Parent guide
Scan through for the phrase you saw. Each entry explains what the teacher meant and what you can actually do about it this week.
“Needs inference practice”
EnglishWhat it means
Your child can find answers when they're stated in the text, but struggles when the answer is implied. 'The character felt sad' when the text only says 'she stared at the floor'.
What you can do
Read a short story or news article together and stop every few lines to ask 'how do you think they're feeling, and what in the text tells you that?' 10 minutes a day builds the habit.
“Needs to use evidence from the text”
EnglishWhat it means
The answer is right but there's no quote or paraphrase backing it up. In 11+ comprehension, half the marks are for the evidence, not the answer.
What you can do
Practise the sentence stem 'The text says ____ which shows ____'. Drill it on a few questions until it becomes automatic.
“Careless errors”
MathsWhat it means
The method is right but a small arithmetic or copying mistake is losing marks. Usually the child knows the maths — they just rush or skip checking.
What you can do
Slow down. Build a habit of re-reading the question and ticking off each part before moving on. Worth more than extra practice volume.
“Vocabulary is holding them back”
Verbal reasoning / EnglishWhat it means
Your child often doesn't know the target word in closest-meaning or sentence-completion questions. This caps their score no matter how fast they are.
What you can do
Reading widely beats drilling vocabulary lists. Aim for 15+ minutes a day of fiction at a slight stretch — children's classics, middle-grade novels, quality children's magazines.
“Timing is an issue / struggles to finish the paper”
AllWhat it means
Your child knows the material but can't get through the paper quickly enough. Common, and fixable with practice under real exam conditions.
What you can do
Time short drills with a stopwatch. 10 questions in 8 minutes, no pauses. The goal is building an automatic 'skip and come back' instinct.
“Needs to show working”
MathsWhat it means
Even when the answer is right, the absence of working loses method marks on multi-step questions. Also a safety net — with working, a silly slip keeps some marks.
What you can do
Make 'show your working' the rule at home. Draw a line down the page, method on the left, answer on the right.
“Rushed / doesn't check their answers”
AllWhat it means
Accuracy is being sacrificed for speed. The child finishes early but with mistakes the teacher thinks they should have caught.
What you can do
Introduce a 3-minute 'check' pass at the end of every paper. No new answers, only re-reading and looking for silly slips.
“Good on straightforward questions, struggles on problem-solving”
MathsWhat it means
Your child can execute the procedures — long multiplication, fractions — but freezes on word problems where they have to pick the right method.
What you can do
Drill problem-solving questions, not arithmetic. Bond's 'reasoning' books and past 11+ papers are ideal. Technique matters more than speed at this stage.
“Strong on NVR but weaker on verbal reasoning”
ReasoningWhat it means
The pattern spotting is sharp, but vocabulary or word manipulation is weak. Very common — NVR is culture-fair; VR rewards years of English exposure.
What you can do
Focus on closest-meaning, analogies, and sentence completion. Reading time is more valuable than extra VR drills.
“Can do it with help, not on their own”
AllWhat it means
When a parent or tutor is sitting next to them, they get it. Alone, they get stuck. Either confidence or method isn't fully internalised.
What you can do
Do practice in two stages: walk through one, then the child does one alone. Resist helping on the second — let them struggle for a few minutes before intervening.
“Needs to read more widely”
English / VRWhat it means
Vocabulary and comprehension gaps. Reading widely — across genres, at slight stretch — is the biggest single lever for 11+ English.
What you can do
Audit the bookshelf. If it's all one genre or series, mix in classics, non-fiction, and age-appropriate journalism. A library card and a routine beat a textbook.
“Answers are short / lacks detail”
EnglishWhat it means
Short answers when the question is worth 2–3 marks. The child has the right idea but doesn't expand it into what the mark scheme wants.
What you can do
Teach 'point, evidence, explanation'. One sentence naming the idea, one quoting the text, one explaining why. Three sentences = full marks on most questions.
Teachers often write feedback in shorthand. 'Needs inference practice' is a skill name teachers know but parents don't. The language isn't designed to be action-ready; it's designed to sound precise to another teacher.
Yes. 'Could you show me one inference question my child got wrong?' is a reasonable ask. Specific examples beat general phrases every time.
Common. Teachers see group performance; tutors see individual performance. Both are valid. Ask each to be specific about what they mean — 'needs more work' from a tutor might mean 'not quite exam ready' while from a school teacher it might mean 'below Year 6 expected level'.
Weekly feedback deserves a small tweak; a full school report deserves a planned week. Don't drop everything to chase one piece of feedback unless exams are weeks away.
Yes. On the parent dashboard there's a 'Teacher feedback' card — paste a comment, a tutor note, or a parent-evening remark, and we produce a plain-English summary, a 7-day plan, and suggested questions to ask the teacher.
Inside Elandi, paste the actual comment you received — from school, a tutor, or parent evening — and we turn it into a plain-English summary, a 7-day plan, and specific questions to ask the teacher.