Case study
11+ Tutor for Student Applying to Competitive London Schools
Greenwich, United Kingdom
Location
Hourly Tuition
Category
The parents of a Year 5 student approached Witherow Brooke for support with applications to several highly competitive independent schools in London, including City of London School for Girls, North London Collegiate School, South Hampstead High School and Francis Holland School. Their daughter was doing well at her current primary school, but the school did not specifically prepare pupils for 11+ entrance examinations and the family were unsure how her level compared with the standard expected by their target schools.
An initial assessment showed that she was a strong reader and writer, but less confident with some of the more demanding mathematical reasoning and problem-solving questions found in competitive entrance papers. She also had little experience working accurately under the time pressure of an entrance examination and had never practised the online pre-tests used by some of the schools.
Role of the Tutor
Witherow Brooke arranged weekly in-person tuition with an experienced 11+ specialist. In Maths, particular attention was given to multi-step word problems, fractions, ratios and questions where the method was not immediately obvious. English sessions focused on comprehension and developing more precise, well-supported answers to questions about unfamiliar texts.
Closer to the examinations, the tutor introduced timed papers and worked with the student on deciding when to persevere with a difficult question and when to move on. Preparation was tailored carefully to each school, as both the format of the entrance papers and the level of difficulty varied substantially between them.
The tutor also introduced the student to the online pre-tests used by several of her target schools, including verbal and non-verbal reasoning. As these were unfamiliar to her, early sessions focused on understanding the different question types and developing reliable approaches to each. She then completed regular timed exercises, learning to recognise patterns more quickly in non-verbal reasoning and improving her vocabulary, accuracy and speed in verbal reasoning.
Tutor Profile
We selected a tutor with an extensive track record preparing children for 11+ examinations at highly selective London independent schools. The tutor was chosen not only for her knowledge of the different schools and their entrance requirements, but for a lively, informal teaching style that helped the student engage with what could otherwise have become a repetitive and stressful period of preparation.
Outcome
The student made strong progress over the course of Year 5 and entered the examination period considerably more confident and accustomed to the demands of competitive entrance papers.She received offers from all but one of the schools to which she applied and gained a place at her first choice, City of London School for Girls.