Transfer Test AQE 2014-2015

Mrs_mum

Hi mygirls, my daughter would also be in the top group in her year and we also thought her scores on her practice papers didn't seem very good but we had a meeting with the headmaster the other day and he told us that her scores were good for this stage of the process so far and that has helped put our minds at ease (well as at ease as they can be). He told us that the practice papers that they have been doing (old 11 plus papers )are very hard and they wouldn't expect them to be scoring very high at the moment. Hopefully with practice over the summer their accuracy and speed will improve. But meeting with the headmaster was very beneficial.

flymetothemoon_2

Does anyone intend to keep their kids working all through the summer ie: every day or are you thinking of taking a few weeks out - I don't know what to do for the best, I know my son needs to keep practising but I'm afraid of doing too much in case he gets really fed up. I actually think he's starting to stress a bit already because his teacher has been telling the class that they need to be getting 75% and he has been consistently scoring in the high 60s but has not achieved higher than 69% over the past 6 weeks so I think he now believes he's not good enough and he's starting to tell me he doesn't want to do the tests at all. This week the teacher told the class 'if you're not scoring 75% by this stage you need to step things up' and I think this has stressed him even more. Roll on the end of November!

Mrs_mum

I think if he is in the 60s consistently he is doing well at this stage! Yes we were told that they should be hitting the 70s as well but the majority of my daughters class haven't as of yet. I plan to let her have 2 weeks off. I know that it is very important that they keep practicing but you don't want them getting to the stage where the have just had enough of it. They are so young and it's so much to ask of them!

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

Flymetothemoon

I think we'll stick with 2 tests a week during the summer (one at weekend and one during the week) tho if the weathers particularly nice etc she'll be aloud to skip some I imagine she'll start to not like the tests if she had to sit indoors to do them while her friends were outside playing.

I dont think it was right for the teacher to tell the children what scores they need to be getting or to 'step things up' that's just going to stress them!

Her school aren't giving any advice on scores or practice work so were pretty much going it alone... The conversations and advice on here help to tell if we're going about it the right way :j She was sitting in high 70s for a few tests and has went down to mid 60s in the last few, we'll see how today's test goes...

Mrs_mum

Veggie Northern Ireland, u must be doing something right cause those scores sound good to me. I would have hated it as a child if I had to spend my summer doing school work, so it says a lot about our kids who are willing to give it a go. Whatever happens in nov we should be proud of them.

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

MrsMum I completely agree with you there about their willingness to do the extra work! :T I was given the choice whether to do the 11+ or not and there was no chance I'd have chosen to do all the extra work... Unfortunately I ended up having terrible experience at secondry school and fingers crossed she'll get into a grammer where there will be more motivation to do well and stricter rules.

The 64%s were worrying me a bit but today's was in low 70s, it's often the case of not reading the questions right or doing the wrong type of calculation for a math question... I'm banking on slow improvement over the next 4-5 months :j

Veggie_Northern_Ireland

Has anyone found any good practice papers that they've found useful? I'm going to be needing more soon, she didn't like the ones I ordered from Amazon because they were laid out differently :beer:

ooo000ooo

flymetothemoon wrote: »

Does anyone intend to keep their kids working all through the summer ie: every day or are you thinking of taking a few weeks out - I don't know what to do for the best, I know my son needs to keep practising but I'm afraid of doing too much in case he gets really fed up. I actually think he's starting to stress a bit already because his teacher has been telling the class that they need to be getting 75% and he has been consistently scoring in the high 60s but has not achieved higher than 69% over the past 6 weeks so I think he now believes he's not good enough and he's starting to tell me he doesn't want to do the tests at all. This week the teacher told the class 'if you're not scoring 75% by this stage you need to step things up' and I think this has stressed him even more. Roll on the end of November!

We've been getting our son tutored for an hour a week for the last 3 months, the tutor takes a couple of weeks off in july but will leave enough work to keep him going for that period. His tutor normally does 2 hours a week but we couldn't afford it so he agreed 1 hour a week, hopefully be able to get up to 2 hours in the run up to the exams.
In his opinion, everyone that wants to get their kids into a decent school is doing it so why not give your kid the best opportunity?
Our son's school doesn't believe in the aqe etc. so doesn't do any preparation for it. In the tutor's opinion the school is way behind in the syllabus (we expected this as the teacher is frankly crap) and our son wouldn't have a hope without someone tutoring him (be it a proper tutor or us pushing him).

Mrs_mum

It must be very frustrating if the school is not doing any preparation with your son! It is hard enough for the kids who are getting help in school. I don't think I could bite my tongue, I would have to confront the headmaster, I understand they are not meant to coach the kids but the fact that you think he is not even where he should be in the syllabus would be enough to have a meeting with the teacher and the headmaster. Is there other parents in the school who want their kids to do the AQE? Could you perhaps speak to them and see if you could all arrange a meeting with the headmaster? I know it's a bit late for this year but perhaps they could be persuaded to help them in P7!

ooo000ooo

Mrs_mum wrote: »

It must be very frustrating if the school is not doing any preparation with your son! It is hard enough for the kids who are getting help in school. I don't think I could bite my tongue, I would have to confront the headmaster, I understand they are not meant to coach the kids but the fact that you think he is not even where he should be in the syllabus would be enough to have a meeting with the teacher and the headmaster. Is there other parents in the school who want their kids to do the AQE? Could you perhaps speak to them and see if you could all arrange a meeting with the headmaster? I know it's a bit late for this year but perhaps they could be persuaded to help them in P7!

LOL not a chance of changing the school's way of doing things, they don't support the AQE so won't provide the support required.
Our tutor stated that the schools should be doing test papers from easter onwards, preferably earlier, starting in september is too late.
Looking at your location, there's a fair chance some of your neighbours (possibly even you) have kids at the same school and are probably using tutors, some of them will be using the same tutor as he's the best around