Will you increase tutoring hours to help DC pass maths GCSE?

[Californiansun]

DS struggles with maths, works well with tutor but not so well alone; he said he finds it hard. It is disheartening to see. Thinking of increasing tutoring hours? We can afford it.

Maybe I am going to have to learn the topics to help them; but I didn’t grow up in England and sometimes methodology are different.

Current teacher at school isn’t good (confirmed by other parents too)

Any words of wisdom and encouragement would be appreciated.

Last Mock was a 2.

Just to add that they are doing well in other subjects, 5s and 6s

The way to do well at maths GCSE is to practise. First identify which areas are strong, then which are weak. Work on those areas through practise questions – past papers or other sources online.

The tutor will help I am sure but they can only do so much – DS needs to work on this outside tutoring hours. Is he set HW by the tutor? Does he complete that?

A good method I have found (by accident! but it is a real thing) is called body doubling – if a YP is struggling to focus, you sit in the room with them – at the same table maybe but not looking at them or checking their work. You are just working on something – your emails, the car insurance, your blog – alongside them and it gives them a calm atmosphere and the idea that it is OK to sit and concentrate for an hour.

Oh gosh just seen my horrible typo – practice questions ofc (hangs head in shame)

I will try this. Thank you. I think the physical presence may help them. Haven’t thought of it.

If they got a 2 in mocks and other subjects are a 5/6 I would be paying for a dyscalculia assessment and paying for a specialist dyscalculia tutor.

Would DS and his tutor have you sit in on some of the sessions? That way you would get a sense of the work they are covering and could help him practise at home.

Just got feedback from the tutor. She said DC picks up things easily but suffers from poor memory and need to practice every day to try to retain it and not sure they will make it in May/June.

I am quite worried but trying not to show it. Will try the body doubling and will ask the tutor to send me a link of the things DC should be doing every day.

Also try spinning g plates technique for poor memory. Pick 10 key things he needs to know how to do. Learn 1. Learn 2. Start each session with 1 question on topic 1 then 1 question on topic 2. Learn topic 3. Do 1 question on topic 1, 1 question on topic 2 then 1 question on topic 3. Learn topic 4. Etc etc. Basically keep revising all topics before new learning. Also useful is to tape record DS reading out facts or ways of how to do something then have him listen to it for 10 mins last thing before bed. Play again upon waking. It cements facts into brain.

Thank you; the body doubling worked yesterday and he concentrated longer; will keep persevering, and sit with them every day.

I wouldn't buy more hours yet. The tutor has told you the useful thing already: he picks it up in the lesson and loses it by the next one. More lessons just means more picking up and more losing. What moves a grade 2 is what happens in the six days between lessons, and that can be ten or fifteen minutes a day rather than another paid hour.

The version that works, in my experience: after each lesson the tutor sends four or five exam questions on exactly what they just covered, nothing else. DS does them the next day, not the same evening. Then once a week he redoes one question from each of the last few lessons, so nothing gets a chance to fade. Body doubling while he does it, as you've found, helps enormously.

For a 2 aiming at a 4 on Foundation he needs roughly half the marks, and most of the reachable ones are number, percentages, ratio and basic algebra. Ask the tutor to spend this term on those rather than touring the whole spec, and to tell you each week which topic the daily questions are on, so you can see the list growing.
I'd take the dyscalculia suggestion seriously too. A 2 next to 5s and 6s is unusual. If a term of daily practice doesn't shift it, a screening is worth the money before you spend any more on lessons.

I run a small online tutoring platform, so discount me accordingly.

Thank you. Will keep persevering and do a revision time table that work for him plus doubling; I know he is capable but need to put his head down; however he has some days when he is completely exhausted from school and I can’t really get them to do any revisión.

I highly recommend a tutor. My DS had a similar problem and we used a tutor and he jumped 2 grades up from his Mock predictions. He had tutoring every Saturday in the year running up to GCSES then a heavy timetable in the Easter before. We got a tutor that focused on exam practice and drills. This worked for our son.

In the nicest way, a dsycalculia diagnosis this late into y11 won't help. It's too late.

Instead do all the things listed above. It's not unheard of to be 5s in other subjects and a 2 in maths. Often it's poor foundational knowledge which is then very tricky to build on. Go back to basics, are times tables quickly recalled, what's the understanding of place value and negative numbers like? A 2 to a 4 with hard work is entirely possible.