The 11+ system is a toxic open wound in the small town in Kent where I live. Everyone knows its indefensible, yet the system persists, concentrating privilege and resources in the grammar school as opposed to the non grammar school in the town. There is antagonism between the schools and friends and family are broken up every year. I have two kids at the grammar school so I suppose I’ve benefited from the system yet I would have much rather had a good school that everyone can access.

My son just received his results and did not pass. During year 5, his school told us they are “not allowed” to talk about the 11+ test, and do not prepare children for it in school. His teacher advised us to get the revision books and work through the reasoning questions. He did not have a tutor. It feels really unfair that some bright children are missing out on places at grammar schools due to some schools preparing children and others not, and some parents being able to afford tutors. We had no idea about the 11+ and how early some people put tutors in place.

I wish I had not put my son forward for the test, as it feels like was already at a disadvantage and now he feels disappointed in himself. It is an elitist process.

My son missed out by 8 points for the Kent grammar test, he’s absolutely devastated and trying to hide his disappointment by being funny. I am trying to focus on the positives, that he did well but he’ll do well whichever school he goes to.

We were so convinced he would pass, but weren’t prepared for this.

All I wanted to do is hug him but he pushed me away. Writing this just makes me cry.

Thank you for this forum.

My state educated primary school lovely 10 year old child sat the Kent Test this year alongside lifelong friends and classmates.

All tutored (because Kent has a well established unavoidable tutoring industry.)

Competing against Private-school children who have access to Atom learning in school, are taught exam technique in school, in addition to having external tutoring, while state schools are not allowed to offer any help or support to the children on the 11+ at all.

Some I am told take the test despite never having any intention of going to a state grammar – practice for the ISEB tests apparently – So their high marks skew the playing field for the State educated kids with only state school secondary options.

There is a high proportion of privately educated children more than likely taking the Kent Test this year due to VAT rises.

Some of my child’s friends just passed the test by a few marks. My child ‘failed’ the test by a few marks.

An arbitrary ‘pass’ line of who is deemed suitable for grammar school seperating years of friendships and academically very similar children.

My child is now distraught. Confidence broken. Bereft at friendships moving away. Distrusting of the education system.

How is this a way to treat 10 year old young minds who are eager to learn, love school and from one day to the next become very sad little people.

The fact is not lost on me that in 5 or 6 years time they will sit identical GCSE exams.

What is the point of separation at this age?

Luck and chance play a part in those scraping ‘passes’ – guessing correctly numerous answers while others may leave answers blank. That is exam technique – not a sign of academic ability.

This test needs to be abolished. It is not a level or fair playing field and no-one knows the rules they need to play to game the system

I’ll go back to my broken child now and pick up the pieces and build his confidence back up to re-enter this ridiculous kent education system.

I am beyond angry at this system.

Where is the compassion for our children ?

We were so happy for him when he passed with the qualifying score just above the cut off mark. But then he found out that all of his friends scored significantly higher and are pretty much guaranteed a place at the grammar school, whilst his score is too low to have a chance.

Now I feel like we have failed because everyone tutored intensively and we didn’t. And this is the problem with the eleven plus. It’s all about how much tutoring a child has. We took the test in the spirit it was meant in, we did a few practice papers at home the summer before the test. But of course, whilst we didn’t tutor, other parents did. I’m proud of my son for doing this test and passing it off his own accord.

Even though I’m glad we didn’t tutor him, and that instead of stressing him out with additional tutoring after school and in the holidays, instead did sports, arts, creative projects, we went travelling, camping, hiking, to music festivals, spending time with friends and family. And yet. The 11 plus system is making me feel like a failure for not trying harder as a parent, getting a tutor and giving him the same opportunity as his friends did.

I know that none of this matters in the long run. But I can’t shake off the feeling that everyone else ‘played the game’ and because we didn’t, my son will miss out on an opportunity thar his friends will have.

We received the results last Friday, I was heartbroken by knowing my son and I worked hard at it… now feeling sad but clearly a sign of bravery, courage and knowing that not all children at that age would do the test. Waste of time?? no, not really, we learnt a lot all the way, we are better off at knowledge and hopeful we will get into a good school. Discipline is the key, and if we are going to fail, I would rather fail now, fail fast… so that we will be prepared for our next challenges in life… :).

Thank you to everyone who has posted their reality. It has helped and brushed up my thoughts about the 11+. It has helped me prepare on how to handle the situation in whatever the result outcome is, my DS has been really nervous awaiting the result……I felt so sorry.

I didn’t even know much or think of him sitting for the exam (because of the catchment area) until six months (February 2024)before the exam. He said to me, I don’t mind trying it! Yes, good start I wanted him to, so I encouraged him, but let him know that whatever the result, we are good. Trust me he really wants to attend a good secondary school, also didn’t want to disappoint himself or us. He worked really hard.

He started tuition for the 1st time on the 9th of March. It was a bit of struggle, I practised past questions with him and his homework. Honestly, like someone mentioned, had I personally sat the exam, I would have failed the non verbal reasoning no doubt. I learnt some part of it while studying with him.

My DS sat the Bexley 11+ and Kent 11+ in September 2024. The Bexley result was released two days ago and thank God he PASSED. He is sooooo happy, I am too. We are waiting for the Kent result which would be out this week. Hopefully he makes it too.

Whatever school he finds himself, he would excel by God’s grace and with our support.

Thanks to everyone, your stories are a eye opener to the different phase of grammar school experience.

I have so many friends waiting for Kent Test results. I feel for them. I still remember the day I got the council email with my daughter’s test verdict. The email said, ‘not suitable for grammar school.’ My daughter took that to mean, ‘You failed. You’re not smart.’

It’s such careful language, isn’t it? People say, ‘you didn’t pass,’ but is that really kinder than using the ‘f’ word? They must hope the children who fail won’t see the truth. It’s a horrible system, and seems impossible to shift. Everyone hates the stress of it, but the reward of a grammar school place for many seems to make them forget the rest.

Today I received my child’s 11 plus exam result. It’s not ‘good’ news. I felt sad considering how hard my child had worked for it. I remembered seeing a gray hair on his head on the exam day, and I felt so guilty and heartbroken that he suffered enormous pressure beforehand and will suffer the results afterwards. I didn’t know how to tell him the outcome as he is still in school, but this forum gives me some insight. Thank you all for sharing your stories and thoughts. Appreciated.

When I sat the 11+ 1969 it was just another day in school. No fuss was made we sat the papers and that was it. When the results came out no one opened them, they went straight home to parents. I handed mine to my dad and knew I had not scored the minimum magic number( I would love to have know my score at least) as he said nothing. In school it was discussed with peers what school we were attending in the September and that was it. Practice papers and tuition was unheard of. At no point did I feel a failure. However I did feel the options for a career were very limited either nursing or office work was the choice for females. No one went on to University in my year. If you want to learn you will regardless of where you go for Senior School.

My twin sister and older brother, were both Grammar School stream , I was Secondary Modern stream, my siblings both attended a very heavily subsidised International Science Fortnight in London, parents of children attending only paid a very small token amount, attendance at the event was not available for Secondary Modern children.

Child sat the Trafford entrance exam. Tutoring to pass the exam is now the norm – How does this reduce the attainment gap between children from affluent and less affluent backgrounds?

Many children sit the exam from outside catchment, taking places away from local children.

They have one shot at the exam, meaning a child working at greater depth could have a bad day omntje exam day and be deemed as not grammar material. There is no 12 plus second chance.

Too much pressure at age 10.

Living I’m a Grammar Town in Lincolnshire is like living in an Apartheid-mild state, where segregation is based on 10 year olds (as the tests are so early in the Academic year, most of the kids are still 10) being shoved through countless £30-50 /h tuition sessions, mock tests and holiday booster weeks.

Middle class parents, wealthy grandparents and the Independent School flirting upper middle class press their 9 and 10 year olds through 11+ preparations from as early as the Summer Holiday just before Year 5. [Note the changes to Independent School VAT has driven our local Grammar to it’s highest ever Application rate, over 700 applicants for 200+ places].

It is a circus where the show pivots around; ‘Keeping Up With the Jones’ social-status alongside the ‘right’ car on the drive and pseudo Eco-credentials.

Parents not realising that the GCSE results at the Grammar schools are not a product of the school’s efforts but rather a result of the academic selective entry.

Disturbing cryptically-spoken ‘selective breeding’ opportunities for their offspring.

My child, against my wishes but inline with my partner’s determination, has been subject to the Tuition ‘Hunger Games’ for over 18 months.

I’ve spent months praising effort over outcome, walking a fine line of supportive encouragement and realistic rationalisation of the situation we find ourselves in. Neither my partner nor I grew up in a Grammar town, we certainly would not have passed at 10 years old, we were both slow to adapt to education and have ‘succeeded’ in the salary arena later in our lives. However, friends of ours from the town are institutionalised and conditioned to this 11+ experience, having attended themselves and wishing the same of their children.

My child has had multiple bouts of tears around ‘being seen a stupid’ or in their words “Everyone will think I’m dumb if I don’t get in”.

I’ve explained at length that in all reality in six years time they will sit potentially the exact same GCSEs on the exact same day, at the exact same time in the exact same town, simply separated by a mile; as both of the local secondaries are both part of the same exams process. I’ve explained that effort along with reviewing errors and mistakes, learning from them and looking for improvement are more valuable life-long skills than Verbal and Non-verbal reasoning tests.

I’ve explained that Grammar schools make little sense when there is no technical school equivalent. I’ve explained that in all likelihood AI will dramatically reduce the value of university requiring traditional professional type jobs and that either soft skills or manual skills will be the big demand of the near future. This is the hope for many parents, that their children follow the same academic conveyer belt route to the same type of jobs and salaries – I don’t think the increasingly internationally competitive job markets of 2035 will hold the same easy pivot points as it has for my parents and some of my generation.

I’ve explained that this whole experience is toxic, how it divides our town, how it segregates all too uncomfortable along household income boundaries and creates ‘I’m Smart / I’m Dumb’ dialogues in our children’s minds.

I’m looking for positives from this whole experience. The few I can grasp for are; my child has learned about formal testing long before the skills are needed (hopefully not too far in advance for them to be lost), my child has enjoyed at times the feeling of unlocking new methods of tackling paper based problems and they have, with my regular re-enforcement, learned that effort and reflection trump short term outcomes.

We have celebrated the end of the tests and my child’s efforts. We will celebrate in the exact same way on results weekend regardless of the outcome. I want child to learn that effort and resilience have been the real reward.

It’s absolutely wrong. I don’t know one parent who supports it but if you don’t put your child forward, you’re effectively telling them you don’t believe in them, and if you do, you’re often setting them up to “fail”. Most places do without it, Kent should too.

I remember the day I took my 11-Plus exam in 1973 … not that I knew it at the time. I can even remember exactly where I sat in the room. I attended a small two-teacher village school in Suffolk. After arriving at school that day, myself and my five or so same-year friends were unceremoniously ordered into the Infant Classroom, each told to sit at a desk, and to fill in the form in front of us. After struggling through this thing, we all went back to normal lessons. A few weeks later we were all told that we’d failed our 11-Plus, and it only then dawned on any of us that we’d actually taken it!

As had (in any case) always been understood, I and my friends all went off to the local Comprehensive the following year. That year my best friend from the same school, who was a year younger than me, passed his 11-Plus with flying colours and went off to a Grammar School in Ipswich. Having then lost touch, we eventually met up again in our late teens and it was while sitting in a pub, reminiscing about school, that he questioned how I could have failed my 11-Plus while he passed his with ease.

It soon became clear to us that his 11-Plus experience had been quite different from mine and that, while he’d been supplied with learning resources weeks in advance of the exam, neither I, or any of my same-year friends, had received any such preparation. My friend was quite upset and disgusted that I’d not received the same help, as he knew others who had. It was only when we noted that they, like him, had all come from middle class backgrounds, that the penny finally dropped – as all my friends from my year were from working class families, mainly, like me, with farm working parents.

I don’t of course begrudge any success that my friend had in life, but I’ve always known since then, that my own progress through life was diminished by a corrupt system that deliberately attempted to prevent pupils from lower backgrounds from even having a chance of high achievement. However, despite this attempt to hold me in my place, I went on to be an engineer and the first in my family’s history to gain a professional trade. More satisfyingly, both my children are high flyers, with one of them listed as amongst the country’s best in her chosen profession. And I’m sure mine isn’t the only example of showing up a despicably corrupt system and those who implemented it.

I remember clear as day, receiving the failure slip and my best friend passing. The same beat friend no longer wanting to be my friend as she was destined for a better life. That hurt, shame and loss has never left me. I went on to the local rough comp. I studied hard, did well and went on eventually to get a first class degree. I still feel like an imposter. I can still feel that hurt like it was yesterday. I e never shaken the feeling of not being good enough.

Sadly I live in a selective borough and my son is now going through the same. I feel for him. I am determined for him to feel different if he isn’t selective. I am feeling the pain all over again. In some ways if he doesn’t pass I failed again.

Going to a junior secondary the teachers were encouraging , went on to do first year of O Levels passed and requested to attend senior secondary and was allowed to complete 5th and sixth year with the support and encouragement of wonderful teachers . Completing Highers allowed access to train for Teaching diploma and degree in Occupational Therapy as a second career .All these years later failing made me more determined to achieve goals .Exams do not define you as a person .

I was top of my class when I took the exam, when the results came out I was told I’d failed so I went to a secondary modern school. On my first day we were given a test, the following day I was called into the headmasters room and was told I was in the wrong school. I told him I had failed the exam.

Many years later I bumped into a friend who I hadn’t seen since junior school who’d passed. He told me I had actually passed the exam and the reason I didn’t go to grammar school was because I was from a very large family. 10 of us. The LEA decided they couldn’t afford uniforms and other things and that was the reason they failed me. It still rankles with me, after 63 year of this. I have no doubt this was going on in the 60s. Anyone with a large family was ostracised.

I’m scared i wont pass 11 plus

Having failed the 11 plus in Buckinghamshire, my daughter went to our local nonselective school, from which she went on to Cambridge University and there achieved a First in her English degree – so much for the mantra repeated in our county’s primary schools that the 11 plus selects you for the school most suited to you! We withdrew our second and third daughters from the 11 plus, they too went to our local nonselective school and on to receive firsts from Durham and UEA respectively! Much of the hard work to achieve this they did themselves in difficult educational circumstances due to under resourcing and low aspirations at their secondary school.