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The number one concern for parents: children dropping out of school
The pupil is exposed to result based pressure from their teachers, fellow classmates and finally their beloved family.
The accumulation of homework from various subjects, the pace of primary school or even worse extrinsic problems and influences are all elements that can cause the young student to feel overwhelmed and be tempted to repel all the valuable information they are learning.
Therefore, let us all look at how personal tutoring classes can improve the situation for many young British primary students.
What does the Primary School Curriculum Consist Of?
The National Curriculum has divided students into different stages of learning. These stages affect students all over the UK from Wales to England. Primary school students are divided into two stages: Key Stage 1 (affecting students who are 5-7 years old) and Key Stage 2 (affecting students aged 7-11). These Key Stages affect students until they are 16 years of age and ready to move into higher education.
Students in these stages must follow a programme of education in these 12 areas:
- English,
- Mathematics,
- Science,
- Design Technology,
- History,
- Geography,
- Art and Design,
- Physical Education (PE),
- Computing,
- Modern Foreign Languages,
- Religious Education (parents can ask for their children to be taken out of for whole or part of the class).
The only difference between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 is that those from the latter are required to learn about ancient foreign languages such as Latin and Greek whereas those from Stage 1 are not required.
At the end of each of these stages, primary school students are tested as part of the National Curriculum tests (also known as SATs). The tests occur when students from Stage 1 are 7 years old and those from Key Stage 2 are 11 years old in Year 6. These exams are essential in order to move onto the following Key Stage. Students are tested on their skills in English (grammar, spelling, punctuation) and Mathematics.
In England, primary school students spend around 635 hours in the classroom per year. This is below the global average and quite low in comparison to other nations such as Indonesia and Chile where students spend more than 1,200 hours in the classroom per year!
It's never great to be below the global average. However, these low numbers of classroom time permit students who need remedial attention to seek the help of personal tutors.
Private tutors can assist primary school students who are on the brink of academic failure!
Helping Students Who Have Trouble In Mathematics
From personal experience, I can tell you, as can any good literary student can, that math classes or exams can pass by faster than Usain Bolt sprinting at the Olympics...
Our brain tries to concentrate and listen so much that we can start to smell hairs burning! However, with all the effort we put forth, scientifical logic is just beyond us and we spend the last hour of class staring at our pen and the blank sheet of paper asking ourselves, "Why don't I understand? Why I am not having fun?"
The United Kingdom sits 26th out of 34 developed countries at age 15 based on mathematical excellence.
After seeing that statistic, I finally felt like I wasn't the only one with a mathematical impairment. That means that many children across the UK are suffering from math troubles.
These worrying facts have parents wondering how maths are taught to their child at a primary level. The Education Board has seen these results and began to implement "Asian style" mathematics in about half of state-operated primary schools.
To have your little genius rise above the statistics, hire a personal academic instructor that specializes in calculus, algebra, geometry. Academic tutoring is great to start at a young age to ensure your child's success.
The presence of a private tutor will become greatly appreciated when you see your child's grades soar.
The first role of a personal tutor will be to play "Where's Waldo?" and strategically find the main mathematical problems of the pupil:
It would be wise to ask yourself two questions:
- Does the student understand the concept without being able to perform the exercises?
- Can the pupil grasp the meaning of a lesson by only performing the mathematical problems?
After you have successfully evaluated the problems and diagnosed the issues the student faces looking at their assessments, you should propose an individual evaluation paying close attention to the things the student stumbles upon.
In general, during primary school, the theme of multiplication and division (the multiplication table, operations, problem-solving and mathematical reasoning) and the difficulties of understanding decimals are all elements on which pupils stumble upon...
Remember this, we teach students to count to ten using their hands and then one day you tell the same students that there exist decimals such as 1.1; 3.6; 4.2… That’s not considering the fact that the student now has to determine that 4.57 is a bigger number than 2,999!
In order to help the student reach the road to success, we need to be honest and realize that there is no perfect solution since we live in a very imperfect world, however, there are a number of great options to choose from.
The student needs to be kept far away from memorizing and knowing by heart rules that they cannot fully understand (that’s basically what they are taught at school). In order to do that, the private tutor needs to present mathematical concepts and abstract notions using concrete material that the student can manipulate and touch.
Then, as often as possible, let the child reason and determine the answer by himself. The pupil needs to determine, without any help, how to arrive at the correct conclusion. Thus, they remember how they came to the correct answer.
Finally, be pedagogical!
During your at-home tutoring sessions, think about the 5 senses…The difficulties in math often come from the fact that the student doesn’t see or clearly understand what we are asking. Once the statement or equation is understood, the student can finally make progress.
Mathematics is a subject that remains important, throughout your entire school career. Moreover, to pursue a scientifically based career, why not plan to take remedial classes at a secondary school level also?
Helping Students Who Have Difficulties in Reading
We don’t remember when we grow up by, but reading is a difficult step, labour-intensive and complicated in our life as a young child.
A lot more complicated and difficult than let’s say a game of hopscotch or a friendly football match!
Reading rapidly solicits our learning capacities (our attention or memory), our knowledge (recognition of the alphabet…), and our wisdom (to decipher a text, understand the definition of a word from a certain image or from the meaning of the sentence…).
These learning techniques are somewhat complicated in the beginning and are difficult for primary school teachers to explain well in a class that is overcrowded with bratty students. Therefore, the pupil needs a tailor-made, personal tutoring session to thoroughly comprehend the aforementioned elements in order to facilitate the reading process.
A specialized teacher, psychologist or school speak therapist can often offer a helping hand to the student, however, it is usually the regularly scheduled and well-structured classes of a private tutor that bring the most success.
These private lessons will act as a bridge connecting the students to his classroom lessons. The two go hand and hand and the former is essential for a student who is having difficulties in reading.
If the student has great trouble it would be wise for the tutor to take the time to explain every single letter of the words that are found in a word bank, the results will be worth the effort!
The faster the pace becomes in the classroom, the faster the young pupil loses confidence in himself and shuts in on himself. These are things that need to be avoided because they can easily jeopardize the student’s future success at school. With that being said, the role of a personal tutor is never in vain because the young child needs a positive extrinsic influence that he can count on and trust in as a friend during hard times.
Students become very attached to their academic tutors!
To offer remedial help in English to a student who has trouble reading, the tutor will diagnose the issues like a well-trained physician to identify where are the common mistakes.
A personalized reading test comes highly recommended because you will be able to observe the technique of the young student and therefore be able to identify the procedural mistakes he is committing.
Ask yourself certain questions:
- Does the pupil understand the story he is reading?
- Are they memorizing the key vocabulary words?
- Does the student correctly identify letters that look alike?
A series of exercises should be implemented to have the student progress and perfect their reading. During the tutoring program, they will proceed to understand syllabic decompositions of words and sort between identical letters.
And there is nothing wrong with such an ongoing academic support programme through secondary school and even into your child's university studies!
Helping Students Who Have Difficulties in Writing
From Leeds to London, schools have always been filled with students who have difficulties writing in English.
But how do we propose suggestions to a student who has trouble in writing prepare for an exam?
Evidently, among all the distinguished professionals who are likely to support one could resort to:
- Speech therapist: if there is time on the agenda,
- A reading specialist that is known for doing graphotherapy: an unregulated profession, an unsupported rhythm and very expensive sessions!
- A psychologist: very expensive if you hire a private one and not necessary if the student has only a slight writing issue.
If the student is constantly and permanently confronting by writing, they can quickly become discouraged, stressed and still poorly express their writing skills.
With these issues the skilled professionals may come to their aid or in certain situations hinder their progress, therefore the private tutor should take advantage of providing the student with the extra school support they need in order to succeed.
In the cosy, comfort of the pupil's own home, all the writing-related stress diminishes thanks to the help of a personal academic instructor who acts as a caring big brother instead of a cranky babysitter.
By prioritizing drawing in an entertaining way, something the pupil has done since before kindergarten, he will improve his fine motor skills and the holding of his pencil so that he regains confidence in his writing.
Helpful Tip: the use of special lines (enlarged or the first coloured line) facilitates learning English writing.
Get the best home tutor on superprof.
Hire a Personal Tutor to not Fall Behind Before Secondary School
Before planning on taking remedial classes in secondary school, the student needs to finish primary school with style!
Homework accumulates every day, classes keep going at a quick pace and the pupils slowly get lost in the pages of their textbooks that weigh more than a Range Rover!
Despite motivation, help from the entire teaching staff and his older brothers and sisters, he sees the secondary school in the distance but he doesn't feel ready because he hasn't assimilated all of the basic primary school concepts.
School holidays, Wednesdays and weekends, there is still a ton of spare time and the parents ask themselves questions on about their child's scholastic difficulties.
How would private, academic tutoring help my daughter or son more than the support they are offered by teachers in the classroom? That's a very good question indeed!
Considering a recent study, it would be wise for parents to hire a private tutor in the UK since the research showed that British parents give their children less help with education than almost every other country!
These stats are concerning but go on to show that hiring a personal tutor to follow your child through primary to secondary school would be a great idea.
The support a pre-secondary school private tutor can bring is multiple:
- Bridging gaps before they weigh more heavily on the student's shoulders,
- Reinforce the student's knowledge of the alphabet and the number system,
- Train and mentally prepare the student to juggle a more intense class load.
It's very rare to see a student smiling when they receive their report card. Private tutoring can turn that frown upside down and give your child a reason to smile.
If you are tempted by adventure and want to fortify the foundation of your child's scholarly knowledge, Superprof offers professional private tutors! While we wait to see you using our platform, we wish you or your child great success in school!
Read on now for how to find the ideal tutor no matter what your child's level is...
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