Tag: home tutors Newmarket

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Can home tuition help behaviour in the classroom?

Poor behaviour in the classroom can have many causes, such as circumstances at home such as bereavement, family separation, changes in work patterns etc. It can also be caused or at least made worse by a poor match of school work to your child’s abilities.

If the work is too hard for your child they will be unable to get on with it and this may result in poor behaviour in the classroom. If the work is too easy, your child may quickly become disengaged because they’ve finished it and/or it represented little challenge.

Pressures on schools to ‘deliver’ the curriculum are huge at the moment, with expectations that children progress. Getting progress for children is of course what we all want, but sometimes this means that teachers are not able to spend enough time on a subject for all the children to become secure on an area. This is especially apparent with the maths curriculum. Classes tend to move on, even if some children have not understood all they need to.

Maths is often more problematic because it learnt in a sequential manner; your child needs to understand adding before they can understand that multiplication is repeated addition. Maths knowledge is built upon a previous knowledge – like a wall. If the previous knowledge is not well understood the wall will never stand up well.

One of our teachers is currently helping a boy who has spent a lot of time out of the classroom due to behavioural issues. He’s severely dyslexic and the work that he was attempting was too hard for him. School are now catering for his needs much more effectively and our tutor is helping him to catch up the missed work.

Tutor My Kids organises tuition in your home, by qualified teachers with UK curriculum experience to fill in the gaps in your child’s knowledge and support their work at school.

Please get in touch with Rachel Law on 01223 858421 or via the website www.tutormykids.co.uk for a free, friendly and informal discussion.

For help and practical support with behavioural issues, please contact Julie Heginbottom, In Safe Hands via www.in-safe-hands.co.uk or on 07885 724662

Parental-Consultations-What-to-ask

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What to ask the teachers

Autumn term consultations are more often more about more pastoral issues, such as settling in, friendship issues, especially at primary school.
It is worth asking, at this point in the year, how your child is doing academically, especially if their report from the previous academic year in July was showing them behind where they could or should be, for their age.
At Tutor My Kids, we have had some conversations with parents where their first consultation of the year was very positive and they were only aware of problems when the July reports came out. It’s much easier to tackle these things earlier in the year, if possible.

What school can do to help

School, of course, has a responsibility to do the best for your child, but within a class of 30, it can be difficult to give your child the individual attention they need. School can set differentiated work (work set at the right level for your child) in class.  Ask if they can work with a teaching assistant. Are there intervention groups that they can join?

What can I do at home?

And, of course, equally importantly, ask what you can do at home to help. It’s amazing what 5 or 10 mins a day can achieve with reading, times table practice, etc.

Many parents struggle to find the time and/or don’t have the skills needed to support their children at home. Tutor My Kids provides teachers who work as private tutors in Ely, Cambridge, Huntington and Newmarket. Take a look at How much difference can an hour a week really make?

Please contact Rachel Law on 01223 858421 for email Rachel for a confidential chat about private tuition.

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Summer Boosters

There’s
much talk about reorganising the school year to make the summer holidays
shorter. It would make childcare easier for many parents and it was also reduce
the tendency for children to forget what they’ve learnt over the long summer
holidays.

Tutor My
Kids recognise that children tend to forget what they’ve learnt after the holidays
and this year are introducing summer boosters – twice weekly 1 to 1 home
tuition by qualified primary school teachers for 8/10 weeks over the summer to
keep work tickling along.

This has
great benefits for all school years as it enables your child to feel confident
when they return to school in September, but it can have particularly good effect
at the end of year 2, to aid the transition to key stage 2 work in year 3, and
in year 5 to ensure a sound set of foundations for their SATs year.

For more
information please call Rachel Law on 01223 858421 or visit www.tutormykids.co.uk and http://www.tutormykids.blogspot.co.uk/

How do the National Curriculum levels work?

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www.tutormykids.co.uk

How do the national curriculum levels work?

This is a question that is often asked by parents who are seeking help for their children when they approach Tutor My Kids for home tuition in Cambridge, Ely or Newmarket areas.


At primary (junior and infant) schools in England and Wales,
the levels go from level 1 to level 5 or 6.

I’m confused with the letters after the numbers

Each level is divided into 3 sub-levels. The lowest sub-level being c,
then b then a. e.g. 2a is higher than 2b, which in turn is higher than 2c.


I’ve listed the levels below. Your child will progress through these from the bottom upwards:

6c

5a

5b

5c
4a
4b
4c
3a
3b
3c
2a
2b
2c
1a
1b
1c

What level should my child be at?

There is no ‘should’ as there are many reasons why your child is where
there are, but there’s value in discussing national expectations.

The government measures schools on a number of factors:

The percentage of children who leave key stage 2 (year 6 at primary or
final year of junior) at a level 4. This is known as attainment.

The percentage of children who make 2 levels of progress from Key Stage
1 (end of year2 or infant school). This is known as progress.

Why is level 4 important?

Level 4 is the level that it is hoped that all children will reach at
the end of year 6. This is a key level because it correlates very strongly with
GCSE success at secondary school; children who do not attain level 4 at primary
school tend not to achieve their maths and English GCSE.

Why is level 5 important?

Level 5 and 6 is important for higher achieving pupils because most
secondary schools ‘set’ or stream for ability. This means that the better the
levels your child achieves the higher sets they will be in at secondary. This
is important because generally speaking the higher sets suffer less with
disruptive behaviour and more productive learning occurs.

What are the expectations for Key Stage 1 (infant school)?

Schools aim to get all children to level 2 at the end of key stage 1
(year 2) because children who get level 2 at this age tend to get at least
level 4 at the end of primary school.

Children who get level 3 at key stage 1 tend to get at least level 5 at
the end of year 6.

How much progress should my child be making each year?

From year 3 to year 6, it’s expected that a child should progress 2
whole levels. If your chid leaves year 2 at 2c, they’ll be expected to reach 4c
by the end of year 6.

In addition, because children don’t tend progress in regular intervals
– very much like children tend to grow in spurts – schools plan for your child
to make 2 sub-levels (2/3 of a level) of progress a year. E.g. if they start
year 3 at 2c, at the end of year 3, they should be at 2a.

Those of you who paid attention in maths will have noticed that 2/3 of
a level each year for 4 years (year 3 to year 6) makes 2 and 2/3 of a level
progress over 4 years. This allows for accelerated progress and/or for periods
when children consolidate their learning.

Will my school tell me the levels at which my child is working?

Talking to parents who approach Tutor My Kids for home tutors in
Cambridgeshire, school are happy to discuss levels with them; the problem tends
to be that parents don’t know what to ask or know how to interpret the
information given.

Good questions to ask are:

Is my child working at, above or below national expectations?
How has my child progressed since the start of the year?
What level is my child working on for writing, reading and maths?
How can I help them at home?

What should I be concerned about?

If your child is working significantly behind national expectations and
the school’s interventions are not improving that situation, it might be time
to talk to school again and maybe look at additional tuition.

If your child is not making the progress the school would expect, it’s
probably worth some additional investigation. Some schools do not stretch their
gifted and talented children – those children who are ahead of expectations,
which means that they do not maintain that lead; they slip t being ‘at
expectations’.

Sometimes your child can be ahead of expectations in some areas –
reading and maths tend to be typical, and maybe a bit behind in writing.
Many parents contact Tutor My Kids looking for a home tutor in
Cambridgeshire when their child is in year 4 or 5 and they want to ensure that
their child will be on track for a good result in SATs at the end of year 6.

For more information on ‘Quick Wins to raise attainment and SATs
levels’ please see our other blogs and 
also our regular column in ‘Primary Times’ in Cambridgeshire.