We have done, and continue to do, one-on-one tutoring for students who want to improve their grades in science to A level and maths to GCSE. We have always received excellent feedback from parents and students with the result that we are in quite high demand in our region. We have expanded out into online tutoring via Skype, again with a high success rate but with the added advantage of extending our reach.
Tutoring is a very effective way of improving grades, especially the way we do it. We plan no sessions and provide no work for the students. They bring everything to us. Our rationale for this is that a tutoring session with us should be completely student driven. We work on only that content with which the student is currently having difficulty. Our experience and knowledge ensures that we are never at a loss for how to teach a subject, no matter the level or content. This has meant that our services are in high demand and we must often turn parents away. There are simply not enough days in the week or hours in the day.
We are often asked the best way for students to improve and we always give the same answer – 10 minutes per night at GCSE, 30 at A level. This is educationally sound. It has always been known that last minute cramming doesn’t usually work and parents who ask for “intensive sessions” don’t understand that that is what their children are getting in school every day!
We have been wondering if it would be possible to combine these 2 ideas – the concept of “small and often” sessions with personal tutoring and we feel that we have found the answer. We have set up a trial group of students who we are mentoring daily. We have set up a WhatsApp group with their parents and each day we send them an exam question on their chosen subject. They answer on paper as if writing an exam answer and send it back, again via WhatsApp. We then mark it and send the marked script back, along with a message detailing improvements – this can be either text or a recorded message.
Preliminary results from the trial are excellent. Parents are very pleased and the student feels like they are getting individual attention.
We are looking to expand this trial out so if you are interested please contact us either using the contact us form, email thesciencegod@gmail.com or tweet to @AndMarking.
Education Plus 