Would a maths tutor be a good idea or a bad one?

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Following on from my previous thread I realised that although a once a week pullout for dd to do some open ended maths would be fab for her, it still wouldnt solve her boredom during other maths lessons.

So pie in the sky thought.....

if somehow we managed to afford it (not sure how!) and got dd a maths tutor. Then perhaps we could persuade school to pull her out of the majority of maths lessons in order to do the maths homework the tutor has set and she could also work on improving her creative writing or whatever school thought was appropriate. That way dd could progress at her own speed without boredom and fairly minimal disruption to the rest of the class.

So what do you think?
Would it be beneficial?
What are the draw backs
Would schools like that sort of thing?
How much would it cost and how can we afford it (lol!)

thanks

www.fmnetwork.org.uk/

This might possibly be of interest, if anyone did want more tuition (seems to be largely state supported) for gifted mathematicians in the UK.

It's targeted more at sixth formers and KS4 students than primary level though.

There's a mentoring scheme for secondary age brilliant mathematicians run by UKMT that might be useful in time, but even that doesn't extend to primary afaik.

I'm not sure how good you have to be to get on the UKMT mentoring by the way - ds does quite well on the olympiads but evidently not well enough as he's never been invited - it may only be the top very few nationally.

I'm a mathematician. I'd recommend broadening rather than acceleration. The NRICH website is top notch. At school my teachers let me work on my other subjects during maths lessons when I'd finished the class work and supplementary work.

agree totaly with wulfstan.

simple acceleration ends up being counterproductive, as the school will eventually 'run out' of things for your dd to do.

Breadth is far better and IME makes for happier, more grounded kids

I used to calculate the number of second until the end of the lesson which kept me going for ages because by the time I'd got the answer it would have changed! My bro was brilliant and had gone through the whole A level syllabus on his own by the time they had done their first year of O level. He was expelled for bunking off maths lessons the next year.

I asked a similar question on mumsnet after DD got a 7A in her key stage 3 mocks (teacher said she got 2 marks of an 8). She had said she didn't get it in lessons. I tried to help her even though I thought I was useless at Maths, this was before her mocks and she started getting the more challenging problems with my help.

Anyway I left it and she got a 7B in the exam so I think it might have been a good idea after all!

I may get her some help before GCSE if she needs it.

Goodness this thread has popped up again

I've been proactive and been into see dds teacher for next year to ask that the enrichment classes continue. She told me she couldn't guarantee it - depends on the time TAs have and budget etc. So I wrote a letter saying how much dd had benefited. The TA running it said she was going to have a meeting with the teacher showing the work shes been doing with the kids and asking to run it again. So lets hope.

In the mean time dd is running her own agenda - coming to us with a picture of a circle with the circumference written down asking us how she can work out the area and other stuff like that. We got her some of those murderous maths books which she loves.

Anyway, we are just totally following her lead now - shes asked us to speak to her only in French so she can speak it for our holiday. Which will mean our conversations will be entirely about food cos thats all I can talk about in french lol!!

Nrich does look fab

Lol badkitten, 'avev vu un cuppa?' is about the strength of my french even though I did it at GCE. (Sorry if I've lost you it was from a 70s PG ad with the monkeys )

Your DD sounds on a great path.

If she needs a maths tutor because she is struuggling then yes. Otherwise "why"?
It would obviously be a waste of money.