Your tutor experiences welcome!! How long and how much progress?

[porkypoo]

Hi, I am currently having a tutor for my DD (9) ATM. We have have her for an hour a week and she is really great. Can you tell me of your experiences, so that I can decide on how long to keep it up and how much progress to expect. Thanks.

What subject?

I tutored maths for an hour a week, term time only, and the child progressed from a very shaky 2b to a 3c between September and July. This is the expected level of progress during a school year, but he would not have been able to keep up in class without the additional support as he was still insecure on the basics and lacked confidence.

I stopped tutoring him after that year because he had caught up and didn't need it.

Tutoring PARTICULARY effective for maths....

Lilac21 - what is your approach in the lesson with the child. What's the balance between teaching/explaining/showing and the child "doing". What resources would you use for an average or above average KS2 child in maths and english.?

To start with, I needed to know what he struggled with, so we spent the first few sessions working through various written and mental questions. I could then identify the strategies he used effectively, those he tried but couldn't manage, and those he didn't seem to know at all. When I had a clear picture of the areas of difficulty, we worked on those, starting with a mental warm up, sometimes written, sometimes oral, where I always reviewed the ones he got wrong or found tricky. Then I would work on a particular objective by explaining and practising together first, before he worked through some on his own for about 10 minutes, where he could always ask for help if he needed it. We usually covered number work, but also worked on reading scales, time, data handling etc. He particularly needed help with problem solving.

As a primary teacher, many of my resources came from inside my own head, but I did have some photocopy books for year 3 mental maths and problem solving.

I haven't tutored English, only maths. HTH.

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, being busy looking after my 5 month old neice this weekend! I forgot how demanding they were!

DD has had tutor since December and for the first 6 weeks we focused on maths. Now we are focusing on Literacy. She was progressing really well in maths and so we decided to switch. DD was behind and had to make up an extra sub section as well as the 2 she was expected to acheive anyway (this yr. Will know more next week when this terms results are out) But DD is a bit of an airhead, we go through tables and she remembers them. Test her next week and they've gone!

Porkypoo, how did you find your tutor?

My daughter has made little progress in her Literacy in the last 18 months and I am considering a variety of options, tutoring being one of them. I would be grateful for pointers/advice.

Bed

Hi Bed, I looked on [www.personal-tutors.co.uk] I think it is very worthwile, even from a confidence point of view. DD is more willing to attempt things, believing in herself 1000 times more than before. I was hoping someone who had used a tutor before would be able to advise me on how long they contiued for.

I will have a look at their website, Thanks Porkypoo.