How to help your child prepare for their 11+ exam at home

Watch How to help your child prepare for their 11+ exam at home - National World - National Videos on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Hello my name is Amber Allitt and I'm a journalist specialising in education.

00:04Parents whose children will be leaving primary school next year might also be

00:08starting to think ahead about their applications for secondary school. These

00:12include your top choices of schools and they will be due later this year. But

00:17picking out which ones are the right fit for your family isn't always easy. If

00:20your child is achieving highly at school, a grammar school might be an option

00:24worth considering. These selective schools can help them to reach their

00:28full academic potential, but they will in most cases need to sit and do well on

00:33a special test to get a place at one. This is called the 11 plus test and it

00:39will usually cover four key areas. English, maths, verbal reasoning and

00:44nonverbal reasoning, which includes things like word problems and following

00:48written instructions for verbal reasoning and for nonverbal reasoning

00:51things like processing information from pictures, using their problem-solving

00:56skills to work out how shapes and objects are related to one another.

00:59While keeping up with their regular schoolwork, trying out past papers or

01:04potentially even tutoring can help prepare them for this test, online exam

01:08prep company Atom Learning says there are fun creative ways that you can help

01:12build their confidence in these skills at home too. Here are three of my

01:15personal favourites. One is to write math sums on post-it notes and stick them

01:20around the house. You can reward your child for each note they solve with a

01:24marble in a jar and each time they manage to fill the jar they get a prize.

01:28Another is to ask your child to read a simple newspaper article at breakfast. On

01:33the way to school you can ask them questions about it to improve their

01:37reading comprehension skills. Finally, create treasure hunts where they must

01:41crack the clues using nonverbal pictures like shapes or diagrams. This is perfect

01:47for tuning their nonverbal reasoning skills.

01:54you