Monday, April 21, 2008

Eleven Plus Codes

A POMEGRANATE, BLUEBERRY & CRANBERRY SMOOTHIE has the following ingredients:

Pomegranate juice 23%, apple, banana, blueberry 10%, cranberry puree 7%. As Eleven Plus contenders we need to count the percentages. If we count the 23%, the 10% and the 7% the percentages add up to 40%. A percent adds up to 100 – so something is clearly missing.

If we count 23%, 10%, 10%, 10% and 7% we reach 60%. To repeat - a percent adds up to 100 – so something is clearly missing.

There was another figure of 30% on the label – but this referred to the 30% of RECYCLED MATERIAL. Even if we add the 60% and the 30% we still do not arrive at 100%.

All our Eleven Plus children need their five a day – and this smoothie can count towards Five A Day.

Children don’t need to rely on working through tedious Eleven Plus papers. Real life mathematics is all around them. Encourage discussion on `Energy kcal’, fibre and sodium.

Talk about time. How long does it take to complete a question? How long can be spent on all the different types of papers? Why does a smoothie have to be consumed within two days? How long does it take to read all the small print on a `super berry smoothie’?

Talk about reading the question. What ingredient could be used in a smoothie to `make it up’ to 100%? Explain why a `Five a Day’ can be in a bottle as well as being a tasty fresh apple.

Ask your child to explain why purchasing 3 for £5 is an attractive proposition for a retailer. Is 6 for £9 still a viable selling price for the manufacturer and the retailer? How much could one single `super berry smoothie’ be sold for?

And finally – on the lid of the bottle are the magic numbers and letters:

DU 18th Apr

UB 18th Apr

Does your bright and able Eleven Plus child treat these symbols as a type of code? Are they an anagram? Would wider reading help to solve the puzzle? Do Verbal Reasoning papers actually contain examples like these? Is this a fair test of intelligence? Should a child win a place in grammar school if he or she can decode:

DU 18th Apr

UB 18th Apr

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