Year 5 Autumn Term: Building the Foundations for 11 Plus Success

The very first step is to check your chosen school’s admissions page and confirm:

• Which tests your child will be sitting.

• Which test provider the school uses (for example GL or FSCE).

At Club 11 Plus we specialise in GL tests, which are used in many areas across the UK. Knowing what your child needs to prepare for is essential - it helps you avoid wasted effort and prevents gaps in knowledge.

Before you launch into a study plan, it helps to know your child’s starting point. At Club 11 Plus, we offer baseline tests in maths, English, verbal reasoning, and non-verbal reasoning.

These tests are set at the same level of difficulty as the real exam, but they are much shorter. They won’t take too long to complete, and the results will give a clear picture of strengths and areas for improvement, helping you focus your efforts where they are most needed.

Your child may never have seen verbal and non-verbal reasoning questions before. These types of question aren’t dependent on the work your child will be doing in school during Year 5, so it makes sense to introduce them early in the year, before shifting more focus to maths and English later on.

At Club 11 Plus, we divide verbal reasoning into 20 different question types, and non-verbal reasoning into 6. Each of these question types forms a module within our verbal and non-verbal reasoning courses.

Encourage your child to work through the lessons for each module, and to then attempt at least one quiz. This will give them a sense of what lies ahead, and help you identify areas where they might need extra support.

Begin with a couple of comprehension exercises. Encourage your child to take their time, as children often rush and miss details.

The Club 11 Plus "bite-size" comprehensions are perfect at this stage. They are the same level of difficulty as the real test, but much shorter, helping children to get a feel for the kinds of questions they will encounter.

Alongside comprehension, start working through our grammar and punctuation lessons. These lessons include built-in quizzes, so there’s no need to move on to the stand-alone quiz sets just yet.

Maths builds layer upon layer, so it’s vital to get the basics right before moving on. At Club 11 Plus, our modules are carefully ordered, so the foundations are in place before more advanced topics are tackled. We recommend children work through the maths modules in sequence, always completing the lessons before starting on the quizzes.

This approach dovetails neatly into what your child will be doing in Year 5 maths at school. Although many of these topics have been touched on in Years 2 to 4, most are first covered in detail during Year 5.

Here are the topics tested in GL maths papers, in the order we suggest they should be tackled:

• Time

• Factors

• Algebra

• Fractions

• Decimals

• Money

• Percentages

• Comparing fractions, decimals & percentages

• Square & cube numbers

• Negative numbers

• Temperature

• Measurements

• Maps & plans

• Symmetry

• Shapes

• Angles

• Mazes

• Area

• Perimeters

• Charts, tables & graphs

• Coordinates

• Prime numbers

• Calculation machines

At Club 11 Plus, each of these topics forms a separate module within our maths course. There’s no need for your child to complete all these modules in one term. A good approach is to cover roughly half in the autumn term, the remainder in the spring, and then move on to mixed maths quizzes in the summer. This approach gives plenty of time for skills to be consolidated.

Whatever resources you use, expect to sit alongside your child for some of this work. At Club 11 Plus, we recommend being present during the lessons at the start, then gradually stepping back to let children complete the quizzes on their own. You’ll soon find the balance that works best for your family.

Club 11 Plus can be accessed either on a desktop PC or through our app, giving you a flexible study tool that fits easily into busy family life.

Subscribers to Club 11 Plus receive an email after every quiz, showing their child’s score. Keep an eye not only on the results, but also on how long each quiz takes. If your child rushes, scores poorly, and then retakes the quiz immediately to achieve 100%, they’re not really learning.

Part of your role as a parent is to be a bit of a detective. Children naturally look for the path of least resistance - and while we love them for it, a little oversight from a watchful parent can make all the difference.

In the spring term, the focus can then shift to building on those foundations, tackling each topic in more depth, and giving weaker areas the attention they deserve. For now though, slow and steady progress is exactly what’s needed.

If you’re not yet subscribed, now’s the perfect time to join Club 11 Plus and explore everything with a 7-day free trial. Our mission is to make top-quality 11 Plus tuition affordable for everyone, so even after the free trial, a subscription costs just £19.99 per month, but offers you everything your child needs to prepare for any GL 11 Plus test.

To start your 7-day free trial today, click here.