Tag: 11 plus practice papers

Helping your child be better at planning stories

Hello Planny-parent! Time to get plannish! We know planning stories in exams has a number of advantages:

  1. It makes sure your child is answering the question with every sentence.
  2. The right plan (short) will save time and help your child write more within the exam time.
  3. A fully answered story will attract the most marks for the flow/cohesion part of marking.
  4. It stops your child worrying about finding the perfect story to write. There is no one correct story – think up one and go. You are marked for the writing, not just the idea.
  5. It helps your child manage time. They can attack paragraphs with a 5 minute rule for each paragraph far easier once they know what each paragraph will roughly be about.

How can you help your child plan better? By giving them times when they just practise imagining and writing plans, separate from actually writing the story. Focus on having fun with the planning. You can frame it like a fun factory or bakery, where their job is just to generate and churn out four or five plans for a prompt.

HAPPY TIP: Be generous with time first if needed. 15 minutes per plan, if you are talking it through together and playing with options. Then reduce the time a minute at a time, until we get to the optimal time of around 3 minutes a plan, for a full 40-60 min story.

Look at the gorgeous picture above (and below) of Heather Bridge, from a photograph I bought on holiday in a fantastic Art cafe, The Gallery, in Laurieston, Dumfries and Galloway.

Have your child invent three possible plans for a story inspired by or using this wonderful bridge. Planning something, then letting it go and starting again, is both a strange and wonderful experience. It’s interesting how your child may become attached to the story plan and not want to forget about it. Reassure them that no plan is wasted – they can choose the final plan (or choose more than one plan) to write the story with. This exercise is about trusting your own creative imagination, it’s about your child learning that their imagination can be trusted and also grows the more they practise this skill. It’s about admitting that planning is a skill that we can develop with deliberate practice.

To help, here are three short plans I came up with in a real lesson for the picture of the bridge. Here is the stunning Heather Bridge once more:

Plan 1: Adventure/friendship/funny

  • Identical twins who love each other live on opposite side of bridge, but meet often.
  • A friend is jealous of their closeness, and tries to make the other jealous of each other. She wants one of them to like her more.
  • The city announces pollution has filled the river and is to dangerous to cross, bridges will be closed and banned.
  • The friend is happy – she lives on one side and can have one brother as her best friend.
  • But the brothers come to the river and carry on their friendship, speaking and shouting to each other across the river.
  • The girl makes a translation machine that distorts their language and makes kindness sound like cruelty.
  • The boys are upset to hear each other insult each other. They fall out.
  • The twin who lives with the other friend discovers the machine, reverses it.
  • He also makes a catapult and decides to trick the girl to teach her a lesson. catapults himself to the other side.
  • Girl angry, insults them both, but the reversed translation machine makes her cruelty sound kind. Eventually, the girl apologises, and speaks kindly.
  • They figure out a way of all playing together by joining each other and taking turns on one side by using the catapult.

Plan 2: Fairytale/legend

  • Lonely girl visits the bridge daily – no heather – to sit and gather stones and throw them.
  • One day she arrives and heather has grown over it. No way through, or so she thinks. Sees another girl at the other end of the bridge. Tries to go over, but heather seems to stop her. The other girl tries the same, with same results.
  • They figure out if they meet in the middle, set off at the same time, they can cross onto the bridge. A magical friendship bridge.
  • A trap. Beneath is a lonely troll who lives off friendship and love – she has none of her own. Causes a flood and they fall into the water and are swept.
  • Friendship is too strong for the troll to swallow because both girls were lonely and really needed this friendship. The troll starts to feel pity and sorrow, rebuilds the bridge, but knows whatever she eats turns to stone, so puts their statues on the bridge as a reminder.
  • From this day, it is the most beautiful, famous bridge in the world, and people come from all over to celebrate their friendships. Sometimes, in the water, they hear the sound of the two friends laughing, still together. The troll did not die, but grows smaller and smaller from refusing to eat friends ever again. But, there is a legend that says if two friends go on the bridge who are not friends, the troll will grow larger and devour them. Lesson: be a real friend or the troll will eat you.

Plan 3: Portal Story

  • On one side of the bridge, all is well. A kind world, no one argues, no one wants for anything, cleanness and fresh air, etc. But the world is bordered by bridges that are forbidden to cross, all closed up and alarmed.
  • Szymon discovers Heather Bridge, curiosity grows, why can’t they cross? Finds he can cross it easily.
  • Another world on the other side – winter, smelly, shouts and sobs, things broken. Meets Rag, a child living on this side. They both are confused by each other. Tell of each other’s words. Discover that the kind perfect world only exists because bad energy is sent here to the outside. The Kind world creates this cruel world, there is no scope to change, no power.
  • They become friends and decide to form a pact to make a fairer world. Boy writes about Cruelland and tells everyone at home. He is put into jail for spreading lies. (he didn’t know there were prisons.)
  • Another person helps him escape, knows about the place too. He has invented a portal opener to open the bridges and allow Cruel Land people to escape and come back to be helped by Kindland. He and the boy open the bridges, has arranged for medical/social help for the incomers. Rag and Szymon first to cross bridge – a new opportunity to create a genuine Kindland for all.

Over to you. If your child uses plans for the above picture, please email me them at leemottram@1plushappy.com. I’d love to read them, and will post a few up here to share.

In the meantime, if you think your child would enjoy or benefit from creative writing lessons from a teacher who absolutely loves writing, please do reach out to me. With the 11plus exams nearly over for this year, I’ll be taking on four new online students. I’m currently teaching Y4, Y5, Y8, Y10 and Y11 students, preparing for both the 11plus and GCSE English Language exams, from Halifax to London to Kent. Please email leemottram@11plushappy.com.

Happy Writing!

Lee, London

VVV: Very Varied Vocabulary Episode 2: 7 Tips to Help Your Child Grow and Embed a Gargantuan 11Plus Vocabulary! (Preview from the coming podcast season)

Hello! We’re back with Podcast Preview 2, in a season dedicated to the 11plus superhero skill of vocabulary. In our last podcast, we learned why it was vital your child develops a sparkling repertoire of words as they approach the 11plus. Today, I’d like to share 7 ways to kickstart and augment your child’s 11plus vocabulary in your learning sessions and in life around the house. Maybe you’re doing them already – if you are, please let me know how they work for you. Here goes…

  1. Down-Up & Write (with a drop of the unusual added in).

When reading new words in stories, plan times – perhaps chapter ends, or every few pages – for you or your child to write the word down and look up its meaning. Then take a handful of words and write them into a small paragraph, or a few sentences in ANY kind of text: a silly poem, a shopping list, a letter or email to a relative, a name tag on a plant, a story, a description whatever you can both think of. Sometimes, unusual texts will stick in the mind. Imagine you’ve written adjectives on separate plant pots in your garden or kitchen; they’re there all the time, so your child will be reminded of them if they’re playing near them or watering them. You can gamify this quite easily. “Mahesh, go and water the omniscient onions.” “Ananya, could you water the Vociferous Violets, please?”

2. Make time to read aloud to each other.

It’s a super way to really identify words that are tricky or new, since if they’re reading alone, you won’t hear your child pause or skip. The danger is, if there’s too many skips without taking the time to understand or share a word and its meaning, it can become frustrating, which can lead to avoiding reading (like the Wuthering Heights student I mentioned in the last post).

3. The Word List Board Game.

Look up word lists. You can google ‘vocabulary KS3/KS2’ or ‘ks2 synonyms for said, lists of verbs, etc. I love two resources out there: Banish Boring Words (it’s American, so just watch for ‘z’s when the UK uses ‘s’s, and the U.S. ‘or’ when the UK uses our (we write behaviour, they write behavior) and Twinkl have a fantastic ‘500 11plus words’ pdf if you are a member. (No affiliate, I just use them a lot in lessons, and I bought both the book and the subscription.) However, there are dozens of free lists out there. With a list, you have ready-made boardgame. Grab a dice (you need a dice as part of your 11plus journey – they turn everything into a game!) and roll through the words. You could go backwards, forwards, have a race to the centre of the list, with you starting at different ends, add any rule you can invent. With the word you land on, speak, check the meaning, and write it into a sentence. Even better, why not say all the words on your way to the word you land on?

Actually, on the issue of writing sentences, I’m coming to the conclusion that as we don’t ask children to write sentences in an exam, it might be better to choose 3-5 words at a time, which your child then puts into a paragraph. The extra advantage of this is it will strengthen the understanding of a word, since your child has to work out how the words can fit together.

4. A super solid strategy is to balance modern lists with lists of words from Victorian literature.

I’m in the process of developing Victorian lists, but if you google ‘victorian vocabulary list 11plus’ or ‘victorian vocabulary from novels’,you’ll be amazed at what you find. I’ll post when my lists are compiled.

5. Start, Middle and End.

To help your child write their paragraph, they could choose three words from a list and agree to use one word in the first sentence, one word in the middle and one in the last sentence. They can try this in a whole story, with one word the last word of the story, you have a fun target to aim for.

6. Choose 5-10 words of the week and make them the whole family’s target.

Points are given each time someone catches someone using the word in speech or in writing. Don’t be too serious with this, have some fun. “My need to burp is abating (lessening),” is absolutely fine! Go with your own family limits.

7. Synonym Bagels for see-through words.

This last one’s a teaser, as next week, we’ll look at the sinister, light-fingered, larcenous, vocabulary-thieving evil of see-through words, for which synonym bagels will come to your child’s rescue.

 For now, go have fun, go make some progress, find some new words together, do subscribe, and please pop by my little website, www.11plushappy.com, for books and posts to help you and your child achieve 11 plus success. You can also email me at leemottram@11plushappy.com . Thanks for being adventurous and brave and crazy and loving enough to walk this 11plus path with your child. I hope this first episode has whetted your appetite and got you salivating for some syllables. Sieze the moments, and enjoy the time you have learning together. Start learning, stay learning, stay 11plus happy!

Lee.

VVV: Very Varied Vocabulary: A Superhero of the 11 Plus. (Preview from the coming podcast season)

Hello! Good to speak to you again. Did you know you’ll soon be able to enjoy 11plushappy as a podcast? (Season 1 is curiously called season 2 – you’ll have to listen to find out why)

Season 2 will be dedicated to one of the major superheroes of happy 11plus learning – vocabulary. Over 10 episodes, you’ll understand why it’s such a life-changing, exam-winning champion, capable of transforming your child’s writing, reading, comprehension and SPAG-skills, both in the months of preparation and during your little genius’s exam itself. Vocabulary is a game changer, which will help your child make rapid gains in 11plus prep. In this blog, I’m giving you advance content script from the podcast, in order to get you started asap. Let’s ring the bell and dive into the lesson.

Episode 1 – Let’s talk words.

Why is vocabulary so important to your child’s 11plus chances? What’s the big/vast/abyss-like/substantial/momentous/consequential/mammoth/far-reaching deal?

Here are 4 reasons why teaching and practising challenging and exciting new words must be a priority in the learning you do with your child. You’ll see that they all mingle and affect each other, so the list of four is just to help us organise our thinking.

  1. It’s already a national priority

A first point to note is that nationally, vocabulary has already been declared a priority by the UK education sector.

For example, post Covid, The Department for Education, the national education body for state schools, guides reception teachers to ‘assess and address gaps in language’ and get busy with ‘extending’ vocabulary.’ For KS1 and 2, the talk is of ‘increasing vocabulary’ and ‘developing’ vocabulary. This was prompted by widespread worry from teachers and parents that post-lockdown children had less vocabulary skills than pre-lockdown, and that deliberate intervention ought to be a must-have.

Away from lockdown, other studies have also explored the important issue of a language gap between different socio-economic groups. One of these, by a team called Hart and Risley, suggested an almost unbelievable gap of 30 million words between the richest and poorest slices of society by the age of about 4, in terms of the words that children have been exposed to or use. The study has holes in it, so here’s a helpful link to a catch-up commentary on it from 2015, which I find sane.

What I love in the study is the beautiful idea of mental nutrition, key examples of which are vocabulary and parent-child talk.

What matters for us here is that if vocabulary is a priority of those in the know, then do you think it might be important for you and your child? Hopefully, your head’s nodding.

2. English as an Additional or Second Language?

Another reason you may wish to focus on teaching new words and exposing your child to a rich varied diet of words is if English is an additional or second language for your child. From a purely time factor, if you’re speaking a non-English language as a home language, your child will be less exposed to English words, and less exposed to sources of English words. Where I am in South London, for example, I teach several ridiculously talented Polish and Sri Lankan children, and we find it enormously helpful to include the learning and writing of new, ambitious vocabulary into most lessons. This boosts confidence, comprehension and eloquence in both speaking and creative writing. Your child can only write with the words they know, hence a continuous stream of new words into your child’s life is going to explode progress in English and supply wonderful, mental nutrition.

3. It makes your child a better writer

Your child will write more interesting words and produce better writing. Better writing leads to higher scores in tests. It just does. True, away from tests, published, highly respected authors often opt for simple language with complete success. For instance, some writers nearly always use ‘said’ for ‘she said’, and steer away from synonyms -whispered, breathed, bellowed, etc. But… these authors are not sitting for 11plus exams, where marks are given – I’ll repeat that – they ARE given – for ambitious, extensive vocabulary. Especially if it’s spelled right, which is another reason to teach it deliberately, to give your child time to learn how to write ambitious words without error.

4. It makes your child a better reader.

Reading improves your vocabulary and vocabulary improves your reading. I recently taught a KS3 English genius, who has an ambition to read the classics. She tragically confessed that she’d stopped reading Wuthering Heights at the first page because there had been too many words she hadn’t understood. Needless to say, we’re addressing that in lessons and she has picked up the book again!

Ultimately, it comes down to EXPOSURE. On radio, tv, and in unplanned conversation, we’re not going to come across the wide vocabulary we need to smash an 11plus entrance exam. We’re just not. Your child can’t learn a word if they don’t come across it, so you can really help by putting handfuls of high-quality words in front of them. Even a few new words each session will lead to huge gains across the months of prep, helping your child understand and recognise the wide range of words that tests can use, such as finding synonyms and antonyms, spelling uncommon words, recognising what part of speech (what kind of word) a word is, missing letters, and so on.

Okay, vocabulary. Over to you. Are you convinced? Persuaded? Cajoled? Influenced? Coaxed? Enticed? In our next blog, released on Tuesday, we’ll look at 7 easy exercises to help your child learn and use new words Maybe you’re doing some or all of them already…

The podcast, 11plushappy English, is due to launch early September, giving you another convenient way to enjoy tips and support as you take your child towards 11plus success.

Have a beautiful week of learning.

Lee, London

Eleven Plus Parents – You CAN do this!

Well, another week means another opportunity to help your child as they prepare for their 11plus. How is it going? Two very simple messages today. One is up there in the title. You CAN do this. Thousands of children do pass each year, these schools do exist, they do accept children, and you have an equal chance to any other parent-and-child partnership of making it.

The second message is vast in its smallness: you, as a guide, only have to be one step ahead of your child when it comes to teaching them a particular skill. You don’t need to be a teacher, you really don’t. You don’t have to know the whole curriculum. You really don’t. You’ll end up knowing the whole curriculum, but you do not need to know everything to start.

Rather, spend the day or evening before a session with your child learning the one topic you are planning to cover. With the online world, you are never far from finding dozens of resources and lessons and free videos to get going. Choose 2-3 resources ( I think it’s useful to have different approaches to a topic, to help you take a broader view) and spend an hour looking at the information.

As long as you’re prepared to be a beginner, and as long as you don’t worry yourself about what you don’t know, you’ll make great progress, and you’ll help your child make progress.

It’s not about what you know now, it’s not about your own educational background. Honestly, it’s not. When I was helping my first child, I realised there was so much maths I hadn’t learned or remembered from school. Even at teacher training college, several tutors brought up again and again that there was a belief among many student and professional teachers they were not ‘good’ at Maths, which was totally false, and based on either old-school learning or the fact that as we hadn’t used it daily in our lives, it wasn’t in our working memory. I actually fell in love with maths only at teaching college; at school…well, I hardly remember anything from my own primary lessons. Yet I learned it along the way, or rather re-learned it, and now I teach it with a real fascination and passion, alongside my relentless passion for English and the spoken and written word. My first helpful book was the original Bond How to do 11 Plus Maths books, which had short, but so incredibly helpful, introductions to many of the subjects. Each step takes you onto the next step.

We are grown ups and we can help our children and we can feel good, not bad, about teaching ourselves just enough to guide them. These are tests for children, so please remember that. They are designed to be tricky, they are designed to catch people out, but they are also designed to be passed!

So please, breathe out, smile, and remember:

  • You can do this.
  • You are not alone.
  • You only have to be one step ahead in one subject.
  • It is definitely okay to learn along with your child.
  • It’s okay to say, “Ooh, I don’t know about this yet, let’s go and find out.” Admitting you don’t know everything will often make your child feel better about learning, as they realise it’s natural to not know things!

Okay, 11plus parent, okay 11plus tutor, okay, 11plus child-superhero – have an incredible week. Time is our greatest tool. Smiling and relaxing might be our second greatest tool. Now, you can go to the subject at hand and learn your way through the week.

Start learning, stay learning, stay happy. Lee

Eleven plus Non-fiction Models offer a fast track to your child’s writing success.

Why models?

  • Because models work. Ever followed a how-to guide on YouTube? You’ve learned from modelling. It can be a very rapid way of achieving excellent results.
  • Because models are fair. As a teacher, I think it’s very unfair we ask children to write an excellent piece of non-fiction, unless they first see, read, learn and practise what ‘excellent’ looks like.

It’s all very well people telling you to write a great persuasive letter or recount or description, but what does that really mean? How much do you write? How do you start? How do you end? What techniques and structure should you include?

Children need to know what success looks like, so they can aim for it. Success leaves clues.  Lego toys come with pictures and instructions for a reason.

My promise in writing this brand new guide, 11 Plus Happy Creative Writing Models: Non-Fiction Edition is to maximise your child’s learning, to help them score the highest mark they possibly can. My vision is that anyone who reads, learns and follows the steps in this book will become some of the best writers in the room – perhaps the best writer in the room. With this in mind, I also promise that this guide is about MUCH MORE than the models.

Our shared commitment is we want your child to pass their 11 Plus creative writing with a very, very high mark. Our shared commitment is we’ll work and write a lot of deliberate practice writing along the way, using the tools in this guide. Our shared aim is to dazzle the marker with writing that stands out from the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others. Our shared aim is that your children feel confident, equipped and ready to rock any exam. To make this a reality, each non-fiction model comes with the following:

  • A question prompt, so your young writer understands what each essay is trying to answer.
  • A model of a short plan – the kind you can actually write at the start of a time-pressured exam. Even the shortest plan will help you write the correct amount and make sure you stick to answering the question. You’d be surprised how often children write something completely different to what the question asks for. Or, they start by answering the question correctly, but then drift onto another topic or style of writing half way through.
  • The full model essay.
  • A huge and powerful lesson chapter: WHAT, HOW, WHY. We’ll zoom in to the micro-details, the many parts that make up a whole piece. The aim is clear: your child (that’s YOU if you’re the child!) will know what to write, how to write, and understand why they should write in this way.
  • VVV: A Very Varied Vocabulary section. Throughout the essays, we’ll collect dazzling and interesting words that I think you should use.
  • A list of the very varied vocabulary used in each piece of writing comes at the end of each chapter.
  • A definition for each word (as it’s used in the text) to help you write quickly with this jaw-dropping vocabulary.

This is the book I needed as a teacher. This is the book children deserve to read in order to help them see what finished exam-passing writing looks like, as well as understanding how that writing is put together. This is the book for the superhero parents who are actively involved in helping their child learn and prepare for 11plus success. This is a book that will support tutors in teaching creative writing.

But it’s not about the book; it’s about your child’s writing improving in each session. It’s about your child’s enjoyment and understanding of creative writing. It’s about your child feeling confident and skill-equipped to write a wide range of non-fiction essays.

Growing up, my mum and dad used to say often: “Children come first, second, third and last.” Before anything, consider the children. I know it’s why I became a teacher, I know it’s why I adored and continue to love being a dad. This book is part of that belief system.

Order your copy and let’s help your child reach their highest mark. Yes!

Eleven plus Non-fiction Models offer a fast track to your child’s writing success.

Why models?

  • Because models work. Ever followed a how-to guide on YouTube? You’ve learned from modelling. It can be a very rapid way of achieving excellent results.
  • Because models are fair. As a teacher, I think it’s very unfair we ask children to write an excellent piece of non-fiction, unless they first see, read, learn and practise what ‘excellent’ looks like.

It’s all very well people telling you to write a great persuasive letter or recount or description, but what does that really mean? How much do you write? How do you start? How do you end? What techniques and structure should you include?

Children need to know what success looks like, so they can aim for it. Success leaves clues.  Lego toys come with pictures and instructions for a reason.

My promise in writing this brand new guide, 11 Plus Happy Creative Writing Models: Non-Fiction Edition is to maximise your child’s learning, to help them score the highest mark they possibly can. My vision is that anyone who reads, learns and follows the steps in this book will become some of the best writers in the room – perhaps the best writer in the room. With this in mind, I also promise that this guide is about MUCH MORE than the models.

Our shared commitment is we want your child to pass their 11 Plus creative writing with a very, very high mark. Our shared commitment is we’ll work and write a lot of deliberate practice writing along the way, using the tools in this guide. Our shared aim is to dazzle the marker with writing that stands out from the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others. Our shared aim is that your children feel confident, equipped and ready to rock any exam. To make this a reality, each non-fiction model comes with the following:

  • A question prompt, so your young writer understands what each essay is trying to answer.
  • A model of a short plan – the kind you can actually write at the start of a time-pressured exam. Even the shortest plan will help you write the correct amount and make sure you stick to answering the question. You’d be surprised how often children write something completely different to what the question asks for. Or, they start by answering the question correctly, but then drift onto another topic or style of writing half way through.
  • The full model essay.
  • A huge and powerful lesson chapter: WHAT, HOW, WHY. We’ll zoom in to the micro-details, the many parts that make up a whole piece. The aim is clear: your child (that’s YOU if you’re the child!) will know what to write, how to write, and understand why they should write in this way.
  • VVV: A Very Varied Vocabulary section. Throughout the essays, we’ll collect dazzling and interesting words that I think you should use.
  • A list of the very varied vocabulary used in each piece of writing comes at the end of each chapter.
  • A definition for each word (as it’s used in the text) to help you write quickly with this jaw-dropping vocabulary.

This is the book I needed as a teacher. This is the book children deserve to read in order to help them see what finished exam-passing writing looks like, as well as understanding how that writing is put together. This is the book for the superhero parents who are actively involved in helping their child learn and prepare for 11plus success. This is a book that will support tutors in teaching creative writing.

But it’s not about the book; it’s about your child’s writing improving in each session. It’s about your child’s enjoyment and understanding of creative writing. It’s about your child feeling confident and skill-equipped to write a wide range of non-fiction essays.

Growing up, my mum and dad used to say often: “Children come first, second, third and last.” Before anything, consider the children. I know it’s why I became a teacher, I know it’s why I adored and continue to love being a dad. This book is part of that belief system.

Order your copy and let’s help your child reach their highest mark. Yes!

New for You! 15 top-level non-fiction models to help your child be the best writer in the exam room

A year in the writing, informed by hundreds of hours of teaching, and already helping people win success in dozens of 11plus entrance exams, please may I introduce an absolute must-have for your book-shelf or digital library in 2025:

In digital:

11 Plus Happy Creative Writing Models! Non-Fiction Edition: Instant Ebook Download

11 Plus Happy Creative Writing Models! Non-Fiction Edition: Instant Ebook Download

£25.00

For Parents, Children and Tutors. 11plus just got happier!  15 top-level models of the most common non-fiction exam questions. Matches exam time and word count. Expert lessons for every feature in every essay, with pages and pages of rich explanations, so that your child can emulate and own each skill.  From plan to punctuation to … Continue reading 11 Plus Happy Creative Writing Models! Non-Fiction Edition: Instant Ebook Download →

Category:

In paperback from Amazon:

Celebrate what they don’t know…

One highly effective and relaxing teaching and learning method you should use with your child is to high five them when a test shows they don’t know something.

Let me explain.

They sit a Maths paper and it shows they don’t know co-ordinates, or have forgotten how to do long division, or they come across a topic they haven’t covered yet. This is absolutely brilliant. Why? Because you have both just identified the next thing they’re going to be brilliant at. When you know you don’t know, you can then sit with them for a session or two dedicated to this unknown area.

Do this enough times and you come close to running out of things you don’t know in time for any real test.

If you’re critical of something they don’t know, they may be less likely to want to learn it, in case they get it wrong and disappoint you again. But if you frame learning as an adventure to actively seek out the unknowns and see it as finding treasure, it becomes less worrying and you make faster progress. Faster progress is what we want!

So celebrate what your child doesn’t know. You’ve found the valuable next step on their learning path. Yey!

Enjoy your back to school moment. Give them extra hugs and handshakes, it doesn’t last forever. Here’s to the preciousness of education and the preciousness of another chance to start again and move forward.

Best, Lee

11-a-side 11-plus-a-side: will your child be on the winning team in this year’s exams?

As we gather and grow excited for Sunday’s shot at history, are you also growing excited for your child’s equivalent Euro finals – their upcoming 11plus exam? If so, make a note of this book – it’s the single-most important creative writing book you will read. It will show you every must-write final exam-winning feature to include. It also gives you the strategies to practise in the months of preparation that come before any final, before any tournament, before any exam. Make sure your child is on the starting 11(plus) this season.

Good luck everyone. Please bookmark, buy and prepare to celebrate.

Order Teach Your Little Genius 11plus Creative Writing NOW!

This book really improves your child’s 11plus creative writing

If you're spending time helping your child's eleven-plus creative writing reach the grade for secondary school entrance exams, make sure you make progress - i.e. something changes about the writing itself or the understanding of the techniques and ideas - in every session. This book helps you do just that.

I wrote it for parents or tutors working with children. The ideas inside help children pass entrance exams every year. In last year’s season, it helped children pass the Sutton Test, Surbiton, Kingston Grammar, Tiffin, Ibstock, Queen Elizabeth, Highgate, Freemans and Dame Alice. They’re the ones I know about.

In my own cohort of personally taught children, 8 out of 9 made it to their school of choice.

Teach Your Little Genius will help you make the most of your precious time together, making sure everything you do is about learning, happiness, confidence and success. Along the way, your child will see the miracle of their own writing. Y5/6 children may be able to work through much of it alone, but it is not designed for that. There are plenty of books that do that. This book is to help the most powerful part of 11plus success, the learning relationship and time between parents and their child, or a child and their tutor.

It really helps. It may be the missing link that causes a shift in progress, and be the difference between good and “Wow!” I love this book so much for the help it brings and for the difference it is making to parents and children’s lives.

 

If you prefer a digital copy, look in the ebooks section on this website, 11plushappy.com

Start reading, start learning, start writing. Stay 11plushappy.

Lee