Once a decision to apply for admission to grammar school has been taken, it is important to avail of the services of a private tutor. A private tutor can provide professional services to make your child ready to take the exams. The services of a private tutor go a long way in ensuring that there is personal interaction and the surety of getting highly individualized attention for their child is highly reassuring for parents. This also goes a long way in making every child aware of his or her own weaknesses and shortcomings and work hard on them after adequate guidance from the private tutor. Now, coming to a number of queries that arise in the minds of parents, there is a drastic need to go through each and every one of them viz:
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Does the private tutor possess the requisite qualifications?
Whichever company or agency you shortlist, there is a roster with names and the required qualifications of the concerned tutor. You may match these with the needs of your child and then ask for the services of a particular tutor. Private tutors are fully oriented towards making every child recognise his/her weakness and work on them. Academic insecurities become easily manageable because of the proper guidance that a private tutor provides. A good tutor, through his agency, is also able to provide proper references reflecting his earlier assignments. If required, you can also cross-verify them on getting names, addresses and telephone numbers of the private tutor’s earlier tutee. An important criterion that has got to be fulfilled for you to select a private tutor is the possession of a DBS, i.e. Disclosure and Barring Services, an organisation that carries out background checks on people who work with children and vulnerable groups. You should ensure that your child’s tutor carries up to date certification. Prior to hiring a tutor all background information needs to be gathered for in the UK, there are no recognised tutoring qualifications. Consequently, anyone can call himself or herself a tutor. Very often you will discover that qualified teachers offer tutoring services to supplement teaching income. Even retired teachers often take up private tutoring. It is therefore more or less up to a parent to decide how qualified a private tutor should be.
How does the private tutor approach lessons?
Every parent needs to be convinced that the private tutor about to be hired knows his subject matter thoroughly. You must insist on a demonstration so that you can verify the tutor’s skills for yourself. Make sure you ask them how they approach lessons and give them the opportunity to demonstrate their 11 Plus knowledge. As a routine practice, 60 to 90 minutes is the general duration of a lesson. Professional tutors follow these schedules so that all aspects of the 11 Plus are covered. Additionally, a good tutor will also be able to provide practice exam papers.
All our tutors at PI Academy are highly qualified and proficient to make sure that a child can overcome certain weaknesses and obtain good scores. Our services are described in detail on our tutoring page.
The following set of guidelines, when kept in mind, will also help you get over your headaches as to the kind of steps to be taken to obtain the best of results for your child.
- You can always start preparing your child early, perhaps in Year 3 and build a foundation and basic skills in Maths and English
- Reading has got to be inculcated in your child as a habit that should last a lifetime. Becoming a voracious reader and absorbing information from books on fiction and non-fiction is the best way for your child to improve upon his/her Vocabulary skills. Finding out what kind of books children of the same age as your child can be of great help.
- Stick to what you decide without procrastinating and see how things get done without hitches and glitches. Always important to remember not to put off until tomorrow.
- Be prepared for that once-in-a-while wild tantrum. Even if your child shows that he or she is able to grasp everything important, don’t behave in a surprised fashion at the odd tantrum. Take it in your stride and also help your child get over it as quickly as possible.