Tuition For Early Adolescents

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If you are considering getting tuition for a an early adolescent, you should read this first.

How to get the best out of tuition for the 11 to 14 age range.

Tuition for early adolescents (Key Stage 3 - KS 3, SATS, Common Entrance, Early Secondary Level) : by Clive West

The decision to book a tutor

At this age, the child should be realising that they need help and, although they may not specifically ask for a tutor, it should be clear that they are worried about their own progress and are asking for parental involvement and assistance. This is a sensitive age as early adolescents are just beginning to 'feel their wings' and, although they like the idea of having a parent around, they are beginning to look for independence. Discuss the idea of a tutor - make sure that they understand that this is no reflection on them (we all need help sometimes) and that the tutor's sole function is to try to make life easier for them.

Ask the child to clearly identify what they are 'stuck on' and relay that to your chosen tutor. Do not let the child choose the tutor as this sets things off on a bad footing. The tutor has to be in control of the lessons and creating a master and slave situation whereby the child appears to give the tutor employment is guaranteed to create problems further down the line.

Although the child should be consulted about what exactly they need help with and how they best see that help being applied, it is not a good idea to let the child be involved in tutor selection as this will create problems for the tutor further down the line.

Before the tuition

Early adolescents are usually fairly serious and committed to the tuition; they do not need a lot of organising beyond ensuring that there is a suitable room and that they are fed and watered beforehand. Usually the biggest distraction comes from curious siblings (particularly younger ones) who must be kept out of the tuition room.

As unobtrusively as you can, just check before the lesson that the child has all the books and other materials to hand and make sure that they are ready at least 5 minutes before the tutor is due to arrive. If there is a gap between school and the lesson, do not allow the child to get involved in games or the like which could make them hyperactive.

Initially you should welcome the tutor and lead them to the child (so as to reinforce the concept that it is you who are making the introduction). After a few weeks you may wish to take more of a back seat and let the child greet the tutor and lead them in. Please note that some tutors are particularly (and rightfully) nervous about being on their own with a child so a well-timed, "Hello!" from another room will not go unappreciated.

Specific role of the tutor

With older children, the tutor will expect to be guided by the child in the general topic areas with which they feel they need help. They should not require the child to spell out every aspect of their difficulties but they will look to the child to point the way. Key Stage 3 is notoriously badly-taught and is often the province of either supply teachers or those who can only manage to teach the lower groups at GCSE. KS3 is also the point at which the ways divide - Higher, Intermediate, Foundation and is further complicated by Attainment Levels and such like.

In many cases, the 'standard' explanations as decreed by the National Curriculum are confusing to students. It may well be the case that a child is so badly confused by a particular way of working that the best course of action is to try a different approach. Tutors should be prepared to make a snap decision as to whether to endeavour to salvage a sketchy understanding or to write it off in favour of a (simpler to understand but equally valid) alternative. They should explain what they are doing and why to the parents and reassure them that GCSE and SATS does not test understanding of a method, these exams are merely concerned with whether the answers given are correct or incorrect.

At this age, there should not be a problem with the lesson duration (normally one hour) but the tutor should endeavour to keep things interesting and look for approaches which are ideally suited for one-to-one coaching but which would not be viable in a classroom.

Specific role of the parent

At KS3 and above most parents begin to take a backseat. Unless the subject the child is having problems with is one which the parents use in their work or which they have studied as part of their own Higher Education, KS3 is likely to be the limit of their own memories of GCSE's and O-levels. It becomes increasingly difficult to directly assess the success (or otherwise) of the tutor but parents should look for increased confidence and a gradual improvement in marks. In many cases the tutor may have had to backtrack and the improvement will not be immediate. For example a child is struggling with probability - the tutor then discovers that the child does not understand the addition of fractions and, if he or she is to do their job properly, they should ignore work on probability until fractions have been understood (often, in doing so, the initial problem disappears as it was related to a deeper difficulty).

Let both child and tutor know you will 'be around' for the duration of the lesson, go in midway with a cup of tea or coffee for the tutor but let them get on with the work (don't distract at this stage). Ideally, station yourself in an adjacent room, leave the door open, find a good book or magazine, grab a cup of hot chocolate and make the most of a quiet moment if you can!

Reinforcing the lesson

Most parents will opt for an hour a week or, if having online tuition, may choose two thirty-minute sessions a week (a better option). Whichever you choose, you will need to reinforce the lesson in-between. There are a number of key ways in which this can be done.

• Have the correct money ready before the end of the lesson (or a cheque pre-written so all you have to do is sign it). Go in 5 minutes before the end of the lesson and ask the tutor what they have been working on (and, perhaps, why), how it is going and has any homework been set? (Note, it should be up to clients to ask for homework and they should make it clear to the child that school homework must always be done first). There should be no charge for the setting of homework but overdoing it can turn a help into a hindrance and cause the student to start resenting the lessons.
   
• The best way of reinforcing the lesson is to discuss the lesson with the child as soon as possible afterwards. Get them to try to explain to you what the tutor explained to them. If they can do that, then they will never have problems with that subject again.
   
• Be prepared to use Parent-Teacher Evening to 'promote' your child if he or she has improved to the extent that they appear to now be better suited to a higher group. Remember that a school's interest and your interest do not have to coincide. If a year has 90 students and they are to be split into three groups of 30 then that is what will happen regardless of the distribution of ability. If the school digs its heels in then consider putting your child in privately for the exam in question.

Keeping the tutor in the loop

The tutor's job is to help your child for the duration of the time they are with them. They are not full-time members of your household and should not be assigned other functions (like babysitting, providing a taxi-service or acting as a school-parent liaison officer). The tutor should not discuss your business with third parties and if you wish to get feedback from the child's teachers, then you should do that yourself and pass this on to the tutor. Please be aware that some schools don't fully appreciate the role of a tutor and it may not be in the child's best interest to discuss the tuition with them, perhaps suggest you have been doing work with them (a half-truth if you have been reinforcing the tutor's work, anyway) and see what they have to say. You are more likely to get an objective and unprejudiced answer that way.

Don't subject tutors to ailments, cancel a lesson rather than drag them into a house full of germs. No matter how short notice a cancellation might be at, it is always going to be better than none at all. If the tutor turns up, you should expect to pay the full amount although if you are there to say 'sorry, not today', many tutors will accept a travel fee plus, say, half the lesson fee. If they have to sit in their car waiting outside an empty house, then it is reasonable that they be paid the full amount.

Reluctant students

At this age and given that the impetus to engage a tutor came from the student themselves, reluctance to continue must be taken seriously. In the unlikely event that it occurs, then you should talk to both the student and the tutor to attempt to discover the root cause. It may be that a slightly different approach is in order or it may even be necessary to try a new tutor. A common reason is that the tutor is going a bit too fast or being over-cautious and going too slow. If that is the reason, don't throw away a good tutor without first discussing a change of pace - the chances are that a quick and friendly chat will solve the problem.

If a child of this age is adamant about not having lessons, there is little to no point in forcing the issue - just let them know that help is available. The initial "I need help" must come from the child.

About The Author
Clive West and his wife Damaris West spent 13 years running a tuition agency which provided tutors throughout the world. Their agency covered over 200 subjects and coached at all levels from early learning to beyond university.

Tuition For A Young Child