The eleven plus - getting into grammar school?

[mjb1]

Can't see another section more appropriate for this, so I'll start it here in the Lounge.

My daughter has just started year 5 at school, so this year and next and then off to secondary school. There's only one school that's practical to get to from where she lives (mostly with my ex), and even that's a 30 minute bus journey away. And it has a pretty poor reputation, I can see why - the town it's in is fairly rough, so it's kind of inevitable. Whilst not some kind of childhood genius by any means, daughter is above average academically (doing very well in a primary school with 'excellent' ofsted rating), and definitely very studious. Nothing like I was at her age anyway!

There are a couple of grammar schools that are potentially accessible, and the current school has a reasonable history of students getting into them. Some of her friends are going to try and get in as well, so she is keen to try herself. But I don't know anything about how the 11+ works, what's required, how realistic a chance she has. We know a few kids in her class are already having extra tuition, so that's probably something we should be considering as well. I did ok at school in the end - reasonable exam results, decent engineering degree. So I can probably help her along (assuming I can remember anything useful). I think I heard somewhere that studying/practising on past papers can be enough, but that might be optimistic?

Anyone been through it with their own kids fairly recently? Any advice? Online resources? A quick google seemed to reveal plenty of tuition websites, and as you'd expect, they charge for their service. Could that be a practical alternative to face to face tuition, should we be doing both?

[mjb1]

Thanks, some interesting replies, raised some things that I'd never thought of myself.

Yes, daughter is pretty well at the top of her class in most subjects, going by recent parents evening. She is also one of the youngest in the year (August birthday). Although this year they have split the classes (it's a small school, not enough class rooms/teachers/kids), so the younger half of year 5 (inc my daughter) is in with the older half of year 4, the older half of year 5 is in with year 6. Daughter has already commented that they're recovering some of the same things she did last year in yr 4. I mentioned this at parents evening, but the teacher assured us they are covering the same material as the class above.

My understanding is that the stuff in the 11+ does not directly relate to what kids are taught in state primary schools anyway. It's not necessarily harder/higher level, just isn't tied in with the curriculum, so extra tuition of some sort is essential. If it's anything like when I was at school (20 odd years ago) we were basically taught/coached to pass exams to a great extent. Working through past papers it was pretty obvious the types of questions that came up year on year with slight variations. Sounds like the 11+ is somewhat similar in that respect.

I definitely think she has the right attitude to cope with grammar school and the high workload. She is highly self motivated, even to the extent of making up her own homework when she's done all the stuff that the teacher has set her!