Has anyone paid for Kip McGrath tutoring to get their child up to speed?

[coodawoodashooda]

I see it's £30 a session which is obviously a lot over a month. I am really wondering how long your child had to go before you felt that they had 'caught up'. I am the most worried about my eldest who is nearing the end of his primary education. Any information you could share would be appreciated.

At £30 a session, I'd look at getting a private tutor - my daughter did it when she was doing her A levels. Kip McGrath is very formulaic, cookie cutter style. My girls did it for years because it was all I could find in NZ to supplement the extremely poor math teaching at their primary school. Well, for any kid that didn't have a penis, that is.

Thanks. It says its a tutoring service. I hoped if I did it for six months it would be a welcome boost.

I can't speak for all kip mcgrath centres but I worked at one for a while (former teacher).

For that money I would strongly recommend you get in a private tutor instead.

For £30 I'd get a private tutor, my DD is 15 and she's had a maths tutor since year 5. I pay £25 an hour and the lady we have is amazing.

I've heard negative things about Kip Mcgrath's methods being formulaic BUT as a teacher, its often the case that kids with tutors ace their homework but fall to pieces in tests and exams as they get too reliant on the one-to one support to micromanage their work. Given that there is no contract beyond two weeks notice, Id give it a go and see for maybe a term or so.

I used it for my dc who has ASD and was school refusing. I only paid the money because she went during school time when there was no one else there, so essentially it was 1-2-1. It really isn't a tutoring service though, they sit and work independently at very repetitive work (in dd's case she went for maths). I found very similar free worksheets online and stopped KM. A tutor would be a much better investment.

I am actually a teacher too. I hadn't thought of what you have said but can see how that could happen. A few kids in my class did it last year and I saw a big difference in what they were able to achieve. I would just like a boost. I might look at six months. I don't think I could afford more than that at the moment.

Oh. That changes my perspective a bit.

I spoke to other parents who swore that their dc were doing much better in spelling/maths since starting KM. It works similarly to Kumon, where you have to keep practising the same work again and again. If these parents had printed off worksheets and made them complete them everyday they would have had the same results. There really is no 'secret' ingredient with KM (or any of them).

Yeah. I guess that says it all. Think I need to up my game and game them do a bit more at home. Save the £120 a month.

I'm a private tutor and I'd say if you're willing to pay that sort of money, you'd get a much better service from a private tutor. Plenty of fully qualified teachers do a bit of tutoring on the side, and in my experience, most are really good. The decent ones will also teach your child good test-taking skills, so that they CAN work independently.
If you ask on your local fb group, someone will know of a tutor locally.

I have a genius plan!

As your a teacher pay yourself to tutor him for an hour a week.

Perhaps 50% so £15 an hour.

And once it's sorted and your as stressed as any parent who tries to teach their kid at home - use the money to take yourself away for a long weekend break - alone

We did it to help DD prepare for her 11+, it was a specific program for that though focussing on the exam. I think it was around £25 per hour and there were 2 of them in the class
She actually enjoyed it and it was very useful

Both my children went to Kip McGrath, Ds for 6 weeks 11+ preparation which was great. They have a really high pass rate for 11+ in our local centre. His 2 friends that used a private tutor both failed and Ds passed.
Dd also went for catch up tuition as she struggles in school. They taught her some really good techniques to help with her maths but she went for around a year and still wasn’t really caught up with her class mates, I think that’s more to do with her problems than Kip McGraths teaching techniques and maybe a private tutor would have been better, I just couldn’t find one.

I meant to add, that although a lot of the work Dd did was online worksheets, Kip McGrath did regular assessments of her and told us what she was working towards and why, and tailored it all to her specific needs so it was really good and also boosted Dds confidence a bit. Unfortunately school undid that again 😠

DD did a lot of it online at Kip but they used the results to focus on weak areas.
She also did a couple of mocks in exam conditions with another provider but they gave us a full analysis that we were able to give to the Kip staff who again used the info to help DD focus on where she needed a boost

The problem with teaching your own kid is the dynamic is completely different. I can get a class of 16year olds to do anything but the minute I sit with DS all hell breaks loose. Many of my colleagues say the same. Teaching is as much about relationships as knowledge..plus, I'm not a maths teacher and it's far from my strong point.

I know a couple of sixth formers who are 'tutors' there with no prior tutoring experience. They're great kids but I wouldn't pay £30 an hour for them to supervise computer exercises, it seems very poor value.

I quite like that idea. Thank you everyone.

Hello all, just wanted to know why there is a huge price difference between kip mcgrath online tutors and in centre tutors. Also, the tutors online that teach 11+ are they former grammar school students but with QTS why is it we can't see any academic bio of the tutor when I asked. Any help on which is best programme to prepare my DD for 11+ she sits exams next September for grammar school and exams in November for Private school.