A parents’ guide to the Eleven Plus

How is Britain seen by outsiders? What marks us out? Humour, self-deprecation, our changing weather, frequent cups of tea. But there’s something else that foreigners say after a spell here: the UK is a place where couples without children worry about where their unconceived children will go to school. As a Scot, I used to think this a bizarre English affectation — until my eldest son announced he’d like to join his friends and take the Eleven Plus set by grammars and private schools. Would I let him?

Only then did it dawn on me why prep schools get their name: to prep children for this specific exam. To borrow a line from Alan Bennett’s The History Boys: ‘[The] boys and girls against whom you are to compete have been groomed like thoroughbreds for this one particular race.’ Anyone can compete. Should you do so? Parents and children can make their own decision.