The summer before the test: what actually helps
If your child sits the Transfer Test next month, this is the stretch that tends to worry parents most, and the one where doing less well is usually better than doing more. Here is what we are doing with our own Year 5 groups through August, and what we suggest at home.
A four-week August plan
Four short sessions a week, thirty minutes each, is plenty. More than that in August tends to produce tiredness rather than progress, and a tired child in September is a worse outcome than a slightly less rehearsed one.
One full paper under timed conditions, marked together two days later. Note the sections where time ran out rather than the total.
Three sessions on the two question types that cost the most marks in week one, working slowly and out loud rather than against the clock.
Mixed practice, twenty questions at a time. Switching between types is the skill the paper really tests, and it needs its own practice.
Ease off. One short session mid-week, a walk-through of the practical arrangements, and an early night before the day itself.
Free practice sheet: hidden words
Thirty questions with the four-step method printed at the top and full answers at the back. Ten minutes, three times in a week, is enough to make the method automatic.
If your child has not met this type before, read the hidden words lesson first — it takes five minutes and saves a lot of frustration.
New video: place value in the maths paper
Four short lessons covering reading large numbers, comparing and ordering, rounding, and decimals. Place value is the topic almost everything else in the maths paper leans on, and it is worth revisiting even with a confident child.
All four lessons and the written method →
Dates for the diary
That is everything for this month. If you have a question about the test or about your child's preparation, reply to the email and one of us will answer it properly.
Mat and Alicia