An interview with Stephen McConkey
Recently, the Extra Tuition Centre’s Zakia Galip got in touch with Stephen McConkey, author of the popular 11 plus Learning Together series. In this interview we learn about his views on the 11 plus exams, his work books and personalised learning in the UK.
ETC: You are the author of the successful Learning Together series. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Stephen McConkey: I have been teaching for 27 years with 21 of those years in Primary schools. Currently I am Headmaster of Hollybank PS and have been for the last 11 years. I was Deputy Headmaster for 6 years before that. I am married with 2 children; and outside family, school and Learning Together, my first love is rugby.
ETC: The Learning Together series of books are a collaborative effort between you and Tom Maltman. How did this begin?
SM: Tom and I worked together. He was my Deputy Head teacher when I was a young teacher. We knew that there was an educational and commercial market for quality 11+ exam preparation material - Verbal and Non-verbal reasoning in particular.
Initially our plan was to provide a correspondence eleven plus exam course, though this proved very difficult to administer. Eventually we decided to produce eleven plus practice material in Verbal and Non-verbal reasoning.
ETC: I understand that you are currently Headmaster at a Primary School in Northern Ireland. What attracted you to the teaching profession?
SM: The chance to work with and help children especially from less advantaged backgrounds. In Northern Ireland the eleven plus is taken everywhere, and obtaining a grammar school place can change the direction of a pupils life, so children from disadvantaged homes have the chance to move upwards and onwards.
Teaching is very demanding and very rewarding. It is important that you enjoy the work and I would recommend it to any student about to leave school.
ETC: What initially gave you the idea to write 11 Plus material?
SM: 17-18 years ago there was a real shortage of quality eleven plus exam practice material in verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Tom and I felt that together we had both the knowledge and skill to produce this material and perhaps make a small profit.
ETC: The 11 Plus entrance exams are a stressful and confusing time for many parents and children who have little or no experience in the 11 Plus procedures. What would you recommend to parents and children embarking on this journey?
SM: The first thing is to decide honestly if your child is academic enough to survive in the atmosphere of a grammar school, especially if the school does not have some sort of special needs support. If parents decide to enter their child for the eleven plus exam, then they must find out all they can about the 11 plus exams content. This varies from Local Authority to Local Authority and usually involves verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, English and maths in some combination.
Find out all you can about your prospective schools and decide which school(s) suit you best - consider travel times, extra curricular activities, subjects, costs and so on, then ensure that you help your child prepare as best as possible. Parents know their child best, so they will know how much or little time, effort (or carrot and stick!) is required.
My top tip here is to spend time with your child, and sit with them as they do tests and preparation work, especially in the early stages. This sends the message that you want to help and haven’t just sent the child away so you can read the newspaper!
ETC: You state that you have prepared many children for the 11 Plus examinations. Not many primary schools actually take this initiative do they?
SM: The eleven plus exam is very competitive all over the UK with many parents investing in private tuition. The children I have worked with rarely get this amount of parental support so I have taken the decision to ensure pupils under my management are prepared as well as possible for their 11+ examinations. The approach by schools varies greatly, so I don’t feel that I can or should comment.
ETC: Many children pass their entrance exams successfully thanks to your books. Could you tell us how you went about collating and writing the contents of your revision guides?
SM: As I have said, the 11 + exams requirements vary from LA to LA or school to school, so it is impractical to produce material specifically for each school or LA. We researched the requirements of these eleven plus examinations and decided to produce material that would offer generic preparation for most if not all eleven plus exams.
No textbook that I have ever seen provides preparation in all areas of that subject, but we feel that Learning Together books give good general preparation material. Our Step by Step guides in Verbal and Non-verbal reasoning help to explain various techniques and all our titles are classroom tested in order to help remove ambiguities or errors.
ETC: Being somewhat of an authority on this issue, we would like to know your feelings on the current Grammar school debate. A lot of parents find that abolishing Grammar Schools or withdrawing support from existing ones is wrong.
SM: There are a great variety of views on the place of Grammar schools in our society. My opinion is that they should be retained and indeed extended. Northern Ireland is totally selective and generally regarded as the best education provision in the UK. Other areas of the UK, which have selection, also have extremely good academic results. I feel that we should “stretch the best and improve the rest.” Eleven plus exams and selection raises standards in Grammar schools and also in nearby comprehensives, as they improve standards in order to compete for pupils.
ETC: What are your views about the Government’s ‘Personalised Learning’ initiative?
SM: The idea behind this initiative is well founded – the concept that each child is an individual and should learn accordingly and that parents should be central to all of this learning and education. Teachers have known for ever that parents are the key to all good learning and progress in school and in life. I fear that, while it is a very good idea, it is just another piece of Government spin and will probably not be well funded or thought out and will not come to very much.
It will almost certainly create more work for both teachers and head teachers with little or no funding to support the idea.
ETC: Finally, can we expect any new educational projects and publications in the future?
SM: We are presently working on a number of projects. We will be producing a series of challenge tests in 2007. This will be a series of extended verbal reasoning type questions - the type that children (and adults) find most difficult in the eleven plus exams.
A new mathematics book is also planned. Initial writing followed by quality assurance on our products to final production can take up to a year so it is not a quick task.
- Look out for Stephen McConkey books and free downlaods on our new bookstore: www.etcstore.co.uk
- Or you can also visit the Learning Together website for more information on Stephen’s books: www.learningtogether.com.
Interviewed by Zakia Galip
|
