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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

do you push your dc

11 replies

bigdonna · 29/09/2008 07:42

hi i was speaking to some mums at school and they were saying their kids were having extra tuition to get into good secondary school,has this worked for anyone or when the extra tuition stops can they keep up at school they are in yr 5 at moment.

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AMumInScotland · 29/09/2008 09:24

I think in grammar school areas this happens quite a lot, but if you don't have grammars then it doesn't make any difference. And if they have to have a lot of tuition to get into a grammar then I think it would be a real struggle for them to keep up.

MollieO · 29/09/2008 10:24

As a grammar school girl (left 25 years ago!) I didn't have tutoring to pass what was then the 12+. I know it is very popular to do that these days but I won't be doing it with my ds. I think the 11+ is designed to assess whether children can cope with the work or not. I had friends who passed (and weren't expected to) who had a miserable year at school before transferring to the secondary school.

The alternative is if they have tutoring and pass then you will have to be prepared to continue the tutoring throughout their years at grammar school. Our local grammar school has stunning results but I understand that this is partly due to the high level of external tutoring that goes on.

PrimulaVeris · 29/09/2008 10:41

At least half - sometimes more - of children in Y5 and Y6 are tutored at my dc's primary.

This primarily for entry to private secondary or for neighbouring grammar area. Additionally, in my dd's final year a few were tutored specifically for SATs for reasons which had more to do with the parents than anything else.

For a normal state secondary, tutoring not needed.

yomellamoHelly · 29/09/2008 10:49

Loads do it round here for the last couple of years of primary. But the selective boys and girls schools are amongst the best in the country and very hard to get into. This is despite the fact that most of the primaries round here are good anyway. Tbh I would do the same if I thought my boys stood half a chance of getting in.

Reallytired · 29/09/2008 17:25

My son is six years old and going to Kip Mcgrath. The reason I am doing is that my son is getting really badly bullied about his hand writing by a bitch girl in his class.

I am not interested in getting him into grammar school, we don't have grammar schools our area. I am paying for him to have tutoring to improve his self esteem.

cornsilk · 29/09/2008 17:27

reallytired that's really sad Is kipMcGrath good for handwriting then? My ds also struggles with it.

Reallytired · 29/09/2008 17:34

Its early days. My son goes to Kip McGrath and really seems to enjoy it. He has only been three times though so the novety has not worn off.

There is a quite a range of ages in his group that vary from two fifteen year old struggling with GCSE Maths, a 10 year preparing for his 11 plus and my son. They have two teachers working with the group. The children all work through their own individual programme.

It has quite lot of advantages having such a large age range. There is no way that the fifteen year olds can compare themselves to a six year old or vice a versa. There is no competition between the children and they just concentrate on bettering themselves.
The older children in the group are nice children and make a real fuss of my son.

He does a bit of everything because its unreasonable to expect a six year old to concentrate on hand writing for an hour and 20 minutes. He gets a mixture of educational computer games as well as a bit of Maths, spelling and hand writing practice.

Original poster

bigdonna · 29/09/2008 17:48

dont get me wrong i have friends whom their kids have extra tuition but this is due to dyslexia.i did put my ds in a test to get into a good school,but he had just had an op on his nose and had not been to school for 9months.he had a panic attack and i was called to pick him up even though i knew he would have passed the test.i just wondered how many parents pushed their primary school dc.maybe im not pushy enough.

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Reallytired · 29/09/2008 18:32

I think there is a big difference between paying for extra tuition so a child can cope with a mainstream comprehensive and paying for extra tuition to get a child into grammar school.

I am just so glad that grammar schools do not exist in our area. I think that the 11 plus is truely toxic. I have yet to meet someone who have moved areas so that their kid can go to a secondary modern.

My guess is that that the parents who pay for extra tuition for dyslexia are doing so to give their children a chance of normal adult life. If you cannot read there are very few jobs open to you.

Its worth pushing a child really hard to get them to learn how to read. Its sad that there is not sufficent help in state schools for dyslexic kids.

Original poster

bigdonna · 29/09/2008 20:06

really tired i totally agree with you,if either of my kids needed extra tuition to help with a specific subject i would do it (but only if they were struggling and wanted to do it.but not to get in to a school.

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Original poster

bigdonna · 29/09/2008 20:09

oh also my nephew is dyslexic they found out when he was 14 he was been classed as naughty child until then.he followed the dores programme(lots of people said load of rubbish)but it worked for him he is now going in navy next month to be an engineer.sorry hijacked my own thread

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