Cerys’ story

Family aspirations

Cerys attended a local prep school in South London, where she was in Year 4. The school was non selective and she was sitting comfortably near the top of the class. As her school normally took children to 13 Plus and was a feeder to many excellent boarding schools, their 11 Plus programme was underdeveloped.  They did not encourage children to leave at 11, nor prepare them fully for day school assessments. Cerys’ parents believed day school might suit their home loving daughter better.

Academic diagnosis

Cerys completed a CEM (Incas) academic assessment with us and we were able to advise her parents that although her attainment was not currently good enough to pass the assessments, her academic potential meant that she should be aspiring to some top tier day schools in South London.  Cerys’ parents visited Alleyn’s, JAGS and Emanuel school and decided to go for the 11 plus.  

How we helped

We found Cerys some special teachers who were able to accelerate her learning whilst also opening up new worlds of learning for her. She had one-to-one maths tuition for the whole of years 4 and 5 and an English teacher for the last six months before her exams. As she was gifted at Maths, Cerys’ Maths teacher taught her interesting puzzles that would allow her to differentiate herself on the exam. Cerys also planned lots of creative writing pieces so that whatever story she would need to write in the real tests, she had descriptive passages prepared and ideas for narrative arcs. 

Cerys’ success

Cerys was offered places at every school she applied to, winning an academic scholarship at one of them.