AIBU to think this tutor has an attitude?

So you know how getting a copy of mock results work then?

We got Dd from a mock result 4 /4 to an 8 /8 in the actual gcse for combined science. Tutor taught science at a local top name public school. She was shit hot and incredibly expensive. Worth every penny. No way would we have hired some kid with a physics degree - you need a proper teacher and pay them accordingly.

Putting aside your attitude and your son's fairly obvious disinterest in the subject (so prob best not to do it for A-level; I did A-level history and it requires a real fascination in the subject as there is a lot of content to cover, understand and interpret, let alone the essay writing), I have a couple of questions:

Why did he not take notes in class? (irrelevant if he didn't like the teacher. He still needs to make notes)

How do you expect him to revise if he has no notes? There is zero point in drawing a mind map if there is no content to complete it with.

The tutor is telling you he needs to bascially teach your son the entire curriculum as there are no notes made / no understanding already. Do you understand this?

Why don't you want to commit to 2-3 hours of tutoring a week? A couple of sessions of cricket doesn't take up the whole of his free time. He has the whole weekend too.

If this is the one subject he is really struggling in and you refuse to engage on the above, can you cut your losses and focus on the others?

This is all very bizarre. There is so much projection from OP onto her son that I’m beginning to feel sorry for him. It is clear to everyone that he has no interest in history, he hasn’t been taking notes or following the course and will struggle at A level. 3 tutors in and they can all see it.

But he can't do it. It's like me getting my 6 year old to study cardiology. It's way beyond him and would be pointless. You need to accept that different people have different strengths, and you should be supporting your son in working to his strengths, not trying to shoehorn him into something he can't do.

So why aren't you teaching him revision strategies?

You were telling the tutor how to do their job. Whether you were right to or not we can't know.

What is wrong with you? Seriously.

That's not abnormal this age - find out what rest of his GCSE are actually looking like and then go from there.

My parents with best will in world forced me down heavy maths route at A-levels and I had exceptional grades in everything bar MFL. So rather than history and English teachers had suggested thinking about at A-levels - my at time undiagnosed dyslexia meant they had years of hearing how bad my written work - spelling hand writting - apparently was so they though maths would be eaiser for me.

They reluctantly let me take geography at A-level with it's essay based exams - only subject I got a A in. They also refused to let me swap other subjects when I started to struggle - I did get in uni course in end but if I'd taken other A-levels subjects would have been less close and much easier on me.

You need to listen to what his teachers and his tutors are saying rather than force him done your prefered route - if you he'd not have done GCSE history in first place and nether of you would be in this position now. Learn from it going forward.

I didn’t realise the tutor was a university student not a teacher. That makes a big difference to what you can expect from them, and I expect it also makes a significant difference to price. You get what you pay for. I’m sure a university student is capable of supporting an able student plug some knowledge gaps before the exam, but you are asking the tutor to deliver a miracle.

If you are serious about trying to get your son from a grade 2 to a grade 6 by the time exams start you need to stop employing a university student and pay the premium for a qualified teacher with extensive experience working with students who struggle academically. It may still be impossible to be honest, but that’s your best bet.

I agree your son needs down time, and also exercise. What is he doing with the time when he’s not playing cricket? That is where you need to be looking to find the extra study time, not taking away his sport.

Being realistic, in order to make a serious attempt at this your son needs to be doing several hours of independent study every week on top of any tuition. You are looking at months of very hard work, lots of stress, and lots of expense, with it still be pretty unlikely he will get the 6 he needs to do the A-level.

If you don’t want to give up on the dream, get a better qualified tutor, buy some revision books, get him in a routine with independent study, and then take each half term at a time. If he knuckles down up to Christmas, then maybe up the workload a bit if he’s able to and keep aiming high, and see how he does up to February. If he finds it all too much then by all means keep up with he tuition and aim for a 4, but you’ll need to rethink the A-level plans.

Frankly if you need a tutor for the gcse sorry but surely it’s not then a subject you do for a level? Both mine excellent at humanities but struggled with maths / physics so got tutors to get them through GCSEs then they gladly binned those subjects at a level to study the subjects they enjoyed and excelled at. If he can’t do the gcse without a tutor no tutor in the world can get him a good grade for history a level.

Well OP doesn't seem to be listening to the varnished ones.

I am sorry you are upset.

It requires quite a lot of work for tutors to plan personalised sessions and it's very disheartening when a student is not fully committed. It is also frustrating when students/parents do not seem to have realistic ideas about what they can achieve without a complete overhaul of their current routine and work ethic. This will be why the tutor is being blunt with you.

He is actually doing you a favour by not delivering false hope, and if he's a uni student that means his A Level experience is pretty recent. He knows exactly what your son will face next year.

Are you sure your son is really as interested in History as you say? What about it actually interests him? I find it surprising that he can have such poor knowledge of a subject he loves.

It's not clear @SoCloseToNothing1981 if the 2s and 3s were mocks for history or for all his GCSEs? Rereading your post t sounds like you mean the latter.

In which case I would totally shelve history, it doesn't stand him in good stead on his CV if he pairs it with 3s in maths, English and science.

If he is capable of more (and of course some students are not, I know that very well) then you and he need to look at what he needs to do. Talk to his teachers as a priority, find out where he is and what needs to be done. It's November, there are six months till exams start, it's time to make a difference in the key subjects.

It sounds as tho it is you that is pushing history. Which subjects if any does he enjoy? Might a college course that is more practical suit post-16? I would look at what there is but focus on the GCSEs he will need.

Not if he fails it it doesn't!

Why would you encourage your child to choose an A level subject they are already struggling with. I'd encourage him to choose something he's good at, you're asking for a whole load of unnecessary stress here!

Sorry, but the tutors right. I did GCSE & A level history and the jump is huge, I went from an A at GCSE with little effort to B at A level but had to put in effort, do independent reading and regular revision.

I’ve also worked in learning support in secondary school for years. The tutor is most likely frustrated that you just expect him to teach revision techniques (which to be fair a year 11 student should know by now). You can’t help someone revise something they don’t know in the first place. You have to fill in the gaps first. He can teach a topic and then at the end set homework of creating flashcards etc. It’s a massive waste of a resource to just get a tutor to help revise.

And you might not want to hear it @SoCloseToNothing1981 but this is mostly your DSs responsibility. He should have notes from class, why doesn’t he? Saying his teacher is rubbish is not helpful. Do his peers take notes? You need a meeting with his history teacher to find out what’s going on. Getting 2s and 3s in mocks suggest either he is really struggling with the subject or if he is generally quite able then he is being lazy. I would take more tutoring hours and request a meeting with his actual history teacher to get the full picture.

Also, @SoCloseToNothing1981 talk to your DS, he knows his mock grades, why didn’t he tell you this? He obviously didn’t want to admit it, is that part of potential laziness or is he worried about your reaction? Some children just don’t click with a particular subject no matter how much they try, if you’re putting pressure on him to do well he may have been avoiding admitting the truth. If he is really struggling it may be worth accepting history isn’t for him and putting his focus/tutoring time into other subjects to boost those grades. One bad grade isn’t the end of the world.

It sounds like he has plenty of downtime in his school history lessons...

So even though the tutor is a uni student, he's done a good job in seeing what your DS can actually do.

I think you need to take the blinkers off in regards to your son.

He's managed to convince you that he 'loves history' despite not doing any work
He's also managed to convince you this is the fault of his teacher and 2 previous tutors
He tried to sabotage the new tutor on the first lesson by oversleeping and losing a charger
He's hidden his mock results from you

I think you need to be contacting his school to know exactly what his mock results are in all subjects, what is behaviour is like in school and whether they think there is the remotest chance of him doing any A levels.

I think you want him to love history more than he does

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

The tutor isn't the one with the attitude problem OP, it's you and your son. It's easy to see where your son gets his from. Bless him.

The sooner this poor tutor sacks you off the better for him.

No, no, just no.

But to be fair, you're not really listening.

Your friend agrees with you, so go with their advice

I'm wondering if it's that the ds doesn't really have any interest in academics, but, when pressed, has said that he might do history, so the OP is focusing on that as her last hope. It would explain her desperation.

OP. I think you're lucky to have a young tutor who's been blunt to you. It means you have a good few months to find your options. Just because he's young doesn't mean he doesn't know his stuff, and he's young enough to remember what the exams were like. Dd (not a teacher, aged 24yo) tutored ds for his A-level maths last year and got him from a D/E up to an A. But that was a lot of hard work and 3 hours a week sounds minimal to me for him to get up from where he is. Ds was doing around 5-6 with dd if you include the papers he was doing.

But also OP, this isn't the be-all and end-all if he isn't up to doing A-levels. Have a serious chat with him. Point out he will need to do be enrolled in something when 16yo, and maybe his talents are elsewhere, so he needs to think what he would like to do, and would enjoy doing. Not do A-levels because he feels that's expected of him.

This is just daft. Is your son interested in history or not? If he wants to study history at A-level because he loves it, then it's worth pursuing even if the grades aren't there at the moment. If the grades aren't there and he's not interested, well you are just flogging a dead horse. Look for where there is an overlap of interest and success.