Taking this at the point by when an appeal has been denied and/or their place on a waiting list was not reached and there is no place for the child at the beginning of Year 7, the statement is wrong. If you feel that your child would be better off in grammar, there is still the possibility of entering in later years. Each year a few children will leave the schools, and this means that places become available. The individual school will offer testing days for their school, and a place for the following school year can sometimes be secured. Most families choose not to take this path as their children settle into whichever school they have joined, but the opportunity is there. Alternatively, there is a lot of flexibility at sixth form. At this point the schools will usually accept all of their current students as long as they receive a minimum score at GCSE, but increase their year group sizes for sixth form, offering a considerable number of new places. Just because your child didn't pass the 11plus test does not mean that they will never go to a grammar school. If you really feel that grammar school is right for your child, check with the schools to find out whether they have any spaces or wait until Year 11 when a lot of children change schools.

To pass the eleven plus you definitely don’t need a tutor, but it is very likely that without a tutor your child will need support from their parents/guardians. As with any test that your child will take (from SATs through to GCSEs and beyond!), having an idea of what the test will look like and how to answer the questions is very helpful. The GL publishers which is the test provider for Gloucestershire provides free materials practice with, and there are other suitable materials on sale (see our resources section). The verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning sections take a bit of getting used to as the types of question are new to most of us, but certainly not so difficult that most adults couldn’t help their child prepare. The English and Maths sections are related to the school curriculum. The extension to this and what we often see online is the statement: "You can get into grammar without any tutoring" or "My child got into grammar without tuition". Agreed, the next Einstein probably could, but for the rest of our children it is more a case of what do we mean by ‘tutoring’. If the definition is ‘paid tuition’ this is certainly probable. If we are thinking about a child who does not have access to reading materials, information about what the test will involve or supportive parents showing an interest in the test, then we suspect their chances are very slim. With such broad opposing definitions in terms of what "tutoring" is, we feel this statement is more misleading than right or wrong. Using a tutor can be helpful, especially if they are experienced with GL tests and can provide guidance. If you don't want to or are unable to use a tutor, then keep an eye out for our free parent/carer support evenings. We will be talking about what the test involves as well as tips & tricks for how you can help your child prepare. We also provide short courses and highly recommend our mocks, which give your child a genuine sense of what the exam conditions will be like. We are always happy to answer any questions you may have so get in touch if you think we can help.

This is a statement often expressed by eleven plus practice materials publishers as guidance to judge how your child is performing. The problematic part of them doing so is that eleven plus tests are not all the same and the practice materials are not always location specific. Where your child takes a test can have a major impact on a child’s chances of success. For instance, in Kent, where there are many grammar schools, the chances of success are notably higher than in Birmingham. Gloucestershire lies between the two. Schools in different areas also have different rules regarding allowances made for siblings, pupil premium and whether places are allocated based on meeting a score threshold or overall ranking. We have found that CEM style practice tests and mocks tend to need lower scores than GL style tests when predicting likelihood of admission, but still the key factor is ranking amongst the cohort. At Cotswold Education, we can provide reasonable predictions for Gloucestershire through the data we collect in our bespoke mock tests. We are able to compare how children perform in the mocks and then use this as our baseline when making predictions of the likelihood for success. In short, there is no definitive pass rate that we would suggest your child should be achieving in practice papers. Some children also perform different in practice tests compared to the actual test. If you want to find out more about the likelihood of acceptance into Gloucestershire Grammar Schools feel free to get in touch or come along to one of our Parent/Carer Support Evenings.

It is a common misconception that excellent tutors necessarily have the highest success rate in terms of grammar school acceptance rates. If you decide using a tutor is the best way forward for your child’s 11+ preparation, there are a number of considerations, the most important being that they have an up-to-date DBS background check, references, a good rapport with your child and yourselves, and knowledge of the exact exam your child will be taking. So why isn’t a very high acceptance rate topping the list? Some tutors are only prepared to tutor children that are already performing at a very high level in their academic work, whilst others take on children that have the potential to do well in grammar even though they are not at the same academic starting point. Another factor is that in all likelihood, your ‘excellent pass rate’ tutor will expect a lot of at homework to be done.