70% of our Year 6 pupils who sat the 11+ exam in September 2021 secured offers of a place at grammar school.

Preparation for 11+ has always been a tradition at Hydesville and each year a significant number of pupils secure places at our local grammar schools. We understand that such places are not suitable for all pupils, so our regular tracking and monitoring enables us to support all pupils on the journey to success.

We are committed to driving academic excellence across all Prep School year groups and to ensuring that every child achieves their true potential by the time they leave us at the end of Year 6.

How do we prepare our pupils for 11+ success?

Curriculum

We have built preparation for 11+ success into our curriculum throughout our Prep School, with our experienced teachers delivering specific 11+ preparatory work to pupils from Year 2. Our Year 5 pupils taking the 11+ examinations will take part in preparation lessons ahead of the summer holiday during the final weeks of the Summer term. For our Year 6 pupils, much of the curriculum will be collapsed in the first weeks of the Autumn term to ensure pupils are fully prepared for the 11+ examinations.

Extracurricular

We offer additional tutoring sessions for all pupils in Years 3, 4 and 5. These take place outside the school day and are led by our experienced teaching staff. Pupils work in small tutorial groups for 10 weeks per term. As well as this, we run a three-day accelerated learning course for Year 5 pupils towards the end of the summer holiday, ahead of the 11+ examinations which take place early in the Autumn term.

Additional Resources

Additional resources have been brought in to ensure a rigorous focus on the key demands of the 11+ examinations. These resources develop core skills in vocabulary, comprehension and numerical understanding in a way beyond standard text books.

We have also invested a personalised online learning, which gives pupils access at home to relevant maths, literacy, reasoning and problem solving questions. The learning platform analyses individual pupil performance enabling bespoke next steps for improvement to be identified. This system allows parents to see progress and gives the teacher appropriate feedback.

GL and CAT assessments taken in school and are used to identify each child’s potential, gaps in their profile, and whether they are placed within the “zone of possibility” – the likelihood of grammar school success. Each child’s profile provides relevant information regarding next steps for development in order to maximise progress and opportunity to achieve individual academic potential.

To find out more about our 11+ Preparation programme, please see here: