his or her best. The work is done, the talking is over. So how on earth are you going to fill your day?


8.00 Take the pre examination candidate a glass of warm water with a little lemon. This will flush the kidneys.

8.20 Run the bath for the pre examination candidate. Lay out the clothes just like you used to do in the old days.

8.30 Supply favourite breakfast. Try to avoid serving the meal as if it was the last meal of a condemned man.

8.45 Insist that you will do the washing up and that you do not require any help from any spouse or child. (Martyr?)

9.00 Depart for the swimming pool.

11.30 Supply further sustenance.

By now you are feeling the strain. Leave the children with the grand parents. Retire to the pub for a liquid lunch. Sleep lunch off. Ask to have the kids delivered. Allow the rest of the day to dissolve into a gental daze.

Stretching Eleven Plus Children

Eleven plus children sometimes need stretching. We urge them to read a wide range of books. We want our children to be able to absorb an exuberant vocabulary. After all the children will rely on their vocabulary, at times, while they doing some verbal reasoning exercises.

So if we tell the children to read the classics, are we being reactionary? In The Three Musketeers we read language developed in a rather spectacular setting:

‘Whilst they were within the precincts of the camp, the four friends did not exchange a word: they were, besides, followed by the curious, who, having heard of the wager, wished to know how they would extricate themselves from the affair.’

So the story of The Three Musketeers is all about friends fighting with each other, the people are simply sorted by nationality (French or English), where they live, work and fight is important (Gascon or Norman) as is their social class (master or servant.). But when Athos stands on the parapet immune to the bullets we hope the children will identify with him.

We want our children to stand on the parapet, in the Eleven Plus room, immune to questions that may phase them. We want our children to feel that they are heroes and heroines as they tackle adversity. We want our children to feel that they can conquer all that lies before them.

Books that children read today are often full of characters with imperfections and problems. But we hope that as the story grips them and takes them on a journey of exploration they will react positively in a similar manner in the examination. Then our children will show that they have absorbed the `hard’ words and the complex concepts. They may also learn a little about punctuation! Just look with awe at the punctuation in the passage above. We hope that our children will replicate the confident use of commas in the examination.

The Eleven Plus Letter

Every now and then every set of parents need to issue a rallying call to their children.

Our thoughts and inspiration can swing widely over a range of famous speeches that begin with familiar words:

“Once more into the breech dear friends.”

“We will fight them on the beaches.”

“Come on England.”

“You can only do your best.”

“What ever happens we will still love you.”

So long as the message is heartfelt I am sure that parents are allowed a little poetic licence – they don’t have to be word perfect.

With some Eleven Plus examinations only days away it is time for the `Annual Eleven Plus Letter’.

My dear son / daughter

In a few days time you will be writing your Eleven Plus examinations.

Naturally we all wish you the best of luck.

Read questions carefully.

Think before you write.

Do the best you can.

Lots of love

Your Mum and Dad.

The Right Eleven Plus Environment

As teachers and parents working towards the eleven plus examinations we tend to work on the assumption that home background plays a large part in determining educational progress.

It is very likely that economic level and social class are not as important in helping a child towards the eleven plus as the parents’ attitude to education. Some parents are content to leave the tuition the school and a `tutor’ while other parents want a close `hands on’ approach. Both methods must be equally effective – because no two children are the same and no two families are the same. Just because some parents may be earning lots of money does not automatically guarantee that their child will pass the eleven plus.

We tend to take support by the mother of the eleven plus child for granted. The father’s interest in school work and extra study can, however, sometimes prove to be an invigorating spur to the child.

So it is entirely possible that factors in the home may possibly be more likely to promote a good `eleven plus’ environment than those of the local neighbourhood.

Eleven Plus Vocabulary (Blog26/10)

One of the things that children have to think about as the eleven plus examinations grow closer is the need for a wide vocabulary while tackling eleven plus verbal reasoning papers.

“You really must read a wider range of books.”

“Aunt Mary’s daughter enjoyed this book. I am sure you will love it.”

Now any self respecting ten year old will naturally feel a real sense of resistance to weak points made like this. No, don’t be soft. Tell your ten year old to learn three new words every day. Today’s three words include:

Matriculate.

The `matricular’ is the list of people belonging to an order or society. So, rather loosely, if your child passes the Eleven Plus examination he or she will matriculate.

Adlibbing

Today we think of adlibbing as making jokes or employing quick fire repartee. So if your ten year old is inclined to cover up nerves by a sting of weak and spontaneous jokes you could think that you have an adlibbing genius on your hands.

Stentorian

The origin of this word goes back to a man called `Stentor’ who was a form of town crier or even a drill sergeant. (In other words a man with a loud voice.) This is the sort of voice that will echo in your thoughts as you drive away from leaving your poor eleven plus child to attempt the examination.

So now comes the Eleven Plus challenge to your child.

“Use all three words in a sentence.”

(Any advance on: “The adlibbing boy called out in a stentorian voice that he was about to matriculate with a full eleven plus pass”?)

Passing The Eleven Plus (Blog25/10)

Many youngsters take their driving test at the same time as they are studying for their `A’ levels. In theory the great majority of seventeen year olds are mature enough to be entrusted with a car.

So a number of driving instructors tend to emphasise the need for a driving plan. A basic driving plan would include:

What can be seen?

What can not be seen?

What may reasonably be expected to happen?


What can be seen is reasonably straight forward. The problem comes with what can not be seen. This is where driving defensively begins to make sense. What could lie around the bend? Will a high sided vehicle obstruct your view? Will two of your children break out into a pitched battle just as you are trying to over take a weaving bus? What happens when the third child in car unexpectedly turns round and screams at the battling two in the back seat?

I started thinking of this because there was a lot of traffic on the M25 while I was driving back from Salisbury this afternoon. I was in the slow lane when a large black MPV drove up beside me. We were only doing around fifteen miles an hour – so to be overtaken was no great feat on my part. The man driving the big black MPV was reading his newspaper. He took his eyes off the page to check why the traffic ahead was slowing down. He was reading a broad sheet so he needed to fold the page on the steering wheel while he was driving.

Now any good eleven year old will be able to run through some of the rules of the road with you while you are driving to the eleven plus examination.

It is no good looking at the map while you are driving to the Eleven Plus test centre.

Ensure that you always over take safely.

Try to avoid cutting in sharply at all stages of an overtaking manoeuvre.

Look, signal, manoeuvre. Look, signal, manoeuvre. Look, signal, manoeuvre.

So now we have some things to remember.

Make a plan of how to drive.

If you have to read while you are driving, try reading one of the papers with small pages.

Be thankful that your Eleven Plus child is not driving yet – so don’t promise a car if he or she passes. (You may be moved to offer one in just six years time!)

The Content of the Eleven Plus (Blog of 24/10/07)

I wandered around the city of Salisbury this afternoon looking at the incredible diversity in the shops. Naturally the high street was dominated by the large chains and banks. But Salisbury is also equipped to cope with tourists. There seems to be an incredible number of tea shops.

I drifted through a number of antique shops. I was not really looking for anything – but marvelled at the range of items on sale. I didn’t see a moth eaten tiger – but did see a three foot high bronze pig. The pig was sitting on a chair reading a book. The content was to do with `Best Recipes for Pork’.

With this in mind what will happen if one day one of the Eleven Plus examiners decides to test children on their ability to recognise allusions? We know that an allusion is a figure of speech that compares aspects or counterparts in history, mythology, the scriptures or even contemporary culture.

If it did come about that some eleven plus questions were devoted to understanding allusions then we would need to educate our eleven plus children far more broadly.

To pass the Eleven Pus you will need to cross the Rubicon.

Well today, to cross the Rubicon, means to go beyond the point of no return. A long time ago in the days of Ancient Rome the Rubicon was a river. If an army crossed the river they were committing themselves to war.

He was really evasive about his Eleven Plus homework when he told yet another porker.

So if you tell a lie you tell a porker. Does that mean that Eleven Plus children can be reincarnated as little pigs if they fail to `come clean’ about their work?

What about the Eleven Plus child who day dreams so much that he or she could turn in a Lotus eater? So this goes back to Odysseus who came to the land of the Lotus Eaters. His men ate the lotus fruit and did not want to return home. So the men were pulled `kicking and screaming’ back to the boat. So we use the term lotus eater to describe a person who is oblivious to the world around him.

Don’t you agree that that having to explain allusions would shake the Eleven Plus world up?

(I still could not access the internet through the Travel Lodge connection.)

Doing Well in the Eleven Plus

Transport yourself into a school hall with parents chatting over a cup of tea at the school fete. There will be wide ranging discussions. The talk will cut across feelings on schools, teachers, children and the world in general. During the general dialogue a number of reasons will emerge as to why parents want their children to go to grammar schools.

“I hope that the standard of education will be better and that our children will learn more than at other schools.”

“I think you are right, but I hope that attending a grammar school will lead to better career prospects.”

“I have heard that a good grammar school curriculum will lend itself to valuable range of subjects.”

“The reason why I want my child to go to grammar school is to have a better chance of going to university.”

“Well our family likes the tradition and reputation of our grammar school.”

So to reach grammar school we know that children have to have a certain degree of intellectual and academic ability. Parents, however, want the ability to be able to make a choice. So good luck to all those parents who are trying to create a list of schools they would like their children to attend.

Oh Dear, Oh Dear!

Oh dear.

Not in the script.

I know I keep saying that parents must prepare themselves and their children for not passing the Eleven Plus. But the feeling of dispair as teh clock ticked down.

Thank gooodness for ITV and their adverts - so that we did not have to see the faces of the vanquished.

The words: "Never mind, next time," somehow just seem to leave a bad feeling. Sorry England.

What will you say to children?

Half Time

It is half time. The score is 9 - 3.

What a first half!

What do the coaches say?

Eleven Plus Immortality

There is a saying: “Football is a game of two halves.”

If this is so then this blog must be the first half.

As a coach you can not afford to wind your players up too much. Somewhere along the way you have to remind them that they are playing a game – and at time they have to enjoy themselves.

As parents, with your eleven plus preparations, you have to remind yourself that the eleven plus is not the beginning or the end of education. It is simply one step on your child’s journey in life. If you have been working with your child over a sensible period then you and your child can afford to take a little pressure off.

I understand that the rugby players have not spent the week in a hard slog – but have been spending time on the mental side of their game.

So instead of forcing papers on your child spend time talking about timing and confidence. Discuss too how you will conduct yourself when you hear the results. Explain to your child what will happen if the desired results do not arrive in the post. If you are going to talk rewards try to make them realistic.

“If you pass the whole family will go to Disney Land. We have already bought the tickets. If you do not pass I will throw the tickets away – and no one will go.” (You may think that this is a little over the top but it has happened to one of our children.)

So tonight the reigning world champions are about to defend their crown. The lead up has started. I am sure we will have wonderful game. Our players are eighty minutes away from sporting immortality.

A Two Way Conversation

Tomorrow we will be watching South Africa play England in the final of the Rugby World Cup.

The commentators from England will be yelling excitedly at times. The commentators from South Africa will be speaking in a number of languages.

Let us suppose that there is an argument about a try. The English speaking commentator will say most authoritatively:

A player who is on side scores a try when he carries the ball into his opponents’ ingoal or:
The ball is in his opponents’ ingoal and he first grounds it there.

In Afrikaans it is:

`n Speler wat speelkant is, teken `n drie aan waneer:

He die bal tot in sy teenstanders se doelgebied dra, of die bal in sy teenstanders de doelgebied is, en he eerste dir bal daar druk.

We really are lucky that the eleven plus examination is all in English. Imagine if we had to take into account the nationalities of all the children sitting the examination. That would give a lot of work to translators!

As it is referees referee in English.

Good luck to both teams tomorrow.

Good Luck on the Courses

We are about to start our Eleven Plus courses. We have tried to make sure that every child has the right course for the "Grammar School of Dreams".

I look forward to the courses because they give me the opportunity to teach. I left teaching when I was twenty six to start helping children with extra lessons. I still miss the class room.

Good luck to all the children on the courses.

Eleven Plus Dreams

At one time or another most of us will have played a game called: “Who do you most admire?”

I really admired Madam Curie when I was growing up. The story of Madam Curie and her struggles with radioactivity really did have an impact on my adolescent thinking.

I think it was to do with her struggles to establish herself – and her relish for fights with authority that stood out in my mind.

I can also remember too one of those rather pointless and informed discussions at school when we were urged to debate: “Should the house admire students who work so hard that they ignore meals?” Naturally Madam Curie was used as an example in the debate because it was well known that she was prepared to work though the night and skip important meals while she was still at school studying.

In today’s world if a school allowed a pupil to stay up and miss meals some very important person would think of prosecution. Imagine the out cry if was known that parents condoned their fifteen year’s studious and ambitious behaviour.

I once heard of some parents who had their daughter out every night of the week in different activities. Their daughter explained that she really wanted to pass the eleven plus but did not have time to do any reading or work through any papers.

Madam Curie was driven to succeed. She was clearly gifted and made an incredible contribution to the world. She won two Nobel prizes – one for Physics and the other for Chemistry.

So if you are realistic enough to accept that their might be a slight possibility that your child will not earn a Nobel prize then you will be able to sleep comfortably at night. You will be able to help your child develop a balance of work and play. You may present a balanced outlook to the public but as a parent are still allowed to dream! Please let me know in a few years time how well your daughter did after university.

Predicting Eleven Plus Success

One of the uses of eleven plus examination is to act as a tool to predict future academic success. Some educators believe that the higher the scores in eleven plus examination the more likely the child will achieve good `A’ level and university grades.

But why do we have to wait until the child is in the `eleven’ years? Why can’t we start at five years? I know that some five year olds will not be ready for a competitive examination – but so then are some eleven year olds. But if we think that an examination at eleven will produce the grammar school children of the future I am sure we can solve lots of heartache if we sort it all out at five years old.

We may need to conduct some form of an interview. Naturally the interviewers would need to be properly trained and equipped with a broad range of skills – but our eleven plus teachers also need good training and broad range of skills.

So look at the scenario. Mother, father and prospective eleven plus candidate arrive at the `Pre Grammar Selection Centre’.

Parents show birth certificate and produce some form of identification of their child. They are then taken though a series of key questions:

Motor Development:

Age the child walked.
Method the child used to climb stairs.
Mastery of tricycle


Language Behaviour

Joins two words
Gives full name
Fetches an object from another room

Play behaviour

Favourite activity
Likes story read
Imaginary playmates

Domestic behaviour

Feeds self
Helps mother or father at home

Emotional behaviour

Attitude to strangers
Play with other children

Health history

General health
Unusual experiences

So what results do we expect to emerge? It is easy. We want a child of the right age with appropriate motor development, able to put some words together, with a range of interests, able to help parents at home, reasonably stable and hopefully healthy.

If your five year old fits these rather loose criteria then you know that your dreams of eleven plus success are reasonably achievable. You just can’t start too young!

Eleven Plus Vocabulary

We often tell our children not to stray from the straight and narrow path. We expect all of our children to follow a largely similar path towards the eleven plus.

Parents learn about the examination. (Usually well before their child is born.)
Some years later the reality of the proximity of the examination prompts action.
Parents move home to get onto a bus route to the favoured grammar school.
First child enters nursery.
Parents ask the Nursery Teacher if their child will pass the eleven plus.
Parents ask the Reception Teacher if their child will pass the eleven plus.
Parents ask the First Year Teacher if their child will pass the eleven plus.
Parents adopt a philosophical approach to the question: “Do you think that your child will pass the eleven plus?”
Parents adopt a philosophical approach to the question: “What will you do if your child does not pass the eleven plus?”

At some stage parents start talking in some form of a code. They throw words like `standardised’ around. They talk about their experiences with verbal reasoning papers. They complain about some of the vocabulary in eleven plus verbal reasoning papers. Picture the play ground conversation:

“We found some strange words in the latest verbal reasoning paper. There was one word `groma’ that neither my husband nor I recognised.”

“Was that Question Fourteen in Paper Four?”

“Yes, we knew the question had something to do with angles but we could not work out why groma was not the odd one out.”

“How did you explain the answer?”

“We had to telephone the mother-in-law. She was a teacher, if you remember and she could recall teaching her class about the groma when she was a student teacher. She did say that she does not often use the word.”

“Well, what doe sit mean?”

“Well Grandmother Enid said that a groma is an instrument used by a Roman surveyor to establish straight lines and right angles. As you can imagine it would be almost impossible to build a completely straight road but the Romans used the groma to set the road builders off on the straight path.”

“Oh, so when we are working towards the eleven plus we are really trying to make sure that our children are on the right path?”

“Even so, Grandmother Enid reminded me to try not to deviate too much from the eleven plus syllabus. She told me to keep her grandchild on the straight and narrow. Above all Grandmother Enid exhorted me avoid taking any short cuts.”

Re-Sitting the Eleven Plus

One major criticism of the eleven plus examinations is that the children only have one chance. This is very hard on the children who are referred to as the `We just hope they come right on the day’ group.


At the `A’ level stage children can take an examination a year early and then repeat the examination in an effort to gain a higher grade. So a bright pupil can raise a `B’ grade to an `A’ or `A*’. In one sense this is very fair. Illness, falling in love, the acquisition of a new car can all affect `A’ level results.


So for some poor eleven plus children, who younger and less mature, it does not seem right to have a `One strike and you are out’ policy.


There must be some workable solutions to the problem.


Holding a lottery would not be a fait solution.

Banning coaching would be difficult to achieve.

Taking the examination a year early would allow for some re-sits.

If you do think of a solution please let me know.

Good Luck!

“We never give up.”

“We always had belief in ourselves.”

“Every time he is on the pitch he makes a difference.”

“He brings confidence to players.”

“We know that we can play.”

“We are back in the final.”

I had to wait until after the semi final for this blog. What an exciting game.

I just hope that your children take the same “bull dog” spirit of never giving up into their examinations.

Good luck to all eleven plus children. Good luck to England too.

Reading Eleven Plus Questions

My wife’s father worked on radar during the Second World War. He was a tool maker. Tool makers are given the drawings and instructions – and their role is to fashion the components – from moulds implements.

The word `radar’ is an abbreviated form of the name `radio detecting and ranging’. Radio waves are sent out by a powerful transmitter. When the waves collide with a solid object they bounce back and can be collected by a receiving set. The set and the transmitter are usually in the same place.

You can tell how far away the obstacle is by the calculating how long it takes for a signal to come back.

We use radar everywhere – airports, tracking satellites and even by the police to detect speeding cars.

So when you child misses an easy question and you remark, `You must be as blind as bat!’ you need to think about the poor maligned bat. All the bat has done is to send a little sound – and then receive the signal back on two little antennae – rather like ears. So to compare your poor eleven plus child to a little furry creature is really unfair.

A bat send out between ten and a hundred bursts of sound a second. Your eleven plus child may read the question only once! Some eleven plus children may not even read the question before they start to develop an answer.

Think of the poor bat. It has been hanging upside down all day. It is flying in darkness. It is sending out hundreds of little squeaks very few seconds. Your eleven plus child has it easy. You have not made your love one hang upside down. (Even though you may feel like it at times.) You allow your child to work in the best possible light. You do not force you child to make hundreds of little noises.

So the very next time you are minded to remark about reading questions carefully: “Oh you really as blind as a bat!” please take a little pause and allow yourself and your child to be very, very grateful!

Changing the Elleven Plus

I am very keen on the idea of a total rethink of the eleven plus examination. I know that on the day of the examination the child will be sitting at a desk working through a series of papers. This is how examinations have been taken for many, many years.

The world, however, is changing – and possibly the eleven plus examination also needs to change. We have seen how applications like Facebook have changed the manner in which we can communicate. We know that people are inclined to use a wiki to add knowledge and develop fresh ways of looking at information. `You Tube’ is also an invaluable source of information and entertainment. We also need to look at the tools that children use on the internet to chat to each other.

So why does the eleven plus examination continue to need to be approached in very much the same way as the eleven plus examination were written fifty years ago? Why can’t children be tested on their ability to communicate with each other? Why can’t children be tested on their ability to solve problems using the internet and cyberspace? Why can’t children be challenged with reasoning problems where they have to roam the internet to find the answers? Probing the internet is not the whole answer – but it is the learning tool of the future and examiners should be aware of this.

We are opening up a new digital world at an incredible pace. Perhaps we need to look into the future and simply abandon some of the old fashioned methods of examining children.

Relaxing before the Eleven Plus

I grew up in Zimbabwe. I went on a school trip when I was fourteen to Botswana. The school children traveled on the back of an open five ton lorry. Teachers traveled in land rovers and the cook, possibly the most important person on the whole trip, was driven in his smaller high sided lorry.

We could opt for different interests. Some boys selected ornithology, other the fauna and flora – and I wanted to look at ethnology. (The study of people and practices.) Botswana was, as is, the home to bushmen and women.

Camping out under the stars was a magical experience. We were camped on the side of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. Great flocks of flamingoes flew over the pans in the evening looking for resting places and food. The remarkably ugly wildebeest came in hundreds to drink near us.

I was kindly taken to meet a family of bushmen. They were a fascinating experience – these proud little people with their bulging stomachs and buttocks. The term `steatopygia’ is used to describe the accumulation of fat on the buttocks. Quite simply the bush people eat an incredible amount of food in a very short time. They have no fridges to keep meat cool!

The head man kept looking at my trainers. Through a translator it seems that he coveted them! I exchanged my trainers for his mbira. This is a musical instrument with a range of tuned metal strips. The strips are wound onto a wooden base and the music is made inside a gourd.

To play the mbira you pluck the strips of metal with your thumbs. I brought my mbira with me when we moved to England. There are good examples of the mbira in the Horniman Museum in South London.

The songs that are played and sung are about everyday events. There are songs about the need for food and shelter. There are prayers for safekeeping. Some songs are to do with ceremonies and other to do with birth and death.

So if our eleven plus children were encouraged to learn to play a musical instrument – to help them to express themselves – I wonder what they would choose.

I assume that a few boys, and possibly some girls, would select the big kettle drums to make as much noise as possible.

Others may select little flutes or even piccolos.

I am sure at least one person would want to push a large grand piano into the hall.

So picture the scene. There are ten minutes to the examination. Every child would be playing an instrument – and the children would be working on relieving tension and feeling creative.

The noise would be so disjointed that it would become harmonious. The eleven plus children would laugh and smile with pleasure. They would feel part of a large community. The examination would start with the children feeling happy and relaxed.

Oh, by the way, if any one can think of a better way of relaxing the children please let me know.

Eleven Plus Exercises

We do explain in detail to children why sport is good from them while they are studying for Eleven Plus examinations. We know that a sumo wrestler needs a very different of body shape to a high board diver. The wrestler must be able to move very quickly, at times, in spite of his or her bulk. The diver needs a very different kind of couragealong with extraordinary agility and suppleness.

The wrestler would need to bulk up with special foods to help muscles grow strong. I believe to achieve this they also eat late in the day. Divers also need special food. I should imagine, however, that a deep sea diver eats very different food to a high board diver. I hope the deep sea diver eats lots fish. The high board diver would not see very many fish in the local swimming pool!

So while our children are writing their examinations, at the very least they need the muscles in their eyes, the big muscle of their brains and their ability to move their arms and hands.

As the examination progresses some children may find their necks becoming stiffer and stiffer. Other children may find the muscles in their abdomen in need of a little stretch. The spine is another key area that may become fatigued. Each vertebra can only make a slight movement because gross movement is prevented by hard ligaments.

So we now need to develop a set of eleven plus muscles:

Eleven Plus hands and fingers need loose and supple joints. A few daily shakes may do the trick.

The Eleven Plus eyes need to be able to read and digest information, words and ideas. The children could practice rolling their eyes, crossing them as well as opening and closing them very quickly.

Eleven Plus backs needs to be strong enough to be able to last through out a test. Rolling on the floor and doing sit ups may help.

So if we practice these exercises enough we will build muscle memory. Just think how off putting it will be to the other children in the examination if your specially trained child enters the examination room in a trance like state. Can’t you just see the hands and arms shaking, the eye balls swivelling and your child rolling along in a protective ball?

Hot Eleven Plus Topics

I was teaching this afternoon in a local leisure centre. I walked through the changing room and saw a people dryer. It is quite simple. You put a pound into the slot, walk in and hot air dries the whole body in no time at all. This relieves the necessity for having to cope with wet towels. It seems that there are a number of infra red lamps that warm the body as fans blow warm air.
This naturally brought to mind the advantages of developing a mobile eleven plus unit. This would be a large bus. The children would stand on an escalator holding onto straps set out the height of an average ten year old.

There would be a number of eleven plus zones. Your child would be able to select the zone appropriate to the eleven plus examination of their choice.

Bronze Zone (Three minutes)

Verbal and Non Verbal reasoning.

Silver Zone (Four and a half minutes)

Verbal and Non Verbal reasoning along with mathematics and English.
Gold Zone (Six minutes)

Verbal and Non Verbal reasoning along with mathematics and English.

Additional help with study methods.

Help with timing.

The bus would arrive in a central car park. Children would pass through the hot air. (We would leave out the need for infra red lamps.) Just three minutes of hot verbal and non verbal reasoning would be enough for most children. Your child would emerge feeling invigorated and pumped.

Just think. There would be no need for the whole family to be involved in working through eleven plus papers at home. You would save on tutors and other eleven plus aids. You would not need to worry about the quality and quantity as the hot air would be `Top Quality’.


Even if you are too late for this examination there may be a chance of having the `Eleven Plus Hot Air Blower’ ready for next year. (By the way children would need to remove their headphones and ipods before entering the blower. This would give you just three minutes to be able to load a good educational exercise onto the ipod. You can do a lot in three minutes!)

Eleven Plus Fitness

We all know the rewards that follow winning at golf. The days are long gone when a winner can rely on maintaining a high standard with out some regular weight training. We can see how increased strength supports the body’s ability to turn. A golfer, at times, needs to be able to hit the ball hard. A strong body allows increased speed at the end of the club. The ball goes further. So what are the advantages of doing some extra exercise?

• A better athletic posture.

• Increased reflexes and a more sympathetic feeling for the ball.

• Feeling good about your self.

• A body in better condition.

• An improved ability to concentrate.

So let us see if there could be any benefit in trying to help our eleven plus children to better at school and in examinations.

If our children are fitter we should find:

• They are able to concentrate for longer periods.

• They will be less likely to slump in a chair.

• They will feel better about themselves.

So how are we going to help our eleven plus children?

• Promote a variety of physical exercises.

• Try to help your child to be really good at least one physical activity.

• Encourage your child to watch winners in action.

P.S. We do a lot of our teaching in leisure centres. Without pushing it down anyone’s throat we are trying to show that some children learn better in the right environment. We are trying to promote the idea that children learn better in leisure centres. It is also fascinating to see how parents build a gym session or a swim into the time their child is attending a lesson. After all fit mums and dads are probably more likely to have fit children.

An Eleven Plus Chorus

Four years ago England beat Australia in the final of the Rugby World Cup.

The Australians, we understand, have been plotting revenge for the full four years.

Today’s rugby match has just finished with England beating Australia by just two points. It was a wonderful game.

The Australians have always been very proud of their heritage. They will be the only country in the world who would consider adopting a song about a worker making tea and stealing a sheep.

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?"

The swagman tried to evade the police and drowned himself in a lake. The swagman then became a ghost.

The Australians are great fighters and give stern pledges that they will never give up. In this game, as in the previous world cup, the Australians kept fighting to the end. Today the England team simply wanted to win and played to win. Two great teams – both with a never say die attitude.

We hope our children keep fighting too as the Eleven Plus examinations grow closer. We need to give our girls confidence to tackle mathematics papers. They must answer questions that they know how to answer. Our boys must just stop being `cool’ and get on with their work.

Here is verse one sung to the tune of Waltzing Mathilda:

Once a happy pupil tried to pass a big test,
Wanting to pass into grammar school.
And she sag as she watched and waited till her TV stopped,
“Who'll do papers with poor old me?”

I would be grateful for the chorus.

Many thanks…..

The Eleven Plus Journey

I started thinking today about final journeys. The eleven plus examinations are approaching One day parents – and their children - will be walking or driving to school for the all important test. What do you say on the way to a test?

Do you spend your time reminding your child of all the problem areas that have come up over the past months? (Don’t forget to read each question twice. Look for the key words.)

Are you determinedly cheerful and say: “Of course you will pass. You know you will pass.”

Do you complain if your poor child suddenly vomits over the upholstery of your brand new car?

Do you even mention the examination?

Do you avoid mentioning the examination?

However you and your loved one will feel on the day of the examination must be better than Marie Antoinette’s emotions on the day of her execution. I wonder if she stopped to look closely at the weave of the basket that was to receive her head after the guillotine had fallen.

We know that while Dick Turpin was sitting beside the gibbet waiting to be hung he chatted to his executioners and the crowd that had come to watch him die.

Someone else who springs to mind is poor Red Riding Hood. Imagine how she felt as the big bad wolf blasted hot smelly breath all over her. What went though her mind as the large teeth came closer and closer? Was she fearful? Did she meet her anticipated fate with some degree of equanimity?

So somehow you want your eleven plus child to walk into the examination feeling reasonably relaxed. You do want some degree of excitement and anticipation – but not too much! You certainly don’t want a feeling of dread and fear.

You will probably find that you will need much more calming down than your child. So give yourself a hearty breakfast – if you can. Take that last big box of chocolates out of the refrigerator and prepare to stuff yourself silly. Give that last hug. Turn your face aside and walk bravely away.

Eleven Plus Information

We need to start with some useful information you can pass on to your eleven plus child. You never know when your child may need to know this little piece of etiquette. It is to do with placing guests at a dinner party.

The guest of honour, if a man, is placed on the hostess’s right, if a woman on the host’s right. When there is no `guest of honour’ the senior man sits on the hostesses right and the senior married woman on the host’s right, the next senior on the left and so on – alternating men and women of course. Women take their seniority from their husbands – never seat husband and wife together.

We are indebted to Lady Enid Cumings for this information.

Now there may be some mums and dads today who would take issue with these nuggets of information. I wonder how some women would approach taking their seniority from their husbands!

What brought this to mind was that I wanted to ask someone whether they thought that garlic would be a useful addition to the eleven plus tool kit.

We know that garlic has been used in cooking and for medicine since the times of the ancient Egyptians. Even today some families use the remedy of honey and garlic mixed together for chest infections.

Now we all know that any medicinal benefit is lost by cooking. So we have to take the garlic raw. Naturally the breath will smell a little – but you get used to this. A trick that will make your children very happy is when you rub the soles their feet with garlic then you will eventually be able to smell garlic on their breath.

To convince children, however, of the benefit of taking garlic is to remind them that garlic has the ability to ward off vampires!

So now we know. If you invite your child’s teacher home for a meal you know where to seat the teacher. If you want your child to be popular at school make sure that you include some garlic in the lunch box – after all your loved one can spend break time rubbing the soles of the classmates with garlic! And finally, if you want your child to banish fearful thoughts at night, and keep the you know whats at bay, then wrap a piece of garlic into the pillow.

Eleven Plus Funk

It would be really wonderful if break dancing could be added to the eleven plus syllabus. Instead of rather boring eleven plus work we could be teaching children how to rap and to dance. This would be much healthier for our children – the poor mites would not have to sit in front of an eleven plus paper – they could be dancing and singing.

I am sure that it simply coincidence that a `rap’ has something to do with criminal facing terms in prison. I like to think of children rapping by singing, making up songs and indulging in social commentary. I can’t really see eleven plus children in today’s world being all that enamored of Frank Sinatra crooning away. I am sure our children would prefer something more funky. (Funkier?)

The whole Eleven Plus Event would be very easy to administer. The children would apply for an interview at the grammar school of their choice. They would go on stage in groups of ten. The eleven plus candidates would then dance and sing. A panel of judges would whittle the children down to three from each group of ten. This would give a thirty percent chance of a place! There would be some parents who would jump at odds like that!

To get down to the final one hundred and twenty children the ones who had `won their group’ would be called upon again for a further audition. (In some counties children are allowed to try verbal reasoning papers twice!)

The children would need to sing the first half of a song without accompaniment and then dance to the second half of the same tune.

Children would be marked on:

Deportment
Ability to smile under pressure
Remembering to thank the judges after the performance
Remembering the words
Remembering the dance routine
The amount of glitter.

Children would need to write their own rap words.

“I dig verbal but don’t like non
Better than education is sitting in the sun. (Pronounced son.)
Grammar School is the place for me
Swim like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”

Eleven Plus Tracking

I know this has to be taken from granted but some parents do seem to spend a lot of time in the car. So what happens if we can develop a special `Eleven Plus Sat Nav’ system?

This would take your child to school.

Drop child number two off.

Go to your normal morning endeavour – work, curtains, coffee, shopping, phone calls and general multitasking.

Lunch

More `busy’ events.

Collect child 2. Collect `Eleven Plus Child’.

Drop Eleven Plus child at lesson. Take Child 2 to lesson. (Different lesson, different place.)

Quick shop.

Collect Child 2. Collect Eleven Plus Child. Hear and respond to normal sibling rivalry. Ask about lesson. Offer kindness and support. Say it will be all right on the night.

Help homework. Help eleven plus work. Comment on both.

Prepare evening meal. Cope with three phone calls. (Two calls on your landline and a much better call on your mobile.

Pour food down children. Take the dog for a walk. Talk through homework. Do some too. Kiss them all good night – including the dog.

Settle down to your studies. Learn about pacifying crowds. Wish you had the same tools at your disposal. Hear that you can have that new car. Offer a little prayer.

Ask for a car with a built in Sat Nav.

The route would be: home, school, work, school, home, lesson, home – and `night out’. Average daily distance = 58 miles. Hear that petrol is going up by two pence a litre. Work out that this will cost more over a year. Offer a little prayer.

Thank You

I went to the park yesterday. At each of the entrances were the `forbidden signs’. In our park we are offered a picture of the `crime’ with a large red circle with a red line cutting the circle diagonally.

The second sign was `No Skateboarding’. A group of nine or ten twelve year olds arrived to walk through the park. Two were carrying skateboards. They gathered around the large board and discussed the signs in some detail. They thought that the no skating sign was a waste of time. They also did not like the `No Cycling’ sign. They reacted to the two signs about dogs with typical twelve year old forthrightness. The two skateboarders carried their boards into the park.

A boy of around four tried to push his bike through a gate in the park. He struggled to open the gate. My four year old grandson ran over and held the gate open. The bike rider did not acknowledge him. My grandson held the gate open for the mother who was holding a baby and a carry bag. She did not look down at the little body holding the gate open – yet she had seen the gate being held open for her own son.

The young sixteen year old behind the ice cream counter smiled and chatted to my grandson as he made his choice. She made an effort to be helpful – far beyond was required of her. We landed up with double headers – vanilla and strawberry. We ate them solemnly on the grass watching ants crawling around, rowers out on the water and large container ships drifting by.

I wonder how the little four year old with a bike was going to grow up. I wonder if he was going to be resentful of society. I wonder if his mother had ever said thank you for any thing in her life.

I wonder too at the pleasant ice cream seller and hope that nothing ever happens to dull her pleasure in serving others.

I am sure that your children turn to you and thank you at the end of a session. After all you would expect grammar school children to have good manners!

How to Remember in Examinations

One of the mums was chatting to me on Saturday. She came up with the familiar lines:

“He has a memory like an elephant!”

Now elephants live for around sixty years so elephants may have to remember the commands of many mahouts in their time. I suppose remembering to an elephant is a bit like going through school with a succession of teachers.

The elephant actually has the largest brain among all of us land mammals. Their communication skills are also advanced. An elephant can communicate by touch – but can also make contact with an elephant about five miles away. Humans would have to use a mobile phone to achieve the same effect!

Now I took a careful look at the rather handsome boy in question. In particular I looked at his ears. This is not some strange aberration – I looked at the boy’s ears because we all know that elephants use their ears to cool their brains. So I looked at the boy to see if his ears were flapping as I spoke.

Now we have all been taught that when an elephant lifts his trunk and flaps his ears it is time to move away. So now we are going to have to look closely at our eleven plus children,

If you see your child pulling his or her ears – and sniffing the air at the same time – don’t be too concerned. It may be no more than a sign that your child is thinking.

Just pause and think of the poor teachers in charge of the final eleven plus examinations. We know that the teachers will be walking quietly round the room keeping a careful check but this year the eyes of the teachers will be drawn to the ears of the children writing the examination.

So armed with this information parents can change their approach to their children. Parents will be able to stop their poor children working through eleven papers. Parents will no longer need to go to the expense of hiring tutors. The solution is much cheaper.

All parents have to do is to go to their local chemists and ask for the new `prescription free’ remembering cream. The box is easily recognisable. There is a picture of an elephant with little forget-me-nots resting in a crown on the head of the elephant.

As the whole family sit there in the evening watching TV, mum will be rubbing cream into one ear and dad will be rubbing the special eleven plus cream in the other ear. Mum and dad will be singing quietly in a sweet duet:

“Here is your `exam special’ memory cream.

So off now to sleep and have a good dream.

Rubbing your ears has helped brighten your brain,

And you can wash those exam papers straight down the drain.

How to be happy.

About three miles from our head quarters in Gravesend is an area called Springhead. We landed up developing out headquarters in an Industrial Park because of the number of cars visiting us on a Saturday morning. Parents drop their children off for lessons, collect them and also arrive for assessments and chats.

Some parents have to pass through the area called Springhead to arrive with us. We have noticed a strange phenomenon. The parents and the children always appear to arrive relaxed, calm and smiling. We think it is because the Springhead area was an important centre for a wild pagan religion based on the `Cult of Source’.

This cult is to do with healing and fertility – and all temples and shrines were usually situated near to a spring. As an extra tuition organisation we could not offer an opinion on fertility. This would not be up to us. We can wonder, however, about healing. Any cars have to pass close to around six Roman Celtic temples. At one time these temples would have been enclosed by walls.

It looks as if people visited the temples to try to find a cure.

So today I can reveal a world first. A planned trip to Springhead for all parents who feel they may need a cure for the dreaded disease of `Eleven Plus Itis’. The symptoms are when you look at your child with a sense of exasperation. You may, at times, feel exasperated and frustrated. How can a normal intelligent child suddenly become unable to want to sit down to yet another eleven plus paper? Your doctor will only be able to offer you pills and advice to seek counselling. Well we have a much better alternative. We have a three hour mediation session.

All parents will sit in a large circle and will hold hands. No words will be spoken because who wants to hear about anyone else’s problems. The wind will pass through the grass. Parents will be able to hear leaves falling from trees. The traffic on the nearby A2 will retreat to a faint dull roar. Pages of verbal and non verbal reasoning papers will be passed around.

The faces of parents would lose their lines. Their faces would be restored to `pre children’ levels. The sadness and the hurt would leave their hearts.
Parents would return to their families restored and confident to be able to take any problems that may lie ahead. Faith in humanity would be restored. Children would be loved once again. The words `I told you so’ would be forgotten. Love and happiness would rule.

We must surmise that the ancient Celts and Romans probably did not know too much about eleven plus examinations. If they had have had problems like those encountered by parents approaching the eleven plus it is highly likely that the Romans would have returned to Rome a whole lot earlier.

Eleven Plus Comprehension

One day all schools will be teaching text speak. This must come as schools and parents recognise that children should be allowed to learn useful tools for life.

We can see the advantages of children working through verbal and non verbal reasoning exercises. Our children must learn to concentrate and focus on a task. They must learn to work to specified time limits. The must also learn that preparing for a competitive examination requires hard work and dedication. So in all these areas eleven plus preparation is invaluable. We hope that there will be a positive carry over into other activities.

If our children become more confident then we will have achieved something that will be invaluable in later life.

Just because some adults think that they can not learn a new language then we should we deny our children the opportunity? Text speak is one learning activity that children will be able to relate to. They will be motivated to learn and will be delighted to do any home work that is set.

Once the children have mastered the basics we know that there will be new developments springing up. New dialects will emerge. The children of Manchester won’t want to be the same as the children of London.

Naturally the feel of eleven plus papers will change. Non verbal reasoning and mathematics will be affected to a lesser degree than English and verbal reasoning.

Take, for example, a comprehension passage from Treasure Island. Would Robert Louis Stevenson turn in his grave to see some of the passages translated? Take the section in Chapter 18 where the mutineers arrive:

4T paces farther we came 2 d edge of d W0 & saw d stockade n frnt of us. We struck d enclosure bout d midL of d south side, & almost @ d sAm tym, 7 mutineers--Job Anderson, d boatswain, @ thR head--appeared n full cry @ d southwestern corner.

dey paused az f takN aback, & b4 dey recovered, not onlE d squire & I, bt Hunter & Joyce frm d blok hows, had tym 2 fire. d 4 shots came n rather a scattering volley, bt dey did d Biz.

aftR reloading, we wlkD dwn d outside of d palisade 2 c 2 d faLn nME. He wz stOn dead--shot Thru d hart.

Do we ask the questions on the passage in a traditional form or do we use text speak? Exciting times lie ahead. Any changes like this could not be brought in without consultation. There is no time for this year’s examinations – but who knows for the future. There have been so many changes in education in recent months one more would simply fill another gap in the system.

Eleven Plus Connections

I remember reading about Scheherazade. The story goes that there was once a betrayed Sultan who vowed to cut off his wife’s head at dawn and take a new wife every day.

Scheherazade arrived after a large number of wives had met grisly deaths. She was very clever at telling stories. She was able to prolong the day of her execution for one hundred and one days. By which time the king had fallen in love with her and could not bear to be parted.

Naturally the story has been embellished over the years – and stretched to one thousand and one days – and three sons later.

Now many of us have around one hundred days left to the eleven plus examinations. There is a bit less time for those children writing in October and November.

So if any mothers want to preserve their sanity – and their heads – why not take a little time every day to tell their children a wonderfully exciting story. You could mould the story in the way the great soaps of today work – by leaving each episode in the form of a cliffhanger. As the tension towards the eleven plus examinations grows you will be able to make your stories and tales so exciting and stimulating that your children will hang on your every word.

This is important as families need strong connections as the examinations approach. You want your children to be able to turn to you and say: “Oh please, mum, please let me know what happened.” You will be able to smile mysteriously, draw your children into your arms, and tell them tales of how hard you used to work at school.

They will look at you in awe and whisper to each other about how hard you worked at school. They will be enthralled by your story telling. You won’t be `mum part of the furniture’ you will be `mum the magnificent’. What a lovely thought.

Two points of view

I recently heard the words: “It is like getting blood out of a stone,” used by a poor long suffering mother.

The words were referring to a quiet, rather inoffensive, ten year old who simply did not want to work on eleven plus papers every single day. Instead of negotiating days and times the ten year old had simply put his foot down and declined to do any work without a major battle.

I think the picture of a mother squeezing a large stone with both hands – and relieving her frustration at the same time is appealing.

The mental picture of blood letting is far less attractive. Back in the 19th Century patients used allow `doctors’ to use a device called a `scarificator’. This had blades that cut into a patient and allowed blood to be drawn off. The theory was that drawing blood from a person helped healing by relieving pressure.

A far easier way for a mother to relive pressure is to simply insist that she gets most of her own way. The words `have a go’ are used by some ten year olds to describe a mother’s earnest plea for her child to sit down and do some work.

“You are always having a go at me,” to a child is a robust defence of an untenable position.

So here we have two different points of view. On the one hand the mother feels that her child is being obstinate and unfeeling. The child, however, thinks that his mother is relentless in her attempts to try to get even a modicum of work done.

Compromise could be the answer – but then both sides have to give a little. To give up an entrenched position is very difficult. But drawing blood out of a stone is also difficult.

The New Seven Wonders of the Eleven Plus

The October 2007 National Geographic magazine arrived in the post this morning. This edition covers Biofuels, Latin America from the Sky, Infectious Animals and the Space Age at 50. As usual this is a wonderful collection of stimulating articles. The cover picture is of an ear of corn grown by a farmer who hopes he’ll get a higher price from an ethanol factory opening nearby.

By chance there is a `Special Promotion’ in the National Geographic covering the `New Seven Wonders of the World’. This is a contemporary attempt to create an alternative to the `Ancient Seven Wonders of the World’.

Chichen Itza – A pre-Columbian archaeological site
Christ the Redeemer – The statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janerio
The Great Wall of China
Petra – The carved stones in Jordan
The Taj Mahal
The Colosseum
Machu Picchu

So naturally we need to bring the Seven Wonders of the Eleven Plus child up to date too with a child who:

Tidies the bedroom without being reminded
Settles down to homework with complaining
Never wants or eats junk food
Avoids arguing with parents
Does not fight with siblings
Believes in Father Christmas
Says thank you after being told off.

This list is simply endless. There must be many runners up to the above list. Any thoughts?

The Wonder of Eleven Plus

I started thinking today about what information children might need in the eleven plus examinations. I suppose they may need to know some important facts:

Sound travels 1.6 km in 5 seconds.
1 litre of water weighs 1 kg.

Then I wondered if they needed to know about any currencies:

India uses the rupee
South Africa uses the rand.

Then we could look at languages:

Iranians speak Persian
The Welsh speak English and Cymric.

Naturally my thoughts went to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World:

Pyramids
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Tomb of Mausolus
The Temple of Diana
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Statue of Zeus
The Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria.

So then what are the seven wonders of the Eleven Plus examinations?

This year parents have far more access to free downloadable eleven plus papers.
The examinations are not supposed to test facts (So all the above information is relatively worthless.)
Parents are just as anxious now about the eleven plus as they were earlier in the year.
Some children will love doing examinations and others will hate every second.
Teachers will tell parents that their children are `doing fine’ and are `border line’.
Your children will come out of the examination and tell you that they did their best.
Regardless of results you will throw a really big `post eleven plus party’.

If you think of any other wonders please let me know.

Responsibility

We went to the beach today at Camber Sands. This is wonderful beach – very flat and very safe for young children. In addition to the beach there are large sand dunes – with lots of opportunities for games and playing.

Around three o’clock a blue land rover came trundling over the sands. A man climbed out and solemnly raised a red flag. The land rover then climbed between two sand dunes and disappeared.

There is a warning system on the beach with an orange flag to warn of an off shore wind – and then inflatables should not be used. A red flag warns of danger in swimming.

A group of four children were playing in the water with a yellow ball. It was hardly possible to see the red flag from where the children were. In any case I am sure that it did not enter their mind to look for a flag being raised as warning.

This is one of these situations where as an adult you don’t know if you should interfere or not. There were no adults within a twenty minute walk of the children. The tide was going out and the ledge was clearly deeper with occasional channels. I walked towards them through the surprisingly warm water.

Two men made their way across the sand towards the children and separated the two younger children but left the two older ones in the water. The men then started walking back to their group – taking the two younger ones with them. The red flag kept blowing in the wind.

Perhaps the men had local knowledge.

I would have liked to have done more but did not want to appear as an interfering busybody.

I wonder what you would have done?

The Final Eleven Plus Result

In olden days wax was used to seal a document. The phrase `seal of approval’ may well have been derived from these words.

Suppose children had to seal their work before submitting it to their teacher. We hope before they sealed the work they had:

Read over key points
Looked for `little’ mistakes
Completed or even guessed at any missed answers.

Each child would need to be issued with his or her own seal. The children would be able to design a seal using a drawing package on their PC or even having their pen and paper sketch scanned.

Naturally the children would need to get used to open flames and hot wax. The simple act of making hot wax could be more terrifying to some parents than the actual eleven plus examination. I suppose some parents would want to go on fire awareness courses. I bet, however, that the children would really enjoy themselves. But think of the benefits:

Children would need to think before they acted.

Children would need to think about others.

Children would need to take full responsibility for their actions.

Children would need to check and recheck.

Children would need to plan ahead.

I am sure there must be moments when parents must wish that their children would adopt at least three items from this rather abbreviated list.

Children, however, would probably argue that what they really would like from their parents is lots of approval.

Parents, however, would just wish for an eleven plus result: “Signed, sealed and delivered’.

Eleven Plus Focus - Blog 16/09/07

One of the problems that parents face as the eleven plus examination grow closer is how much they should expect their child to stay focused. Some children enjoy the working through papers. Though, these are usually the children who can do the work. For other children there can be no other torture as miserable sitting down to an eleven plus selection paper. Most children’s attitude to practice papers lies somewhere in between.

Some families find eleven plus examinations very hard work. I met a ten year girl last week who really wanted to be a dancer. She was used to going to dance classes five times a week. She moved beautifully and stood straight and proud. Her long hair fell to her waist. Every thing she did was a prelude to a career in dancing. Her mother spent a lot of time in the car and a lot of time simply waiting for the dance lessons to finish.

Her mum thinks she will pass, her school thinks she will pass and we think she should pass. She will sit down to her examinations having done very few papers and extra exercises. The only thing that could hold her up is that she is rather a slow reader. She reads `word by word’.

We all know that sometimes it is possible to get the gist of a question by speed reading and finding the main points. Our word by word reader does not appear to skim over any written material – she reads solidly and steadily. In her English examination there is a comprehension passage. This will be a straight forward passage – but there will be a lot of words she will need to plough through. We all know just how fast children need to move when they a tackling a verbal reasoning paper.

I am sure that no one would want, at this stage, to put any fear into her preparation. Equally it will be no good what so ever to advise her speed up without helping her to speed up. So we could start with advising her to look for key words. In the comprehension passage she could underline the key words. When she is working on verbal reasoning she must look for the words that could alter the interpretation of a question. I am sure we can all make a number of helpful suggestions.

So maybe one day, one of us will meet her as she is dancing on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. I hope we hear that she went on to do a degree in dance. I hope too that she will be able to chat about the books she has read and enjoyed. Most of all we just hope to hear that she is happy.

(BT Changed where we post our blogs on the BT server. BT did not tell us before they moved our work. The blog 16/09/07 was written but I could not post the blog.)

Eleven Plus Progress - Blog 14/09/07

Parents seem to want their children to be happy and contented at school. But parents also have other agendas.

When they are told about their child’s marks at school they naturally give praise where it is due. They then want to know how well their child had done compared to other children in the class. If their loved one has done better than a child acknowledged by all to be a leader then they, the mums and dads, are happy. If their poor child has to admit that they were beaten by another child in the class then the great inquisition begins.

So how can a parent assess progress?

1. Play ground chatting. This is a very powerful tool used by parents to disseminate information. Here a parent learns about life in the classroom, the school and the world in general.

2. Your child’s peers. This is possibly the most reliable method of finding out how well you child has done. Here you will hear about time spent in at break time. You will know who talks the most and who the class favourite is.

3. Casual Chats – these are incidental chats to your child’s class teacher. You approach the teacher smiling and happy with the school, your child and life in general. You get pleasant, relaxed – but rather hurried feedback.

4. Open Evening – this is the one time when a parent must not pick a fight. An open evening is to hear what your teacher has to say about your child. You listen respectfully – after all this is the professional in charge of your child. You arrange for any `loud discussions’ on any occasions when it is unlikely that any other parent can hear the conversation or dialogue.

5. The head teacher – this is where you write down what you want to say on a piece of paper. After all just being near a head teacher brings all sorts of emotions to the fore. Listen carefully, maintain eye contact, leave respectfully and offer a little prayer of thanks.

By the way – your child may also have some views on progress!

(I could not post this blog on the 14th because BT changed the root path of our blog - and did not inform us until after the event.)

Eleven Plus Copyright - blog of 13/09/07

Any text or graphic material is usually copyrighted for 70 years from the death of the originator or copyright owner. In simple terms this means that any thing produced for the eleven plus market today will be copyrighted until the year 2079. If we have really young author entering the eleven plus market, and he or she died in sixty years time, then I presume that the material would only go into public domain in many years time (This would make a good Eleven Plus question. If you do work out the answer, please let me know.)

You can’t fall foul of copyright material if a person paraphrases someone’s work. The work then is not copyright as it is the words that constitute the copyright – not the thoughts behind the word.

So you can make up Eleven Plus questions for your child – but you can not copy an Eleven Plus paper belonging to someone else. The usual consequence for infringing copyright is damages and/or a criminal conviction.

We disposed of our photocopy machine some eleven years ago. This has not only saved a lot of money – but has meant that there is no way that we, as an organisation, can be pulled up for a copyright offence.

Think too of the all the paper we have saved!

(This is the blog of 13/09/07 when BT changed the pointer to our blog - but did not tell us. BT hosts our blog.)

Lap Tops and the Eleven Plus

One of the worst parts of the whole eleven plus experience is the dreaded wait for results. The family as whole waits because the family does not know if they are going to have to move house to live closer to the school. Mums and dads wait because they simply want the best possible education for children. Grandparents wait because they know anyway that they have the most intelligent grand children in the whole world.

We could speed up the whole eleven plus process if every child did their test on a lap top – and the results could then be sent back to the Central Processing Unit (CPU) for marking, grading and normalisation.

If the tests are to be taken on lap tops then the children have to practice on laptops. (This is all to do with familiarity with the key board.)

Every parent is therefore ADVISED to buy a lap top for their child. So parents have to start looking at lap tops. I suppose a family can consider buying a lap top for less than four hundred pounds. (The sub £399 LAPTOP.) But most families will no doubt be looking at the sub £699 LAPTOP. Why? It costs more and does more. You get what you pay for.

You need to buy a lap top with a sound design. The screen has to be strong enough to be able to deliver good viewing with clear brightness, evenness of tone (whatever than means) and no dead pixels.

Battery life is also important – it is no good using a lap top where the battery collapses after thirty minutes.

If your child will only use the lap top for school work then you do not need to spend money on `gaming capability’. (These buzz words just fly off the tongue!)

After all what you really want is a basic machine that is built to handle standard tasks. Naturally your child will grow out of the machine one day – but they are as likely to grow out of the two thousand pound machine as well.

Of Vans, Lorries and Mums.

I went round the M25 to Reading today. This is a round trip of about 160 miles from Gravesend. This meant a few hours of listening to the radio and watching huge lorries thunder past. The little vans are always the most entertaining. It seems that a number of little van drivers talk on the phone. The vans also dart from lane to lane like swooping swallows.

The outside lane appears to be characterised by the shiny cars. These cars are either big and shiny or little and shiny. Middle sized cars seem to drive in the middle lane.

We know of a mother who drives her daughter thirteen miles to school. She then drives home. At the end of school she drives another thirteen miles and then another thirteen miles back.

We then need to add normal `mum type’ trips – grocery shopping, coping with the other children in the family and even having a little time to do something for herself.

So if any one needs to know about how to sort out or road system I can think of one person who should be on the think tank. (I know that she has to drive an extra twelve miles for a `lesson’ round trip. I know this because I asked.)

So the next time you see a car driven by a woman looking calm, resigned and relaxed spare a thought for our mum. It is quite extraordinary what parents will put themselves through to educate their children

Checking Up on Dates

We host our blog on a BT Server. When I could not post my blog on the 12th – because of an error message from Google I naturally contacted BT. Chris, a very learned man explained to me in simple terms:

BT changed servers. As I said, the new root folder for the website is 'public' (instead of 'docs'), so you'll want to publish your blog to '/public/blog'.

This was an easy change to make, I understand, but our super IT guru was working in Madrid for six days.

BT had simply forgotten to warn its customers of the proposed change – otherwise we could have made the change earlier.

I solemnly kept writing the blog on a daily basis as the blog now has over 400 entries. I will try to load all the missing blogs over the next few days.

I am sure that you telephoned the church a few days before you were married – just to make sure. You will also have checked with the catering company that all was still `well’ with the food. You may even have checked on your minister – if you had any suspicion about his ability to live a pure and blame free life.

In just the same way you need to take your `Eleven Plus Dates’ letter out of your filing cupboard and check on the dates and times. Check with the school office if you still have any concerns.

I am pretty sure that you were able to change the order of the Church or Registry Office service. You will not have the same opportunity with the eleven plus examinations. The only way that you could effect a change is to move. (A rather drastic step?)

I wish now that I had had the forethought to know that BT would move all its customers to a new server. But imagine how sad I would have been if I had been unable to enter my child for the eleven plus examinations because I had not received a letter telling when and where the examination takes place.

Boosting Eleven Plus Memory

One of the first things we look at when we buy a new computer is the size of the memory.

We see the words:

Memory

2.0GB 667MHz Non-ECC DDR2 SDRAM (2*1,024MB DIMM) Memory

We then think to ourselves …. “Would it not be better to have a little more memory?

Memory

4GB DDR2 667 Quad Channel FBD Memory (4x1GB) with riser

Now comes the crunch. Is a Quad Channel FDB better than a Non-ECC DDR2 SDRAM?

The fact that one has 2.0GB and the other 4GB might seem to make a difference but I have no idea just how much. I just know that my memory is no longer either 2GB or 4GB.

So would it not be very useful to be able to simply buy a bit more memory for our Eleven Plus children? We would even buy the memory with elements of it pre-configured. Not sure of Long Division? Easy just buy the two or the four L.D. module. (The basic module is the 2.GB Long Division (LD) module but if you want short division then you simply purchase the L.D. 4.)

Then we come to the problem of where we are going to put the memory. We could book into one of the memory stores in one of the national chains. There your child would be taken into the new and smartly equipped “Memory Diagnostic Chamber”.

The technician would decide between an implant or an add on. Implants look rather like tattoos. The little memory chips are pressed just below the surface of the skin. We are assured it does not hurt very much. The other method adding memory is the add on. This could be in the form of a watch or a head band or even woven into the very clothes your child would be wearing on the day of the examination. (It would be terrible if your child spilt food onto the shirt on the morning of the examination and you had to insist on a changed shirt.)

A major problem then looms whatever method is adopted. The memory will no doubt need battery power. Batteries are not easily degradable. So here is your dilemma. Do you purchase extra memory to ensure that your child has the best possible chance of passing the eleven plus examination – or do you surrender to your green side and just hope that your child will do as well as possible?

Eleven Plus Motivation

Teachers and parents are continually faced with the challenge of how to motive their children. Sometimes a highly bright and able child will appear to have genuine difficulty in remembering facts – but will immediately be able to commit equally difficult facts about something of real interest.

We know that we are all supposed to demonstrate primary motivation – that is the motivation for hunger and thirst and so on. So, for example, if we are hungry we have the ability to learn very quickly how to do something. But the problem is that as a child gets older and more sophisticated is it more difficult to work out what is driving the motivation.

If your child sits down to do a difficult exercise because he or she wants to please you and earn even more security and love then this is very different motivation to completing an Eleven Plus exercise for the reward of a trip to the cinema.

We hope that some children will want to do well because of affection for their teacher or tutor. Other children will be driven by a need for the heady feeling of success.

But there is always that unknown factor when we are dealing with some children – that is that sort of counter motivation – where the child just does not appear to reach his or her potential. However hard a teacher or parent will try, the child will appear to put up a barrier. In spite of this some parents will attempt to run their whole Eleven Plus adventure with full praise and lots of affection.

The phrase the `headless chicken’ comes to mind. In the case of chicken the nerves will keep the body going long after the head has been chopped off. With some children and adults there could be symptoms of being disorganised and ineffective. At a low level this could manifest itself by simply delaying any attempt to start work. Further down the scale the child may attempt to pick a fight or argue about something both inconsequential and with limited relevance.

Learning Definitions

One way that parents can help their children by revising mathematics is by asking questions. Of course it does help if you know the answer too!

1. What is used instead of numbers in an equation?

2. What does S.F. stand for? What is a significant figure?

3. When is it easier to write a number in standard form instead of writing it out in full?

4. What is the highest common factor and how would you work this out?

5. What is the radius of a circle? How can you find this if you were given the diameter of the circle?

6. What must you do to both numbers first if you want to divide a number by a decimal?

You then need to supply the answers as soon as possible.

1) Letters are used instead of numbers.

2) It stands for significant figures. A significant figure is a digit that is not a zero, or it is a zero that follows a number that is not a zero.

3) Is it easier to write very big numbers and very small numbers in standard form instead of writing it out in full.

4) The highest common factor of two numbers is the biggest number that can be multiplied to give those two numbers. Two work this out, we write down all the factors for the two given numbers and pick out the biggest number that is present in both lists.

5) The radius of a circle is the length of a straight line that goes from the centre of a circle to the circle’s edge. A circle’s diameter is the length of a straight line that goes from the circle’s edge, through the centre of the circle and to the other side. So, we can halve the diameter to find the radius.

6) You must move the decimal points of both numbers by the same number of places until the dividing number becomes a whole number.

We all know the saying: “Little and often!”

Good luck!

Olympic Objectives and the Eleven Plus

I thought that it was important to set our Olympic Objectives for 2012.

1. We need to support local athletes with the potential to perform at 2012. Now this is going to be a bit difficult for most of out eleven plus children this year. There is not a long history of youngsters who have done well in Olympic events – but there are some. Swimmers and gymnasts spring to mind. I can not recall any weightlifters or pole vaulters. Having written that I am sure I will be corrected.

2. We need to make sure that our eleven plus children have access to as many sports as possible. After all if we can develop mass participation then this could serve as a catalyst for some stars to emerge. Some parents will find it difficult to fund developing a horse for the Olympics – but could perhaps manage a table tennis bat.

3. We need our children to have the best possible athletic coaches inside and outside of school. This should be a major priority. After all if there is talent we want to be able to develop it as best we can.

4. When we won the Olympic Games our children were given a great opportunity to be able to become more active. Perhaps more members of the family will become involved in a regular sport or leisure activity.

So how will this affect our children?

Some will be writing their GCSE examinations by 2012. Other may already have passed a few GCSE examinations. The Olympics will give the children a great opportunity to see that to reach the top you need to work very hard.

For those few short weeks the children will be drawn into a different world. They will see athletes who have been given every opportunity to do well with support from governments and huge fund raising activities. They will also see athletes who have had to most of the work on their own – with little funding. Of course there will be stories of athletes winning medals from small communities and impoverished facilities. Good luck to them too!

Just as we wish the athletes the best possible coaches we wish for our children to have the best possible teachers and schools. I relish the stories of children who pass the eleven plus when only four out of sixty children are successful. This is real triumph over adversity. We hope too that all our children have focused and effective eleven plus preparation.

We know too that at times the whole family will be united in anticipation and excitement as certain events take place. There will be a few seconds when the bonds of the family will be strong and binding. This must be very similar to same bonds that families feel when they hear the results of successful eleven plus examination. Good luck to all concerned.

Listening to Mother

Mothers keep giving advice to their sons. After all mothers are expert at marital advice. I do realise that it may appear be a little early to start talking to your ten year son about marriage but this is a topic that will surely come up over the years to come. Boys who are just entering Year 6 probably do not have thoughts turning to good jobs, mortgages and marriage.

I remember reading that a man should always look at the prospective mother in law’s ankles. The theory is that if the ankles of the mother in law are `sturdy’ then it is likely that his slim and lissom wife to be will land up with rather thicker ankles. I am sure this is no more than a myth. Equally too, I have not made it my life’s work to study ankles over the years.

There is one topic that your boys could be reminded of. This is to choose a wife who has some degree of tolerance for an addiction. Warn your son that an addiction to computer games and the internet does count as a potential problem area in a marriage.

A Chinese housewife He Ling solved the problem of her husband’s addiction. She was tired of his being on the computer all the time. He did not pay enough attention to her. He simply stared into the screen for long periods. (I wonder if he made something similar to the rather unmelodic `grunts’ that some ten year olds give when they are too busy to give a reasoned answer?)

Mrs Ling simply chopped his arm off as he sat staring at his computer. Mr Ming told a local newspaper that he had felt a sharp blow, felt lots of pain, and saw pools of blood on his mouse mat.

You will note that I have been very careful not to advocate violence of any kind to any boy. I should also make a point that mothers of brides and grooms should be steadfast in banning sharp implements as wedding presents – when the time comes. I would hate too for any eleven plus child to have a bad dream and wake up in the night clutching his mouse hand to his chest.

It would not be a bad thing, however, if he woke up very occasionally at night muttering to himself: “I wish I had listened to my mother.”

Helping Your Child's School

Please spare a thought for all those mothers and house fathers who are slumped in their chairs (for all of three minutes0 wondering what on earth they are going to do with the rest of their lives.

Their last child has just entered formal school. Their day now stretches from around nine am to around three o’clock. What a potential force is about to be released! All that power and intellect! Every one of these men and women has so much to offer to society.

But the ripples go wider. What about the support family that are released from their obligations. These are the family and friends – the grandparents, the aunts and uncles. They know they will be called upon again in the holidays – but for the moment peace and quiet.

Many years ago the senior pupils in school acted as monitors. They would help the teacher with the administration and provide support to the children. Some of the monitors went on to become teachers – with or without external training.

Schools today still have monitors – who help with art table or act as prefects. I met a charming boy yesterday for the first time who had just been made a monitor. He took his responsibility sternly – and knew just what was expected of him. He was remarkably proud of his elevation to a position ore responsibility.

There is a clear path now for parents to act as classroom assistants – helping the teacher as best they can. Some parents go onto to become Learning Support Assistants. The LSA’s have tremendous responsibility within the classroom – and must save the sanity of many teachers.

So here is just a `little’ suggestion. If you have some time, and want to help your child, your child’s school and your child’s teacher why not become a volunteer? You would not be expected to work a full day from the start. You may enjoy the challenge. You will receive tremendous support from the school. You will become a member of a wonderful community. Teaching and helping children is enormously rewarding.

So don’t delay. Act today! You can only ask. After all if the school does not need you just at this moment you could always go back to being a doctor or a lawyer or whatever.

Post Eleven Plus First Day Back

Today my thoughts are very much with the parents of the children who will be starting a new school year.

We know of a number of our past eleven plus children who will be starting grammar school this week. They will be walking through the school gates – no doubt a little nervous – and excited. I wonder how many will think back to their teachers through from Reception to Year6. I am sure that some of those teachers will be saying a little prayer for them.

Some children will be taking lunch money as well as a packed lunch. Someone will emerge in the class as a natural leader and decree for or against packed lunches. Some children, on a day like this, may prefer comfort food rather than the healthy option.

If you think of your child wandering up and down unfamiliar corridors and stair cases – then surely they will be too busy for them to be able spare a thought for you. It is very likely that the next time they think of you is when the school day is over and they think of food. (We are back again on the comfort food versus healthy discussion.)

You will look at your child fondly as he or she enters your home. You will wonder just how that mark appeared on that brand new blazer.

You will ask about homework and friends.

You just hope for three or more sentences strung together in a coherent and willing manner.

You will enquire about food. You will ask what happened to the tasty snacks you stuffed into the lunch box. You brain will think again about food and tomorrow. The cycle is under way.

Good luck – and enjoy it while you can. The next few years will go very quickly. Far too quickly!

Selective Listening

I believe that around five million people in the United Kingdom have Tinnitus. This is a continual nose in the ear. There a number of causes of tinnitus but the problem are often related to the inner ear.

Tinnitus is a very useful tool for Grand Parents. When a grand child asks for something that the grand parent does not want to supply then the bar of tinnitus is applied.

“Excuse me, I did not hear that. Did you say that you were afraid of the dark? Oh I see. You said you would like to go to the park.”

Parents adopt a different version of not hearing demands and requests. Parents have the power to be able to apply the sanction of simply not hearing anything they do not wish to hear. Parents would not hear a demand for an upgrade on an ipod. Parents would not need to respond to a suggestion that their child should be able to eat just one more chocolate.

The third generation to have what is commonly called `Selective Listening’ is the eleven plus child. This is the child who will respond enthusiastically to a quietly whispered suggesting that it is time to open the presents. The term of a `Selective Listener’ is often applied to a child who can not hear a quietly spoken suggesting that it is time to settle down to work.

When we are doing verbal reasoning exercises we are often asked for opposites. While we know the opposite of Black is white – is more difficult to find the opposite to `Selective Listening’. The opposite of selective listening is certainly not `Attentive Listening’. You will need to let me know – please.

Anxiety and the Eleven Plus

Some children seem to be naturally cheerful. They seem to show a talent for making other people happy. Naturally this seems to make the child a little more interesting. As teachers or parents we are able to approach happy children more easily. These cheerful and happy children seem to be good children because they appear to be interested in others. We think that they must feel pressure as the eleven plus examinations approach – but we hope that they will simply ride the uncertainty and `breeze’ through the experience.

Some children, however, appear to be naturally rather timid and non-aggressive. These are the children who never want to harm anyone. They listen carefully to their teachers and parents and do their best to please. In the playground they will watch the games and activities and enjoy the pleasure and excitement that other children get from play time. They won’t join unless they are invited – and even then they would be more likely to offer a polite refusal. We need to get these children to talk about their feelings. We need these children to communicate.

Other children seem to be naturally anxious. They are fearful of making a mistake at school. They are worried that they are not pleasing their parents enough. The children are concerned that their friends will not like them. It is almost as if every new change of situation is accompanied by fear. It is not only manifested in fear of the dark and needing to sleep with a light on. As the eleven plus examinations grow closer we don’t want our children to feel even more anxious.

Parents, however, are not supposed to be good psychologists and good teachers all the time. They can simply do all they can to help their child to understand the relative importance of the eleven plus examinations. Not all children NEED to pass the examinations in order to be come good citizens and happy and successful adults. So if your child occasionally shows some timidity and anxiety all you can do is simply take it in your stride. Give backup and support – and hope it passes quickly.

Reporting on Progress

Many, if not nearly all, school teachers like their children to be neat and tidy in their work. I understand too that there are some school teachers who even enjoy writing school reports. I imagine too that there are some Head Teachers who like school reports because they kind of `tidy up’ the year. The hard working teacher writes a collection of school reports about the children in the class. The Head Teacher then reads the reports and adds a few words of encouragement. The reports go out. The year or the term is done.

Honour is satisfied. The school has done its job. In my function within Etc I get to read many school reports from many different teachers. I am always grateful to see how other professionals view their children. Teachers no longer appear to choose to write derogatory comments about their children. “Should have tried harder,” has been replaced with more conciliatory comments. I feel pretty sure that the words, “He will never make anything of himself,” no longer appear on school reports.

What do parents want from a report about their children? I suppose they want to keep informed about progress. They want to know if their child has been working hard. In the case of children attending extra lessons I should imagine that parents want to know if they have been spending their money wisely.

I suppose a parent wants to know if their child is neat and tidy in school work – but I doubt that being neat and tidy ranks very highly with most parents. I should imagine that most parents would like their child to be at least average or above. I doubt very much if most parents really want their children to be gifted. I am sure that many parents would want their child to demonstrate some degree of conformity. They would like their children to obtain good or reasonable marks on tests.

When we are preparing children for eleven plus examinations we spend a time – as the examination grows closer – by doing a range of practice questions. As parents and teachers we offer the children the type of questions that are likely to be asked. We also provide revision sessions where we go over ground already covered.

We like to think that all this effort helps the child to do as well as possible in the examinations.

But as teachers and educators we are mere mortals – we can only do the best we can. A report that a child is doing the best we think it can, may not satisfy some parents.

We are privileged to have a girl starting as a teaching assistant with us today who has just heard that she has ten A* GCSE grades. This is a rarely gifted person. I look forward to her chatting to a mother or father about the work she has done with their child. She must naturally be a role model for every child. I hope that she shows insight, warmth and interest. A smile and a word of approval from her must lift the hearts of every parent.