6yr old private tutoring for English, to early ?

[Samsung1122]

Hi,

so our son is just finishing yr 1 and will be going into yr 2 later this year, he’s struggled with his reading and writing and me and his father were thinking about sending him to 1-1 tutoring just once a week for 40mins throughout the summer, however both have mixed feelings, is he to young or are we going to give him a big boost of help by doing this ?

You will get 50/50 on here about tutoring but it’s up to you as you know your kid best. I was a primary school teacher and now I’m a tutor. Trying to get my own kid to do homework was WW3 too!
I focus on maths in my tutoring business and the students just gain so much more confidence. There is no where to hide if they don’t know the answer and I make sure I give them strategies to say they don’t know and it’s ok as it’s my job to take them back to what they do know and build them from there. I love seeing the most reluctant learner just tell me
politely - I don’t have a clue what you’re on about, please explain!

One thing to watch out for is that private tutoring is completely unregulated. There is no legal requirement to have an enhanced DBS or even any teaching qualifications! I am
seeing 16 year olds advertising themselves as GCSE tutors because they got a grade 9 so they can tutor y1-11!

getting a tutor in the summer is a good way to catch up as it’s really hard in schools to work with every child. If you don’t like it then you can cancel it.

I was listening to a fascinating programme on Finland where children do not start formal learning til age 7. Until then they are in preschool from age 3 and do a lot of forest school and learning about social interaction.
The Finns are no slouches when it comes to academia so starting learning late clearly does them no harm.
Leave your wee lad be. He is only behind by British measures ... not by human ones

He is being 6 ... that is good.

Nothing wrong with getting a tutor. My daughter has had one since she was 5 (because it was the pandemic ) and has really enjoyed the sessions and the chance to have some 1:1 time every week. My daughter choses to have sessions in the holidays sometimes because she enjoys them!

If you can afford it comfortably then do it. I think every child deserves 1:1 attention but the reality of school is that only certain children get it.

Of course, read with him as well, (both getting him to read and reading to him), and encourage opportunities to write- my daughter wrote quite a few angry letters to Boris Johnson during the pandemic

Personally I would work with him over the summer.

As a PP said 10 mins reading a day and I would think about getting him an exercise or scrap book so he can keep a 'diary' of his summer. Just what he did each day and pictures / stickers / flyers if you go on any days out.

@CassandraWebb your DD sounds awesome.

get him a tutor at home for one to one + read daily even ten mins a day will make a huge difference

Thank you, yes the tutor is a teacher who works at his current school (not the same class teacher but he’s seen her around) me and father have decided to do it, it’s for his confidence like you mentioned I think it’s so important for him to have a bit of a boost and that 1-1 attention on the parts that he struggles in, if I wait and do it in yr 4 I’m worried he would have fallen behind to much so I’m hoping that by doing it this yr it will prevent needing it any other summer but we will take it step by step 🙌 thank you for your feedback !

Thanks for all your feedback we have taken them all on, so much great advice to help him aswell so thanks again. We have decided that we are going to be doing this private lessons this summer and we will take it one at a time!

I would double check they are allowed tutor pupils from own school as every school I’ve worked at has said not to blur the lines and called it a conflict of interest.