Tutors seem to have upped the ante

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lewpylou
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2018 12:25 pm

Tutors seem to have upped the ante

Post by lewpylou »

DS will be taking the 11+ next Sept and talking to friends I'm now discovering that lots of the kids in year 5 are having two and a half hours tutoring a week!!! This seems to have changed a lot since my DDs took the test a few years ago, when everyone seemed to do an hour a week.

I'm doing work with him at home but now panicking that we can't compete with this craziness. Can anyone recommend how I can find out more about the new GL test and resources to help him. Apparently (according to hearsay!) the tutors have kids that they rely on to relay to them what was in the new test so that can adjust their lessons accordingly. And of course I don't have this level of detail.

Thanks so much.
mad?
Posts: 5621
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 6:27 pm
Location: london

Re: Tutors seem to have upped the ante

Post by mad? »

I'm sure someone will be along to help you with your specific questions but in the meantime I would say try not to be distracted by what other parents say their tutors are doing. People need to justify their decisions to themselves and (some) tutors need to sell their services by spreading fear and anxiety irrespective of what the facts of a situation are. There are many people who have successfully DIY'd their DC on this forum and I'm sure, when things have died down a bit from the post results melee they will be along to reassure you. Good luck
mad?
patricia
Posts: 2803
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:07 pm

Re: Tutors seem to have upped the ante

Post by patricia »

Hi lewpylou

Welcome to the forum

Take a look at the following thread

https://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum ... 12&t=53382" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Patricia
greengekho
Posts: 129
Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2016 7:43 pm

Re: Tutors seem to have upped the ante

Post by greengekho »

Hi Lewpylou!
I can very much appreciate your position. I am in a similar position myself.

My eldest 'qualified' last year under the old CEM. We did not have a tutor. I did some DIY with him.

This year, we have friends from several schools (we live in a bit of an odd location where children are spread amongst many different schools), and the only ones I have heard of so far that 'qualified', have ALL admitted that the tutors laid it on thick.

They are not saying that with naivety. In all cases, there are elder siblings who had the same tutors, but the parents felt that last year the tutors certainly piled it on. I'm guessing because of the new-old GL format? (sounds like an Orwellian double-think word doesn't it! I like it - I might use NewOld again!)

Removed by a moderator

There is a thread on the Bucks forum where someone has asked whether folk found the children performed higher/lower/as expected on each of the VR/NVR/Maths sections. Personally I found the answers on that thread useful.

Best of luck in the year ahead. I am happy to share any findings along the way. Feel free to PM me if you wish to swap notes at any point!
Walthams
Posts: 49
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2016 12:13 pm

Re: Tutors seem to have upped the ante

Post by Walthams »

Just skimming through the forum and bumped into this thread. 2 and a half hour tuition a week seems to me much more sensible than 1 hour. How could 1 hour of tuition a week possibly be enough to cover English comprehension, SPAG, vr, maths and nvr? I guess that would have to be 15 minutes per subject :lol: The tutor would barely have time to start talking about one subject, uuups, 15 min is up, let’s move on to maths now, so here is how we multiply decimals, uups, you didn’t get it? Sorry, time to move on to vr. :lol: I think diying takes much more than that and tutors I have heard of do several hours a week to cover everything. What would you possibly imagine the tutor do in 1 hour? Perhaps I do not understand how tutoring works.
Blue_Marigold
Posts: 359
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 4:49 pm

Re: Tutors seem to have upped the ante

Post by Blue_Marigold »

I was in this position last year and I agree, there does seem to be more focus on tuition now than a few years ago and it’s getting worse.

In the end you have to do what’s right for your family. If your child has loads of spare time and you can afford it then why not?

On the other hand, if your child is too busy with out of school activities then you can’t stop those things if it keeps them happy.

I know people who have done loads of tuition but still didn’t qualify. I also know children who just did 10 mins a day and qualified easily.
RobertBucks
Posts: 30
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2018 10:39 am

Re: Tutors seem to have upped the ante

Post by RobertBucks »

Seems to be a race to the bottom with tuition at the moment, with tutors being the ones that benefit. removed by a moderator

Personally, I think my child benefit more from my one to one attention and time compared to his tutor.
Dollydripmat
Posts: 332
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2014 8:19 pm

Re: Tutors seem to have upped the ante

Post by Dollydripmat »

I also believe it is getting worse in catchment and out. The competition to achieve a place at a Bucks GS has parents , doing Kumon ( from an early age) , 11+ books from Y3 , tutored both Y4 and Y5, week long summer courses, mock test exams. These parents are leaving nothing to chance. This is what I’ve experienced from parents I know from different schools in the county.

It’s sad I know but most don’t appear to be happy with their local upper and either can’t or don’t want to pay privately.

Dolly xx
scary mum
Posts: 8841
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: Tutors seem to have upped the ante

Post by scary mum »

Walthams wrote:Just skimming through the forum and bumped into this thread. 2 and a half hour tuition a week seems to me much more sensible than 1 hour. How could 1 hour of tuition a week possibly be enough to cover English comprehension, SPAG, vr, maths and nvr? I guess that would have to be 15 minutes per subject :lol: The tutor would barely have time to start talking about one subject, uuups, 15 min is up, let’s move on to maths now, so here is how we multiply decimals, uups, you didn’t get it? Sorry, time to move on to vr. :lol: I think diying takes much more than that and tutors I have heard of do several hours a week to cover everything. What would you possibly imagine the tutor do in 1 hour? Perhaps I do not understand how tutoring works.
They do cover a lot of these things in school as well!
scary mum
greengekho
Posts: 129
Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2016 7:43 pm

Re: Tutors seem to have upped the ante

Post by greengekho »

Walthams wrote:Just skimming through the forum and bumped into this thread. 2 and a half hour tuition a week seems to me much more sensible than 1 hour. How could 1 hour of tuition a week possibly be enough to cover English comprehension, SPAG, vr, maths and nvr? I guess that would have to be 15 minutes per subject :lol: The tutor would barely have time to start talking about one subject, uuups, 15 min is up, let’s move on to maths now, so here is how we multiply decimals, uups, you didn’t get it? Sorry, time to move on to vr. :lol: I think diying takes much more than that and tutors I have heard of do several hours a week to cover everything. What would you possibly imagine the tutor do in 1 hour? Perhaps I do not understand how tutoring works.
They don't have to cover all topics every week though. We DIY'd and I did Maths/NVR one week, then English/Cloze the next. An hour was plenty to cover off a small group of related topics (e.g. area, perimeter and volume in an hour). If he had needed to do two and a half hours every week to cover the material I would have questioned whether he was suitable for grammar to be honest.
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