Tutor for a year 1?

[happymilly]

Hello

I just wanted to see if anyone had any experience in having their Y1 child tutored.

Just to give a bit of background I have a spring born DS in Y1. So far this has not been a great year for him and at his last parents evening the teacher was pretty much overwhelmingly negative. He was put in a low ability set from the start and I feel the teacher has generally marked his card as a slow learner and so doesn't really expect much of him. Progress has been really slow and the school don't seem particularly bothered. We worked so hard on his reading over xmas but when assessed at the start of this term he was still kept on the same level.

I do do work with him at home - usually 10 mins reading every day, times tables in bath each night and about 20 mins of some workbooks at the weekend and doing his spellings for school. He did "teach your monster to read" over the hols and of course we do the everyday learning in play, baking, crafts, visiting museums, going on walks and talking about nature etc. But there just seems to be very little progress.

Of course this is worrying in itself but what has been most upsetting is to see his loss of confidence. At the start of the year he was not too worried but as he has become more aware of the class he now comes home saying that he is not clever, that Bob is so much better at reading or Bill is really good at writing and he can't do it.

I have spoken to the teacher a number of times but it has been of no help she is very vague and doesn't seem to have any great hope for him! Also I know DS finds her quite unapproachable and is always a bit worried to ask her questions and so ends up not understanding things.

So I am thinking that if things haven't improved by Easter maybe a tutor would be a good idea. I am only thinking of 30-45 mins per week but it would be a chance for him to get 1-2-1 time and to ask any of the questions he doesn't get to ask in class. I feel this could really help him and most importantly build his confidence.

I am doing a lot myself but with a demanding toddler and a husband who is away a lot it is quite hard to find the time to do much serious 1-2-1 work and I also feel quite adrift with understanding the curriculum and what is expected of the children. Often I might think DS is doing well at something but when I speak to the teacher it is clear that it is not really enough to get the expected levels. I feel a tutor with knowledge of the curriculum will be able to help as I might be focusing on all the wrong things for all I know!

I know he is quite young but I don't think it is fair to put him through another couple of years of struggling with his progress and I worry that it could do long term damage to his confidence if we don't solve the issue now i.e. a case of " a stitch in time saves nine".

Has anyone used a tutor for this age group and have you seen a difference?

Sorry that was long!!

Our boys have made loads of progress using a programme called 'Reading Eggs'. Lots of fun but really good - you can get a free 2 week trial (we subscribed for a year about 3 months ago - our 4 year olds have put on 1 and 1/4 years of reading age in that time)

Bumping really as I could have written this OP myself about DD2. We are using Dancing Bears Book A (from sound foundations) for 10 minutes every day which is improving her reading slowly. Needs a sticker chart or similar to keep the momentum going but she can see the difference herself after a couple of weeks.

I agree that it would be better to address it now rather than wait as the longer you wait to see if it just happens the bigger the potential effect on his confidence.

What does he struggle with the most? Is it maths, reading or writing? I would probably start with just one of them and try to get that progressing before tackling another, if you try to do all 3 at the same time then you run the risk of finding it too much to fit in. focusing on one of them would give you more likelihood I think of a quicker improvement and then as his confidence increases it will have a knock on effect on enthusiasm too.

What times tables are they doing? I am just curious because my Yr1 child has only just started doing 2 times table. I know they have been counting in 2, 5, 10 for a while but just before Christmas they did 2 times and I think they are just starting 5 times. I was always rubbish at tables so I want to help her keep on top of them I think in the hope she won't dread them as much as I did. just wondering what other schools are doing in Yr1.

What you are doing at home sounds plenty. I would meet with the school and ask them to monitor your child's progress (or lack of) more closely and put things in place to help him such as interventions.

Year 2 is about the youngest I will tutor and I agree that as your child will be able to concentrate during an intensive 1:1 session for about 30 mins max, unless the tutor lives next door it'll be unlikely to be worth their while coming. If you would agree to drop off and pick up from their house, however, it may be more viable.

Personally I wouldn't. I think at this age 30-45mins 1:1 can be quite a demand on the concentration of a 5 year old. Little and often (5-10 minutes everyday) is probably more effective at this age and I'm not sure you'd find tutors willing to do that.

I think what will probably happen if you do find a tutor is that they will do one session a week but leave work for you/ds to do. It will solve the issue of not knowing whether you are working on the right thing but not the issue about struggling with finding the time to do it.

The school could provide extra work for you to do at home for free though. It's in their interests that your child reaches their full potential and they'd be foolish not to capitalise on your support.

He can't really be behind in maths if he is doing times tables already as a Year 1.

I have tutored Year 1 children, but almost exclusively for reading issues - it is a cause for concern if a child is still on pink level books or below, by the end of the Autumn term in Year 1. This is the point at which school based interventions start up (such as Fischer Family Trust Wave 3) to catch the child up before the gap becomes too wide. In some schools, there is this intervention, and if that is the case in your school, then if your child is struggling, the help will be available. In some schools, there is no help available. These are the children I have taught. All of them needed a slightly different approach to reading, and were already associating books with failure. I have a specially written reading scheme that they use, and teach reading/writing simultaneously, with good results. Half an hour at a time at the most though, and the parent needs to follow up in between sessions.

So it would be a possibility, with a tutor experienced with children of that age. It might not be necessary though - ask the school what they are doing!

DD2 had a tutor through her school at that age, for half an hour each week. This continued with various tutors, within the school, then we found a lovely tutor outside the school. Finally, in about year 5, she decided she didn't need the extra help, any more - it was her choice.

The extra assistance really helped her confidence.

I am sure some parents could do this additional work with their DC without assistance, but I find it more difficult to explain things clearly to my own DC than a trained professional.

OP - I have a summer born child & your struggles in Year1 sound similar to what we went through. I requested the form teacher to write/tell me each week what's been taught so I could revise at home. This really worked wonders. I used Key stage books & bond books. It's really slow progress but at this age (and since they are just really over 5) you can't do more than an hour or so at a time.

Very hesitantly I started Kumon maths. While I don't recommend Kumon for its intellectual work, I did find that it vastly improved DD's concentration & discipline. This served as a great entry point to bring in all other studies.

In reading as well Y1 spring/summer was a turning point where she went from nearly bottom of the class to nearly top within 2 terms. I worked on 'high frequency' words with her at home & everyday reading.

Overall now (autumn y2) she is at the top (and well ahead) of her class in virtually everything. But this has taken enormous effort from me & her very slowly over a year. This was infact just me doing home tutoring, so yes your DC will benefit from one-to-one work, whether it's you or a tutor. However I think you first need to get the right amount of concentration & discipline to make it work. I suppose it's also an age thing as I noticed progress in leaps & bounds after her 6th birthday until which it was a rather steep climb.

I hope this helps, you can PM me if you'd like specific inputs.

Is there a learning issue that may have been over looked? I'm not one for labelling children but if there is then learning needs to be approached differently.

Assuming there isn't any issues. May he's not a sit down learning type of child. Learns through play?

I might be able to help not on the tutoring front, I don't think you need a tutor but possible a fresh look?

We live on Scotland and my DS is a November birthday which made him one of the youngest in his class. He struggled in P1 and P2 but is now in P3 and is really blossoming now. The teacher explained to me that some children aren't really ready to learn when they start school and they find the first couple of years hard.
My son is now enthusiastic about going to school and is in the top set for maths, he still struggles a bit with reading but we are getting there. I did worry about him but in the last 6 months he has come on enormously.

OP my ds is an august birthday and the youngest in his year. He is now in yr 4. In yr1 he didn't really thrive at all. His end of year report marked him as average in everything. I was really annoyed as I knew he wasn't average at everything even if only in PE. It was frustrating as like you I felt he had been labelled.
He is now in the top ability group in his year mostly with children a good 8 months older than him. He took a while to get there but it wasn't through us doing anything differently. It was just him developing at his own rate. Sounds like you are doing a great job.

😯

I am sure you have already done this OP, but if you haven’t please get your child’s hearing and eyesight tested. Many children have intermittent hearing loss caused by low level infections or glue ear, and because it comes and goes it can easily be missed but can cause huge issues for learning.

Given the child in question is now 14, I suggest it's probably a bit late for that...

That will teach me not to multitask by catching up on the athletics and mumsnetting! One day zombie threads will be highlighted in orange or something!

would be good wouldn't it!

My DS7 is exactly the same, but we noticed the issues a little earlier and therefore we’ve tried lots of things already…
We threw lots of money at a tutor, we tried two different ones who both had experience of teaching children with SEND, and unfortunately I think it was a huge waste of money. All they did was twinkl worksheets, orchard games and playdoh etc. with him. Because his struggles were across the board, their methods felt scattergun and we didn’t see any particular improvement in one area. It was all stuff we were already doing at home and I’ve since subscribed to twinkl which is brilliant for resources.
The thing that has helped enormously over the holidays is 10-20 mins per day of Apples and Pears and Dancing Bears, it’s slow going and we struggled to keep it up in the middle of the holidays, but we persisted and I’m thrilled to now be noticing a lot of improvement. The books feel a bit old fashioned and you will probably need some sort of bribe/reward system in place. But for our struggling boy who has tried everything (and has diagnosed learning disabilities) it has been excellent.
The other thing we have been doing in conjunction with thin is plus one, it’s a numeracy book which starts at the basics and does a lot of over learning so that things stick. Again, very dry but you can go over some of the principles in the car/bath etc. very helpful for us.
hope this helps and good luck.