For Parents – The Tutor Centre

Why Tutoring Matters

In today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape, parents face a multitude of challenges when it comes to ensuring their children receive the quality education they deserve. The state education system, while undoubtedly dedicated to the well-being of our children, often finds itself under-resourced and grappling with large class sizes. As a result, the vast majority of students are not be receiving the individual attention and focused guidance they need to excel academically.

The Struggle of Overstretched Schools:

Overstretched schools, grappling with limited resources and large class sizes, may struggle to provide the tailored attention required for each child’s unique learning journey. As parents, we understand the importance of individualized support, especially in the crucial primary and secondary years, where a strong foundation is vital for future success.

The Impact on Academic Performance:

The consequences of under-resourced education systems can be felt in our children’s academic performance. Larger class sizes make it challenging for teachers to address individual learning needs, resulting in some students falling behind or struggling to reach their full potential. This is where tutoring becomes crucial.

The Tutor Centre Difference:

The Tutor Centre, with its high quality approach, offers hope for parents to overcome the challenges posed by the state education system. Specialising in providing focused tutoring by qualified specialist teachers who are dedicated to progressing each and every student, The Tutor Centre stands out with its commitment to maintaining small group sizes with highly disciplined tuition sessions with no chatter or distractions. This unique approach enables teachers to deliver the personalized attention that is lacking in school classrooms.

Rapid Progress and Academic Excellence:

The results speak for themselves. Parents have shared glowing testimonials over the years, in person and through online reviews, highlighting the rapid progress their children have made at The Tutor Centre. These success stories include significant improvements in SATS, GCSEs, and end-of-year exam grades. It’s also not just about grades; it’s about nurturing a love for learning and instilling the confidence needed to succeed in any academic challenge, a life-long skill students carry forward to A-Levels, apprenticeships and university.

Individual Support for Every Student:

At The Tutor Centre, the key to success lies in the ability of our qualified specialist teachers to provide individualised support to each student. This focused attention allows for a deep understanding of the unique learning style and needs of every child, ensuring that no one is left behind. The intimate very small class setting fosters an environment where questions are encouraged, concepts are thoroughly understood, and academic hurdles are overcome.

Consistent Progress and Set Advancements:

One of the most impressive aspects of The Tutor Centre’s impact is the consistent progress and set advancements observed in students. By addressing individual learning gaps and building a strong foundation, children are not only catching up but excelling beyond expectations. Moving up sets at school becomes a regular result as students gain the confidence and knowledge needed to reach advanced levels. Read the reviews to see for yourself here.

As parents navigating the challenges of the current education system, it’s essential to explore avenues that provide our children with the support they need to thrive academically. The Tutor Centre stands as a testament to the transformative power of focused tutoring in small groups, where qualified specialist teachers are dedicated to unlocking the full potential of every student. Don’t let the limitations of the state education system, and low quality tuition centres with large school style class sizes, hinder your child’s progress—consider the benefits of The Tutor Centre and witness the remarkable academic journey that awaits your child.

Why not book a free trial tutoring session by calling or sending a message for a call back to 07555 419058 to experience first hand what The Tutor Centre can offer your child?

The Power of Early Tuition: The Secret to GCSE Success in Year 11

As parents, we all want our children to achieve academic excellence, especially when it comes to their GCSE exams. However, waiting until Year 11 to address knowledge gaps is often too late. That’s why enrolling your children at The Tutor Centre, which offers small group tutoring with individualised support, while they are at primary school, or in lower secondary school if they are past primary, is essential since school class sizes are too large to effectively build them up as required for the top GCSE grades.

In this article, we will explore the benefits of early tuition and how our centre’s combination of intense quality small group tutoring and targeted individual attention in the earlier years lays a solid foundation for GCSE success.

Every Year is a Building Block:
Education is a journey that builds upon each year’s knowledge. From Key Stage 2 (KS2) to Key Stage 3 (KS3), students develop essential skills and concepts that form the basis for GCSE subjects. Early tuition is crucial to ensure your child has a strong foundation in these fundamental areas. By providing small group tutoring, we create an environment where students receive focused attention, allowing them to excel academically and progress seamlessly through each stage of their education and school year.

Addressing Gaps and Filling Holes:
GCSE exams demand a comprehensive understanding of subjects. Waiting until Year 11 to address the knowledge gaps is overwhelming, given the limited time available for remediation. Early tuition allows for the identification and rectification of weaknesses or gaps in understanding. By combining small group tutoring with targeted individual support, we tailor tuition to address specific areas of improvement. This approach ensures that students have a solid grasp of foundational concepts, setting them up for success in their GCSE exams.

Building Confidence, Study Skills and Teamwork:
Early tuition not only focuses on subject knowledge but also on complete development. Small group tutoring fosters an environment of support and collaboration, enabling students to learn from each other’s perspectives. This approach builds confidence, teamwork and communication skills—essential traits that will benefit students in their GCSE studies and beyond. Moreover, The Tutor Centre provides free valuable study techniques, time management strategies and effective revision methods to its students, equipping them with lifelong learning tools.

Individualised Attention and Personalised Learning:
While small group tutoring provides a collaborative learning experience, we also recognize that each student is unique. By offering targeted individual attention, our tutors can assess students’ strengths and weaknesses and tailor instruction to meet their specific needs. This personalised approach ensures that no student is left behind, empowering every student to thrive academically. The combination of small group learning and individualised support allows for an optimal balance between peer interactions and personalized guidance.

The Tutor Centre has already transformed many children into motivated driven students with aspirations to achieve the highest grades. By enrolling your child at The Tutor Centre, they too can benefit from early tuition, intense quality small group tutoring and targeted individual attention.

Don’t wait until Year 11; start paving the way to GCSE success with early tuition from the primary years.

Contact us or WhatsApp 07775 419058 for a call back to discuss your child’s current levels and how we can help them on their journey to achieve their best GCSE grades in year 11.

Online Tuition vs Face-to-Face Tuition

Online vs Face-to-Face Tutoring

The pandemic had compelled schools and universities to switch to online learning with many after-school tutoring clubs also delivering tuition over the internet. Now that schools have re-opened and returned to face-to-face teaching, some tutors and tuition centres have opted to continue to provide tuition online rather than return to the classroom. While this may help to reduce the costs of centres and travel time for tutors, is it effective for children and money well spent for parents?

Who Can Benefit from Online Tutoring?

Evidence suggests that older and more mature students, particularly A-Level and university students, can benefit from online tuition, even in groups and larger class sizes. This is due to their maturity and motivation which keeps their engagement and attention since these students will be characterised by ambition through their own choice to pursue A-Levels and university to achieve their career objectives.

What about Primary and Secondary School Children?

Year 11 and below require more supervision and easily become distracted with attention spans progressively becoming shorter further down the years. In a school classroom, teachers have a challenge in keeping all children engaged through constant prodding due to the larger numbers which leads to a good number of children falling behind. When the class is moved online with children sitting many miles away from the teacher in their own homes, then this challenge is multiplied as teachers are not able to gauge all students’ level of engagement and constantly prod them effectively enough even with cameras being turned on.

Although there may be a slight improvement for offering online tuition to groups of students online compared to the larger school classes online, the overall effectiveness of online tuition for school children compared to face-to-face tuition is drastically reduced for the same reasons. And as the group numbers swell beyond two, the effectiveness is further reduced.

As parents are privately paying for tuition, they need to evaluate the return on their money spent vs free online resources (listed at the end) which students can use with the help of parents or older brothers and sisters, and consider moving them to a face-to-face tutoring environment.

When Online Tuition May Work for School Children

Evidence from tutors shows that when school children are receiving one-to-one tuition online, then the tutor can focus solely on that one student and is able to keep the child constantly engaged in the lesson as there is no pause with the tutor having to juggle between multiple children. However, tutors have observed that even in a one-to-one online tuition, an important aspect of tutoring which ensures the presence of important success factors such as the student’s confidence, motivation, level of engagement and rapport are simply easier to implement in face-to-face tutoring. In the words of one teacher:

‘When I teach, I am watching and sensing students’ non-verbal feedback about how they are finding the task/activities. This includes posture, facial expression, tone of voice and how tense they seem to be physically. I think this would be more difficult on-line’.

In conclusion, online tutoring has shown to be more effective for older and more mature students and can offer some benefit in a one-to-one setting with younger students while its effectiveness is greatly reduced, especially when attempting to tuition groups of students together online.

Try these free Resources with your children during lockdowns and to supplement their learning at schools and at The Tutor Centre:

https://www.thenational.academy/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize

How will GCSE Grades be Awarded in Summer 2021?

As the usual GCSE exams will not take place again this summer due to the pandemic, the government and Ofqual have announced GCSE grades will be awarded by teacher assessment. In its consultation, the government has proposed that:

> Schools should set exam based assessments in May and June during which the usual exams would have taken place.

> Exam boards could issue mini exams for each subject which would be sat in schools and marked by teachers.

> These mini exams, as well as tests set by the schools, are to form the evidence used by teachers to submit their awarded GCSE grades to exam boards in June.

> The exam boards are to audit samples of the exam papers and assessments sat by students to ensure guidelines have been followed and the overall grades are in line with the schools’ previous performance.

> The exam boards issue the grades in July and students can appeal their grades.

While the exact details are still being worked out on the details of the mini exams and the guidance that teachers will have to follow in awarding the grades, what is clear is that year 11 students must not become complacent since they will still be assessed. These assessments will form the evidence by which teachers will be able to award the grades.

Therefore, students must use the remaining period between March and June effectively in studying and being as best prepared as possible to be awarded the highest GCSE grade. At the Tutor Centre, our GCSE teachers (who will also be trained to undertake this process in the schools in which they teach) will be helping our year 11 students to prepare for these tests and assessments. Contact us to find out how we can help you too.

Guide to KS2 SATs Tests

The scores achieved by children in their KS2 SATs tests at the end of Year 6 will determine the sets they will be placed in Year 7 and their target GCSE grades in Year 11. Therefore, it is essential that students are prepared to achieve the highest grades to set them up for success at secondary school.

What are KS2 SATs?

SATs are compulsory national tests sat by all year 6 children, normally in May, in maths and English. The results measure the children’s end of primary school levels of attainment as well as the performance of schools.

KS2 Maths Tests

There are three test papers in maths. Paper 1 tests mental arithmetic skills with questions requiring a correct answer to each question; papers 2 and 3 test mathematical reasoning and problem solving skills.

KS2 English Tests

Paper 1 tests knowledge of grammar, spelling and punctuation (SPAG) with questions requiring short answers such as ‘which word is a noun in this sentence’ or ‘why does this sentence need an apostrophe’. Paper 2 is a 20 word spelling test. Paper 3 is a reading comprehension test; children have to read the passages from a text they are provided and answer a range of questions related to the passage.

KS2 Science

Science SATs are not compulsory. However, a few schools are selected for science SATs which take place after the compulsory maths and English tests in early June for official sampling purposes. You can check with your child’s school if it has been selected.

The New KS2 SATs & Scores Explained

The new KS2 SATs tests, introduced in 2016, have become more difficult and the way they are marked has also changed. Previously, students were awarded levels ranging from 3 (the lowest) to 6 with 4b set as the national standard expected for each subject. Now, they are marked with a score ranging from 80 (the lowest) to 120 with a national standard expected score of 100 for each subject. The new more rigorous tests have seen fewer students achieving the expected standard score of 100 compared to the old KS2 SATs tests’ 4b.

Preparing Your Child for KS2 SATs

A 2016 Department for Education study found that year 6 pupils who had failed to achieve the national expected standard KS2 levels were lagging behind throughout secondary school and failed to achieve five GCSE’s at grade C or above including maths and English in Year 11. Furthermore, as class sizes are too large to ensure each child can be prepared to achieve the highest KS2 SATs’ scores, parents must provide extra support to their children by:

Encouraging daily reading at home, asking them questions about the story they have read and learning spellings of new words

Making them work from KS2 SATs workbooks and websites such as BBC Bitesize

Getting tutoring for them through qualified and experienced primary school teachers for accelerated progress, ideally from Years 4 or 5 for maximum scores above 100

To arrange a free KS2 assessment of current levels and progress towards SATs preparation for your child in Years 4, 5 or 6, at our Derby or Burton centres, email info@thetutorcentre.com.

Stop Mobile Phones from Sabotaging Your Child’s Revision

With GCSE and A-Level exams just around the corner, many students will be starting revision to achieve their target grades. However, mobile phones have become the main source of revision sabotage which will lead to many students failing to achieve them. Below are some tips that can help you in saving your child from this sabotage:

Don’t Nag

This is the time to be supportive rather than add to your child’s stress levels. Have a friendly conversation to make him understand how these next few weeks will determine the rest of his life.

Make Them Look Ahead

Ask him to think ahead. How will he feel on the night before the first exam; fully prepared, relaxed and ready to get an early night? Or will he have large revision gaps because he ran out of time due to interruptions from social media, YouTube and Netflix, leading him to stay up until the early hours in a futile effort to cram in many weeks of revision? Is sacrificing great grades – leading to a great career – by the temporary gratification received from the mobile phone really worth it?

Set Some Rules

Agreeing on rules on mobile phone usage and setting limits is critical. Here are some examples of what you can agree with your child:

Keep the phone switched off and in a different room during revision sessions to stop the temptation of reaching for it every five minutes.

Turn off notifications from WhatsApp, Snapchat and other social media applications to stop their constant disruption.

Check for messages only during planned breaks.

No mobile phone usage an hour before bedtime.

Keep the phone downstairs during the night to ensure a good night’s sleep to be refreshed and ready for the following day.

Lead by Example

Be a role model and implement the agreed rules on yourself. Not only will this give you time to be more productive, it will show support for your child and help in consolidating these phone habits for future exam seasons.

Are Students Achieving their Full Potential at School?

School class sizes of 30+ means that the teacher’s attention is too thinly spread out to be able to be able to focus on each student sufficiently. This makes it difficult to identify each student’s individual needs and target the areas necessary to ensure they achieve their full potential.

As a result, students are neglected across the full range of abilities with higher performing students not being fully stretched to truly excel by being set standard work while lower performing students are neglected as their predetermined low target grades are used to keep them there.

At The Tutor Centre, we keep class sizes very small at an average of 6 students which allows our teachers to provide the focus necessary for each student to ensure they exceed the target grades set by their schools through a personalised learning plan. Unlike schools, we do not cap the students’ ability at their target grades set by schools, which for the majority of students, are not a true reflection of the students’ ability but a reflection of the neglect that they suffer due to the state of the education system.

Last year’s GCSE results showed that in a short period of time, the majority of our students who were tutored at The Tutor Centre were able to exceed their target grades. Our philosophy is that the only limit to a student’s potential achievement is the one placed on them by teachers and schools who convince them and their parents that they cannot achieve higher grades.

So if you want your child to exceed the expectations set by the school and achieve his/her full potential, contact us now to discuss how The Tutor Centre can help.