Tutoring science for year 9

[littlebillie]

Hi I have just met with a tutor who is proposing to tutor in year 9 in science as KS3 exams are gone, the school is starting GCSE courses a year early. Her charge is £35 per hour. Do you think is this normal, I live in the Northwest.

Why is tutoring necessary?

Does your DC have a hopeless teacher? Poor school?

Lots of schools offer revision help for GCSE in science and maths etc.

KS3 exams are just school internal ones aren't they? I'm guessing the kids will still have end of year 9 exams on whatever they've learnt through the year anyway, so really what's the change?! It sounds weird to me and not at all necessary.

My DD has struggled in year 8 and they are being set now for GCSE which seems very early for them with maturity etc. I just wanted to give her extra help but it seems very expensive and a big commitment for the next three years.

It could be worth it if the tutor is very good

Does she want to do triple science?

I pay £25 in the South East for a Maths and a French tutor.

That's what costs for an A level science tutor on the South Coast but rising to £40 next year apparently.

DS's science teacher said they are also starting the GCSE syllabus in Year 9 next year as a lot of additional material has now been added to the GCSE syllabus.

I would query why you think it has to be for all three years. If school is starting the GCSE syllabus in year 9 they are giving themselves longer to cover it.

The CGP book is useful for consolidating the information they need to know at the end of KS3 before starting GCSE courses.

Your DD could have a look at it over the summer holidays before Y9 starts, and answer the questions at the back of each section to make sure she has understood each topic.

When the GCSE course starts, if she struggles to understand a topic, there are some great GCSE Science videos on YouTube.

If you want to spend money, it would be better spent on Tassomai in Y11.

But don't start Tassomai too early; 3 to 6 months before GCSE exams is plenty.

That's expensive for the NW for GCSE. I tutor and charge £25 ph for GCSE, but more for A Level and even more for degree! You could arrange the tutor for a once a month 'wash-up' to help consolidate knowledge. I would offer that, quite happily.

What is Tassomai?

Tassomai is an online learning service which uses multiple choice questions. The student is given daily targets of how many questions they need to complete in order to finish the course in time for the exam.

Pros:
It's active learning, so more effective than reading a textbook.
The questions are specific to the syllabus the student is doing.
It's adaptive, so the questions they are asked tomorrow will depend on which answers they got right today.
It's easy to do anywhere (car, breakfast table) and can be done in short bursts (10 minutes).

Cons:
It's expensive: approx £25 per subject per month (triple science would count as three subjects)
It doesn't have different question styles, only multiple choice, so the student would still need to do a few past papers to practise exam technique.
The amount of questions in order to complete the course is extensive. DS1 used Tassomai for IGCSE Chemistry & Biology. For each subject, he spent 30 hours on it, and completed about half the course. To complete triple iGCSE Science would have taken about 180 hours. So they either need to start months in advance, or do several hours per day.

You could arrange the tutor for a once a month 'wash-up' to help consolidate knowledge.

If you decide to go for the tutor, this would be a good plan.

Or you could just do it yourself! If you know the topics as she studies them, talk about them once she's finished. Go through her book with her, then help her put some revision notes together for the end of topic tests. They'll help her with end of year/ onwards revision. Get her to do some things on-line - BBC bitesize is good at a basic level.