Many children are now preparing for grammar school, September 11 plus examinations. The independent schools’ exams are due in December so you have a reasonable amount of time to prepare your child for those. However, September is almost upon us, so how can you best help your child between now and then. Parental support is crucial at this stage regardless of whether or not you have an amazing tutor. Some of the brightest pupils fail the 11 plus while those with lesser abilities get through the exams. It is all down to practise and familiarisation with the test set in the examinations. Your children should have excellent Maths and English skills by now, and ideally one or even two years ahead of their age groups and have been studying for the exam for at least two years in advance. But, if this hasn’t been the case, then give your children as much practise as possible, using the next three weeks wisely without spooking your child and depriving them of their holiday time. So important strategies are required. 

1. Improve their vocabulary by reading to and with your child using texts that stretch their word knowledge. Start with ‘The famous five’ books. 

2. Practise some multiple-choice comprehension exam papers in CEM or GL type. It is vital that you do this with your child and focus on the comprehension questions because many children do not read the questions correctly and rush their selection of choices. Use a highlighter while reading the text and the question.  Remember that the trickiest questions come later in a paper so do not be complacent at the start of the paper. Many publishers produce fifteen-minute test papers to help you monitor your child’s speed. This is critical to your child’s success. Fifty-minute papers can be exhausting for your child. 

3. Please do the same for Maths and Non-Verbal Reasoning and Verbal-Reasoning. 

4. Ensure that your children have a thorough general knowledge which is acquired through observational skills such as trips to museums and places of historical interest. They are good summer holiday outings .

I hope that your children are successful in September or December. If you are looking for one to one online tuition, a booster course or any other tuition do get in touch with us. Please let me know if you liked this blog please tweet @kidslearnfast or on Instagram @kidslearnfastagram. Look up more blogs on www.kidsleanfast.co.uk and like our Facebook page. 

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Good luck .

Elisa Gianoncelli @Kids Learn Fast Private Tuition