GD terrified of 11+

It is so sad the pressure on children nowadays, I hope your house is where she does not have to talk about it.

Thanks for all the replies. I tend to agree with you, I went to grammar school and struggled. But partner thinks she should try to do it.
Of course neither of us would voice our opinion, it’s up to her parents.
It will all be over next week, just hope she isn’t too upset whatever the outcome.

If it's distressing her then it is not a good idea to even sit the exam. I hope there is a good comprehensive in her locality so that she can transfer without taking the 11+ - it is nerve-wracking enough going up to 'big school' without all this added pressure.
One of our young relatives is going to a centre to take test papers but, although she was a bit nervous the first time, she is enjoying taking the papers.

My DGD has opted not to sit it. She reckons she’s unlikely to pass so what’s the point. Better to be at the top of the comprehensive school with her mates than struggle along at the bottom of the grammar school.

I agree with Luckygirl. Its an outdated system with too much pressure at too young an age.

There are some areas such as Buckinghamshire and Kent (and N Ireland?) where there are no comprehensives just grammars and secondary schools and there is little or no choice about whether to take the 11+. I for one think this is wrong. My children all did extremely well at comprehensives schools.

Please tell her parents to let her go with her friends to a local comprehensive and not put her through this.
My DD has just gone through the most horrendious 2 yrs with my DGD and the pressures she was under for her GCSEs she is just like your DGD and couldn't cope well with exams.
We wish my DGD went to the local Comp but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

If she was happy about taking the exam previously I would say the grandchild is more unsettled by her parents' recent divorce than her family realise; the impact of divorce on children is grossly underestimated, however well they get on with their parents and appear to accept the situation.
Passing the eleven plus would possibly mean separation from her schoolfriends as they tend to move en masse to the nearest school and this may be another worry about losing touch with all that is familiar at present.
My daughter moved to the local Grammar school to pursue her choice of A levels, and her lovely schoolfriends she had grown up with all cut her dead.
(Pleased to say she made much kinder ones there).

Why is anyone putting a child through this?

Thousands of 11 year olds, who don’t do the 11+, go through the Comprehensive school system, do well at GCSE and A levels and are eventually happy in their chosen careers.

If she doesn’t do well in the exam, then the anxiety could develop into a life long sense of ‘failure’.
So damaging to a child.

I agree with Luckygirl. My three daughters went to the local comprehensive school, my son to grammar school. All of them got similar A level results, went to university of their choice, one at Cambridge, and all now do their dream jobs. If she is so upset about doing a mock paper, how will she ope with the real thing? And even if she passes, how will she cope with the intense pesssure at grammar school? If she is doing well at primary school, why won’t she do well at secondary?

Yes, don't put her through it.

So much is made of these tests now. No wonder so many children have anxiety issues. Education seems to be going backwards. The 11+ should be abolished in my opinion.

What Luckygirl said

Don't take the damned thing! Are there no local comprehensive schools? This is one of the reasons it was abolished and now it is creeping back. Sickening.