The Monkey Tree

Have you ever considered sending your child to a tutor? Is it too much, too young? Alison Stoker speaks to a tutor, teacher and two parents of children who are having tutoring about their experiences. Tutoring - too much, too young? Chewing on the end of a pencil and gazing in to the distance I clearly remember from a very young age zoning out in class, perhaps we all do. But, for some of us that zoning out became a habit.

Occasional concentration lapses are nothing unusual but if a child feels that the work they are doing is too hard, or even too easy they switch off, stop listening and therefore stop learning. For me it was the former, I had hit a wall with a particular subject and in a subconscious panic I shut down and stopped absorbing. I have since learned that this is exceedingly common.

For many parents the decision to take the tutoring route starts with an unhappy, or at least unfulfilled, child. Additional educational support is not always available to children in school who are not thought to have special needs, but there are many who could still benefit from some extra help. At the other end of the scale an increasing number of parents with children exceeding expectations at school are opting for tutoring to help them further fulfill their potential.

However, there are implications.Will the tutoring be supportive or independent of your child’s schooling? And when, if at all necessary, should the parent of a child who is struggling at school, seek additional help in the form of a tutor? Not to mention whether tutoring benefits or is detrimental to child’s general well being? 

Ask the tutor- Hannake Kluge, Centre Director at Kip McGrath Education in
Loughton –

Central to my approach is an individual education program designed for each
child, by means of a thorough initial assessment. Tutoring is a team effort, including the learner, the parent(s) and the tutor. The child will not achieve success if the tutor works in isolation.

It is my opinion that a tutor has to be a qualified teacher who strives to keep up to date with methods used in local schools. As a tutor I support what a child learns in class.Teachers are fully aware that each individual has their own needs and challenges but find it impossible to meet those needs with all the extra demands from school.

Have you ever considered sending your child to a tutor? Is it too much, too young? Alison Stoker speaks to a tutor, teacher and two parents of children who are having tutoring about their experiences.

For parents there are a variety of fears and anxieties involved in deciding on tutoring for their child. However, it is my experience tutoring actually results in less adverse pressure on a child, particularly in the run up to exams.

Tutoring will always have financial implications because it is a professional service but parents can pay week be week and this makes it affordable for most families.

Despite common perception tutoring is not only for children with difficulties, in fact I have many students enrolled who are already doing well at school. Some children choose to strive for excellence and we are there to help these children do just this. Some children simply need encouragement and support to achieve their full learning potential. I am here to give children the confidence they need to make real progress and achieve their personal goals throughout their school career.

Ask the teacher- primary school teacher of 11 years Judith King - I see tutoring as appropriate when a child is struggling with something and lacks confidence in a class situation and has not responded well in all small groups either. As a teacher I would suggest it, but only after I was sure that the school had done everything in its power to help that child. The cost of tutoring is a factor. I think that many parents feel that the educational system should be enough for their child and that if it isn't then the system is failing them.

With very bright children if they, or their parents, feel they could manage more they should be able to choose what they are interested in. It is important that they are channelled and kept interested but not overloaded with academics and allowed to fail. A language, a musical instrument, a sport or interest like bird watching may be a good choice as opposed to more intensive study and tutoring in subjects they already excel in.

Ask the parents- Nigel Lord, father of Emily Lord. My wife and I were concerned that our daughter Emily was becoming bored in her class as the work she was receiving was insufficiently challenging. We also wanted to assess her general ability to enable us to make longer-term decisions on her future education. She was clearly finding things too easy and was developing a cynical attitude towards her education. As a child I went through exactly the same problems at a slightly later stage of my school career, and eventually 'opted out' of the education system altogether. We did not want a repeat performance. Emily has thoroughly enjoyed the whole tutoring process and has been consulted throughout. Her general confidence level has improved and we now have a far happier confident high achiever.

Lorraine Felbridge, mother of Leah
Felbridge and her two brothers Jack and Ethan We decided to have our children tutored, as there were a few issues with our oldest child at the time. Leah started crying every night before bed. When it was time to go to school, she would be beside herself in the car and clinging on to me. Her "breakdown" about going to school was because she felt very under pressure. All in all I tried lots of various things and the private tutoring has definitely worked. I would recommend any parent in this situation to try gaining extra tuition in the areas that their child feels that he/she is not up to the standard required.

For my other children it is all about boosting their level of ability and to give them the extra confidence. Their tutor assessed them and found their weak areas and each week, they concentrate on each child individually and worked on the areas necessary.

I feel that there is a lot of pressure on children at school and within school hours to achieve a certain level of achievement under the Government guidelines.

I definitely wouldn’t carry on with private tutoring if I thought my children were not open to it. They all love going and enjoy doing their homework, they take pride in their reward chart and work very hard each week to achieve their "sticker". It has been a thoroughly encouraging process.

The underlying benefits are a positive view of education and an increase in confidence, this can go a long way for a child who has not been entirely happy in the classroom and can alter their perception of learning permanently. Tutoring is of course one of many options but is widely approved of as a viable way of helping a child to come in to their own in their school lives and to achieve the goals they set themselves. It is a good precedent to start early in life and an invaluable one later on.