Sustaining high achievement
Most parents who have recognised a strong academic future for their child are keen to ensure that potential continues to be fulfilled. If your child is confident, happy and apparently performing well at school, it can be difficult to judge whether everything is as good as it could be, or whether it’s time for extra help.
Recognising the early signs
The question of additional support often arises when your child’s teacher indicates that although recent results are still well above average, a couple of gaps have crept in and there’s a sense your child is capable of better. Or you may have noticed your child is showing less pride in their achievement and is quick to offer excuses or to downplay the significance of lower-than-normal grades.
Avoiding blame
Sometimes this coincides with you spending less time with your child, due to increasing personal or work commitments. You may have been allowing them more independence, which is important, but now wonder if you should have been providing more help and support. It’s important to remember that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to time with your child. It doesn’t matter how busy you are, you’ll have much better interactions with your child if you’re achieving personal goals and feeling on top of things.
Focusing on the cure
The first step for putting things right is to let the teacher know about your desire to ensure your child is always achieving to their full potential. Explain that while this might be a temporary dip in performance you don’t want to do nothing while you wait to find out. Ask the teacher what the gaps are, how they can be fixed, how long it might take, how you can be informed about progress along the way and what you can do to help.
It’s also important to discuss things with your child. Share your positive expectations with them and ask them how they feel about recent school results. Tell them you love them no matter what and that you want to help. It can be helpful to acknowledge where they have done well and talk about your belief in their ability to achieve at that level more consistently. Set some early goals and next steps together, and then move on to something that’s just for fun.
The question of tutoring
A period of after-school tutoring will normally enter your thoughts as a possible part of the solution. Naturally you’ll have concerns about how your child might respond to this. After all, you don’t want to undermine their confidence or positive attitude towards school. They may feel that tutoring is only for kids who are struggling, not those near the top like they are. You may also wonder whether the time and money involved will make any difference. Will the tutoring identify and address the gaps or simply revisit broad areas already covered and understood at school? Are the tutors trained educators, do they understand your school’s curriculum? Will their teaching methods complement or conflict with the way your child is taught at school? Will you child look forward to tutoring sessions or see them as a chore? How will you know whether the tutoring is working? Will you have to wait until the next school report, by which time things may have become worse?
These are all concerns we regularly hear from parents who come to see us about their child. They’re also the foundations on which we have built and fine-tuned the way we operate for more than 30 years.
Many of our students are already high achievers
A good percentage of our students are already high performers who want to continue achieving their very best. They come to us for additional support, fine-tuning, mentoring and extension work. Like top athletes, they understand the benefits of personal coaching and targeted training. To ensure our programmes support your child’s classroom learning, our trained educators are always up to date with the latest Maths and English curricula and how they are taught at your school.
A free assessment and trial session
The best way to decide whether NumberWorks’nWords is right for your child is to book a free no-obligation assessment with one of our experienced tutors. It will tell you how your child is doing compared to children of the same age. You’ll get specific information about their weaknesses and strengths, as well as an indication of what we would do to make a difference. Your child can also try a free lesson with one of our tutors to see how they like our approach. If you decide to continue we’ll set goals for your child, develop an individualised programme and provide regular progress reports.
With NumberWorks’nWords you can feel confident your child will be in a positive and caring environment that provides the targeted help they need to excel.
