Entrance Exams 2019: Information Events for Year 4 Parents

Posted on 14/03/2018 by

Better Tuition’s team of expert teachers can prepare your child for entrance exams.

Preparing for grammar school entrance exams can be daunting, especially if you have never done it before. To help Year 4 parents, Better Tuition is running two (identical) entrance exam information events. The first of these is on Saturday, April 21st (2.30 – 3.30 pm) and the second is on Saturday, June 23rd (2.30 – 3.30 pm). Advance booking is essential. UPDATE [26th June]: we are running another event on Saturday, September 22nd, from 2.30 – 3.30 pm.

[Contact_Form_Builder id=”6″]

We will aim to give you a good overview of the exams and will cover areas such as:

– Trafford’s grammar schools;
– The format of the exams;
– Maths and English requirements and topics;
– Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning;
– Applying to sit the exams;
– What preparation you should be doing now and at every stage of Year 5;
– Coping with stress;
– Grammar school open events.

Please note that places are extremely limited and so booking is essential. If you don’t want to wait for the information events, why not book a FREE assessment now? We have been running our tuition centre for ten years and over that time we have built up a wealth of expertise. Book your free assessment by clicking on the link on the right of this page.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in Entrance Exams, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Pi Day 2018

Posted on 14/03/2018 by

14th March is Pi Day. Every year, the mathematically-minded get all ‘irrational’ over pi – or 33.14. Representing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, pi is a fundamental element of geometric calculation.

Physicist Peter Trueb recently calculated pi to 22.4 trillion digits. Read more about pi on Trueb’s website.

If you’re sitting GCSE Maths next year, you won’t be needing Trueb’s in-depth knowledge of pi. You will, however, need to use pi to calculate the area and circumference of a circle, as well as the volume of a cylinder, sphere, pyramid and so on. We are currently full for GCSE Maths, but we are running a waiting list for students currently in Years 9 or 10, wanting to start GCSE tuition in June or September. Please do not delay in contacting us to arrange your free assessment.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in GCSE, Maths | Tagged | Leave a comment

Shakespeare Week 2018

Posted on 13/03/2018 by

Shakespeare Week 2018 runs from 12 – 18 March this year and there are many ways to introduce your child to the Bard of Avon, without scaring them off – after all, ‘Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed’ (Henry V, Part 1).

Let’s start with The Animated Tales. This delightful series compresses each of Shakespeare’s masterpieces into a mere 30 minutes or so. The animation brings to life the poetry and the passion of twelve of Shakespeare’s best loved plays.  You can watch the plays on Youtube (see below) or buy them on DVD.

Whilst Shakespeare’s beautiful blank verse cannot be beaten, it’s hard to resist Shakespeare in Fluff, a kind of Greatest Hits of Shakespeare, as performed by fluffy animals.

Image result for shakespeare in fluff

Usborne’s Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare retells six tales with useful notes.

Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare (Illustrated Story Collections) (Clothbound Story Collections) by Louie Stowell

Marcia Williams’ Mr William Shakespeare’s Plays presents beautiful comic strip versions of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest.

Image result for marcia williams shakespeare

Shakespeare’s generous contribution to our language is celebrated in Horrible Histories’ Wicked Words.  You can also buy The Shakespeare Stories – a set of 16 books written especially for children.

Image result for shakespeare horrible histories

There are an abundance of online resourced dedicated to Shakespeare and his works. This Horrible Histories clip is a particularly hilarious one. How are you planning to celebrate Shakespeare Week this year? Let us know in the comments section.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in English, literacy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Grammar School Open Events 2018

Posted on 09/03/2018 by

Trafford’s grammar schools have released details of their open events for students currently in Year 5, as well as their parents.  The dates are as follows (in alphabetical order):

Altrincham Grammar School for Boys – Thursday, 28th June, 5 – 7.30 pm
Altrincham Grammar School for Girls – Thursday, 21st June, 4 – 8 pm
St Ambrose College – Saturday, 30th June, 9.30 am – 12.30 pm
Loreto Grammar – Saturday, 30th June, 9.30 am – 1 pm
Sale Grammar – Wednesday, 27th June 2018, 5 – 8.30 pm
Stretford Grammar – Thursday, 28th June, 5 – 8 pm
Urmston Grammar School – Thursday, 21st June, 4 – 8 pm

All dates are correct at time of writing, but please double check with individual schools in case of changes.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in Entrance Exams | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Happy New Year from Better Tuition

Posted on 02/01/2018 by

Happy New Year from the whole team at Better Tuition. 2018 is a big year for us as in April we celebrate ten years in business! We couldn’t do what we do without the support of our wonderful customers, so we would like to thank you for helping us to help thousands of children achieve and succeed in school.

We reopen on 3rd January and you can find our full term dates here.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in News and Updates | Tagged | Leave a comment

Day 24 – Festive Non-Verbal Reasoning

Posted on 20/12/2017 by

It’s the final day of Better Tuition’s Advent Activity Calendar and we have some festive non-verbal reasoning activity for you.  You will find the answers here.  Try more festive NVR from Better Tuition.

Non-verbal reasoning helps develop problem-solving skills and is particularly useful for students preparing for Trafford’s grammar school entrance exams/ 11 plus.

Question one:

Which Christmas gift is the reflection of the gift on the left?

nvr-reflectionsQuestion two:

The Christmas parcel on the left has been rotated 90 degrees in a clockwise direction.  Which parcel (a-d) shows this?

nvr - rotations
Question three:

Which Christmas tree is the odd one out?

nvr- odd one outQuestion four:

Find the Christmas present (a-d) that goes with the first Christmas present in the same way the two Christmas trees go together.
nvr-ANALOGIES                                                                                     A                B                       C              D

 

Question five:

Which is the missing square?

question 4- missing squareQuestion six:

Which net could fold up to make the cube shown?

nvr - CUBESQuestion seven:

Find the missing code(s).

nvr- codes

Question eight:

Which Christmas tree (A-E) is most like the Christmas tree on the left?
question 5-similarities

 

Teachers, please feel free to print this out and use it with your class. Parents, please feel free to print this out and use it with your child(ren).

Return to our Advent Activity Calendar.

Learn more about non-verbal reasoning.

Does your child need help with entrance exam preparation? Better Tuition is Urmston’s independent tuition centre for maths, English, science and entrance exam preparation. We tutor young people aged 5-16. Call us today on 0161 748 3912 to book your FREE assessment.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in Advent Calendar, Entrance Exams, Non-verbal Reasoning | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 23 – Gingerbread Puzzle

Posted on 20/12/2017 by

Your Better Tuition Advent challenge today is a fun maths puzzle.

 

 

Ava is making gingerbread men for Christmas. She uses 2 raisins for eyes and 3 raisins for buttons for each gingerbread man. She buys 4 boxes of raisins, each with 120 raisins in it. How many dozens of gingerbread men can she make?  The solution can be found at the bottom of this post.

Return to Better Tuition’s advent calendar.

Does your child need help with maths? Better Tuition is Urmston’s tuition centre for maths, English and entrance exam preparation. We tutor young people aged 5-16. Call Paul Syrett or Christine McLaughlin today on 0161 748 3912 to book your FREE assessment at our Urmston tuition centre.

Answer:

8

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in Advent Calendar, Maths | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 22 – When the Reindeer Went Missing

Posted on 20/12/2017 by

Welcome to Day 22 of Better Tuition’s Winter Advent Activity Calendar.  Today we have a Yuletide English Language Quiz for you.  We hope you enjoy it.


Instructions:

In each question, choose the best word or group of words to complete this passage so that it makes sense and is written in correct English.  Underline the correct answer (or write it down if you are working from the screen).  When you have finished, scroll to the very end of this post to see the answers.

When the reindeer went missing

Santa and the elves wake up on Christmas Eve to find the reindeer have all vanished …

1.  Santa and the elves discussed/ disgust/ discussion/ discussing/ disgusting the whereabouts of the reindeer.

2.  “What’s the quickly/ most quickest/ quickliest/ quick/ quickest way of getting round the world without reindeer to pull my sleigh?” asked Santa.

3.  “Don’t even think about that,” squealed an elf, “You’ll never manage and anyway the reindeer will soon tired out/ tire of/ tiring from/ tiring/ tired hiding from us.”

4.  “But if the children of the world wake up tomorrow and I haven’t brought/ brung/ buyed/ bringed/ bring their Christmas presents, they’ll cry,” sighed Santa.

5.  “Well if the reindeer don’t come out of hiding soon, they won’t get they’res/ there’s/ theyre’s/ theirs/ their’s either,” said the tallest of the elves.

6.  Two of the littlest elves had choose/ chosen/ chose/ choosing/ choosed to ignore the whole conversation.

7.  They will stop/ were stopped/ had stopped/ stopping/ would stop to play merrily among the Christmas trees.

8.  Suddenly, a glint of red in the green trees saw their eyes/ caught their eyes/ catched their eyes/ caught sight/ catching sight.

9.  One of them pointed and shouted out with glee: “It’s Rudolph!  He’s hide/ hiding/ was hidden/ will hide/ was hid in the tree!”

10.  Rudolph and the other reindeer poked their heads out of some greenery and indicated/ jumped/ climbed/ viewed/ chorused, “Surprise!”

Parents and teachers, please feel free to use this resource and any other resource from our advent calendar for non-profit-making activities with your children or students.

Could your child benefit from extra help? Better Tuition is Urmston’s highly recommended independent tuition centre for maths, English, science and entrance exam preparation. We tutor young people aged 5-16. Call us today on 0161 748 3912 to book your FREE assessment.

Answers:

1.  discussed  2.  quickest  3.  tire of  4.  brought  5.  theirs  6.  chosen  7.  had stopped  8.  caught their eyes  9.  hiding  10.  chorused

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in Advent Calendar, English | Tagged | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 20 – A Solstice Puzzle

Posted on 20/12/2017 by

Your Better Tuition Advent challenge today is a fun maths puzzle.

Welcome to Day 20 of Better Tuition’s Winter Advent Activity Calendar.  Today we have a Christmas maths problem for you.

Maths Problem:

December 21st is the winter solstice: the shortest and darkest day of the year.

If the sun rises at 08:04 and sets at 15:53, how many hours and minutes of daylight is this?

Scroll down to the very end of the page for the answer.

Return to Better Tuition’s advent calendar.

Does your child need help with maths? Better Tuition is Urmston’s tuition centre for maths, English and entrance exam preparation. We tutor young people aged 5-16. Call us today on 0161 748 3912 to book your FREE assessment.

Answer:

7 hours 49 minutes

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in Advent Calendar, Maths | Tagged | Leave a comment

Advent Calendar Day 21 – Mince Pie Maths

Posted on 20/12/2017 by

Welcome to Day 21 of Better Tuition’s Winter Advent Activity Calendar.  Today we have a Christmas maths problem for you.

Return to our advent calendar.

Santa visits eight houses in twenty minutes.  In each he eats the following amounts of mince pie:

2, 4, 1, 2, 7, 2, 4, 3, 2

1.  What is the mean number of pies Santa eats in each house?
2.  What is the mode number?
3.  What is the median number?
4.  What is the range of pies eaten?

Scroll to the very end of the page for the answers.

Return to Better Tuition’s Advent Calendar.

Does your child need help with maths? Better Tuition is Urmston’s independent tuition centre for maths, English and entrance exam preparation. We tutor young people aged 5-16. Call Paul Syrett or Christine McLaughlin today on 0161 748 3912 or click on the button to book your FREE assessment.

Answers:

1.  3
2.  2
3.  2
4.  6

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Posted in Advent Calendar, Maths | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment