When's the best time to get a private tutor for GCSE

Wow. I do feel sorry for your kids.

Since the better unis look at GCSE grades as well as A levels, you will find that a bunch of GCSE C grades will prevent any DCs from getting good Uni offers and subsequently any graduate jobs. I know of students graduating from Durham and Bristol who are struggling to get jobs so all of this DOES matter.

Fine.
If they are C grade candidates, they should get C grade jobs.
Sorry, no sympathy at all for kids wanting more than their due.

Talkin l think one should also consider those DCs who are taught well and those who are not. Tutors can fill in the gaps from poor teaching. Being tutored does not necessarily mean being taught beyond your natural level and also some parents do not have the knowledge to help their DCs.<

This is precisely why we tutor. My kids have had a series of not very good English teachers and this mixed with some emotional problems over the last couple of years meant there was a significant possibility of not even getting a C grade. Our tutor has filled the gaps left by poor teaching, helped with their confidence and more importantly, helped them prepare adequately for controlled assessments. Luckily for us she is also has a background as a Senco and counselor. My kids don't want to take English after GCSEs but without that all important C grade there wouldn't even by the possibility of 6th form. We are looking at science subjects for A levels so for us tutoring has done what the school should have done but hasn't.

Talkinpeace. Since the better unis look at GCSE grades as well as A levels, you will find that a bunch of GCSE C grades will prevent any DCs from getting good Uni offers and subsequently any graduate jobs. I know of students graduating from Durham and Bristol who are struggling to get jobs so all of this DOES matter.

Could anyone recommend a good English or maths GCSE tutor in North London and specifically in Barnet. I could find someone on line but I prefer recommendations.

Thanks
Solly

It really depends on how "weak" her Maths is OP. Many schools make the decision about whether to enter pupils for Higher level (grades A* to C) or Foundation level Maths (grades C to G) at GCSE based on their results at the end of Y10. So if you don't want to make sure she is entered for the Higher level some tutoring in Y10 may help her reach the required level.

RiversideMum, not intensive "I'm going to show you how to pass an exam" type tutoring (which I generally don't advocate), but support with understanding some concepts which might have been covered in lectures and students still struggle to understand. Yes in theory these students could go and ask their lecturers, but in practice if a lecturer has 200+ students in each lecture, they don't have time to see each and every one individually.

Many people starting new jobs have mentors who are not line-management and I don't necessarily think it is that different.

Gosh, I find it stunning (naive I may be) that undergraduates are having tutoring. When does the tutoring stop? Do some people have tutors to help with professional exams? Or to do their jobs properly?

ontheallotment That's lovely.
Confidence above all is what tutoring should give. DD2's very quiet friend had a tutor in Y6 and DD says it really helped her, not simply to do well in her SATs and get into set one, but to stop thinking I can't do this.

DD2 and I had the same conversation several times due to their cohort having three really good mathematicians, who put the others off. (DD was probably 4th, but really needed to believe she could keep up).

I never resent paying for singing because DD loves singing and sings in choirs and concerts and an all sorts of things. Yes the grades and the GCSE look good on your UCCA form, but the friends to be made at your local choir in a strange city may mean more one day.

dd had a tutor for MFL from part way into year 11. She got a better than expected GCSE grade which was lovely as it had always been the subject she struggled with most and it would have been very easy to wash it out as an unimportant subject and settle for a low grade. BUT, what pleases me most now is that she is voluntarily taking more lessons in the language in her free time - the tutoring helped with her confidence enough to brush away the demons and to inspire her to continue learning the language which is a far better result than the improved GCSE grade imo.

MG????

I think most people will agree to tutor for understanding bringing in expert knowledge is a good thing. When one does not have the know how themselves.

I think what we have to be wary of is an attitude of over tutoring. That cramming for the sake of rote learning the pass papers. I agree a tutor should be used to encourage children to appreciate and understand the subject rather than to pass exams. Anyway if the child likes the subject they tend to do well in it.

Thank goodness there are tutors who actually care.

I also think tutoring for 11+ maybe a must nowadays... but tutoring two years in advance?....

The style of modern GCSEs means all teachers, not just tutors "teach to the test" as do BBC bite sizes and all revision books.

DD1 got 99 and 96 % on two of her core science papers. She's good (and should be doing triple), but no better than I was at her age. One our much less predictable 3hr I level papers 80/75/90% were the top mock marks and people who got less than that got As.

I was a reasonably senior academic at a RG university for close to a decade and now run a tutoring business in maths and science. I would absolutely agree with those posters who say tutoring is not about giving children an "unfair advantage". People use tutoring for many reasons. Sometimes the school they attend is just awful, sometimes children have fallen behind due to moving school/illness or any number of other reasons, sometimes a child has a real aptitude for the subject which parents would like to nurture by having someone explore the subject with them beyond the school syllabus. Several of my students are the children of my former university colleagues, who would be perfectly capable of 'tutoring' their children themselves but the children respond differently to someone else coming in than listening to mum or dad (especially true of year 10/11 as typical teens).

I also tutor a number of undergraduates and postgraduates who are extremely bright and capable in their subject, but maybe didn't 'get' some key concepts from their lectures and their lecturers don't have time to go over it with them again and again, especially when many lectures have 200+ students.

These students are not being tutored 'beyond their natural ability', they are being supported to reach their natural ability.

However, in answer to the OP's question, I would usually recommend short sessions over a longer time frame with a tutor than intensive tutoring before an exam. An hour a week at year 10 is not so much that the student will feel bored by the subject, but can be enough to make a big difference and allows the tutor to support the work done at school. This is much more effective than 5+ hours a week a month before the exams.

I guess my 'tutoring' attitudes are biased
(1) I jumped a year at the end of Primary - from Christmas year Lower 3rd to January Upper 3rd - with shed loads of tutoring
(2) having made it through my O levels age 15 I flunked my As and retook
(3) the crammer I then went to was mahoosively excellent at making silk purses out of rich sows ears
I had a blast but got grades no higher than I would have done had I done my exams at the right time

I have since become
(a) utterly against shifting age groups
(b) wary of tutors who actually teach to the test rather than real understanding
so parents who have coughed up get bitten later once the cheque has been cashed

If you want to do A levels, Cs don't really cut it any more.

Starball had a conversation just this morning regarding private schools taking all the credit for their pupils A*s .... if you cream the brightest kids off at age 11. They will almost defo only get better. It's the schools where the kids enter at a much lower academic ability, then really achieve that are probably the better of the two - but that's a whole different thread. I tutored my ds because he lacked confidence in the subjects and his (private) school wasn't helping in that area.

To summarise, Education is not a level playing field.

My DDs have had two science tutors and a maths tutor from the day they were born.

DD's DF's private school no doubt will claim her maths A* despite the fact her mum would have taught her to that level where ever she had gone.

I know DC's who have extra language GCSEs because of having bilingual parents.

DD1 has a tutor for GCSE music, because she has done singing lessons for years and her teacher is recently retired enough they know the modern syllabus.

In practice all music GCSE students have a tutor for the performance bits and most for the theory as no one does music who doesn't have lessons of some sort.

Is paying for a tutor in maths or French so different to the cheque I write each term for music? I think it's perceived differently, but this year, at least, there is no difference at all.

DD2 gave up music lessons, but is quite good at French. Given our state schools MFL staff turnover I will find her a tutor if she needs ine for GCSE.

You only need to read stories like this one of this bright young man to show that self motivated clever children can still rise to the top without all the perceived "unfair" advantages of others with private tutors or private schools or middle class pushy parents specialized in a field home schooling them 1:1 for hours. It may take a special type with enormous self - motivation but it can be done.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/cambridge-beckons-for-15-year-old-niall-927765

We did a year of tutoring before GCSE for a language and it made a fantastic difference to confidence etc. Definitely made a big difference to GCSE grade. Wished we'd started in yr 10, maybe half way through but we didn't realise how bad her understanding/speaking was and in the end got an A* so maybe didn't need it as such.

And sciences was really to give her someone to ask to "go through things" which was great to ensure understanding; probably made a difference although you never know if they'd have done well anyway.

Talking ....Funny you should mention Feynmann..I read one of his books,,,he mentions that he loved maths so much that he really was not interested at all in the humanities and didn't keep up with the work he should have done in those topics at school ..who knows the nobel prize winner may have even needed a tutor himself in those subjects simply to get through them as a neceassary evil. Not everyone is excellent at every subject - a future top scientist may be dreadful at languages and need a tutor to get through GCSEs. I would think in any case, nowadays, universities like Oxbridge with their focus on interviews and specialized entrance exams like STEP would easily weed out those with inflated A level grades which are down primarily to being spoon fed by a tutor or private school.

Agree, self motivated study is needed to really excel at anything in the long run...but sometimes that may be kickstarted at some stage by some one else at some stage - no doubt Feynmann had his own mentors...as did Zuckerberg whose father hired a programming tutor for him at an early age- and hardly to fill in gaps but to significant accelerate his son in a chosen subject...clearly that didn't result in him struggling in any way at Harvard or subsequently!

Tutoring to fill in gaps - as I had when I was bumped up a year when I changed schools - is not the same thing as tutoring to assist kids who would otherwise not 'get' it.

Kids like Ruth Lawrence were just early developers rather than true 'genius' (Feynmann had strong views on such things)

I have an issue with the assumption by those who can afford it that they should automatically 'top up' their kids education
and the research supports the fact that in the long term it leaves them less good at self motivated study

Talking Peace

I don't see how getting a paid tutor to fill in gaps is any different from the advantage of some children having well educated graduate hands on parents or parent who are teachers helping them 1:1 for many hours outside of school. Some parents don't have the time or wherewithal to help their children academically and a tutor may be a good temporary fix also if there is poor teaching at school or to get them through a selection phase for senior schools. I don't see there's much magic in tutoring vs DIY parental help at home. It's often a question of how much time and effort a parent can contribute also.

Ridiculous to say tutored children take places that are not rightfully theirs...who can sift out all the advantages and disadvantages that one child may have at home vs another or at one school vs another. I am not sure where you draw the line, eg someone sending their kid to summer camp to learn a language on an immersive course in your book would be giving their child an unfair advantage. These kind of advantages have and will always exist, However, if a child is bright and self driven at home and school there is so much now by way of courses and info to DIY online, I think that does level out the field. Even with tutoring, you can take a horse to water...but unless the child is mentally engaged, its effects will be limited.

No doubt child maths geniuses like Ruth Lawrence whose father focussed on her education full time or the boy on the Child Genius programme whose parents were both Cambridge maths Phds would have had lots of 1:1 home tutoring from their expert parents, or children with bilingual backgrounds and therefore have distinct advantages from other children to rise well above their "natural level" whatever that is. I have a DS who hasn't had tutoring as yet but he ahead partly because he gets enough help from me when he needs it and is fortunate enough to go to a very good prep school with small class sizes. I wouldn't rule out getting a tutor for him in certain areas like languages or computer programming in the future in addition if he wanted enrichment or gap filling in certain select areas.

The only issue I would be wary of is force fed acceleration or death by tutoring in which the child has no interest and which may cause resentment and kill interest in a subject in the long run.

That is a good point regarding making up for poor teaching as opposed to just finding the subject tough. I stupidly hadn't thought of that (as DDs school seems to be v. good).