I am now full for September 2013

I just want to thank everyone for their prompt returns with regards the 11+ practice papers for next year's intake and I am delighted to be able to say all who have submitted their papers have a place with me and I will begin to sort the timetable out over the next two weeks.

If you haven't finished or haven't sent the papers back I have to say I am now full and can offer no more spaces.

I will be setting up elearning classes this year and will notify people about the connection via this blog so if people are interested in gaining help and support via the internet then there will be classes made available. These will be pre-recorded with information on how to do various skills in verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and maths specifically.
If you didn't make the cut then I am very sorry but there has been an unprecedented demand this year and I am unable to cater for all inquiries.
To those who didn't make it may I suggest you take a look at the website 11+ swot which I have a very great regard for. It will support your child in much of what is likely to come up in the exam and maybe another route worth exploring.

To those already registered with me, I would suggest this is a good support to the work you will do with me as they give plenty of opportunity to explore and develop the various skills demanded in verbal and non-verbal reasoning as well as some of the maths skills which often catch them out.

Next year's 11+ students

I am awarding places this year on whether you have initially responded by email, have completed the test papers and returned them to me. 

They will be allocated on a first come first served basis as there have been more people requesting 11 plus tuition than spaces.

If you wish to work with me next year and have not returned the test papers to me, may I suggest you do as a matter of urgency as I wish to complete next years timetable as soon as possible.
To those who have already returned your papers, thank you and I will be in touch within the next couple of weeks. I haven't forgotten or ignored your returns but have been establishing a new rota with this year's intake and now they are settled can concentrate upon the new intake of 2013.

Have a great few weeks and will email shortly.

A boy and a computer

Once upon a time there were children whose favourite thing was a doll, a toy gun or a space-ship, but no more; now it is a Blackberry, a computer and perhaps a bike, skates or scooter.
Here, we have an example of a young man in year 5, given the opportunity to write about anything he enjoyed and the computer gaming section came to the fore immediately. The work was written by hand and corrections to punctuation have come from the computer itself; one day he will do more on the computer and type all his work too. When that day comes his true writing ability will leap even further forward than it is now. He has already improved his skills and as many of you will be aware, a boy writing anything at this age is unusual...... this is a good piece of writing and gives an insight into the mind of a boy of this age.

What I like doing most by Daniel *****

My favourite pastime is playing on a computer, its really fun and exciting there’s always more things to do. One of my favourite games is Minecraft, a game about survival. I often find myself playing on a website called **** which lets you play loads of different games such as Alter, Super Mario Bros Crossover 3, Pacman and more.

The way I found out about these websites is because my friends talked non-stop about them so I gave them arty. My friends are the ones who often give me ideas of what to do or play but some games are too violent and age restricted to 16+.  My friends are nice people not perfect but amazing, but their ideas can be a bit extreme.

My sister doesn’t use the computer that much so that gives me a fair amount of time to play. I am very interested in how a computer works and would some day like to be a mechanic learning how to turn the screen off and on without normal buttons, how future computers will work, and the amount of electricity is needed to power on and the sites people use for curiosity.

I am going to explain how Minecraft works. Survival mode is the mode where you have every item you can ever have. Hardcore mode is where if you die you can’t be reborn. In multi-player you can play with other people.

Now I am going to explain how you play Mario Cross Over. You can play as Zelda, Mario and some other people whose names I don’t remember and other than that it is pretty much like Mario.

I also enjoy the computer because it is a way to read and find the latest information.

Over all a computer is fun, exciting and has other useful features.

Levels of English

As a country the style of teaching, learning and absorbing has changed considerably, if for no other reason than the wealth of interaction available on our phones via the internet. It is more common to see a child clutching a phone than it is a hand, and their relationships are now governed by Facebook and other social media sites.
But we still expect standards. We still expect them to be able to write well and to write fluently, to spell effectively and to create interesting pieces of written work. So what does the role of the computer and all its peculiarities have to offer?
The spell check program and the grammar checker are a great help and they don't take away the skill of either; to be able to choose the correct word they have to have a recognition of the word shape and letter organisation, and as for the grammar checker, unless you know grammar well it can cause more problems than is realised. To be told the sentence is passive means nothing unless you have grasped the concept of passivity in the first place.
Being able to edit the work on screen is always a great bonus because the changes are made easier by cut and paste and children can make the change instantly rather than making a mess of their page of writing with all the crossings out and re-wording over the top. Little wonder few like to edit work on paper, by the tine they have finished it can look like the proverbial 'dog's dinner'.
As you can probably tell I am all for the idea of creating literacy using computers and for reasons more than I have listed here. The very action of striking the keys in a specific order teaches you how to spell a word without realising and often I have seen children striking imagined keys so as to transfer the spelling onto paper using a pen. Mild dyslexia is supported by various specialised programs which learns the child's own peculiarities in repeated spelling errors and flags it up for them. They have the choice then of changing it or not.
This piece of work was created by a girl in Year 5 using a computer. She has edited and considered not only what she is writing but the vocabulary and the flow. She was able to 'beautify' the work in her style and the pride with which she gave me a copy revealed how much time and consideration she had paid to completing it. The language is hers.

What I like doing most

by Nicola ******

Have you ever been fighting along side warrior cats or flown on the back of magical horses?  Well I have, in wonderful, fantastic books I have read and you could too. Reading, as you can guess, is my hobby.  I love books so much that without them I would be a lostperson.

Throughout the years I have grown to love books more and more and now I have reached a stage where books are one of the only things I ask for on my birthday and at Christmas. I find books very interesting because they can tell you facts and how to do things which is one of the reasons I like them.

I have listed some of the books that I have read before: rainbow magic, fire and ice, the 39 clues series, the omen of the stars series and into the wild. The omen of the stars series I have read most of the series but I just need to read the book sign of

The moon.

Another reason I like books is because it is a way to entertain your self and learn at the same time. Books have inspired me to write great stories at school and at home.

One of the series of books I have been reading is called Warriors, I have really enjoyed this series and I am on the fourth book in the series, which is called dangerous path, which I love. Books I think are brilliant and I would recommend reading to anyone who doesn’t read.

As I said I love books and I want others to read to because it is a great thing to do when you have spare time, the reason I like reading is because you can find out about the character and their life. Another reason I like reading is because I am good at it, my usual speed is one chapter book a day but sometimes it takes two days.

The books I like to read most are cat books some of my favourite are Thomasine, the omen of the stars series and white chin. The reason I like cat books is because it’s from the cat’s point of view which is different from the adults and children’s point of view.

Well that basically sums up why I like reading books.

Thanks for reading

This year's 11 plus exam

Good news! It seems KCC have decided to leave the format for this year, so we will have the three areas as expected with a story of some kind rather than the possible change to grammar and punctuation. This does mean if your son or daughter still resists story writing, or has problems getting something down on paper to a level 4a standard and he/she is borderline, this will go against them.

Regardless of whether KCC had changed or not, the level of English is important and all grammars like their students to be at level 4a/5c so there is a building block on which they can hang their expectations, not only in English lessons, but also in all the other subjects where writing is a component part.

If you feel you need to address their level of English and would like to know a good book to work from, then I would suggest you look at CGP books where you will find the range of 11 plus support materials they have produced.

September 2013 11 plus intake

To those of you who have already responded to m y letter with an email, thank you very much and I will be getting back to you shortly.
I have had a question about the completion of the tests;

When do you want these sent back to you by, because they are doing SATs at the moment?

If you could get them back to me by the end of this month that would be great. I can then look at them and pair students together with similar strengths and weaknesses.
I will contact all those of you who have responded over the next couple of weeks and give you details of the course costs, contents and frequency of classes. Until then, I do hope the weather holds and the wind subsides and they all do well in their end of year exams.

The downloaded test for Year 4

In one of the confirmation emails I received a question which I thought was a good one to be answered for you all;

I have downloaded the test papers and will post them as soon as ****** has finished them. I do have one question  about the papers.
It does give you a set amount of time do do the test. Do I have to time ****** for this amount of time or can he carry on until he is finished?


The answer to this is, allow him or her the 50 minutes [they don't have to do this all in one sitting] and if they haven't finished place a mark at the point they reach and then let them finish. At the moment it really doesn't matter how long it takes, just what they can and cannot do. We will work on exam techniques later but at the moment these tests are daunting enough!!


Yes, to another question I received, you can mark them which is why I enclosed the answers for you to go through once they have done the work. You don't have to go through the papers with them afterwards or worry, you really should clear up the areas he/she didn't get right, this will happen automatically throughout the course with me.


Any other questions please come back to me and I wil do my best to answer them, but in the meantime,


Watch this space


and more articles will be posted.