Easter holidays 11 plus preparation plan

If your child is in Year 5 and applying to a selective private school or grammar school, their 11 plus exam will be coming up in the autumn term. The Easter holiday is a great time to make strides with their preparation, alongside a well-deserved break.

Discover how to help your child use this time effectively to minimise stress and maximise confidence when the 11 plus comes around.

Free online video lessons

Atom's lessons provide a fun and interactive way to keep your child engaged with their learning during school holidays! They're free to attend for anyone, although Atom Nucleus subscribers can watch them on-demand any time from the app.

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Lessons for younger siblings

Atom has lessons for younger siblings too, with maths, English, science and reasoning sessions for children in Years 3 and 4.

Get your full Easter Holidays Live Lesson timetable here!

What should we be doing during the Easter holidays to prepare for the 11 plus?

We recommend Year 5 children spend 2–2.5 hours on home learning each week, broken down into short sessions of 20–30 minutes.

By now, your child should have built a solid understanding across the depth and breadth of the English and maths national curriculum, and all reasoning question types. Keep working through the Learning Journeys to help them maintain this knowledge.

With just under six months to go until the 11 plus in September, now is the time to introduce Mock Tests so that your child can get used to the timing and scoring used in the real exams. At the start of the Easter holidays, complete one Mock Test in each subject.

Always take a few minutes to sit down together after a Mock Test to review the transcript and talk through any corrections – and of course, celebrate their effort. This step helps consolidate learning and keep motivation up.

Use the test results to identify any knowledge gaps, and set Custom Practices to target these. Try setting two or three Custom Practices per week.