If purchasing a package, use the ‘schedule’ link in your confirmation email to book your desired dates.

Transfer Teams Explained

The Transfer Teams summer school is back for its third year.

The above video will explain much of the format although, as this video was made before the first summer school in 2023, there have been some minor tweaks.

I will be using my series of SEAG practice tests (The Catapult Papers) each morning, from both the main public series and the exclusive schools series. These tests are set out in the format of the official exams and with the expected level of English and Maths content. 20 different papers will be used throughout the summer school (see later comments below if your child has already completed some of this series), but they will be carried out in a style that most, if not all, kids don’t get to use during the practice months: as a team.

With a maximum of six children being able to attend each weekday morning, they will work together as one to complete the test, at the end of which they get a team score.

Between 9am and 11am, the team will get eight ten-minute slots to complete the test (rather than six slots as stated in the video). They will be allowed to discuss their ideas and make as many changes to their answers as they like. At the end of each ten-minute time period, I will provide an update on their score. I will be providing clues about their progress by letting them know how many mistakes remain within each section of the test, although I will not be telling them exactly which answers are wrong. It will be up to them to figure it out!

From 11am to 12pm, when they get their final score, we’ll go through each incorrect answer and make suggestions for how to tackle these questions in future. They’ll also get to take home a blank version of the test. Parents will be informed by email of the answers that the team gave.

At the end of the four weeks, the members of the team that have achieved the highest test score will receive a prize: a voucher for Little Wing Pizzeria.

You may be wondering, since the Transfer Tests are an assessment of each child’s individual capabilities, and are to a large degree a competition between individuals, why a teamwork approach helps. Here are five reasons:

1. Identifying strengths

Those who prefer English to Maths, or Maths to English, are likely to go to those questions first, knowing that they can be of greater value to their team there. As a result, the rest of the team begins to show confidence in them, increasing the child’s sense of expertise in certain areas of the tests.

2. Learning from others’ strengths

As kids move to other parts of the test, they come across questions that they don’t feel so confident about. They can confer with other team members and learn from their methods. While it’s a teacher’s, tutor’s and parent’s job to lead and guide kids through these important months, the fact remains that kids often learn best from other kids.

3. Identifying weaknesses

Even in their areas of expertise, kids make silly mistakes, they rush through questions they assume to be easy. In a team set-up, these kids will soon discover that other children who they assumed to be less strong in English or Maths have spotted their silly mistakes. This, in turn, becomes a signal to the child to improve their exam technique.

4. A chance to switch off from the tension but still learn

It’s summer. That normally means switching off from school work but, as has been my experience these past seven years as a tutor, a child going into P7 can’t really afford to forget about the tests for two months. They risk entering P7 playing catch-up, with the tests now only two months away. Equally however, they need a break from the tension. By working as a team through practice tests, the responsibility for mistakes is shared and becomes less of a burden. They’re still being exposed to the exam questions that they’ll have to tackle in November, their brains are still ticking over, but they’re able to discuss these challenges with other kids, and see it more as a fun competition than as a life-defining test (which it should never be seen as!).

5. Recognition that they’re not alone

All too often, a child’s progress through practice tests at school becomes defined by how their score compares to everyone else in the classroom. This makes things quite lonely and daunting for kids. What they fail to recognise is that most other children are feeling the same way. These other pupils should be their friends, not their competition. There are more important life lessons in this process than recognising the proper use of a possessive apostrophe, or how many vertices a triangular prism has. Kids need to learn that, in the middle of a huge personal challenge, they can learn from others, and find things in common with them.

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The Transfer Teams summer school will run for 20 weekdays, starting Monday 21st July and finishing Friday 15th August. You can book your child in for any number of days: just one or all 20. Each morning there will be a new practice test from The Catapult Papers series so there is no risk of your child repeating a test.

If your child has already completed tests from The Catapult Papers, please contact me privately to let me know which ones. This will let me know to not use those specific tests on the days your child attends the summer school.

One morning session can be purchased for £50; you also have the option of purchasing five mornings for £225 or ten mornings for £400.

Sessions can be booked using this link: www.catapult-tuition.com/book-classes. Should you choose to purchase a five-session or ten-session pacakge, you’ll receive a confirmation email after your purchase. Use the ‘schedule’ link in the email to reserve your sessions.

The tests start at 9am sharp, although you may leave your child with me at the office from 8.30am onwards and we can get some board games or card games set up. I’ll provide refreshments (just make sure to notify me of any food allergies). Each test, with its intermittent breaks, should take us up to about 11am, we’ll spend the final hour going through the mistakes, and then kids will be collected at 12 o’clock.

Please don’t hesitate to email me with any further questions (info@catapult-tuition.com).