“We had planned to stop the tutoring after the 11+ exam, but with the next lockdown and more disruption to her education, we quickly relented when she literally begged us to continue going! The sessions are adjusted to her needs and she describes them as ‘really fun’ and she likes it that the work is specific to her level and much more individualised than the class work at school.”Who Our Tuition Is Not Suited For?
A Guide to Who Will Not Benefit From Our Tuition Service
We want parents and children to get the best out of our tuition service. The last thing we want to do is waste anyone’s money on something that is not for them.
Here is a guide to help parents decide if we are the right service for their child or children.
Last minute exam prep-esp GCSE
We are not able to cram for exams. Our tuition is designed to look for areas of weakness that students might have. We may need to go back a few years (educationally) to work on skills that students may have missed. This can take some time, and if you (or the student), are too focussed on an exam you might become frustrated. We are aiming for mastery and not just short term exam performance (that will probably be forgotten the day after the exam!)
SEN
We are not a specialist special needs centre. However, if we meet children for an assessment and feel we can work with them, we take them on. There are a few students, maybe their behaviour is too bad or maybe they can’t speak any English, who we find it difficult to help. The best thing to do is book in for a free assessment and we will give you our honest opinion.
Can’t Attend a Centre Regularly
Regular attendance at lessons is essential for progress. In many cases we only get 80 minutes once a week. We do not want to waste anyone’s money, so if you cannot attend regularly, we may not be the place for you.
If You Want Online Tutoring
We do not have an online offer at the moment. We still feel in centre tutoring is of a much higher quality than online, and that most children needs teachers to be present.
Free or Cheap Tuition
Good quality tuition by professional and experienced tutors does cost money. We have to provide a great learning environment and pay for fantastic, experienced and qualified tutors. We try to provide the best tuition that money can buy but we quite understand that it is not in everyone’s budget. We are committed to helping your child make progress so please don’t try to drive down our prices.
11+ Entrance Assessment for 2024/25 Portsmouth Havant Fareham
Independent Schools in Portsmouth, Fareham & Havant
Greetings, parents! In the Portsmouth area, you’ll find a variety of independent schools, each offering its own unique blend of educational ethos and environment, ranging from the grand to the intimate, and spanning a spectrum of academic rigour. We take great pleasure in assisting children with their preparation for the 11+ common entrance assessments, recognising the significance of this milestone. Additionally, we recognise the importance of ensuring everyone is well-informed regarding relevant dates and schedules. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on that front.
Scholarships
Academic Scholarships may be awarded to the top achievers based on the results of the school’s 11+ assessment. The criteria for this will vary from school to school, so you must apply directly to them.
Additionally, some schools offer scholarships for excellence in Art, Drama, Music, and Sport at 11+, 13+, and Sixth Form. These need to be applied for, and applications are usually submitted by the end of November preceding the September of entry. You can apply for more than one scholarship.
Financial Assistance
Some schools may offer financial assistance (means tested on income and exam performance) for Year 7 and Year 9 entry, and the deadline for applying is normally the end of November prior to the year of entry. Often, financial assistance is allocated first and foremost based on the child’s exceptional performance in the Entrance Assessments; the financial information you provide is then considered.
N.B. Please note that advice given here may vary between individual schools. It is important that you get in touch with individual schools to find out their exact criteria for entry requirements, scholarships, and financial assistance.
Common Entrance Assessment or 11+
This exam is so called as it is taken at the age of 11 years at the beginning of secondary education. Not all independent schools are selective, but almost all schools will want students to take an entrance assessment exam of some kind.
The entrance exams always cover maths and English to a high level. Children are also usually tested on their verbal and nonverbal reasoning. These tests are designed to be more difficult to prepare for as they are not school subjects. Verbal reasoning is concerned with language and word problems, while non-verbal reasoning includes logic, shape, and number patterns.
The 11+ Assessments typically consist of the following: Maths (50 mins); English (45 mins); Reading Comprehension (30 mins); Non-verbal Reasoning (30 mins); plus an Interview (20 mins).
Full Bursary
“We are so pleased that Mahera has got a FULL BURSARY for the local girl’s high school in Portsmouth. She has been to your centre before for tuition but we came back in November so she could get ready for the exams. She has worked so hard and Linda has really encouraged her in her writing! Thanks so much!”
Click here to read more about our success…..
Portsmouth High School for Girls
Music, Art, Drama & Sport Scholarship Day
Monday 6th January 2025
11+ Assessment Day
Tuesday 7th January 2025
Portsmouth Grammar School
11+ and 13+ Entrance Assessment
Saturday 9th November 2024
11+ entrance interviews
Mayville High School
All Candidates Sit Exam
January 2025
The Gregg School
Open Day
Saturday 22 June, 2024 10:00 – 13:00
11+ Entrance Assessment
January 2025
Meoncross School
Open Week: September
Open Morning November
Boundary Oak School
Assessment can be booked all year
Are you considering entering your child for an independent school? Book a Free Assessment today!
NOW IS THE TIME
If your child is currently in Year 5, then NOW is the time to start preparing for the entrance assessment exam in January.
During your child’s free forty-five-minute assessment we will:
- Test your child’s reading age, spelling age and maths ability.
- Give you honest feedback on your child’s ability to pass the entrance exams for each school.
- Discuss our previous experience preparing students for entrance exams for local independent schools.
- Give you a breakdown of the topics your child needs to cover to prepare for the entrance exam.
- Explain our materials and teaching methods to you.
- Give you the chance to ask any questions and to tap into our expertise.
Click here to find out more about tutoring for Entrance Exams …
11+ Common Entrance Assessment Dates January 2019
11+ Entrance Assessments for January 2019
Indepedent Schools in Portsmouth and Fareham
We love helping children prepare for 11+ common entrance assessments. I thought it might be a good idea to make sure everyone has the dates they need.
The entrance exams always cover maths and English to a high level. Children are also usually tested on their verbal and non verbal reasoning. These tests are designed to be more difficult to prepare for as they are not a school subject. Verbal reasoning is concerned with language and words problems while non-verbal reasoning looks are logic, shape and number patterns.
Here is a testimonial we received earlier.
“We are so pleased that Mahera has got a FULL BURSARY for the local girl’s high school in Portsmouth. She has been to your centre before for tuition but we came back in November so she could get ready for the exams. She has worked so hard and Linda has really encouraged her in her writing! Thanks so much!”
Click here to find out more about tutoring for Entrance Exams …
Are you considering entering your child for an independent school? Tell us and we can help prepare them.
Click here to read more about our success…..
Portsmouth High School
11+, 12+, 13+ or 14+
Saturday 19th January 2019
Portsmouth Grammar School
11+ and 13+ Entrance Assessment
Saturday 26th January 2019
Mayville High School
All Candidates Sit Exam
Saturday 19th January 2019
St John’s College
11+ Entrance Assessment
Thursday 20th November
Tuesday 22nd January 2018
The Gregg School
11+ Entrance Assessment
Saturday 2nd February 2019
Free 11+ Assessment Days
Looking For Expert Help for 11+ and Common Entrance?
Friday the 23rd June (Portsmouth) Wednesday 21st June (Fareham)
Find out if your child is suitable for the challenge of 11+ entrance exams! Are you thinking about entering your child for entrance assessment for local independent school such as:
- Boundary Oak School
- Mayville High School
- Meoncross School
- Portsmouth High School GDST
- Stroud School
- The Gregg School
- The Portsmouth Grammar School
- Twyford School
The standard of literacy and numeracy for these assessments can be high. If your child is strong in one or both areas you may want to find out which areas need attention.
Book a place on our excellent Summer School or Booster Lessons for 11+ preparation.
Each booking is 45mins long, and we will look at numeracy, literacy, verbal and non-verbal reasoning. We will give you free advice about your child’s readiness and learning needs.
Click here to find out more about our recent common entrance exam success…
Call us on 01329 738 100 or email tutors@ilovetolearn.co.uk Why not book now by filling in the form below to avoid disappointment?
General Enquiry
Click here to find out more about how we help common entrance students…
8 +11 + 13+ Exam Success
Once again we are celebrating 11+ exam success !
We have heard that everyone has passed exams and been offered places to at lea
st one of their chosen schools. This is such fantastic news and well deserved, you did it!
A big thank you to all our tutors who worked so hard with the entrance exam students. We are able to design programmes that focus on areas such as verbal and non- verbal reasoning. We also work with students to improve any areas of maths or English that need attention.
Special Mentions go to;
- Conrad, Christ’s Hospital scholarship and Grammar School
- Zeeshan, Salisbury Cathedral School, scholarship and other school offers
- Lissiana, Grammar School, scholarship and English prize
- Alex and Jamie, St John’s scholarships
- Ivan, Grammar School
- Christian, Grammar School
We wish you all a great transition to your new schools and every success while there! There are more results to follow!
INVITATION TO PLAYZONE
Our entrance exam students are all invited on
Friday 23rd March between 4pm and 6pm
PLAY ZONE, Unit A4, Oak Park Industrial Estate, North Harbour Rd, PORTSMOUTH PO6 3TJ
Hotdog and drink on us! See you there!
Dates for 11+ Entrance Assessments for Local Independent Schools
Are you considering entering your child for an 11+ entrance assessment for an independent school? Here are some dates for some of the local Portsmouth schools.
Every year we help lots of children prepare for these tests. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if we can be of help.
Portsmouth High School
11+, 12+, 13+ or 14+
Saturday 20th January.
Portsmouth Grammar School
11+ and 13+ Entrance Assessment
Saturday 27th January
Mayville High School
All Candidates Sit Exam
Saturday 20th January
St John’s College
11+ Entrance Assessment
Thursday 23rd November
Saturday 18th January
Wow 100% Pass Rate for 11+Exams!
11+ Entrance Exam Success
Well done to all our 11+ and common entrance exam students for passing their tests. All students, who attended our sessions regularly, passed their 11+ exams in at least one of the schools they applied for. They included; Christ’s Hospital, St Catherine’s, Badminton, Cheltenham Ladies’ College, PGS and PHS. One of our students even got a full boarding scholarship, including all music tuition and exams paid in full!
Over the years we have had a lot of success, but this is definitely the best year ever. In order to celebrate we invited them all to Playzone on us! Quite a few were able to make it and really love the event. One mum said “Once again thanks you and Linda for organising this evenings party, the children had an amazing time and it was such a special treat to celebrate the end of the ordeal from the past few months! ”
It was really fun to celebrate together and we hope we can do it again soon.
Help with Handwriting
Dylan Had Always Struggled with Handwriting
Dylan had always struggled with very poor handwriting. We came to the centre and found the assessment very helpful.
After only a few months of tutoring with Linda, teachers can now read his writing and he feels more confident. His coordination problems have been recognised, thanks to your suggestion, and this has helped at school. We have now spoken to an Occupational Therapist who has recommended that Dylan gets more time in his exams. This will be a great help.
It has made a big difference to his schooling as he enjoys it much more now. All his teachers are much happier and able to give him more help. It has also shown him that he can do things he thought he couldn’t.
Double Success in Common Entrance Assessment!
Common Entrance Assessment
Some schools have a common entrance assessment for entry to senior school. Twins, Tom and Sophie came to I Love to Learn as their parents were told that they were below expected level for their year. This would put them in danger of not being able to progress to the senior school of their choice. After only 9 months, they have caught up and surpassed the expected level for English Comprehension and maths.
Both of them loved coming to the centre and looked forward to their session each week. They have massively grown in confidence and they love their improved performance in class tests (they are both very competitive)!
Malcolm (their dad) said, “Great communication and feedback was key, and we loved the guidance of how to continue to make progress during the holidays. We can’t fault it. We have stopped for a bit as we are moving house, but we will be back in the summer term.”
Click here to find out more…..
Entrance Assessments for local Independent Schools
Here are the 11+ entrance assessment dates for independent schools in Portsmouth 2017.
One of the fastest growing areas of our business is children wanting to prepare for independent school entrance exams. I thought it might be a good idea to make sure everyone has the dates they need.
The entrance exams always cover maths and English to a high level. They also usually test something called verbal and non verbal reasoning. These are designed to be more difficult to prepare for as they are not taught in school. Verbal reasoning is concerned with language and words problems while non-verbal reasoning looks are logic, shape and number patterns.
Here is a testimonial we received earlier.
“We are so pleased that Mahera has got a FULL BURSARY for the local girl’s high school in Portsmouth. She has been to your centre before for tuition but we came back in November so she could get ready for the exams. She has worked so hard and Linda has really encouraged her in her writing! Thanks so much!”
Portsmouth High School
11+, 12+, 13+ or 14+
Saturday 21st January.
Portsmouth Grammar School
11+ and 13+ Entrance Assessment
Saturday 28th January
Mayville High School
All Candidates Sit Exam
Saturday 14th January
Boys Assessment Day
Wednesday 18th January
Girls Assessment Day
Thursday 19th January
St John’s College
11+ Entrance Assessment
Saturday 21st January
Call us if you want to find out how we can help for next year.
