Anyone know anything about The Student Support Centre?

[Yurtgirl]

I have never heard of it before!
School sent home a leaflet today asking if parents are interested etc

I have found this website There are a few others as [I think] they have local centres

It all seems geared to get your child to pass exams and tick govt boxes.

The resources seem to involve dvds which the child watches then assessments that get marked

I am somewhat agog with astonishment tbh

What do others think?

Thios is avery old thread so I doubt anyone will come back. Im my opinion, save your money.

When I researched this, I concluded it is more or less a scam. You got a letter from the head, right? And it seemed to strongly recommend SSC but when you look more closely, it has one line that says that the school does not recommend it (but it says it in such a way that you think its just a legal get out and they really do).
Then, when you are wavering, you'll get another letter saying that you need to sign something to say that you have been made aware of SSC and your child's teacher needs the signed form back this week.
What finally convinced me was when i saw ebay offers where people are asking £1500 or so and their listing says that only the first one or two have been opened.

i have received letters from ssc in the past from school and have had a visit from one of their guys who was lovely, no hard sell, it is not a scam at all, yes, it is a bit pricey but if people can afford it then i am sure it will work for them.

I have just been told about SSC by a friend who paid about £5,000 for 2 kids a few years ago, I cant for he life of me see how those books and cds can be worth that much, at best the books and dvds cant be worth more than £10 each. SSC isnt reinventing the wheel. They are a scam asthey do not allow you to see what you buy and deliberately dont put there prices up so that you arent scared aware. Keep your money and buy books fom the normal bok shops

It's not necessarily a scam. However, in later 2011 I worked in a school office for a term and looked into the SSC. The school gets a small fee for each slip it returns so it generates income for schools. The SSC then has your data - to use to sell its services or to sell on further. IMO avoid! Avoid!! I have posted this before and I will continue to post it.

OMG, i have just made an appointment for one of their 'colleagues' to visit. Thankyou Mumsnet, i shall be cancelling this evening. Also, top tip to suggest a local independed school for tutoring - will do! First post so, hope all is well. :)

I didn't know what SSC is about and signed up for it two years ago as the school where my kids are going is a 'good', not an 'Outstanding' one. We definitely want to change the area for secondary school and I believe that when your children are above the average their chance to get a place in an outstanding school is much bigger. We cannot afford a boarding school at this stage. I also work full time and don't know what exactly they do in school apart from the funny leaflets the school gives at the beginning of any term. To speak with the teacher - I have to arrange an appointment after 3:15 hrs and I actually return from work at 5:30.
I agree with some users here, that additional support costs money and also think that the majority of the schools in London are not giving the level of education that is required for the pupils to be admitted in university. Another fact is, that only 10% of the children from state schools are accepted in universities.

I can tell from my own experience that it requires a lot of free time for the children and parents to sit, watch the dvd and do the exercises. Also, they need my support 50% of the cases as well as grammar and explanations are barely included. I will not recommend it to any parent that works full time as it takes approx. 1 hour per lesson+excercise. Lessons are good and progress is made, however it is big commitment. It is very difficult to keep up to date.
I think to enrol my children on Kumon after we finish with this one. Cannot stop the contract unfortunately.

I am always surprised at the fuss.

The way the school 'promotes' the SSC is just the same way they 'promote' the school photos, but no-one gets all upset about the photos.

Buy the SSC from eBay. Do your homework and look at many ads and get a picture of what is what. Expect to pay around £750 for a full suite from reception to KS4. Half that for reception to KS2.

I MP4'd the DVDs and put them on the DS's tablets - they love it.

You could build up a very fine family library for £ 2500 and still have money to spare to take them to the theatre.

In my opinion The Student Support Centre are the worst company I have ever dealt with. I had been thinking of getting extra tuition for my son for a while and found a flyer in his book bag. It sounded good so I gave them a call. We arranged a meeting at my house where the teacher (salesman) proceeded to give both my son and I 4 hours of hard sell. He bondarded me with statistics and charts, gave my son an assessment and made me feel guilty if I refused to take out a contract.

At the time I was a single parent, vulnerable and worried about my 6yr old and signed up to help him with his schoolwork as I believed it was a reputable company.

I received the pack consisting of a box of videos, some workbooks and a chart. The pack arrived 1 week after the cooling off period!!!!. The videos were very boring and my son struggled with the work, as the initial assessment that was given to my son was so much easier. So not only was his confidence level low at school he also lost confidence at home and started calling himself 'thick'.

Enough was enough, we stuck it out for 3 months to see if it would improve and I decided to write a letter explaining the situation.

Cutting a long story short it took me 3 extremely stressful years and a warning to issue proceedings in Court to get out of the contract.

My advice is to invest your money in a private tutor which is what we did and are continuing to do so which is money well spent. My son is now 15yrs old and has caught up with his peers, which is all I ever wanted in the first place.