Grammar School: The Right Choice for Your Child?

Are you trying to decide what the best school will be to help your child achieve a bright future? Here is some information to give you a clearer insight on grammar schools and what they entail.

What are the differences between grammar schools and other schools?

Grammar school students are chosen selectively on academic ability, which is assessed by using entrance exams taken at age 10 or 11.

Mainstream schools are unselective, and allocate places based on other factors such as their catchment area.

How much preparation should your child do for the entrance exam?

Preparation for the entrance exam begins in Year 5. Parents and teachers begin to introduce the child to more information about the exam and provide more resources which help to prepare them.

There are a number of ways which pupils can prepare for their exam, such as:

Building their vocabulary and improving their spelling
Using timetables to plan revision time, deadlines and exam dates
Becoming efficient in mental maths and math problems
Practicing verbal and non-verbal reasoning questions, which are unique to the 11 plus
Using past papers to practice exam style questions

What are the negative side-effects of tutoring?

Privately tutoring a student on top of school education can cause exhaustion in pupils. This is because tutors are overloading pupils with work. Pupils already struggle to cope with the pressures of schooling, homework and exams and may experience being “burnt out”.

Extra tutoring sessions can cause pupils to neglect their homework which is believed to be more efficient than extra schooling sessions. This can put them out of sync with their class at school.

What are the expectations of a grammar school?

Most grammar schools hold similar values and expectations within their school environment.

These can include:

Good academic achievement.

Up to standard uniform
High attendance
Ability to be organised
Independence
High work ethic and effort

As grammar schools are based on academic ability and aptitude, students are required to adhere to the expectations of selection.