When to start GCES tution?

hello007007

I have a child in Year 9, she is not doing well in Maths and is below average.


I had always planned on getting her some tuition before her GCSEs. In the past I was think I would start the tuition sometime mid Year 10 and have the tutor come once a week, for a year and half until her GCSE were over.


I am now wondering, as Maths is such an important subject maybe her other classes will be affected by her low abilities (ie maths is needed in science and ICT etc...)


So as my daughter is not doing well, should I start the tuition now? The tuition will cost £20 an hour. We don’t have £20 to spare every week, it would be uncomfortable but with some adjustments we will be able to afford it.

arbrighton

Firstly, see what the school has available to support your daughter.

From another thread it sounds like your daughter is struggling with English too.

But, at Y9, child should have some say in whether they want a tutor or not too (and perhaps which subject they feel they'd need it for) . It might be better, if you are struggling, to put money aside now, to start in the new academic year, building up a fund for it.

BUT: by the very nature of 'average', some children have to be below it.

Most of the students I tutor for maths haven't started til some time in Y10. Some haven't needed support all the way through, just a confidence top up, but others need weekly individual input to grasp methods and practice etc.

lika_86

Do you have someone in the family that's good at maths who could swot up on whatever she's learning and help her through year 9 work?

Out,_Vile_Jelly

University students often do tutoring and can be flexible about hours.

I think the type of teacher and their approach is more crucial in Maths than any other subject. Some methods work with some people and some don't. If you feel that progress isn't being made, don't hesitate to try another tutor.

Pollycat

Anything interesting here?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/levels/z98jmp3?lang=en

hello007007

arbrighton wrote: »

Firstly, see what the school has available to support your daughter.

From another thread it sounds like your daughter is struggling with English too.

But, at Y9, child should have some say in whether they want a tutor or not too (and perhaps which subject they feel they'd need it for) . It might be better, if you are struggling, to put money aside now, to start in the new academic year, building up a fund for it.

BUT: by the very nature of 'average', some children have to be below it.

Most of the students I tutor for maths haven't started til some time in Y10. Some haven't needed support all the way through, just a confidence top up, but others need weekly individual input to grasp methods and practice etc.

My youngest daughter (year 6) has gone down in English sets and my eldest daughter is poor in Maths.

I have parents evenings coming up but I doubt we can get extra help from school as there are other students her level in her Maths set. I feel the school can't give everyone extra help so I doubt they would single my daughter out for special treatment, if that makes sense? I will ask but wont hold my breath.

I think the only way forward is private tution. We not had private tution before and I am not sure if Year 9 is the best time to start it for GCSE. I have so many thoughts in my head but I feel my greatest worry is that £20 is a lot of money for us, I fear my daughter will not appreciate the vaule of tution if she has it for nearly 3 years? I hope that make sense (eg when I was younger I had a few sessions of tution and I could not care less how much it costed as I didn't have an understanding of money aged 13)

Lunar_Eclipse

Since money is so tight, I would suggest following the explanations and then tests on the BBC Bitesize website. It's an excellent resource, but if your daughter really can't understand it, nor any of the Maths revision books widely available, then tutoring might be your only option. But really it's a last resort since there are so many cheap/free resources available.

Another option might be help from a friend or relative.

theoretica

If you start tuition now and she catches up, then it hopefully wouldn't be needed for the next 3 years. If she doesn't like maths much, then the prospect of stopping the extra maths tuition (which will come with extra homework) might be an enticement to work hard.

springdreams

Unlike subjects like history, biology, and the like, it is very hard to get up to speed with maths if you are missing or not understanding chunks of it. Consider maths to be like building a house from lego bricks. If some of the foundation bricks are missing, the rest will not fit.

It is therefore better to get the tutor as soon as possible so that your daughter can have all the lego pieces she needs.

If you wait until year 10 it may be too late to catch her up.

And if you do the tutoring now, she may well not need it later on, as she will hopefully understand the subject sufficiently to be able to cope on her own going forward.

meer53

Speak to her teachers to see what they think the best way forward would be. At parents evening in Year 9 my daughters maths teacher didn't feel she was struggling enough for us to get outside help, i tried to help as much as i could, i sat with her whilst doing homework, googling what i didn't know, there is so much help now on the internet, she got a B in Maths in her GSCE. You've got time to try yourself before paying for tuition. My daughters school also ran a Maths Club after school in Year 10, she only went for a couple of months before her exams but it boosted her confidence.

She still came home after the second Maths exam ( the calculator paper) and said it went terribly !

DollyDabbler

Ask at school if they use MyMaths, get the password and sit with your daughter while you work through the sections. Ask what exam board they use and revision guides, can you purchase the guides from school.