Overview
The course is designed for Year 5 children and is taught over three terms from October to July, plus two additional sessions in late August and early September (a total of 34 weeks during the year).
All classes are held in our dedicated tuition centre and taught by fully qualified teachers with extensive experience of teaching Years 5 and 6 in Buckinghamshire schools. All course materials will be provided.
In addition to the term time course, we offer an optional Summer Revision & Exam Practice Workshop. This runs for two hours per day over five consecutive days with a choice of weeks in August. The workshop includes an intensive revision of some of the more difficult subject areas plus two full exams (4 separate papers) taken under conditions intended to simulate the actual transfer test as closely as possible.
Registration
Children may be added to a reservation list and assigned a reservation number at any age. Bookings will then be confirmed two years in advance, at which point a £75 deposit is payable.
Everyone with a confirmed booking will be contacted again eight months prior to the course start, and asked to complete a group preference form. We will request your top five preferred days and times. Should the demand for any particular group exceed the number of places available then we will allocate places in accordance with reservation numbers. At that stage a further deposit of £100 is payable to secure the allocated group.
Bookings for the summer course will not be taken until after completion of the first term. Priority for places will be given to term time students.
Syllabus
The course is specifically tailored for children who will sit the Bucks Secondary Transfer Test. The provider is currently GL Assessment.
Students will be tested on verbal, mathematical and non-verbal skills. The test consists of two papers. The first paper tests verbal skills and will include English comprehension, English technical and verbal reasoning questions. The second tests mathematical, non-verbal and spatial skills.
The following areas will be covered:
- Verbal ability
- Comprehension
- Grammar
- Punctuation
- Spelling
- Vocabulary
- Verbal Reasoning
- Numerical ability
- The four rules of number including word problems
- Shape & Space
- Data Handling
- Units & Measures
- Number Knowledge (place value, rounding, number sequences, fractions, percentages etc.)
- Non-verbal ability
- Solving problems involving pictures and diagrams
- Spatial reasoning
Approach
There are a maximum of 10 students per group and each group attends one session lasting 1.5 hours every week during term time. Classes are run from Monday to Friday in the afternoon/early evening and on Saturdays.
Students are given homework every week. Initially, this may take only 45 minutes to 1 hour per week but will increase as the course progresses.
- Build core skills, focusing on developing the verbal, mathematical and non-verbal reasoning skills required for the Bucks selection tests.
- Teach exam technique specific to selection papers and answer sheets.
- Provide a friendly, supportive atmosphere whilst delivering a highly structured course designed to build both skills and confidence
Written reports are issued towards the end of every full term including a teacher assessment and a detailed summary of test results.
We give honest feedback and will advise parents if we feel that their child is unlikely to attain the qualifying score for a grammar school place.
In some instances, parents see an overall improvement in their child's performance at school and decide to continue with the course regardless of the predicted outcome.
