Our partners at Holland Park Education list eight key extra resources to help parents to support this process.
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The key to success in any endeavour is consistent preparation and ongoing practice. Holland Park Education’s tutor Isaac Baden-Powell, and Katie Ross, author and educator offer their recommendations and support for additional resources that can be incorporated into your child’s routine.
These recommendations should provide helpful, and straightforward, supplementary exercises that can be used to boost any student’s potential.
The New Oxford Book of Children’s Verse
This is a very good resource for getting children into reading, understanding and engaging critically with poetry. Some schools fail to see the significance and importance of poetry in the development of children’s literary development, despite it being a vital part of the 11+ entrance exam. Having a child be able to talk confidently about a poem that they love will make them shine in an interview context.
A very good online platform, which has great practice tests on it as well as a great interactive IOS/Android app. It covers all aspects of 11+ but is particularly useful for Non-Verbal Reasoning and Maths, as you can choose to focus on weaknesses and develop them.
As hardcopy, physical paper books, these are a great antidote to the excessive screen time which children seem to be having during the lockdown, but also have a great selection of short tests in all areas of 11+. They are well designed in short tests that are easy to assimilate and, as they contain answers, can be used by parents to check their child’s work and progression.
Maths Fun for Cool Kids is a puzzle book full of UK maths curriculum-related activities. Word problems, cartoons and jokes liven up the maths syllabus making this book a fun activity for any child aged 9-12.Rather than being arranged by topic, the puzzles are mixed up so the student can dip in and out whenever they need a break from formal study.
Revision Fun for Clever Kids is a challenging collection of Maths, English and General Knowledge tests cunningly disguised as fun puzzles and tempting brain teasers for children. The puzzle format encourages thinking skills, resourcefulness and applying learned strategy to problems which is a vital aspect of good exam technique.
Descriptosaurus: Supporting Creative Writing for Ages 8-14
A thematic expansion of a dictionary and a thesaurus; it provides children with a comprehensive resource with which to expand their descriptive vocabulary, experiment with language and sentence structure and build up narratives based around settings, characters and creatures.
Haydn Richards Junior English – Book 4
Another excellent English-focused resource from a much-respected series.
11+ Super Selective Maths: 30 Advanced Questions
For those who are very focused on Maths and very advanced for their age, this book offers an extra push and more of a challenge.
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