Views on tutoring prep school kids

[Tutorhelpneeded]

Background: DC is in year 3 at an academically selective prep (this wasn't planned but they've ended up there & love it). DC appears to be doing well, A/B grades in everything (average is a C), reading age of 13, above average in recent progress tests (national average is 100, DC is in the 120s so not genius material but progressing well) and most importantly loves school and is thriving.

However I have a niggle as absolutely every other family we know at the school are having their DCs tutored in one way or another (one to one tutoring, Atom learning, Kumon etc.). Some are doing this because they're worried their child isn't keeping up with the pace and starting to look ahead to common entrance, others because it's the 'done thing'.

I am against tutoring for the sake of it and frankly think the kids do enough at school and should be able to relax/play in their spare time, but on the other hand I don't want DC to be left behind.

Can I ask parents with children at similar prep schools whether you tutor and what the situation is at your school? Do I need to accept that tutoring is the norm at these schools? It's our first rodeo with private education and we're a bit baffled. Thank you.

Where is your child going afterwards, and when? Tutoring for the 11+ or common entrance (for which the exam is usually done at the same time as the 11+) usually starts in year 4. if he'll be going to a state school afterwards which isn't selective, then no need to tutor.

So my kids are secondary age now but went to an academic prep and are bright kids.

I do not think you need to tutor them for general work or to keep up.

However if you're looking ahead to entrance exams they need to be tutored in exam technique and how to answer the VR and NVR type questions in my opinion. You could do that yourself. Or you can pay someone else to. If you go down the road of not tutoring (be it yourself on an external person) you are placing them in exams against all the rest who have been tutored and thus limiting their chances of success. Do you want to take that chance?

Our school did some exam preparation anyway and used atom learning but we still used a tutor for yr 5 to prepare out DC.

Thanks for replying. Ideally they’ll go to the secondary attached to the prep & have their heart set on it, but it’s really difficult to get in to & no preference is given to children attending the prep (I naively assumed there would be, hence putting DC in the prep in the first place).

Thank you, you’re absolutely right. I’m annoyed by the pressure to tutor but of course if everyone else is doing it it’s not fair to disadvantage DC by not doing it.

What school is it? If it's a competitive 11+ or 13+ then you'll need to be tutoring from about Y4 if everyone else is.

V competitive all singing all dancing top 10 independent (don’t want to say which one). It has a entry points at both 11+ and 13+ (it would be 13+ for DC as they’re in the prep). Useful to know about tutoring from yr 4 (looks like most of DCs year have started this early).

Would you have a good back up option if they failed the entrance?

If you are against academic pressure from such a young age then don't do it. Decide on your values and stick with them. It's reasonable to prep a child for the style of entrance exams but that wouldn't be required until form 5 and it doesn't need to be intensive tutoring.

I had very bright dc and chose the less pressurised academic prep school became I didn't support the excessive tutoring and wanted primary to be more relaxed. They got into the highly academic senior and the less selective senior school. Would they have got into the super selective without tutoring, don't know as I wasn't interested (they are now at Cambridge)

Some parents tutor early on because they have been told that their child may not make the senior school standards. it happened to a friend at a highly selective school, effectively the school decided by form 4.

However heavily tutored children can stumble at a later stage, just before gcses so tutoring becomes essential and it's a constant cycle. Tutoring when at a private school feels crazy to me as class sizes are small and teachers are usually highly motivated to help children who need a little help for some subjects in some areas. If a child continually needs tutoring are they being pushed beyond their natural level?

There appears to be much greater instances of mental health issues for children and I can't help wonder if the rate of pressure from such a young age is the cause.

for context we're in the same environment and have seen kids doing kumon since nursery or external tutors since that same age. So along with personal opinion we have context.

All tutoring does (1-to-1, Atom etc.) is outsource learning. For some households that structure/organisation (learning plan, scheduled sessions etc.) is helpful but it doesn't provide any advantage in our experience (we don't tutor except for violin).

You will never have surprises if you keep an eye on the learning goals for the current year (and future years).

Remember with the CAT4 scores the general average is less important. In the environment you're in 125 is probably lowest (at least in our prep that's intervention territory). That might mean there's some reasoning work to do in spare time.

Genuinely interested in which school as I thought these days pretty much all the 'top' schools had almost automatic entry to seniors. Unusual to have no preferential treatment at all.

I can't speak for OP but WUS doesn't do automatic entry to the greater school (has been discussed quite a bit on this forum over the years)

for context that's an explicit no preference (though 90%+ have gone to greater school over last 5 years). Most preps do "manage out" kids at a similar rate in other preps.

I know they all 'manage out' but even with WUS there is sort of preferential treatment as they are expected to go to the Seniors and aren't really being judged in the same pool as all the other 'new' candidates. Certainly Kings and St Paul's is pretty much guaranteed these days as are all the girls schools.

@Livinghappy If a child continually needs tutoring are they being pushed beyond their natural level?

Totally agree with this, which is one of the reasons I'm not keen.

Thank you this is useful. As far as I know DC hasn't done CAT4 yet (at least parents haven't been given results if they have) but I'll ask.

I encountered 1/2 WUS parents, they are quite alarmed, would use every opportunities of tutor to make sure their DSs are not the 10% out in the process.

I think automatic entry is less common with 'all through' schools where children can join from nursery. I guess if they're joining later (e.g. a prep that starts from 7+) they might just sail through, but this certainly isn't the case for the independents near us. Children either need to pass common entrance or a school's own own exams plus interviews before being offered palaces at the senior schools.

Well I think it would make the prep school appear shit of the vast majority of those wanting a place at secondary didn't get one. Surely they must give the best prep for any enttrance exam/ interview etc

I agree, it wouldn't look good if the vast majority didn't progress from the prep to the secondary. However the secondary has several feeder schools (which it owns), loads of overseas pupils coming to board, and also takes kids from local state schools on bursaries at 11+, so there's a lot of competition. I've no idea what the actual percentage is but I know the majority do go from the prep to the secondary, just not everyone (and some pupils will have been weedled out before then so never reach the point of sitting the entrance exams).

DC was at a decent prep where lots left at 11+. Mine was staying until 13+. They fell behind at maths in yr 5 . Their teacher told me that everyone else was having tutoring, even the 13+ children. Schools like that gather up highly competitive parents who can't bear for every opportunity not to have been taken , sometimes even if their child is unhappy.I found it all rather disheartening and DC had a hand ful of sessions with a maths tutor in yr 6 to get back on track.
Yrs 7 and 8 weren't nearly as bad, these were days when CE was important .A few had coaching but to my knowledge many did not and many of the DC went on to highly competitive senior schools.

Different schools have different approaches. At WUS every child does the same exam (but outside the pre test there are soft parts like interviews which I feel give WUS kids an advantage). The greater school then runs learning streams for kids who didn't go to WUS to "catch up".

I believe the other schools don't do an explicit exam but do the a separate intense term for old boys rather than the new cohort. This ensures the stronger external students don't have an advantage.

You've hit the nail on the head there – everyone else IS having tutoring. I was completely naive and honestly didn't realise this until recently. I also find it rather disheartening. DC has told me that they think the teachers assume prior knowledge in some lessons (particularly maths) as the assumption is that all kids will already have been taught how to do something elsewhere. It's depressing.

Oh my mistake I assumed Y3 preU cat4 as you said average was 100. This is the average score in CAT4 (and IQ tests) with max being 141. Normally exams are a percentage.

Good to know, thank you.

I’m finding this thread really depressing. What is the purpose of these fees if we’re then paying for masses of tutoring on top? What are they on the hook for teaching well?

Agreed. I’m also quite depressed by it. I honestly thought that going down the private school route would mean we paid the fees & let them get on with it. Oh how wrong I was!