If your child is struggling with a subject at school or perhaps has not done as well as you, or they, would have hoped in some recent tests or assignments, the first thing to do is to check some basics before getting in touch with a tutor.
Have they been completing homework set by their teacher?
Have they revised for the tests they had? Have there been ongoing weekly tests, for example, as part of homework that they may not have realised were important to revise for.
How have they revised? Did they allow enough time for revising and then revisiting before the test date or was it a last-minute glance at their notes? If it was the latter, then that’s an obvious place to make a change.
If you, and they, think they have been completing homework and revision with maximum effort and application, it would be worth contacting the subject teacher to ask for any feedback and suggestions from them. If at this stage, you feel that some extra support is needed, it would probably be helpful to spend some time with a tutor.
Timely tutoring can often make a big difference in getting students back on track, and sometimes short-term is all that is needed. Students will often say they “can’t” do or understand a certain topic or subject, but with some expert tuition, find that they suddenly “can”.
I equate this to the phenomena many of us have experienced when doing something that is physically demanding or frightening, such as skiing or climbing. Is it your head saying you can’t or is it that you physically can’t?
It’s often the former - and the "thought" that you can't, whilst not true, can stop you in your tracks.
It is for this reason that students and parents sometimes report miraculous results after just a few sessions of tutoring. For some students, having success within a tutoring session will make them suddenly believe that they “can”.
The following blogs contain more information on some of the topics I've touched on above:
Cate is a qualified teacher with more than 20 years of experience teaching in schools and she has most recently dedicated her time to tutoring both online and face to face. Sign up here.
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