To tutor or not to tutor!

[succeed]

[quote=]"bluejay
Each to their own! [/quote]

Absolutely. Again, in my own opinion, tutoring from such a young age also dramatically raises the stakes of failure so much higher for the poor child. Too many times I have seen the reaction from parents to their child's 'failure' akin to hearing the death of a relative in the family. The child must then cope with the tears of the family and the sense of shame they have unwittingly brought about. Then, following this post traumatic stress, the parents re-group and seek an independent school which in truth, in many cases, is usually no better than the local comprehensive.

[quasimodo]

I am not aware of scrapping of police officers from schools these reflect the current national picture and in West Yorkshire.
1. http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/114633 ... y-concerns" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
2. http://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/site ... rships.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In the West midlands there have been reductions in police numbers generally in line with many forces across the country.
The policy remains in force across the country.

[quasimodo]

On the question if you don't tutor how do parents from state schools compete against parents like myself.My dds like their cousins attend or have attended preparatory schools which help prepare them for selective school exams or independent schools.On top of that they have tuition for between 12 to 24 months.If parents whose children attend state schools have the resources and can find the right tutors they will need to tutor in order to give their children a fighting chance to gain a selective place.The odds are still stacked against them.
When we grew up we didn't have the odds andcompeted against the odds. We have endeavoured to stack the odds in our childrens favour.
Parents have to decide what importance they place on their childrens education and what they can do to change their odds.Unfortunately genetics play a large part in intelligence and no amount of tutoring can change those odds.

[succeed]

The police force is always on hand to help any school in any community. In Birmingham, police officers have all but been removed from the schools, which in my opinion, illustrates how unnecessary they were in the first place. This has been a slow withdrawal since 2011 with, unsurprisingly, no negative impact on the schools. Incidently, most of the officers whom I spoke to who did originally attach themselves to schools, saw it as a 'cushy number' which kept them off the streets dealing with real crime.

Re tuition, I'm certainly not suggesting that there shouldn't be any tuition, precisely because of the reasons you have outlined. But from my experience , several years of tedious tuition do not have any more impact than one year prior to the test, and perhaps run the risk of switching the child off. I understand that people are simply doing their best to stack the odds in their favour, but I honestly think it doesn't work ( and where the child is successful, they would have been regardless of starting tuition at 7)and the only real winners are the tuition centres.

[Happy dad]

Both my DS were tutored - ds1 for five months and ds2 for twelve months - in a group setting on Saturday mornings and a few mornings each holiday plus mocks running up to the exams. The reasons were two fold. First, when we attended QMGS the boy who showed us round told us that he had been tutored and so had everyone in his class. To level the playing field we decided to engage a tutor. Visits to other schools confirmed that most if not all children received tuition of some kind. Second, whilst both our children are very attentive and focused in class it has always been a challenge to get them to focus outside of the classroom. We therefore decided to pay a tutor to remove that headache. We paid a few thousand pounds for each but still considerably less than a years fees at a good preparatory school.

My own personal view is that if a child needs more than twelve months tuition then they are likely to struggle at grammar school. Whilst we were always considering GS for our boys we only really decided they were capable during Year 4. I do find it quite depressing that there are now courses run for Y3 children - these are seven and eight year olds.

If I were paying fees for a preparatory school, I would also be asking the school some serious questions if I then also felt the need to pay for extra tuition.

[Guest55]

Unfortunately genetics play a large part in intelligence and no amount of tutoring can change those odds.

There is no agreement in the many research papers about this ... please don't state it as a fact.

[quasimodo]

Unfortunately genetics play a large part in intelligence and no amount of tutoring can change those odds.

There is no agreement in the many research papers about this ... please don't state it as a fact.

I disagree with you on this and I can state it as a fact. It is a factor but we may disagree on the percentage.

[Guest55]

It is not a fact - please stop.

[quasimodo]

Individuals can make up their own opinions scientific, scholarly or otherwise by looking up the question.

[sbarnes]

It's the parents right to tutor or not; supplement their kids education or not.