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INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this booklet is to introduce the 11+ exam as it exists, at present, in Essex. In other areas there are significant differences from the Essex system, although much of the information given will be of use in these areas, and may well be found relevant to other Entrance Exams. Many Independent Schools in the Essex and Suffolk area set Entrance Exams at age 11 which follow a similar model. Heathcote Tutors practice papers will be found useful in the preparation for these exams as well as the 11+. At the time of writing there are 12 Selective Schools in Essex, and several Independent Schools spread throughout the Essex and Suffolk area. Full details of these are given later.

The Essex exam is administered by the CSSE ( Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex ) which is a voluntary group set up by the 12 member schools, and specific instructions are issued annually, usually in September, for that years exam.

Please note that all opinions and guidance given in this booklet are solely those of Roger Ashford of Heathcote Tutors, and are based upon years of experience of tutoring for the Essex 11+ and Independent School entrance exams.
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Index

What is the 11+ Exam ? The Entry Procedure The Results The Schools Independent Schools Preparing for the 11+ The Exam Papers Useful Contacts

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What is the 11+ Exam ?

Entrance to Selective, or Grammar, Schools has been by means of a test at age 11 for decades, and during this period has gone through many changes. The one aspect which has not changed greatly, however, is the competitive nature of the test. Many aspire to gain a place at one of the Essex Selective Schools; and rightly so, for they are renowned for their high standards and deserved place among the top schools in the country. That is not to say, however, that they are the right schools for everyone, and parents should take this into consideration when seeking a place for their child. Before embarking upon a course of preparation for the exam advice should be sought from the childs current teachers and, if needs be, from other educational professionals, as to the suitability of these schools for the individual. It should also be borne in mind that in order to be offered a place a very high standard has to be achieved through ability, extra study and dedication. Many children can be coached to gain a place, but eventually may not be happy there. However, to the right entrants these schools offer a rich and unbeatable educational environment.

It should be noted that candidates for the Essex Selective Schools do not have to resident in the county. Many come from neighbouring counties, or even abroad if parents are planning a move back to the UK. If the latter is the case then special arrangements can be made to take the exam in the current country of residence. Contact the CSSE for details.

At the moment the 11+ is taken in the September when your child is in Year 6 at primary school. Officially speaking this means that they will be over 11 but under 12 on 31st. August of the following year (i.e. the year in which they go to secondary school, or into Year 7 if at a Middle School). Earlier entry is possible, at the discretion of the Selective School for which entry is soughtbut this is rarely an advisable course of action.

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The exam consists of 3 papers:- English, lasting 40 minutes; Maths, lasting 35 minutes; and Verbal Reasoning, lasting 50 minutes. There is also a 20 minute break between the Maths and Verbal Reasoning papers. Unlike other areas the Essex 11+ does not contain a NonVerbal Reasoning paper, but some Independent School entrance exams do feature this element. Marks for the three papers are weighted, with English and Maths being worth 25% each and Verbal Reasoning worth 50%. The Verbal Reasoning paper, incidentally, is the only one which has a multiple-choice format. Full details, and example questions, for each paper will be found later in this booklet. The exact date of the exam varies year upon year, but is always on a Saturday towards the end of September. It is sat at the school for which your child is applying, or, if applying for more than one school, at the first choice school. Due to demand most schools hold 2, or even 3, sessions. There is also a special session organised, later in the term, for those unable to take the test on this Saturday either for reasons of ill health or religion. Details, and dates, can be found on the CSSE website-www.csse.org.uk

Most local Independent schools hold their Entrance Exams in the January of Year 6, and these follow the 11+ format, although some have additional elements. Details of these may be obtained by consulting the individual schools.

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The Entry Procedure

As of 2012, with the change of the exam date to the end of the September in which your child enters Year 6, the Entry Procedure has undergone a slight modification. The actual 11+ entry must be made through the CSSE, either on line or by post, and this can be done from the July of the exam year, and must be done by early in September. After the exam the results will be given on, or about, the 15th. October, with an indication as to the likelihood of your child attaining a Selective School place should you apply for one. In the interim you will receive a copy of the Local Authority Secondary Admissions Booklet and school application form. On this you must list, in order of preference, your secondary school choices. This form must be returned to the Local Authority by the end of October, and, obviously, you will be able to base your first choice upon the knowledge of your childs 11+ results. As in previous years the actual offer of a school place will not be made until 1st March of the following year. The 11+ entry form, and entry instructions, can be found on the CSSE website from the July of the exam year. (www.csse.org.uk)

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The Results

Contrary to popular belief there is no pass mark for the 11+. Children neither pass nor fail the exam, but either achieve high enough marks to place them within the parameters to be offered a place at their chosen school, or they fall below whatever happens to be the cut-off point for that particular year. Hence, the actual acceptance level moves annually depending upon average marks achieved. It is, however, possible over the years to gain a feel for the required level of achievement required for success, and any reputable tutor will have this knowledge. Results for the 11+ are posted out by the CSSE on, or about, 15th. October. For those applying on line an e mail is sent on the same date. From this parents can gauge if their child has a reasonable chance of obtaining a Selective School place, and can use this information when filling in the Secondary Schools Admission Form for the Local Education Authority. You should note that not everyone being offered a place at a Selective School takes it up and, therefore, even if your child falls slightly outside the acceptance parameters a place may still be offered at a later date.

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The Schools

There are 12 Selective Schools in various parts of Essex whose entry is decided by the 11+ exam. All candidates for these schools take the same exam on the same Saturday in September. In all there are in the region of 5,000 candidates taking the exam with an approximate acceptance rate of 20% equally divided between boys and girls. In the main the schools are in the Colchester, Chelmsford and Southend on Sea areas of the county. When considering a particular child be sure to see their website. All have Open Days or Evenings for proents during the year and attendance at when considering your childs future. mind that although these schools are they are much smaller than the average Comprehensive school. school for your of the schools spective parthese is vital Also bear in State funded

Full contact details are given below along with the approximate number of places available each year.

Chelmsford County High School for Girls

Broomfield Rd Chelmsford, CM1 1RW Tel: 01245 352592 Website: www.cchs.essex.sch.uk
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Approximate no. of places: 120

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King Edward VI Grammar School

Broomfield Rd. Chelmsford, CM1 3SX Tel: 01245 353510 Website: www.kwgs.org.uk Approximate no. of places: 110

Colchester Royal Grammar School

Lexden Rd. Colchester, CO3 3ND Tel: 01206 509100 Website: www.crgs.co.uk Approximate no. of places: 96

Colchester County High School for Girls

Norman Way, Colchester, CO3 3US Tel: 01206 576973 Website: www.colchestergirls.essex.sch.uk Approximate no. of places: 110

Cecil Jones College

Eastern Avenue, Southend on Sea, SS2 4BU Tel: 01702 440000 Website: www.ceciljones.net Approximate no. of places: 30

Shoeburyness High School

Caulfield Rd. Shoeburyness, SS3 9LL Tel: 01702 292286 Website: www.shoebury.energise.com Approximate no. of places: 30

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Southend High School for Boys

Prittlewell Chase Southend on Sea, SS0 0RG Tel: 0844 477 1752 Website: shsb.org.uk Approximate no. of places 150

Southend High School for Girls

Southchurch Boulevard Southend on Sea, SS2 4UZ Tel: 01702 588852 Website: www.shsg.org Approximate no. of places 150

St. Bernards High School and Arts College

Milton Rd. Westcliff on Sea, SS0 7JS Tel: 01702 343583 Approximate no. of places 60

St. Thomas More High School

Kenilworth Gardens Westcliff on Sea, SS0 0BW Tel; 01702 344933 Website; www.st-thomasmore.southend.sch.uk Approximate no. of places 30

Westcliff High School for Boys

Kenilworth Gardens Westcliff on Sea, SS0 0BP Tel: 01702 475443 Approximate no. of places 150

Westcliff High School for Girls

Kenilworth Gardens Westcliff on Sea, SS0 0BS Tel: 01702 476026 Website: www.whsg.info
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Approximate no. of places 150

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Independent Schools

As previously mentioned many Independent Schools in the Essex and Suffolk area and,indeed, throughout the country base their entrance exams on the 11+ model. Most of the Independent Schools in the area are affiliated to the Independent Schools Council and details can be found on their website: www.isc.co.uk. Listings of local schools can also be found in the Independent Schools Directory which can be found on www.independentschools.com

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Preparing for the 11+

In order to have the best chance of success in any entrance exam, and especially the 11+, a certain amount of preparation is vital. Obviously parents can choose to prepare their child themselves, but with this comes the stresses and strains which this course of action often entails. There are also several distance learning options available on the internet, but great care must be taken if choosing this route. Many courses are not of a high enough standard to bring out the students full potential, and some are counter-productive as they contain errors and poor methodology. There is also the danger that they have been written to suit formats other than that used in Essex. If you are seeking to help your child to succeed in this exam by far the best method is to seek the help of a tutor. Obviously, you need to find one who is experienced in this type of work, and the best way to do this is through personal recommendation, or failing that, reputation. However, should you need to find a tutor from, for instance Yellow Pages or internet advertising, there are a few factors which should influence your decision. Among these the following are paramount;

How much experience does the tutor have of 11+ and Entrance exams? Many purport to know the format, but there is no substitute for several years of experience in this specialised field. It is vital that your tutor has full knowledge of all of the ins and outs of the exam, and this is best gained by experience.

You should always choose a tutor who is a qualified teacher, and can show a GTC (General Teaching Council) letter proving QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). Even so, experience shows that one who now devotes all of his or her time to tutoring is preferable to a serving teacher, as a more traditional, even old fashioned, approach to Maths and English is required for these exams.

Your chosen tutor should, needless to say, also be able to show proof of an Enhanced CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) disclosure.

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The tutor should be willing, and able, to discuss both the exam and your childs progress at any time. He, or she, will also expect a preliminary meeting with both you and your child to discuss preparation and ways of working together to achieve the best result.

Be prepared for the tutor to expect you to become actively involved with your childs 11+ courseperhaps by supervising homework, or helping with reading at home. This is, after all, a team effortyour child, your tutor and you.

Finally, your tutor should be able to relate to your child and motivate him, or her, to bring out their best.

There are some sources of tuition which are not ideal. Beware of any establishment which relies upon computer based learning or unguided work sheets. Also, if possible, do not source your tutor from a national agency-they tend to be very expensive and non-specialist ( no matter what they may tell you to the contrary). It goes without saying that you should not even consider students or those with no qualifications in education. Ideally, you should expect your child to be tutored for at least a year specifically for the 11+, and some preparatory work in Year 4 is often advantageous. Experience shows that any early preparatory work can be extremely beneficial-especially in Maths and English where techniques learned at school can be reinforced . Specific 11+ preparation seems to work best in small groups, as they foster a cooperative, but at the same time competitive, atmosphere and students look forward to these sessions, especially if they are kept fairly informal (albeit hard-working). As to fees, you should expect to pay between 20 and 30 per hour (plus travel if the tuition is taking place at your home). This should include all learning materials used, but you should be aware that it is often beneficial to invest in extra practice papers which are available commercially (more about this later in the booklet).
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The Exam Papers

As previously mentioned there are 3 papers in the Essex 11+, and also in many Independent School entrance exams. These are examined in more detail below, with samples of the type of questions found in each paper. It should be remembered that your child will take the exam in the November of Year 6, and the sample questions reflect this ( they are, in fact taken from practice papers which I have written for my students. The complete papers are available from www.11plusessex.co.uk).

Maths
The Maths (or numeracy in modern parlance) paper lasts for 35 minutes and consists of approximately 25 questions. These range from straightforward calculation questions through to more complicated reasoning and application problems. They test both the ability to calculate accurately and the application of logical methods to solve questions. Any tutor should take your child through not only basic and rapid calculation methods, but also the use of these in problem solving. The level of knowledge required is deeper than that normally taught at Junior school, extending even as far as basic algebra. Examples may be; 397 + 865 = 1,297 x 43 = What is the value of x ? x + 12 = 25. 2x - 15 = 27

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2 apples and 1 peach cost 1.20. 2 apples and 2 peaches cost 1.70. What is the cost of 1 apple?

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It takes one man one day to dig a hole 2mx2mx2m. How long will it take 3 men to dig a hole 4mx4mx4m if they work at the same rate?

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What is the size of angle x in the above parallelogram?

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English

The English, or Literacy, paper lasts for 40 minutes and is almost exclusively comprehension. Its difficulty, however, lies in the fact that the text chosen has, up to now, been from a novel written in either the Victorian or Edwardian era. There have been exceptions to this over the past 10 years, but the text has never been a easy one for the average 11 year old to understand. Examples used have been Jane Eyre, Far from the Madding Crowd and Silas Marner. In addition to reading an extract from the text approximately 18 questions have to be answered based upon its content. Many of these questions are in a multiple choice format. Additionally there is a 10 part vocabulary question, and normally two punctuation questions based upon the text. To my mind this is the most difficult of the 3 papers for 11 year olds, as they must build up an understanding of a story written in a form not used today and far removed from the style found in books normally read by children of this age. Any tutor familiar with the 11+ should encourage a wide range of reading to build up vocabulary levels, and should insist upon extreme accuracy in punctuation in all its forms. Obviously it is impossible to give examples of comprehension questions within this booklet, but the sort of punctuation level required can be gauged by attempting to punctuate the following; in 1940 winston churchill told the people of great britain that they owed a great debt to the few who fought in the battle of britain never he said in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few
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(There are 19 mistakes)

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Verbal Reasoning
The Verbal Reasoning paper lasts for 50 minutes, and contains about 85 questions. From a tutors point of view this is perhaps the easiest to tackle as there are about 35 question types which can be used, and there is a method for each. However, from the point of view of most candidates this will be found the most difficult, unless they have had prior guidance to the methods, and plenty of practice in their application. The main problem is that VR does not feature in the National Curriculum and is, therefore, not covered by the majority of schools. You should note that the Essex 11+ does not include Non-Verbal Reasoning, which is based upon shape-sequence and visual reasoning. This is, however, used by a number of Independent Schools in their entrance exams, and some tutors (including Heathcote Tutors) introduce this topic to aid development of logical reasoning powers. This takes the form of a multiple choice paper. The questions cover a wide range of topics which require the child to use reasoning powers to work out the answer. They range from letter puzzles to number puzzles and problem solving, and are designed to test the candidates ability to think logically. There are approximately 35 different types of VR question with which your child will have to be familiar.

Examples would be; Find the next 2 numbers in these sequences; 1,2,3,5,8,13,,, 1,4,9,16,25,,,

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If a=2,b=5,c=12,d=11e=24 work out the following; (b + a) - (e c) = (e x b) c =
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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

In the following questions you must work out which letter pairs come next in the sequence. The alphabet is written above to help.

GC,ID,KF,MI, , KF,HI,EL,BO, ,

Work out how the codes work, then de-code the following words. The alphabet is written above to help.

If the code for COIL is XLRO what does ORMV mean ? If the code for LEAVE is OVZEV what does NZBLI mean ? ..

In the following sentences you must find the 3 letters which are missing from the word in bold. These 3 letters will make a 3 letter word which is the answer to the question.

The secrey sat at her computer. . Sara disobd the sign by walking on the grass.

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Full copies of these, and other, Maths and Verbal Reasoning papers will be available shortly on the Heathcote Tutors website (www.11plusessex.co.uk). There will also be guides to aspects of English punctuation, with accompanying work sheets, as well as further papers aimed at giving extra help towards a successful outcome in 11+ and Entrance Exams. All of these papers have been written with a view to giving students further help over and above that obtained from tuition. All are based upon years of experience of this type of exam, and are written by a well-qualified and successful tutor.

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Useful Contacts

Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex

The group responsible for the administration of the 11+ exam in Essex, and the first port of call for queries on entry procedures etc. Consortium of Selective Schools, Administrative Office, P.O. Box 3087, Chelmsford, CM1 3SY website; www.csse.org.uk Tel; 01245 348257

Heathcote Tutors
Highly experienced specialist 11+ and Entrance Exam tutor. Heathcote, Langham Rd. Boxted, Colchester, CO4 5HU website; www.11plusessex.co.uk Tel; 01206 272789

Independent School Information

Independent Schools Council Independent Schools Directory website; www.isc.co.uk website; www.independentschools.com

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Heathcote Tutors is one of the most respected, and successful tutors in North East Essex, and covers this area and South Suffolk. All tutoring is by Roger Ashford,B.A, Cert.Ed. All of the information given in this booklet has been gained through many years of tutoring specifically for the 11+ and Entrance Exams, and all material available through the website reflects the approach to these exams developed over this period.

Should you have any queries regarding the exams, or wish to discuss tutoring for your child, we will be only too pleased to help. TEL: 01206 272789 MOBILE: 07762 132909 EMAIL: rogerashford@talktalk.net

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