Eleven plus exams – the mental preparation before the work

*This article is part of the Eleven Plus Exams Series under Kids Mental Health where we talk about the mental aspect of preparing for the grammar school entrance exam and then the actual prep, which I will talk about in article two. I will update you accordingly when subsequent articles are published in the series.

*This article is based on the school system in the United Kingdom. Your school system may differ if you’re in Scotland, Northern Ireland or abroad. Please check the guidelines in your area.

I thought applying for a primary school place was tough until I was hit with the reality of preparing for my eldest’s eleven plus exams so he could get into a decent secondary school (in Year 7), which, by the way, we had to start thinking about in Year 5. This was news to me as I’d never been through the process before (I took my 11+ exams but that was a lifetime ago) and parents are surprisingly secretive when offering advice on the schools to apply for and eleven plus exams tuition required to help our kids pass these high-pressured 11 plus test papers.

We started worrying about the 11 plus entrance exams only seven months before (in February) the scheduled tests (in September) when we moved house and into a different area. The new area is great for state school options but not close enough for us to actually have a shot at getting in because there is a catchment area and that tends to be minuscule (up to one mile).

So grammar schools were an inevitable option. But it’s not as straightforward as selecting the grammar school and taking the grammar school test. There are lots of nuances to factor in like which subjects would your child have to take and are they mentally ready to ride the eleven plus journey?

So, this article will tackle all the things you need to think about BEFORE you embark upon the revision journey to preparing for the 11+ exams because the pre-prep is probably the most fundamental part of the process. Why? If your child doesn’t want to put in the work or understand why they need to do the work, then there’s no real point in taking the exams.

But, let’s start at the beginning.

I’ll take you through what we learned and still are learning, as well as the process we took up until registering for the 11+ exams (April of Year 5) after we got over the initial shock and the analysis paralysis. Then in the second article in this Eleven Plus Exams series, we’ll talk about how we did the actual prep for the exams (we’re working with EdPlace* to prepare you step-by-step for this part) and for the third and final article, we’ll talk about life after the eleven plus exams and the dreaded results. We’re not quite there yet as we’re still in May and we have done a full month and a half of revision so far. But once we’re there we’ll let you know the outcome.

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Have you only just started thinking about the eleven plus exams six months in advance? Welcome to the club!

Ok, don’t panic. It’s all still very doable. Like I said before, parents don’t tend to volunteer information until you ask and we asked too late. Thankfully, one or two parents were very generous with their advice and support (one even provided me with a spreadsheet!) and after I broke the news to my son that we’d have to write off all holidays until September, we got down to some hard work.

So, the first thing you need to do is find out which schools are available in your area.

What are your school options?

There are three different types of schools (which are further broken down into specialist schools, for example, religious or faith schools and special needs schools to name just a few!). The main three types of schools are state free schools, grammar schools (which are also free schools but with added entry requirements) and private or independent schools.

State free schools

State free schools receive funding through their local authority or directly from the government. The most common schools are:

Community schools

These are local authority maintained schools that are not influenced by business or religious groups and follow the national curriculum.

Foundation schools and voluntary schools

These are funded by the local authority but have more freedom to change the way they do things. They can sometimes be supported by representatives from religious groups.

Academies and free schools

These schools are run by not-for-profit academy trusts and are independent of the local authority. They have more freedom to change how they run things and can follow a different curriculum.

Grammar schools

These are run by the local authority, a foundation body or an academy trust and select their pupils based on academic ability via a test. Selective schools weed out the cream of the crop so they’re highly competitive and tough to get in. We will be focussing on grammar schools in this article.

Private/independent schools

These schools charge fees to attend instead of being funded by the government. Pupils do not have to follow the national curriculum but all private schools must be registered by the government and are inspected regularly.

You will need to decide which type of school you’d want your child to attend. A lot of time should be spent on this part of the process because you’ll want to make sure your child has a positive experience at a secondary school that suits their personality and academic ability.

Do you think your child would fare better by going to a state school where they don’t have the added pressure of passing exams first? Or can you afford and are willing to pay money for private school education? We have decided to try the grammar school route and prepare our eldest for the 11+ exams, so this is where we will be digging into it in more detail.

First things first.

Open Excel and crack open a new spreadsheet because we’re going to fill this bad boy up with some personalised school information!

Find out which school is available first

As I don’t know which area you’re in, I’ll list the route I took to find the local schools in our area.

The first thing we did was find out which schools were nearest to us and we found this information via Hertfordshire County Council here.

The process may be different for you but we needed to enter our address, select that we’re looking for secondary transfer in 2022 (or whichever year your child will be in Year 7 from September that year) and the website will then list off the priority schools and ten schools that are closest to your home address.

We started off with the schools that were within five miles away, but if you’re applying for the 11+ it’s worth looking a bit beyond that, say up to seven miles.

Make a list of the schools then do some research on them. Our spreadsheet’s headings (which we borrowed from a friend whose child applied last year) looked something like this:

School

Location

Distance in m (all within 5 miles)

Private/State

Sex

Ofsted rating

Ofsted year

Reason for rejection

Entry criteria

Entrance exams

No. of places / filled

Progress 8 Score Well below average (14%) Below average (19%) Average (37%) Above average (17%) Well above average (14%)

Number at prior attainment levels L/M/H/missing

Progress 8 by Key Stage 2 attainment: Low/Medium/High

Progress 8 by sex: Boys/Girls

GCSE Results (grade 5+Maths&English(51.4%)/grade 5+Ebacc(24%))

Open Day 2021

Travel info

Teaching vacancies

Absence (overall:persistent)

Free school meals

School Day

Then go through the list of schools and try to find out their Ofsted rating (although Ofsted ratings are now rarely accurate as some of them have been completed a long time ago). There is a great website which we used called Herts Live which contained all the live ratings, but nothing beats actually going to the school and getting a feel for yourself.

Every parent and child will have different experiences, so you can’t fully go on what you see online. Google the name of the school and ‘reviews’ and read some of the latest reports from parents whose children currently attend that school, then fill out the spreadsheet accordingly.

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In the Hertfordshire area (and I’m pretty sure everywhere else in the UK) you can only select four schools when applying in September. Make sure you put down some backup free schools which don’t require an entry test, so if your child doesn’t do as well as expected, they have options available to them. Schools are oversubscribed and highly competitive so make sure you apply for a balance of schools.

Some schools have their own admissions and are independent of the local authority’s application process, so make sure you know when and where you need to apply.

Questions to ask when researching schools are:

• Does your child want to go to a single-sex school or a mixed school? Are both options available?
• Is your child mentally capable to prepare and pass the eleven plus exams?
• What is the school’s SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinators) department like?
• What is the support process of the school like?
• What extra-curricular activities does the school offer, for example, what types of sports and music opportunities do they provide and does your child have an interest in these subjects?

Speak to your child about the school and see how they feel. As I said, there’s no substitution for going to the school and having a feel of the place. Make sure if open days are available, that you book the open day so you can take a look yourself. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, a lot of open days have been virtual, but you can get around this by parking by the school during drop off and pick up and checking out how the children enter and exit the school. Are they happy? Are staff around and engaging with children?

So what exactly is the 11+ exam?

The 11+ is a test taken by Year 6 primary school pupils in the UK to be in with a chance to be selected for Year 7 secondary transfer to grammar schools. Wales and Scotland no longer have grammar schools, so it’s worth checking in your area to find out your options.

Where are the eleven plus exams?

If your child goes to a local authority primary school they will sit the 11+ in one of their classrooms, otherwise, they will take the test in a central location like a grammar school.

When do you register for the eleven plus exams?

You need to register for the exams quite early, which tends to be in April when the child is in Year 5. Again, check with your local county council on the process to apply for 11+ as this differs from region to region.

When are the eleven plus exams?

Depending on your location, the eleven plus exams start at the beginning of September when your child is in Year 6 so the earlier you start the preparation the less apprehensive your child will be and the more chance they will have to pass their entrance tests. Look out for 11+ practice days where your child can practice the tests at school.

What tests does your child need to take in the 11+?

The 11+ can contain four disciplines, these are:

Verbal reasoning

These are questions where the child solves problems and follows sequences via word and text. Verbal reasoning tests your child’s grammar and vocabulary in English.

Non-verbal reasoning

Your child will be given question problems to do with diagrams and pictures. There’s also an element of maths involved.

Maths

Your child will be tested on mental maths, maths concepts, various maths skills and problem-solving in multiple stages.

English

Your child will be tested on their creative writing skills, as they have to plan, structure and write a piece of work.

Verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and maths tend to be in the Multiple Choice format and English tends to be written or Standard Answer format. Answers are recorded on a special answer paper with a grid format for the child to mark their chosen answers.

But it’s not as simple as practising for a particular discipline. There are different exam boards too; GL and CEM, so make sure you pick the right type of exam board assessment as they differ from each other. You can find the information you need on the school’s website, most likely under ‘admissions’.

What other assessments are available?

Some secondary schools offer children the chance to register via the Music Aptitude Test and Sports Aptitude Test. Two of the schools we are applying for are part of the SW Herts Consortium and offer the Musical Aptitude Test alongside the Academic Tests. One of the schools offers children to take the Sports Aptitude Test so we’re going for all three as my son is quite sporty and plays the piano. It just gives us an extra chance at getting into one of those schools.

Make sure you do your research and find out whether the school you offer has other ways of getting in as there are a number of hurdles that the child has to jump through before they can get in via the tests, and places tend to be offered first to:

• A child who is in the care of a local authority, being provided accommodation by a local authority for social services reasons or those who are adopted or have a special guardianship order. Also includes children in public care.
• Children within the catchment area based on a straight line distance measurement provided by the County Council’s computerised mapping system.
• Children whose siblings attend the school
• Children with parents who work at the school
• Children with medical reasons as to why they need to attend the school
• Then 25% of places (and this could vary with the school you’re applying for) are allocated to those who pass the academic tests.
• 10% (may vary for your school) is allocated to those who take the music test and for the schools offering the test, the sports test as well.
• The remaining places will be allocated on proximity of the home address to the school

So, as you can see, it’s slim pickings out there! By the time you get to the academic tests you only have a 25% chance of getting into the school if you don’t live within the catchment area, so think carefully about whether you want to go down that route and your child is up to the task.

Is it a good idea to prepare kids for an 11 plus exam a few years early so that they dont have to cram it in and stress out completely during exam period?

Yes, absolutely. It is recommended you should start your child in Year 3 but not treat it like they’re preparing for the 11+ but more as if they’re doing ‘detective work’ as EdPlace*, an online platform that prepares children from Year 3, advises. Preparing your child with a few worksheets a day encourages them to think outside of the box and prepares their minds for the 11+ without them realising it. Check out Edplace’s eleven plus Advice Hub here* for more information on how to prepare for the 11+.

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Will eleven plus exams go ahead during the pandemic?

There may be a chance the 11 plus papers will be sat virtually, so it’s important to stay updated via the school’s website or if you’re applying as part of a consortium, to regularly check the consortium’s website for updates. So far, we have not received word that the 11+ exams will be virtual yet.

Time to mentally prepare your child for the 11+

So, we’ve done our research, we’ve selected the schools with the best chances of getting in and we’ve filled out our spreadsheet with all the information we need. Now the process begins for preparing for the 11+. But before you bring out your 11 plus past papers (more on those in Article 2), you need to mentally prepare your child first.

How do we do this?

Buy a wallplanner

You could buy a large wall planner and write in all the necessary registration, test and score results dates. We bought ours from Etsy for less than £20 and added all the dates in so our son knows exactly what to expect.

Sit down with your child and level with them

It’s important that your child understands why they are taking the eleven plus. By now you should have explained how the 11+ journey works but if you haven’t and you have a study-phobic child like me then this is how I approached it:

• Start with explaining the reason for going to a good school, i.e. more opportunities to succeed, make great friends, the world is their oyster etc, whatever works for your child. Find out what interests them about school and conversely what their fears are and reassure them that applying for a good school will help get the best out of them.
• Explain the level of work required but don’t scare them. If your child has a tutor then work with their tutor to devise a revision plan that’s evened out through the time left until exams. For example, we do one test for Verbal Reasoning, English and Maths every day, plus piano practice and music training. Then on the weekend, hubby takes over and does the sports test. Kids still have to go to school and attend their extracurricular activities, so bombarding them with extra work is counteractive and will push them away.
• If you have less than six months left like us then you will have to write off holidays and weekends. But, promise a payoff at the end like a massive reward. I’ve told Aron that we’ll be doing something pretty amazing during October half term week. I haven’t told him what yet as we don’t know whether we’ll be ok to travel by then. But it’s worth putting that goal down, asking them what they want and continuously remind them how long they have left until they can relax and enjoy their reward.

Devise the revision plan with your child

You’ve found out what exams you’ll need to take (for us it’s GL assessment for Maths, Verbal Reasoning (and if he passes) English, as well as the Music Aptitude Test and Sports Aptitude Test). Now it’s time to show your child the subjects and how much they’ll be doing every day. Try to keep it to one to two hours max every day so as not to overload them, then ask them how they’d like to tackle the extra work.

Are they morning people and would prefer to start before school or would they like to do it after school so the rest of the day is free for playtime? My son prefers to work at night so I give him an hour break after school then we start around 4.30 pm and finish by dinner. Then he’s free to do whatever he wishes after to rejuvenate.

Stay positive and refrain from pushing

It’s very easy to push your child to do the work but if they aren’t interested you’ll be talking to a brick wall. Stay positive and offer mini rewards. I offer a pizza takeaway if they’ve done a certain amount of work during the week and screen time for around an hour after the work is done every day. It’s all about achieving a healthy balance between working hard and playing hard. Kids get tired and when they’re tired they lose their mojo. That is one thing you do not want to do because then they’ll give up completely and it’s very difficult to get them back.

There will be days where you won’t be able to get them to do anything

As long as it’s not every day, let it go. They can’t work if they’re really not feeling it anyway so bringing in the extra stress will just make everything worse. Either add the extra work the next day if they’re willing or just leave it and start the day afresh tomorrow. My son suffers from hay fever and he had one particular day where he couldn’t get of bed. I gave him a mental health day off where he just lounged about and did absolutely nothing. But during that day I reiterated the importance of getting back on it and not losing that momentum.

Always remind them what they’re doing it for, i.e. better school life, more opportunities, extra resources to do the things they love and if they truly understand why they’ll do the work. They’re only 10/11 years old, so they’re still very much children. They won’t have the work ethic instilled in them like some adults too. Some kids do and you’re lucky but if your child just wants to play football, draw all day and listen to music then make sure a large amount of that day is attributed to doing what they love and only a couple of hours a day to intensive focussed work. That’s all you can really do without pushing them over the edge.

Every child is different

We are still very much in the beginning stages of revision but so far my work-shy creative, sporty son has only had a few off days since we started in February. I know he least likes maths and his vocabulary and verbal reasoning are really coming on in strides, so we start with maths when he has the most energy and ends with verbal reasoning and English. We will talk about the revision process we take in the second article, but the point here is to get to know your child and how they study.

Do they get distracted easily and lose focus quickly? Can they work through the noise? We’ve just moved house so we haven’t bought him a desk for his room yet or even a dining table. This means we have to work in the kitchen until we’ve sorted ourselves out and the kitchen is the loudest part of the house. He also needs one-to-one support so he prefers I sit and work with him while he goes through the questions.

We are slowly trying to transition with him to work on his own because I have another child and baby to look after so it’s not practical. But whatever it takes to get your child into the swing of things at the beginning, do it, even if it’s a sacrifice to you. Once they gain confidence, they’ll learn that work needs to be done before they can relax and soon enough they’ll be doing it by themselves. My son does do some of the work on his own but he still needs hand-holding during maths. That’s fine, we only have four months left. Whatever gets us there!

Confidence is key

They say praise is a double-edged sword (it has both favourable and non-favourable consequences), but I don’t believe this. Kids need constant motivation to continue and praise is one of the best ways to help them gain confidence. Praising their work ethic is far more effective though. If they’re working very hard, praise them. If they’re got great marks in a practice test, by all means, praise them.

Kids need to know they’re progressing through their goals and improving on the 11 plus exam questions. If they think they’re not getting anywhere (just like with us adults) they’ll give up because what’s the point right? They’ll fail the eleven plus test and will not get anywhere. No! This is exactly the approach you do NOT want to take.

Through practice, your child can improve and they are capable of doing it. This is what you want to tell them, even if they’re improving slowly. Enlist extra help in the subjects they are struggling with and show them their progress scores. If they have an off day, it doesn’t matter, they’ll do better tomorrow. Never criticise their work or their work ethic. Work to gaining confidence first, the rest will follow.

Remember, you’ve got to be in it to win it as they say. I used to say I would never put my child through the stress of the grammar school exams but now I just think, well what if he can do it? What if he’s capable and I stopped my son from even trying? And if he doesn’t do well? So be it! It all works out in the end and he’ll end up going to a school that was meant to be for him.

Just don’t sell your child too short. With your love and support, they can at least have a good stab at the 11 plus test and if they don’t pass, it was good practice anyway for later. For extra support, you should Google ’11 plus forum’ and chat with like-minded parents about the 11 plus grammar tests. We’re all going through the stress, believe me.

In the next article, we will be going through the actual revision process. You can check out this article here.

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