If your child has now settled into Year 5, you will no doubt already be thinking ahead to their secondary education. If your school choices include grammar schools or selective independent schools, your child will most likely need to take an entrance exam in autumn 2023 (or early spring 2024 for some independent schools) to be eligible for a place.
The grammar school 11 plus and independent school entrance exams are designed to be challenging. They are used to identify pupils whose academic ability places them within the top 25% of their cohort (or the top 10% for some of the highest performing schools). Starting exam preparation at least a year in advance is a great way to ensure that your child feels confident when autumn 2023 rolls around, and will give them the best chance of success to secure a place at their target school.
So how can you and your child use the year ahead to plan and prepare effectively?
Build subject mastery
The majority of 11 plus entrance exams for independent and grammar schools assess children's understanding of the Key Stage 2 core curriculum (English and maths). It's important that your child is comfortable with all the topics they have studied in these subjects up to the end of Year 5, so use the year ahead to help them master the topics they find more challenging.
Many exam boards and individual schools also include tests which measure candidates' logical skills and reasoning ability, such as:
Numerical reasoning
Spatial reasoning
As these subjects are not taught in primary school, home learning is key to ensuring that your child becomes familiar with the types of questions and how to answer them successfully. Use a scaffolded approach when introducing your child to new content; by starting with easier questions that gradually become more difficult, your child will naturally build problem-solving and independent learning skills, while staying motivated, focused, and less likely to give up.
Did you know? Atom Nucleus – the adaptive online learning and exam preparation platform for children aged 7-11 – is built on a scaffolded approach. Students are shown questions that match their current learning ability, with the content becoming more challenging as they answer questions correctly. This means that unlike paper workbooks, your child will learn how to answer exam-style questions at a pace and level that is tailored to their unique learning style.
11 plus trickiest topics
Summer holidays 2023
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Read widely
In Key Stage 2 English, children are tested on the extent of their vocabulary and the accuracy of their spelling, punctuation and grammar (commonly abbreviated as SPaG). These skills are therefore essential for success in 11 plus exams; they will almost certainly be tested in English comprehension, creative writing, and verbal reasoning tests.
Beyond school English lessons, the best way for your child to develop literacy skills is by reading regularly and reading widely. Reading a variety of different genres and resources (e.g. fiction and non-fiction books, magazines, news articles and more) has a huge range of benefits for your child's exam preparation, including:
expanding English language vocabulary
improving spelling, grammar and punctuation
building critical analysis and reading comprehension skills
developing imagination
improving concentration
increasing reading speed
Top tip: Encourage your child to keep a vocabulary log throughout the next year. For each new word they encounter, they should write it in the log alongside its definition. Each month, test your child on their spelling and accuracy of their vocabulary based on the words they have collected in their log.
Practice exam techniques
For most children, the 11 plus will be the first time they have taken a timed test under exam conditions. If your child is taking the 11 plus in 2023, use the next 12 months wisely to help them develop the exam techniques needed to succeed on the big day.
Practice papers are the best way for pupils to learn and improve their exam techniques. Once your child has mastered the curriculum, they can put their knowledge to the test by taking timed practice papers under exam conditions (or as closely as you can replicate at home!).
Ideally, set your child 1 or 2 practice tests each month throughout Year 5, then building up to 1 or 2 per week in the six weeks before their exam. Your child will gradually develop essential time-management skills and they will naturally encounter a range of challenging exam questions, helping them build the confidence to tackle unseen questions on the test day.
As the 11 plus date creeps closer, you may wish to share our top tips with your child to help them manage any last-minute nerves:
11 plus exam techniques: 5 top tips
Did you know? Subscribing to Atom Nucleus will give you access to unlimited online mock tests that replicate hundreds of 11 plus exams for both independent and grammar schools, including tests administered by GL Assessment, CEM, ISEB and specific schools themselves. Best of all, every test is instantly and automatically marked, so you can help your child identify strengths and areas that may need further revision.
Free 11 plus maths practice paper
50 questions in 50 minutes
Mirrors the content and format of standard GL grammar school exams
Answer key and parents' guide
Consider tuition
While tuition is not necessarily a requirement for success in the 11 plus, some children may benefit from the one-to-one support private tutors can offer. If your child is preparing for a particularly competitive school, a professional tutor may be able to support with preparation for less common tests (such as critical analysis) and independent school interviews.
Alternatively, if your child is struggling to understand particular concepts that you know they will be tested on, or if they are finding it difficult to work through exam questions at the right pace, they may benefit from the support of a private tutor. Whereas school classes are taught at the pace of the average pupil, one-to-one private tutoring lessons are focused purely on your child's unique learning ability to help accelerate their learning pace and deepen their academic understanding.
Atom's guide to 11 plus tuition
Did you know? Atom Tuition will help you find the perfect 11 plus tutor for your child. We provide experienced teachers (all DBS-checked) and we take a data-driven approach to tuition, creating a completely personalised learning experience that is scientifically tailored to your child. Meanwhile, parents are kept in the loop throughout the entire process, with regular check-ins and weekly reports to make the experience as smooth as possible for the whole family.
Praise progress, not just results
11 plus exam preparation is a marathon, not a sprint – and motivation is key to maintaining momentum over the coming year.
Help your child stay motivated for the 11 plus exam by celebrating their ongoing progress – not just their results from practice questions and tests. Receiving praise for their progress demonstrates to children that they have the potential to keep on improving their abilities by continuing to apply effort, helping them develop a growth mindset. Receiving praise only for good results may boost your child's self-esteem in the short term, but it conveys a fixed mindset (the belief that intelligence is fixed and cannot be learnt).
By regularly praising your child's progress, your child will naturally apply more effort to their learning, develop the resilience needed to embrace new challenges, and ultimately find joy in learning for the long term.
Did you know? Atom Nucleus helps pupils stay engaged on the platform through reward-based learning. As they work through the platform, children collect Atom Learning Points (known as ALPs) which build towards their weekly targets – while badges can be earned for particular behaviours (such as getting 10 questions correct in a row).
How to structure your child's study time efficiently
Free parent webinar
If you're looking for more expert advice about how you can use the year ahead to support your child's preparation for entrance exams in 2023, why not watch our latest webinar? In this free 50-minute webinar, Jade provides key advice for parents to support your child's preparation for independent and grammar school entrance exams, such as:
how to build subject mastery of the 11 plus curriculum
how to maximise Atom Nucleus over the next 12 months
when and how to use mock tests
Parent webinar: preparing for entrance exams
Parent WhatsApp groups
Why not join our Exam Preparation group on WhatsApp? Get access to free resources and advice, and ask our Education Experts any questions you have about the admissions process and your child's upcoming exams.