Is it worth the fight. One to one tuition

[lorra62]

I have recently found out that in my sons school, some children not reaching targets have been offered one to one tuition, I am very dissapointed and anoyed that my son is not one of them, as he has been struggling with his maths and particularly english(he has difficulty writing and his spelling is attrocious, (when he was at primary I did ask for an assesment but was turned down by the LEA) He is in year 8 and he is currently at level 4c for english his target is 3a (which is absolutely ridiculous for a 12 year old) in maths he is doing slightly better and has achieved 5c when his target is 4a.
The excuse the school gave me for him not being offered the tuition is that he is reaching his targets, but I know for a fact 2 other who are getting tuition who are in a higher set than him? How does this work, am I wasting my time complaining? I just want the best for my child and as I am a single parent who works full time, I sometimes feel like I am letting him down. My other issue is that apparently this tuition was also available last year, but I didnt even know about it.... Do the schools try to keep it quiet so that mums like me dont find out and make a fuss?

When I did 121 tuition it was one year group who were targetted so although it may have been available last year he may not have been right year group.
The criteria for choosing the pupils are quite complex. It is not the lowest achieveing students but those who are furthest below their individual target based on KS2 data. Your son is exceeding his targets which is fantastic. This means that he will not be chosen for 121 tuition because he is making good progress. You do not need to feel you are letting him down. It is kept fairly quiet as not all students want their friends to know they are having tutoring as they sometimes feel embarrassed. It is not to stop parents finding out it is available though. It is only a very small fraction of students who are eligible as there is very restricted funding, maybe 8%.
Does this answer your questions?

I am happy to explain more if you like or it is not clear

I would ask the school/LEA again for an assessment. They aren't expecting him to get average levels- why not? Is there a problem with his reading? If he is assessed and he has an IQ that is average, the school should be expecting average levels, afterall 85% of the population are average.
You son is indicating to them that he can do better than they expect him to.

A 3a target in Yr 8 doesn't sound right. Thank goodness he is exceeding it. I think his 'target' is below national average.

Personally I wouldn't waste time and energy battling with a reluctant school. You're better off putting your own energy into 1-2-1 with him, finding some good websites and just spending 10 minutes a day after school with him, helping with spelling and maths. I do this - not as often as I should, not consistently - but every time the DCs results start to dip, and it gets them back up there. It's amazing how quickly DCs progress under 1-2-1 tuition, even with the parent, even if it's not your strong point. You can buy books on Amazon
which have the answers in a pull out section. Even if you work through the English and Maths versions of these with him, it'll work wonders.

Students in the set above may be achieving well below their individual targets and so be eligible for tuition.

The schools don't advertise it because they select who will get the tuition. They don't want a horde of parents turning up at the school gates demanding free tuition when their children don't qualify.

i think its unfair, in order for all children to achieve their potential, all children should be offered 1 21 tuition even those who are doin well, it could be the difference between someone ettin a c rade in maths/enlish or an a rade which would impact on their university place and career choices
everyone should be encouraed to fulfil potential otherwise those who can afford to pay for tuition are oin to be those who do better.

TBH I think they're writing your son off in year 8. You're absolutely right that his target is atrociously low, and just because he's hitting it doesn't mean he's going to do well.

If the school won't provide 1 to 1, I'd suggest seeing if you can scrape the money together to get private tuition for him.

I did some of the one to one tuition last year. The problem is that your son doesn't meet the criteria, sorry. Roughly speaking, it is for students who are failing to reach their targets, or who fail to make two levels of progress across a key stage; then there are extra criteria for, for example, looked after children.

Children in a higher set may well be getting it. Schools are often more likely to fail to help children make good progress if they have come into the school on a higher than average level. Those children then need a lot of help to get back on track, otherwise they just wallow on their level 5 (for example).

It isn't really up to the school. The criteria are set by the government and the schools find the pupils who fit them. The funding is ring-fenced, so they really can't work around it. It's not kept quite as such, it's just that there's no need to tell people unless their child qualifies.

One of the other reasons it's kept quiet is that it was found that children were stigmatised for receiving one to one tuition, by other children and by other parents.

Sorry to hear that your son isn't getting enough support, I do think you should keep raising that with the school, just not from the one to one tuition angle.

nailak - who exactly is going to pay for this? Do you know how much one-to-one tuition costs?

Flingon is quite correct in saying that it is aimed at those not progressing as hoped, even though this means some children who are performing at low levels will be missed out.

The money is only ring-fenced for this year- next year it isn't ring-fenced at all, and the school can spend it however they wish, on whomever they wish.

Lorra- what kind of activities do you do with him at home around the areas he struggles in? Do you practice spellings adn do writing activities? How was it at Primary school? Was he slipping behind there, or do you feel the secondary school is less supportive?

I think though you should talk to the SENCO about his English, and find out what support the school can give him out of their SEN budget rather than their 1:1 budget.

There may be heaps more that can be done for him....

Thanks for all your replies, it is really interesting reading and I have found out quite a lot from this site, it was only by reading another post that I actually realised that his targets were ridiculous for his age, he did have problems at primary and I always tried to do something, but it was always passed on to the next year, until he reached year 6 and had a superb teacher who actually advised me to tell his senior school about his difficulties before he went, which I did, speaking to him he is a very bright boy, really interested in history and facts and reads books etc, but he has problems writing and gets frustrated and gives up easily when he can not do things, I have told both schools that I think there is an underlying problem, at primary I applied for an assessment but it was turned down and at senior he does get help in myspace, but it is not really what he wants. (he thinks it is to easy and is embarrased about going)
Nailak. I do as much as i can with him, ensuring he does his homework, which takes 4 hours to do 1/2 page of written work. so we generally dont have much time to do much else, as he also goes to sea cadets after school and enjoys his play station?. as I said earlier I do feel guilty that I can not spend more time on school work with him. but i can assure you he doesnt miss out.
I just thought the one to one tuition would of been ideal for him as I know he could do better given the opportunity.
Hi is one of the youngest in class not being 13 till 30th August plus he was
also premature and weighed less than 3 lbs, which may also be a factor in his slow learning.(I dont want to make excuses for him, but think it could be a factor) that is why I am pushing for any extra help I can get him.

You are going to have to get a lot more proactive about this.

Being one of the youngest doesn't matter by the time they are this age.

You need to talk to the SENCO. He clearly has a problem with writing. He's at least 2 years behind where he should be (more if you think he's pretty clever) .

He really should be on the SEN register and be receiving extra help to improve his writing.

How is he at typing? Could he do his written homework on the computer instead of handwriting it, saving time for him to then work on other areas?

Noble, he does sometimes do it on the pc, and has been allowed to use a laptop at school in lessons, but he chose not to, he didnt like being the only one in class with a laptop. when the sen teacher offered to allow him to use the laptop at first i thought great, but then did wonder is it not defeating the object allowing the children to use laptops when they should be learning how to write properly? It is hard work not knowing what to do for the best. :)

There won't be many times in the future that he will be expected to do extended writing by hand though, will there?

Assuming, that is, that he gets assessed and is allowed to use a computer for his GCSEs (which would be reasonable if he really does have physical writing problems).

Vanessa, if you wish to teach others for the 11+, can I suggest that you first learn how to use the English language correctly. Here are some tips;

1. Do not start sentences with 'And'.
2. 'Thus' is not followed by a comma.
3. Avoid use of the 'comma splice': joining two sentences together with a comma. You should have put a full stop or semi-colon before your 'thus'.
4. Avoid overuse of the exclamation mark or you look like an idiot. Or desperate. Or both.

You'll be relieved to know that that advice is FREE, as clearly your business is so unsuccessful you cannot afford to pay for proofreading let alone advertising; unsurprising, given the quality of your work displayed here.

Please avoid spamming forums - if you wish to advertise your product, pay Mumsnet £50 for the privilege, or bog off.

Yes, it's worth the fight. Having said that, is there an alternative school for your son you could transfer him to?

Pupil Premium is an extra pot of money given to schools for certain children and is expected to be spent on them to ensure their progress to target is supported because this group of children, nationally, do not make average progress, so the Government has targetted money to try to help them. Ofsted check this. It may, possibly, be that the tuition you mention is being funded from this pot and your child doesn't qualify - however, it is Government policy, not the schools.

This is a v old thread, bumped by Vanessa flogging her wares as an illiterate tutor, apparantly .

Though I do wonder how the OP got on and hope her son is getting some specialist help.