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Hazelmere

New business aims to get children through 11+

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Published Date:
07 September 2009
Senior Reporter
For an £870 fee, a new business will give children a helping hand when it comes to getting into Aylesbury's three grammar schools.
11 Plus Champions promises to gear youngsters up for the county-wide entrance examination, over 29 weekly lessons each costing £30 and lasting an hour and a half.

Karen Cookson, who has founded the business with husband Tom and Lorraine Baker, said the economic downturn meant competition for grammar school places was even more intense than usual, making preparation for the 11 plus entrance exams more important.

"I think it is more difficult with the credit crunch, there is more competition because a load of parents with kids in private schools are taking them out and hoping they pass the 11+. So these private kids are taking away places from mainstream children."

She said the classes, which are to be held at Aston Clinton Guide Hall and will have a maximum of 12 pupils, were a cheaper alternative to one-to-one tutoring.

"The pressure of one-one tutoring just proves too much for some children," she added. "Putting kids in with a small group of children means they can feed off eachother and learn from eachother."

Mrs Cookson said that although the exams are intended to measure a student's natural ability, preparing for them is essential. Each lesson will consist of teaching, reasoning and practice papers.

"I believe every child needs some kind of tutoring. In my opinion a child must be really bright to get through without it," she said.

"In Buckinghamshire schools the pupils do two practice papers before the 11 plus. With the best will in the world that is not a lot of practice. But private schools can tutor them and give them as many papers as they want."

However, Mrs Cookson admitted that training for the 11 plus exam was a 'tetchy subject'.

Before being enrolled, children will be required to attend an initial 45 minute lesson after which they will take an assessment test, enabling the teachers to make sure they are suitable for the course.

"It is so we can see whether or not we should take the child on, we are not just going to take peoples' money," she said. "If someone has not got the material ability they are not going to pass. Some parents are so hell bent on getting kids there its all learn, learn, learn and they struggle (at Grammar School) when they do get there."

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  • Last Updated: 08 September 2009 1:36 PM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Aylesbury
 
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Simon Icke,

Aston Clinton 07/09/2009 14:05:34
More pressure on more children at too young an age. I went to Grammar School and hated it, even though I was in an 'A stream'. I left after three years, with my father's help, to go to the local comprehensive where one again I learned how to enjoy learning again. And I have never stopped enjoying learning ever since. This special coaching will only be available to those that can afford the large fee; I thoght the whole point of Grammar schools was to give those children who couldn't afford to go to an Independent fee paying school the opportunity to go to Grammar School? So this private coaching at a price, gives working class children even less chance of a places if places are limited, and those pushy parents with money; their children will be given an unfair advantage. If they cannot pass their 11/12 plus without this additional coaching in my opinion they shouldn't be going in the first place. I would like to ask parents what would they prefer a happy child or a child under constant stress and pressure just to please their parents? In my view all grammar schools should be closed and all children should be offered the same first class education regardless of their parents wealth. Also to make a decision on a child's intelligence at just 11 or 12 years old is so wrong , many children discover their talents much later. To judge a child's inteligence just on academic criteria is also wrong. Some children have other gifts, but sadly these kids often fall by the way side, as failures. They are not failures, it's just that our narrow minded education system failed to recognise their God given talents!
(parents would do well to remember the high suicide rate of young people who felt they had failed their parents expectations, how very sad.
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JR,

07/09/2009 22:27:05
I, too, went to Grammar. Some bits I liked, some I disliked.
My eldest had set his sights on going to a particular school so needed to pass his 11+.
When I began the process of coaching him I needed to know where he was - and he was a long way off Grammar. However, under my expert tutelage (always wanted to say that!) he flew through the exams & secured a place at the school he wanted.
Sadly, like most things, the advert showed the glamorous side of the school - and it was nothing like the reality.
The school seemed to be under the impression that they didn't really need to teach the kids, they all wanted to be there so would simply sit & soak up the info, never bothering to push them or stretch their imagination.
Sadly, without the pushing & stretching, he came out just an average child with average O levels, struggling to make the grade at A level.
I was also astonished when I discovered that not only did the school not push, stretch or encourage, they only seemed to teach the bare essentials - as if they knew what handful of questions would be asked!
A good example - recently, he wanted to work out an angle in a triangle so wanted a protractor. I told him to use Soh Cah Toa - never heard of it. It was nowhere to be found in his exercise books - so just what did they teach in Maths? They had the same 2 years that I had yet seemed to be given a fraction of the syllabus.
Another example, recently we talked about a dynamo - he had no idea.
Again, a flick through his exersize books & no mention of Faraday or Lenz (and their laws) (and I'm remembering this from 30+ years ago) - and yet he supposedly learned physics.

I have to say that for once, I agree with Simon.
The education system is failing the children. We shouldn't be prompting them in such a manner - I regretted giving my assistance, I would rather my son was a high flyer at comp than an average joe at Grammar.
The Grammer system abandoned him because he was average, they let him flow along downst
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JR,

07/09/2009 22:40:11
they let him flow downstream whereas I believe the comp system would have encouraged him to swim upstream, to try different things, to set challenges.

At school, I was forced to endure french german and latin (and who the heck speaks latin?). It was obvious after the first term that linguistics was not my strong point so why was the school wasting time & money trying to teach me?
I was lucky, in a way, because I was there in the formative years of computing & my good science grades helped me persuade the school to let me loose on the local polytech where I took O'level computer studies - better that than have me disrupt languages!

Children need to be given more choices at school, they should be given the opportunity to TRY each subject first rather than read a few lines in the glossy blurb, only by dipping their toes will they know if they facny learning the subject.
To fully learn a subject, one must enjoy the experience, learning should be fun/enjoyable.
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Dale Rockell,

Bedfordshire 08/09/2009 17:15:45
The challenge here is that no one knows the pass mark. There are a limited number of places available, therefore should the quota be fulfilled with a pass mark of 90%, 89% will not make the cut, however it's far from failure. The next year 85% may be adequate. You can see the dilemma already.

I have recently been in discussion with a Primary School where the pupils do have the option of 11+. It is a time of immense stress for pupils, teachers and staff, not only for the exam, for the whole of the year leading up to it, if not before.

As Simon Icke states in his response, providing further coaching is only going to raise the expectation of parents that their children have a better chance of getting to Grammar School. How can this be when a pass grade isn’t known? It increases stress unnecessarily on the pupils and runs the risk of alienating them from further study.

My meeting focused instead on how we would work with parents, staff and pupils to reduce the stress, understand how to make the most of whatever options the pupil was given, Grammar or otherwise. Parents need to remember that living through the success of our children is not a productive exercise it only meets short term objectives – test passing. What is more important is what they do with the knowledge they have, the contribution they make to society, and this is not achieved by focusing on tests alone. Education is about more than exams and tests, it should prepare young people for all aspects of life, personal and professional, and consider the bigger picture at all times.

A son of friends sat the 11+ during the last academic year, he achieved 89% and missed the cut. Was he upset? Not really. All of his friends are going to the same Comprehensive and this provides a stronger platform for him during a time of huge transition for most pupils. He and his parents know that his education is more than just about the school he attends.

Dale Rockell MA, MCMI, LCH Dip is a Personal
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Simon Icke,

Aston Clinton 08/09/2009 18:49:28
Dale, good words of wisdom, you should send this to the letters page of the Bucks Hearald @ the following address: editorial@bucksherald.co.uk

You sign off as a personal ? Should it read personal trainer or life coach or what?
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JR,

08/09/2009 23:07:44
A few years ago when my son got through, there was talk of the cut off mark being around 120.
I'm not sure what the maximum score was but I don't think it was too much higher - so the Grammars were cherry picking the very top students, in their opinion, based upon an antiquated test which is meaningless in the real world.

Just out of interest, anybody know how many Grammar school students go on to be 'successful' compared to Comp students?

I say 'successful' because I want to use the same basis as the Grammars.
Success can, and is, measured on many levels. I didn't need any of my O levels to do the work I wanted & as I have spent the past 20 years doing the work i always wanted to do, I consider myself 'successful' - whereas my old deputy head would strongly disagree. My school years, according to him, were a complete waste of time & he encouraged me to leave before wasting their time taking the exams. Of course, had I aspired to working in a city bank where I could lose billions of pounds of other people's money...
Or perhaps I should have aspired to the legal profession where I could make a mint out of others' misery.


Sadly, the system we have in this country is only geared to one way of thinking - setting certain standards by way of one-off tests. Each year, students sit tests to prove to (someone?) that they have reached a certain developmental marker.
All these tests serve to prove is that the pupil can regurgitate information. I knew a guy who could tell you every aspect of every major Royal's life that has ever been published - he couldn't go through mainstream education because he was deemed to have a learning impairment (or whatever fancy label was applied at the time).
We all have our favourite subjects - a pity the education system isn't geared to finding what those subjects are.
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Simon Icke,

AYLESBURY 16/09/2009 19:14:53
How strange this story doesn't get a mention in this weeks Bucks Herald yet my letter as above is published in full in this week's Tring Gazette. Could it be the Grammar School issue is just too much of a 'hot potato' for the Bucks Herald to cover in its paper edition?

Sorry folks you will just have to buy this week's Tring Gazette to read my letter and join the grammar school debate!
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