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Providing tuition, advice and training to help young children navigate controversial situations 11 plus exam Experts have suggested that access to selective schools could lead to children being less intelligent and that the examination should be abolished.
For many parents, paying for tuition to pass exams seems like a serious necessity so that their child can receive the best education available.
But experts warn that the rise of verbal and non-verbal reasoning papers, originally aimed at weeding out the academically most talented children, has given rise to a huge tutoring industry that risks turning pupils into “exam bots” rather than nurturing intelligence.
Unlike the other two main components of the test – mathematics and English – reasoning skills, which focus on problem solving through words or diagrams, are not widely taught in state primaries.
This gap has led to parents clamoring for private tuition, often at great expense, to prepare their children for the questions they would not otherwise face in school.
Spending hours sifting through papers has become routine, and for many families Year 11 is seen less as a learning opportunity than as a silly test useful in securing a coveted school place.
Critics argue that the result is a system that rewards coaching over curiosity, money over intellectual curiosity, and promotes socioeconomic inequality and class division due to the cost of private tuition.
There is now a growing backlash against the tests, with many working in the field saying they either need to be abolished or at least reformed.
Will Orr-Ewing, founder and director of Keystone Tutors, one of the country’s leading tutoring companies, tells Independent That the verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning elements of the exam “should be eliminated”.
“They are very easy to play with,” he said, adding that the way they had to be taught to get children up from Year 11 meant they had become “educationally unproductive”, and that they were “creating exam bots without any real love for learning”.
He further added: “Their main problem is that they prepare without any lasting educational value.
“If kids are putting in 50-plus hours a year in math, reading, history, etc., that would be much better.”
The cultural impact on the country of the 11-plus and its enduring role in the education system is one that has long been considered harmful by critics and those whose lives are shaped by passing or failing the exam.
website 11plusanonymous.org Publishes often harrowing, poignant and frustrating accounts of people having to go through selective examinations before starting secondary education.
One man, writing about the impact failing the exams had on his life, wrote: “Now aged 79 I look forward with confidence to the final abolition of the 11-plus. For me, not passing the 11-plus destroyed the concept of family forever: my siblings went to the local grammar school, but I lagged behind in the secondary modern. I felt let down when I failed the 11-plus.”
Another account of “grieving” parents of a child who failed the 2024 exams said some of their son’s hair had turned gray due to “extreme pressure” on him.
Ken Taylor, founder of Taylor Tuition, a service that matches students with expert tutors, explains Independent That the argumentative letters “capture an interesting position.” [they are] It is one of the few assessments within British education that seeks to ascertain students’ inherent intellectual capacity, as opposed to their ability to retain knowledge.
But he added: “However, like any measure, when it becomes a goal, it is no longer a good measure.”
Some grammar schools across the country are changing the way they assess children applying for places.
Reading School, a grammar school in Berkshire, has created a new style of admissions process, where the subjects tested can change from year to year, from geography to history. Maths and English are also tested but only on subjects taught in the national curriculum, many times reports,
Mr Taylor said: “Generally speaking, there is consensus around the aim of nurturing independent, self-confident thinkers through the education process and certainly questions are being raised about whether 11-plus in its current state achieves this.”
