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.

Sign your kid up for an online maths programme first. Like the carol vorderman one or DoodleMaths. Just going over a little bit (5-10 mins) every day can really help and is a lot cheaper than a tutor

But you asked for a tutor recommendation 🤔

My DC is in a similarly sized year group in a small school, but it doesn't mean that the teacher has just 8 students! My DC's class shares the classroom with at least one, and sometimes two, other year groups. It's actually much harder for the teacher as he/she has to prepare and teach lessons to multiple classes. Much simpler to teach to a single year group.

I don't know if this is the case in the OP's child's school of course.

Don't teachers have enough on their plates without staying after hours to help the kids that can't manage during the school day?

Nice that you've got nothing better to do but I think it's pretty normal that the OP ought to engage a private tutor.

You only say there’s 8 in the year group, not that they’re taught as 8. I live in an area of small rural primaries and no-one is in a class of 8, it’s all composite mixed aged classes.

If the teacher has 8 - they’re reaching wrong.

If - more likely - the teacher has more like 30, then yes, some children could do better if they had more time. The resources mean they won’t all get it.

At Y4 level, I’d say get CGP workbooks and teach her yourself, with internet back up if needed.

If your own ability is below Y4, get tutored together, it will stand you in good stead to help her with future homework.

I’d take the “other kids” with a pinch of salt, unless you’ve seen their work.

Has there been any kind of intervention? My DD recently did a Maths Booster club to help her catch up. Mind you, with only 8 in the entire year it must be like a permanent intervention!

So other pps seem to be suggesting that if a child is struggling with maths that the parents should either source external help and pay for it or work with the child themselves.... I'm not sure I understand why there is very little expectation for the school to be doing more here? Not necessarily the class teacher, but a smaller group of children could be working with a TA to help then grasp the concepts? Although if the teacher only has 8 students they really should be able to support the OP's child better. I'm not in the UK right now but surely this is a very basic expectation? Especially after so much disruption due to Covid.

thanks, she's struggled with maths in particular for a while. there are 2 groups mixed in together y3 and a y4 and the younger class is a bit bigger with thirteen kids in it. The class teacher tends to teach them mostly and the TA teaches dd's class which is v small. a few of the parents in my dds class are in the same situation and have had their dcs also crying that they can't do the homeworks and just worried they aren't keeping up.

the class teacher seems certain no other help can be given so she said if they are upset not to do the homework. i've looked at our finances again today and the tutor is not affordable so i think the suggestions of youtube, maths factor will definitely help. i think i suggested a tutor out of desperation really hoping that the teacher might be able to offer a bit of extra help but it is probably down to workload and stress like other people have said as to why the school can't do more.

You are absolutely right. However with only 2 weeks left before the 6 week summer break there’s no way as a parent I would be waiting 8 weeks for intervention when I could spend 15 minutes twice a week going through a maths book with DC in the hope of them returning in September in a better position. In September their ability will be assessed by their new teacher and then I’d be very firm about them needing in school intervention.

They don't need a tutor at that age.
If you can still buy the KS 1 and 2 guides I would get them and go through it yourselves with lots of practice. The CGP ones used to be beautifully clear.
IMHO the Maths curriculum is so disjointed and illogical that it isn't a surprise that children fail and lack confidence.

Is your child getting a new teacher in September? If so, then with regards to the homework, I would wait and see what the situation is next year.

I don’t think you were given an appropriate response when you told the teacher that your child was getting upset with homework and if it were earlier in the year I think it would be worth taking to the head. What sort of message does it send a child who wants to complete their homework when you tell them if they can’t do it they shouldn’t bother?

Homework set should be achievable, and if it isn’t then it’s the wrong homework. It is not fair for teachers to set children up to fail. It’s also not fair if one year group in a class are continually taught by the TA and the other year group nearly always gets the teacher. I am an HLTA so I do believe that TA’s can often be great at teaching, but that’s not the point. Your child deserves her fair share of teacher time, even in a composite class.

OP, next time be clear with the school about the reasonable things you can expect from them. Dropping hints about tutors clearly doesn’t work. You can’t expect the teacher to do do extra teaching outside of lesson time, but you can expect that your child is taught by a qualified teacher at least some of the time, especially in a core subject like maths.

I'm a supply teacher who does some tutoring as a bit of extra cash.

Assuming your not in central London - and as you say it's a small school, I doubt it - you can find a qualified teacher who tutors for much less than £40ph. Most tutors I know do it for £25-£30ph.
Ask on your local fb group and I'm sure someone will pop their head up.

the class teacher seems certain no other help can be given so she said if they are upset not to do the homework. i've looked at our finances again today and the tutor is not affordable so i think the suggestions of youtube, maths factor will definitely help.

mathfactor was great for all mine made a huge difference - if nothing else try the summer challenge and see what the next teacher is like.

So other pps seem to be suggesting that if a child is struggling with maths that the parents should either source external help and pay for it or work with the child themselves.... I'm not sure I understand why there is very little expectation for the school to be doing more here?

IME is often is if the children are behind - whether summer born or SEN or both -if parents don't step in with outside help the children get further and further behind. When mine did get help it was often not as good as you'd hope.

Also 8 in a year group even in village school probably means class over 25+ they'll mix the years - what happen in my village school and when DC move here and first few years the new school had lower numbers in some years and they did the same. It means your teaching over a even wider range of expectations - it can and often does work but sometime it really doesn't.

What is actually happening when you go through the homework with your daughter?

A lot of kids decide that “maths is hard” because it’s the most black and white, right or wrong subject that they do. Write a poem? It might suck, but you don’t know that. Whereas maths, you know if you can’t do it. So it’s likely there’s a confidence thing there.

But how is she actually doing on the homework?

What have you already done to support her as she’s been struggling for some time?

There’s a possibility here that the TA isn’t good enough. Or that she missed some key concepts in Y2/3 during Covid. Those years are when you really want to nail times tables.

I would find it acceptable to have the teacher say “just don’t do the homework then”. And I’d want to know why the TA can’t keep a group of 8 on track. But I really think you should be doing more yourself - at this level, you should be getting the workbooks yourself and teaching yourself so that you can guide her through the homework.

Something’s not right here. £40/hr is extortionate for LKS2. The cynic in me wonders if the teacher and her tutor friend have a racket going.

Meanwhile I would ask the headteacher if there is catch-up funding available. Schools have to justify their spending of the catch-up premium just as they do the pupil premium.

£40 is not uncommon - though it is high, I’d say £35 is average - in my area, not London.
I don’t see what the racket would be. I doubt the teacher is allowing the children to leave behind in the hope that her mate can get £5-10ph more than average for tutoring!

As a teacher, I also call bollocks. One half an hour session won't make a blind bit of difference anyway. In every school I've ever worked in, we're not allowed to tutor students from our own school anyway.

OP YABU. You want a private tutor, why do you think a school teacher should be a private tutor for you in their own time for free?

I cannot believe that schools are sanctioning their staff offering free tuition after school (on the premises???), That sets a massive precedent and an issue for other staff members, who will be "expected" to offer the same.

This is precisely it. It pressures other teachers to do the same, and makes the job unsustainable. People who do this (which in ny opinion is unreasonable), are actually contributing the to recruitment and retention crisis in the profession. I'm a Head of Faculty in my school and as a balance, I offer a 'support drop-in' once a week so my department are not expected to.

@surreygirl1987 If you're a HT would you have a problem with one of your teachers sending a parent to a tutor they're friends with? Do you think it's unethical or is it actually acceptable? I would have expected the teacher to say here's a list of people, not here's my friend's contact.

I might feel grateful to have been offered it, depending on where you live. They can be incredibly hard to get.

You've posted multiple times about how bad this school is for your daughter, posted that you’ve visited another which she liked and offered you a place, and even posted in April that you’d emailed them to deregister her to homeschool. What’s actually going on here? All that, and yet your complaint is that you were offered details of a tutor, after asking a teacher if you should get a tutor 🤔

If you're a HT would you have a problem with one of your teachers sending a parent to a tutor they're friends with? Do you think it's unethical or is it actually acceptable? I would have expected the teacher to say here's a list of people, not here's my friend's contact.

I'm a Head of Faculty, not a HT. I definitely don't recommend tutors at all- either friends or a 'list' as you suggest. Too risky either way. At my school some teachers do tutor pupils who attend the school (paid) but I personally don't like that as I think it blurs boundaries.

A school-recommended list of tutors sounds like an endorsement of those tutors, so probably best avoided.

There are only 8 Students in the year and a few of them are finding maths difficult I'd be questioning why.

This! A few out of 8 is at least 37%. I’d try to find out what’s going wrong before forking out £40 an hour for a tutor. As she is only 9, could you try and find where the gaps are and help her yourself? It s nearly the end of year. Will she be getting a new teacher next year? Perhaps things will improve then anyway.

Try Khan academy, starts with maths basics all the way up to uni level. It's great