Parents and the Eleven Plus

Parents sometimes have difficulty in encouraging their children to participate fully in the `Eleven Plus Experience’. Another way of developing this concept is to suggest that the much loved child, on this occasion, simply does not want to do any extra work.

Naturally this calls for a parental pep talk. A pep talk where parents go though the full range of emotions. One moment they are appealing to their child’s better side, the next a threatening frown flutters across the face and then the straight forward bribe is offered. Only a parent can rationalise all these three threads into one three minute pep talk.

You child needs to understand that it is essential that he or she is attentive.

It is also important that your child wants to learn.

And thirdly the work must be appropriate. It is no good asking for a speed test on a full Eleven Plus paper when your child simply does not feel like doing the work.