If you’re searching for happy, successful 1:1 English tuition – no groups – please get in touch at leemottram@11plushappy.com, and visit http://www.11plushappy.com to learn more about me, my books and my lessons.
Let’s help your child reach their highest mark!
Regards, Lee Mottram,
BA English Literature, PGCE Primary Teacher, 17 years tuition experience
24-25 Successes include: Tiffin Girls & Boys, Sutton Grammar, Nonsuch Girls, Wallington Girls, Wallington Boys, Halifax Grammars, KGS, Freemans
Good morning, winter parents, tutors and children! I wanted to share a set of words from a story I’ve just finished writing, which will be included in an upcoming 11plushappy! book of fiction models. I thought, why wait till the book is out? They might help you now.
Each story model I’m putting in the book comes with a VVV – Very Varied Vocabulary – section, with ambitious vocabulary used in the story, along with meanings as they’re used in the story.
Vocabulary development is a vital tool for eleven plus writing – rare or advanced words, especially if they’ve been revised and the spelling is correct, will stand out from the crowd. Beyond the 11 plus, vocabulary is a superpower to help reading, writing and speaking. As Dr Seuss remarked, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Remember that some of the words below can have more than one meaning. Indeed, they can also be different types of words. Venture, for example, is a verb for doing something or going somewhere that has risks, but it’s also a noun, the name of a particular venture. (Did you see I added an adjective before the noun to describe it?)
So use these words and meanings below as a springboard. The meanings I give are how I’ve used them in my story, and this can be a very quick hack to getting your child to use them quickly. Do have fun digging deep into all that a word can be alongside this.
Words you can use and what they mean in the story
Volume (noun): How loud something is. (I am talking about flooding river water, so it’s also a pun on another meaning of liquid volume or capacity, which means how much liquid is in the river.)
Pummelling (verb): Hitting something or someone many times, often with fists.
Affrighted (adjective): Very scared or frightened.
Instructed (verb): Told someone how to do something; gave directions.
Principal (adjective): Most important.
Thus (adverb): In this way; as a result, therefore we can say that. A fantastic sentence starter!
Venture (verb): To go somewhere or do something that might be risky.
Wretchedly (adverb): In a very unhappy, miserable way.
Reciprocated (verb): Responded to something in the same way (like returning a smile or kindness).
All-consuming (adjective): Taking up all your attention, energy, or feelings.
Seized (verb): Grabbed something quickly and firmly.
Impulse (noun): A sudden desire to do something without thinking.
Subdued (adjective): Quiet, gentle, or not as strong as usual.
Distressed (adjective): Very upset, worried, or in trouble.
Clacking (noun): A sharp, clicking sound, the sound of knocking stones together.
Inevitable (adjective): Something that is sure to happen and can’t be avoided.
Anguish (noun): Very strong pain or sadness.
Anticipate (verb): To expect something to happen; to look forward to something.
Flood-borne (adjective): Carried or brought by floodwaters.
Prodigious (adjective): Very large, amazing, or impressive.
Silhouette (noun): A dark outline or shape of something seen against a lighter background.
Mercifully (adverb): Thankfully; in a way that brings relief or kindness.
Presently (adverb): Soon; in a short time.
Occurred (verb): Happened; took place.
Clamber (verb): To climb awkwardly using hands and feet.
Makeshift (adjective): Temporary and not perfect, but good enough for now.
What wonderful words. I hope your child will be able to put some or all of these into their writing this week. If your child does add them in a story, I’d love to read it, so please do email it in at leemottram@11plushappy.com.
Right, back to writing the book! Have a wonderful winter day of learning. If you’re considering tuition as the season of winter fire glow, crisp dark nights, Christmas lights and mulled wine begins, do get in touch at leemottram@11plushappy.com. Giving the gift of education could be the most rewarding gift of all. If you’d like to treat a relative – a son, daughter, niece or nephew to a lesson or two, please do let me know, gift certificates are available. And do please visit www.11plushappy.com for paperback books to help your child’s learning.
Have a wonderful winter week of wonder and words.
Lee, London
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…
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.
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.
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
With a new Non-Fiction Models book issued fresh for 2025, I’m dying to show you an extract from a persuasive letter, so you can see exactly how the guide will transform your child’s writing. Remember, each model in the book gives you:
It’s a guide to make your parent-and-child and tutor-and-child learning moments easy, valuable, and most importantly, to guarantee your child KNOWS how to make progress in every creative writing lesson and session. Yes, if you’d care to leap ahead in learning straight away, you can order your copy of the book on these links:
From Monday through to Friday, I’ll serialise extracts from the model and lessons – the full model and lesson taken from the book is 13 pages! We’re talking mountains of help and guidance!
My parents and children love this guide because it works: students progress quickly in all areas of exam-passing creative writing. Remember, I wrote the guide as a teaching tool, which use continually with my young writing legends – because it works. It’s your turn! Please come back to my 11plushappy.com blog on Monday. Here’s the sneak preview of what’s coming… Why not ask your child how many features they can spot in the opening paragraphs below?
Extract
Question: Your favourite playing fields are to be closed and replaced by a refuse (rubbish) and recycling centre to handle the town’s waste. Please write a letter to your local council to persuade them NOT to go ahead with this plan. You must give reasons for your viewpoint. What will you lose? You will be given marks for interesting vocabulary, persuasive writing techniques, punctuation and following the structure of a letter.
Time: 45 mins
(HAPPY TIP: Don’t be tricked into thinking you can write any letter you want. Although a question might not ask you to write a formal letter, persuasive letters should mostly use formal language.)
Freshly Cottage Flats
17 Goodview Court
Sutton
SM6 3PP
Dept of Planning
London Borough of Sutton 20th September, 2026
Dear Sir/Madam
From the address above, you may be alerted to the fact I’m one of the many concerned, frightened and – to be frank – livid residents whose lives will be ruined by the proposed building of the Refuse and Recycling centre on the site of Goodview Playing Fields.
My name is Laney, and as an 11-year-old beginning her life in the area, I stand to be affected more adversely and for far longer than the misguided grown-ups who came up with this nightmarish idea. A refuse centre instead of a park? Thus, I write for an immediate end to this ‘rubbish’ idea. There are three clear reasons to maintain the fields, with both urgent and long-term implications: the high levels of use the park has; the serious harm to children’s health; and a shock reduction in your council’s finances.
First, grasp Goodview as it is. You will know, as the local planning team, that there are 15 – yes, 15 – primary schools in the area, along with 2 secondary schools. Statistics on your own website (truthful facts, we presume) confirm approximately 8000 children study at these schools (7,873 to be exact).
Let’s go! If you’d like to know what features are in here and why they work, please bookmark or add Monday 19th May to your calendar. I hope next week’s blog adds ease, smooth-tempers and happy learning to your week.
Oh, by the way, I’m deliriously excited about launching a podcast soon, to help you if you’re an on-the-go thinker and learner. I’ll share more details soon. Season 1 is almost finished recording!
Again, here are the book links, the digital bookshelves, if you want to dive in and make progress straight away.
Stay happy, stay learning.
Any questions? leemottram@11plushappy.com
Lee, London. May 25
Your decision to choose a digital or paperback version of a teaching and learning book depends on:
Why you should love digital versions
With printing-enabled ebooks – all 11plushappy guides have printing ability – you can print out one essay at a time, multiple times. You and your child can write all over it and annotate it with notes to help you learn. For example, find and underline all the verbs, find all the similes, circle any writing imagery you want to magpie, and so on.
Because you’re printing this on paper, it’s great to get a pencil and paper learning session going. If it goes wrong, or even if it goes right, but the pages get crinkled or torn, you can print the chapter again! Nothing wasted. Likewise, take a chapter to a cafe, out to the park, or have a picnic in your garden, and you can easily create a Learning Cafe, where your child can relax and learn almost invisibly while slurping up a milkshake.
Another advantage is if you make a copy and store it on a drive or in the cloud, you can’t lose the book! Ever! You can take it on holiday, in the car, on the plane, without needing to worry about losing or damaging that one paperback copy you have; a real book is, after all, pretty much a living breathing thing deserving as much love as a pet!
Being able to print out sections also gives you the same advantage as a paperback book – you and your child don’t have to look at it on a screen all, or even any, of the time.
So when you buy a digital book, you’re really buying many copies of it to work on. True, a book can be photocopied, but you need a photocopier, and it takes a lot of time. An ebook printout is press and go. Helpful if you have two kids and want to use the same resource, all clean, or if you want to revisit the learning afresh with your child. I know there are copyright issues here, but I’m realistic. I know you’re going to print it out and make an extra copy. I want you to. You buy non-fiction books as tools to build something greater – your child’s learning and exam success.
Why you should love paperback versions
Well, it’s a book. Paper is going to be better for your eyes, A precious living thing, as we’ve mentioned. Something to look wonderful on your table, to pull out of a school bag, to take with you wherever you do your learning. A book is stronger than a print out, and will resist a lot of use. It can survive coffee, juice spillages, sticky fingers, even the beach.
It’s not digital and it’s better for your eyes. A book doesn’t run out of batteries. You don’t need any device to access a book. It’s there in your hands, in your life, immediately.
A real book on a shelf or on a table? Surely, one of the most beautiful, empowering sights in the world!
A paperback book teaches your child to hold books and work with them. You will help your child see books as a real alternative to phones, screens, videos, etc.
You can still write all over a book. ALL my non-fiction books are covered with notes, in pencil, pen and highlighters. You can use it as a tool and accept it’s going to get dirty. It’s fine; this is your child’s own copy. They will feel proud to have a possession they can personalise with names, stickers, colouring pens, post-it markers and their own handwriting.
Physical books make fantastic gifts, helping relatives to support families and grandchildren, nephews and nieces. There’s the thrill of the postbox, the delivery.
The main downside of a book is the risk it gets lost or damaged. You can’t make another copy. When it’s gone, it’s gone. Admittedly, though, this doesn’t happen too often.
I hope these thoughts help you decide which is right. 11plushappy guides are available in digital and paperback formats, so you are looked after whatever you prefer. But hold on…I’ve had an idea.
What if you could own both and make a huge saving?
What if there was a third way? What if, like me, you don’t want to choose? In a perfect world, you could have a digital and a paperback, right? But it would be too expensive and a waste of money to buy two versions of the same book, right? I thought the same, so I decided to create a double bundle of a digital and a paperback version of the guides at a £20 discount. Yey! Now you can choose not to choose. Now, you and your child can learn with a digital AND a paperback book.
£30 gets you both book formats, giving you all of above benefits. (That’s only £5 for the second book.) You’ll download your digital copy immediately, and receive your paperback in the post. Oh, and I pay for the postage, so that’s free to you.
Visit the http://www.11plushappy.com bookstore to start learning today.
I really hope this reading helps you decide. I’m really happy that I can now offer you three ways to help your child stay 11 plus happy!
Have a beautiful week of teaching and learning.
Lee, London
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
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.
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
Because the week is about fun,
I thought – how can I show ‘em?
Then some words raced into the room
And yelled: “Just write a poem!”
Mums and dads – they need fun too
They might have grumpy faces
Just speak in an unusual way
And take them to fun places
It might go right, it might go wrong
That’s not the point because
Our playful purpose is to pass
Our child’s 11 plus.
Perhaps you’ll say: “Today,
Our lesson starts under the table.”
Then with a preposition, move it
Everywhere you’re able
Splashing through a puddle,
Sprinkling water on your face,
You’ll say, “This ‘ain’t no lesson, child,
This is a Maths Café!”
A milk shake and some paper and a pencil and a jug
Turn milk to millimetres and then finish with a hug
I could go on forever, but I better stop today
So you can go and have some fun in your English Café.
This last verse has adverbs of time, this poem has showed you how
Your child learns longer with a laugh…so go and teach them NOW!
Happy learning. Let me know if you enjoyed today’s learning snack.
Lee, with a smile on his face, London
November 2nd, 2023
No one, it’s Halloween!
See you tomorrow for an 11plus master tip.
Lee, trick or treating in London, 31st October, 2023
