Teacher referred me to a tutor

[ShepherdMoons]

dd has been finding the Maths hard at her school. There are a few of the students in her year group (there are 8 of them - small school) who also are finding the homework and Maths difficult. The school don't seem to be able to offer any extra help so I mentioned that maybe a tutor might be needed. The teacher has agreed and given me the number of her friend who is a tutor. I'm going to speak to the tutor but AIBU to think that maybe the school could have offered a bit of help first? It's a lot more expense for us at a time when we are needing to save a bit.

I misread this. I thought that 8 DC had problems with maths!

If a few of those 8 children are finding the maths and maths homework difficult then someone needs to look at the teaching. Most teachers could only dream of having 8 in a class. The class size should mean that the teacher has ample opportunity to explain concepts and give one to one help.

i know,the price is expensive for a tutor but things are a bit tight at the moment with finances.

Kids who struggle at DS school are given extra support in school, usually in the form of smaller groups with a specialist support teacher. If so many of them are struggling I would be questioning the standard of teaching tbh.

I do this every week.

I work in an area with high levels of deprivation. Our kids can't afford tutors. I'm marking/planning anyway, it's not hard for me to go over concepts and set short tasks to let them consolidate whilst I work.

Primary this size and more than one or two struggling....(so 25%+)...then the teacher needs to do something surely?

I would consider going back to the school to question this.

Wait, there are only 8 in the entire class/year? If I’ve read that right I think there’s a serious issue with the teaching if you are needing to resort to a tutor. I was a secondary teacher for several years with classes of 28-30 and was able to give pretty good individual support in the classroom. If your dd isn’t getting it with just 8 of them, there’s a problem.

This is the sort of thing I might have done in the past. Now that I have 2 small children and work 40 hours on a 0.8 contract, I've realised if I give up an hour after work it's just giving up an hour with my own family as I have to catch up on my own work at another time. I hate that that's the way it is, but it's true. And my children see little enough of me as it is, so I will always put them first.

What age are these children? 8 in a year doesn't mean 8 in a class. Small schools might have Y3-6 together - this is hugely more difficult to teach than 32 year 5s together. And you absolutely can get a high or low ability cohort with numbers that low. It's why small primaries don't have to report SATs results. But I read the OP as secondary, perhaps I was wrong.

I hired a tutor for my dd doing A-levels last year and paid £28ph to a medical student for one subject and £25ph to a qualified teacher for another. I live in the Home Counties.

How many in the class? Are their mixed year groups? If there are 20+ kids of different year groups then I can see why teaching might be tricky.

Instead of your DD having private lessons, maybe you can get a small group to have those lessons together to bring the price down?

I don't see it as giving up an hour though - the bell goes at 3.25pm but that's not when my working day ends.

I have three kids and I work full time... I'd rather stick about until 5pm marking and planning and then give them my undivided attention at home. Different strokes I guess.

Really? Extra lessons after school are often offered for children who are behind, ahead, or sports clubs, drama clubs, d of e. Perfectly normal in every state school. Presumably the op's child is at a private school though.

8 who are struggling, not 8 in total (be a very odd scenario if every child was struggling out of a class of 8!)

I agree with this. You could buy the maths work books for year 3 and then year 4. Work through the first book together in the holidays. Then see how your dd gets on for the first term of year 5. If she’s really struggling still, you can think about the tutor. But as others have said, do shop around. If you’re near any students, they are often really good and charge a lot less. We pay £25 for students, £30 for a tutor.

Y4 8 and 9 year old you don't need a tutor also if you did i am sure you could find one for half that cost also you should be able to help yourself for maths for that age range its easy maths fractions, normal sums and times tables my own da is Yr 4 so I know how basic it is

Isn't it unethical for a teacher to give the OP the contact for a "friend" who is a tutor?

Not when OP specifically asked!

That's madness. Why would you do that?

I don’t think you should have to shell out for a tutor. The teacher should differentiate better. I am a teacher before anyone jumps at me about teachers not having time. The teacher needs to look at her teaching styles if a few of the 8 children are struggling.

£40 seems really expensive. My kids used The Maths Factor when in primary school it's £5 a month. After a summer of doing a few lessons daily their teachers said there had been a big improvement. It's got online lessons and lots of practice and you can try in for free. Any trouble with reading I'd recommend Reading Eggs. Both are repetitive and very effective. Some star charts and prizes helps keep up the enthusiasm!

She asked but shouldn't the teacher say "here's a list with names" or ask the other parents? "There are many tutors available and I can't tell you to use person A or B".

At that stage maths isn’t that hard. I’d say schedule in say 30 minutes every other day with her and she’ll be flying in no time. Teacher should be able to point you in the right direction resources-wise and methods-wise.

We are in a small rural school, will be 18 in my DS year group next year when some more drop to attend the local independent in prep for 11+.

A couple of children have had to leave because of additional needs that their children have that school can’t support, they have had to go to into bigger inner city schools. The school just doesn’t have the money to support them, they have 4 children on pupil premium in the whole school and that wouldn’t even cover one 1:2:1 support for one child. in fact far from it they get £5.3k PA in total.

it’s a disgusting system IMO and PPM needs to be raised by quite some amount

In our state school, after school clubs are run by external providers.

Some of us tutor in school from 3.30 to 4.30 but we are paid for it by the academy trust.