Author: Rachel Law

4-Reasons-to-Arrange-a-Dyslexia-Screening

Posted on by Rachel Law

1. You’re worried

You may be concerned that your child’s reading or writing is not where you or your child’s teacher might expect it to be. Often parents say that something just doesn’t seem right – maybe your child is bright and excelling at maths but comparatively weak in English. Maybe they’re very verbally articulate but can’t put their ideas down on paper well. Take a look at Could My Child be Dyslexic for typical symptoms.

2. You’d like to put your mind at rest.

A dyslexia screening is a relatively inexpensive and often quicker to arrange than a full diagnostic report from an Educational Psychologist. It gives a good level of detail to put your mind at rest that there are no issues in that area or give you information to help and pursue more detailed testing if needed.

3. You’d like school to help

Dyslexia is no longer a condition which the council will ‘statement’ for and there is no obligation for them to help. In our experience, however, schools do help as much as they can and find our screening reports on pupils’ strengths and weaknesses useful. If they are not already putting interventions in place for your child, they can (subject to school budgets) arrange these.

4. You’d like to help your child’s confidence

Children with dyslexia or dyslexic tendencies can feel that they are stupid because they’re not able to read, write or spell as well as their peers. This is, of course, completely rubbish but it can affect a child’s sense of self-belief very badly. Realising that there’s a reason why they find some things hard can be really liberating.

Get in touch

Contact Rachel Law on 01223 858421 for an informal chat or email Rachel. Rachel can advise if a dyslexia screening would be a good option or if other options might be better for you and your child.

 

 

We’re hiring!

Posted on by Rachel Law

We’re busier than ever, which is a massive testament to the fabulous work our teachers do, tutoring students in Cambridge, Ely, Huntingdon, St Ives and Huntingdon.

Rewarding work

One of the favourite parts of my job is following up with parents and tutors once tuition is underway because I just love hearing how well the students are progressing, how much the tutors are enjoying it and what a good match there is between tutor and student. Many teachers come to us feeling a bit tired, stressed and unappreciated. It’s a joy to see them restored to their former glory and I think one reason is that the parents that we work with really value their skills, time, commitment and care and say ‘Thank you for teaching my child.’ Have a look at what our tutors say about tutoring through Tutor My Kids.

Flexible work

Only 39% of the UK population look forward to going to work. That’s scary! Work life balance can make a huge difference, and working flexibly is a way to improve your work life balance, fit in exercise and other interests. At Tutor My Kids, our tutors work when and where they want to, some choosing mostly daytime work and some mostly evening, depending on their circumstances.

Curious?

It’s just the start of the new school year, but you may be interested in asking a few questions for the next academic year. You may have just taken early retirement and already feeling a bit bored and wondering if there is a way you can keep your hand in. You may be on maternity leave and considering your options. Whatever your situation, take a look at our tutor page, email Rachel or call Rachel Law on 01223 858421 for an informal chat.

 

 

 

Why-getting-the-right-tutor-is-key-to-successful-tuition

Posted on by Rachel Law

With so many sites advertising tutors on the internet, getting the right tutor can be like finding a needle in a haystack, and getting the right tutor for your child is absolutely key for maximising the success of tutoring. Many sites advertise university students with stunning academic credentials, but are they able to teach? Not everyone is. This is particularly important if you’re looking for tuition at primary age as the methods taught (as you may have already realised) are very different from how you were taught. Experience of the marking schemes of exams is also key to maximising grades. Picking a tutor from a list of pictures and some information is a bit like (I guess) Tinder or Grindr. There are better ways! And last but by no means least, how can you be sure that they are a safe person to be working with your child?

Academic qualifications and teaching experience

I do realise that we have a biased view at Tutor My Kids because it was founded by a teacher and almost all our tutors are qualified teachers. Teachers spend years presenting information in ways which make it easier for the students to learn, adapting until they find an approach that works for each student. Highly qualified students lack the experience to be able to do this and can lack the ability to engage with students who find it hard when they have found it so easy. With the new 9-1 GCSEs and A levels, knowledge of the new curriculum and marking schemes is of particular importance now.

Understanding of the exam marking schemes

Understanding the marking schemes has always been important but with the new GCSE and A levels, it’s even more important to understand the marking schemes and grade boundaries. At Tutor My Kids, our tutors know the new marking schemes and can advise where to write at length and where to write concisely to ensure the maximum number of marks are obtained. Technical vocabulary and language is a key part of the exams now and incorporating the correct terms can make a noticeable difference to the number of marks awarded. Applying subject knowledge to a problem is a new facet of the exams too, so students need to understand their subjects very well. They also need to be able to apply this knowledge to other contexts and problems.

Attitude, Rapport and Trust

The attitude of the tutor and the rapport that they build with your child is probably the most important factor that affects the success of the tuition. At Tutor My Kids, we’re all driven by wanting to help; for us and our tutors, money is not our or their primary motivator at all, it’s a real desire to make a difference. Because we’re small and because of the processes we go through before we start tuition, we get exceptionally good matches with our students and tutors – look at our testimonials and tutor testimonials for a feel. Kids find it hard to ask questions in class, so it is so important that they’re working with someone they trust and have a good rapport with.

Safeguarding

As teachers, safeguarding is rather hard-wired into us. At Tutor My Kids, all our teachers have a current enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service Check). This means that any criminal convictions, spent or not, are disclosed to judge if they are safe to work with children or vulnerable adults. We also take up recent references which include any questions about any safeguarding concerns. For our teachers, we’re also able to check their qualified teacher status (QTS) and ensure that they’ve not been ‘struck off’. We are as thorough as we can be in preventing unsuitable and unsafe tutors from tutoring children.

Get in touch

We love welcoming teachers into our happy team, if you’re interested in becoming a tutor, please take a look at our tutor page, and Are-you-a-teacher-who-has-forgotten-what-a-joy-teaching-is.  For information on finding a tutor, please see our parents page, email Rachel or call Rachel Law on 01223 858123.

 

Do-you-need-help-with-home-schooling?

Posted on by Rachel Law

Reasons to home school

There are many reasons that parents choose to home school their children. Education can be child-led – there’s no requirement to follow the national curriculum in the UK.  You can work with your child’s biological clock, which is really handy for teenagers.  Children can ask questions as they go along, rather than being put off putting up a hand in class. And 1 to 2 hours a day of one-to-one tuition is felt to be the equivalent of a days schooling.

Help and support

There are plenty of people who will tell you that it’s the wrong thing to do. Many cite lack of socialising as reasons not to do it. However there is great support out there to put you in touch with other families who are home schooling, such as Education Otherwise, who can put you in touch with other parents to share experiences and help each other out.

What if you lack the right skills?

Not having the right skills can be a worry for parents, especially as kids get older. Many parents are able to tackle some subjects to GCSE or A level but rarely all of them. Organisations such as Education Otherwise are great at putting parents in touch with each other for support, but also to share the teaching. Maybe you can teach English and a local parent the maths? Families can get help from tutors who can work one-to-one with students to help, especially with exam preparation.

Exam arrangements

If you want your children to sit GCSEs and A levels, you will need to follow the exam syllabus. The new GCSEs are very different from the old ones, and need different skills.  Taking the exams can be arranged privately  – AQA and other boards have detail on their websites. Private tuition is something which can be really useful at this point to ensure effective understanding of the new GCSE and A level syllabuses, but also for the all important help with exam technique. Many a mark can be picked up through a good understanding of the marking scheme.

Get in touch

At Tutor My Kids, our teachers who tutor in Ely, Cambridge, Newmarket, St Ives and Huntingdon, support students in many ways, and our teachers we have daytime availability to support home educated students. For more info on Tutor My Kids, please click the link, email Rachel or call her on 01223 858421 for an informal chat.

 

Can-you-unpick-poetry?

Posted on by Rachel Law

If you’re a teacher who can help unpick poetry, we’d love to hear from you.

With the new English Literature and Language exams we’ve got huge demand for GCSE English tutors in Ely, Cambridge, St Ives, Huntingdon and Newmarket who can simplify Shakespeare,  de-mystify Dickens, Klarify Keats (my alliteration fails me with Keats!) and unpick poetry.

We’d love to hear from you.

Do take a look at our For Tutors page, one of our recent blogs – Are you a teacher who’s forgotten what a joy teaching is? To find out what some of our tutors think of working as a Tutor My Kids tutor, take a look at their stories. For an informal chat, please email Rachel Law or call her on 01223 858421.

What’s-different-about-the-new-GCSEs-and-what-skills-are-needed-to-succeed?

Posted on by Rachel Law

There are several differences to the new GCSEs. Aside from the new grading system, they’re harder, require students to learn the whole curriculum for the end exams, need students to apply their knowledge to problems and remember quotes, technical terms and formulae. This needs a different set of skills from the old GCSEs.

Memory and retention

The new GCSEs require students to use the correct technical vocabulary for the subject, as well as remembering quotes and formulae. A mark would be awarded for correctly using the term osmosis or reacting, whereas more general terms such as mixing, combining would not score. Fomulae for maths and science equations (such as an area of a circle) are no longer provided, so students need to learn these by heart. Quotes from books must also be learnt verbatim for English and history. This requires students to have strategies and study skills that will help them commit these elements to memory.

Resilience and repetition

The new exams have end exams which tests all the knowledge learnt across the whole GCSE course. Previously, many subjects had end of unit tests – several tests across the year testing a specific block of learning,  which required less information to be learnt for each test. This means that students are expected to know topics that they learnt in Sept of year 10 as well as those taught just before the exam. This approach also expects that students will be able to use and apply their knowledge across topics in one problem, so a question may require students to demonstrate a knowledge of trigonometry and ratio within one question. Students need to have the discipline and techniques to ensure that they’re revisiting and revising topics as they progress through the curriculum.

More advanced skills

Without doubt, the new exams are harder. There is content in the higher maths tier that was previously in the A level syllabus and topics in the foundation tier that were in the higher tier of the old GCSEs. For the new English GCSE, students are expected to be able to discuss why the author has used certain techniques  – this is a completely new skill to students, never tested before. Understanding the historical context of books studied is expected to be at a higher level than previously needed. All these require students to be able to take on board this higher level of thinking and analysis.

Applying the knowledge

Learning the topics well, however, certainly is not enough  – the new GCSEs require students to demonstrate that they can apply their knowledge to problems set in the questions. Students are expected to be able to discuss why Priestley set An Inspector Calls before the first world war, when it was written after and how his political viewpoint informed his writing. Maths students are needed to be able to apply the fomulae that they’ve learnt to worded problems, such as Calculate the height of a building, given various angles and distances, without explicitly being told to use trigonometry.  Science students need to demonstrate how science applies to real-life issues such as the environment. This is a step on and above from students learning and recalling key facts.

How can I help my child?

There are several key areas that can help your child succeed at the new GCSEs. Firstly, really good subject knowledge is absolutely key – encourage your kids to do their homework to ensure understanding of topics and take advantage of any after-school or lunchtime drop-in sessions. Relearning and revisiting of a topic – essentially making revision notes can become a great resource to refresh learning and ensure topics are not forgotten. Look at techniques for committing quotes,  formuale and technical vocab to memory – whatever works for your child – mind mapping, revision cards etc. Reading around the topic, taking full advantage of any supplementary materials from school and practice papers can help with applying the knowledge.  There’s a lot to fit in, so encourage and help your kids to start with some of these techniques early.

Would a tutor help?

At Tutor My Kids, our tutors in Ely, Cambridge, Newmarket, St Ives and Huntingdon, support students in many ways, but almost always include subject knowledge, help to apply that knowledge and study skills. For more info on GCSE exams and tuition in Cambridgeshire, please click the link, email Rachel or call her on 01223 858421 for an informal chat.

 

 

 

Are-you-confused-by-the-new-GCSE-grading-system?

Posted on by Rachel Law

The new GCSEs are now in place.  The new exams and grading system for maths, English Language and Literature was introduced for the exams in summer 2017. The remained subjects joined them for 2018.

Why-do-we-have-a-new-grading-system?

The exams are new and having a new grading system helps employers to identify that students have studied this more challenging exam. It’s a very visual way of signalling this change in the education system.

How-do-the-new-grades-work?

Grades 9 is there to show the students who have exceeded the old A* grade. Grade 7 is an A, grade 8 a strong A.

Grade 6 is a B

Grade 4 is a C – a standard pass, with grade 5 being a strong pass.

Grade 3 is between a D and an E, grade 2 between an E and an F, grade 1 between an F and a G. Grade U (ungraded) remains unchanged.

So, a grade 4 and above is a pass.

At the moment, grade 4 is a pass and I think it’s realistic to expect it to stay so for the moment, but given the focus on improving our rankings in the international edcuational league tables, I think it’s entirely possible that this may change and 5 may become the official pass mark. However, given the movement of grade boundaries in 2018 to ensure pass rates remain consistent with previous years whilst the new exams bed in, I think this will be some years hence.

For more info on GCSE exams and tuition in Cambridgeshire, please click the link.

 

 

Can-you-keep-up-with-Keats

Posted on by Rachel Law

Private tutor Cambridge

If you’re a teacher who can help kids Klarify (sorry!) Keats, we’d love to hear from you.

With the new English Literature and Language exams we’ve got huge demand for GCSE English tutors in Ely, Cambridge, St Ives, Huntingdon and Newmarket who can simplify Shakespeare,  de-mystify Dickens and untangle Keats (my alliteration fails me with Keats!).

We’d love to hear from you.

Do take a look at our For Tutors page, one of our recent blogs – Are you a teacher who’s forgotten what a joy teaching is? To find out what some of our tutors think of working as a Tutor My Kids tutor, take a look at their stories. For an informal chat, please email Rachel Law or call her on 01223 858421.

 

Can-you-simplify-Shakespeare?

Posted on by Rachel Law

With the new English Literature and Language exams we’ve got huge demand for GCSE English tutors who can simplify Shakespeare,  de-mystify Dickens and untangle Keats (my alliteration fails me with Keats!).

We’d love to hear from you.

Do take a look at our For Tutors page, one of our recent blogs – Are you a teacher who’s forgotten what a joy teaching is? To find out what some of our tutors think of working as a Tutor My Kids tutor, take a look at their stories. For an informal chat, please email Rachel Law or call her on 01223 858421.

Could-you-earn-enough-by-tutoring-alone?

Posted on by Rachel Law

TutorMyKids private tutor

This is a question that we’re asked quite often, especially when teachers are thinking of leaving a teaching post. It is a bit of a ‘how long is a piece of string question’ as it almost entirely depends upon how much you need to earn, however a number of our tutors at Tutor My Kids only work as private tutors. These tend to be teachers who tutor English, maths and science in Cambridge, Ely, Huntingdon, Newmarket and surrounding areas, but there are options that can supplement income too.

Daytime and evening tuition.

At Tutor My Kids we have tutoring opportunities in the daytime and evening. We usually tutor students after schoool, for our private clients, but we also work with home educated children to support parents in the teaching of their children during the daytime. We also work with schools in Cambridgeshire to support their inclusion work, alternative provision and providing tutors to support Looked After Children. This provision can be after school or during the school day. We’re increasingly needing teachers who have daytime availability to satisfy this demand for Alternative Provision work.

Combining tutoring with other options.

Many of our tutors in Cambridgeshire combine their teaching with other options. Some teach part-time and/or supply teach in the local schools in Ely, Cambridge and surrounding areas. Some have caring responsibilities for elderly parents or young children. And a number mark exam papers which provides additional income as well invaluable insight into the nitty gritty of exam marking schemes! Private tuition provides great options to work in a more flexible way.

Curious?

Do take a look at our For Tutors page, one of our recent blogs – Are you a teacher who’s forgotten what a joy teaching is? To find out what some of our tutors think of working as a Tutor My Kids tutor, take a look at their stories. For an informal chat, please email Rachel Law or call her on 01223 858421.