How A Tutor Can Keep Your Child on Track During School Breaks

You’re no doubt already aware of the many benefits of hiring a private tutor for your child, including the improved confidence, one-to-one attention and tailored study offered, not to mention the boosted academic performance.

But you may not have realised how taking on an education professional like this can also help your son or daughter keep up their studies during school holidays, so that they’ve not fallen behind by the time they’re back in the classroom, but instead return with a head start.

After all, the phenomenon of ‘summer slide’, in which children lose significant maths and literacy understanding over the six-week break is well documented. (Indeed it’s been studied since early last century.) And some teachers have reported it can take pupils between three and six weeks to catch up at the start of a new academic year. Every subject can be affected, and it’s something that may cause a dip in confidence.

Here’s how a tutor can help during the school holidays:

• Keeping up the momentum

Tutoring support will mean your child maintains momentum through consistent practice and review, keeping them on schedule. Part of this may involve working on any assignments or homework which they’ve been set for the holidays.

• Consolidation and filling in gaps

If there are any specific areas of learning which your child has found especially challenging, a tutor’s targeted instruction can help fill the gaps in their knowledge or understanding. The holidays can also be a great time for consolidation, and for reviewing material which has previously been covered.

• A tailor-made approach

Private tutors offer a bespoke service, and this applies just as much during school breaks as it does in term-time. The teaching style will be adapted to suit the way your child works best, and their learning pace. This keeps them engaged and ensures they make progress.

• ‘Soft’ skills

As well as the academic learning itself, tutors can use their personalised support to develop ‘soft’ skills which your child may not have had time to work on in school. These include confidence in their own abilities, plus effective study habits including time management and exam techniques. Once mastered, these skills stay with a learner throughout their academic career.

• Making learning something your child enjoys

Just by learning with a different person in a different way, studying becomes more enjoyable and engaging, even fun. A tutor’s supportive, positive assistance can foster a life-long love of learning in your child.

Private tuition in the school holidays from StudyBox

StudyBox offers English, maths and science tuition and runs coding camps during breaks such as half-terms and summer vacations, as well as in term-time. With physical centres in Sutton, Croydon, Wallington and West Malling, we’ve got 11+, GCSEs and SATs covered. We also provide flexible one-to-one online tuition tailored to your child’s needs during the vacations, from £30 an hour. We’ll allocate one of our London-based tutors, all of whom are highly experienced in their fields. What’s more, we’ve been offering our services for a decade.

Sign up for your free trial now – we’ll take it from there.

The Impact of Tutoring on Motivation & Engagement in School

There can be many reasons why a child is unmotivated or unengaged in school. They may feel their classroom setting is unsupportive, or they may not get on with a particular teacher. The timetable may feel too busy or rushed, or sometimes anxiety, social challenges or a condition such as ADHD make it hard for them to focus and concentrate. However, even those without a diagnosable issue may still have difficulty realising their full potential in a traditional school environment.

For families who hire a private tutor for their child or children, the impact on their kids’ motivation and the way they engage with learning in school can be profound. And, it’s not just about academic performance, important though that is – it’s also about wellbeing and things like confidence.

So tutoring shouldn’t be seen as a standalone, but as something which actively complements classroom teaching rather than replacing it. Here are some of the benefits you can look forward to as a parent or guardian:

• Small groups: With individual or small-group tuition, kids often feel more able to ask questions freely without worrying about potential embarrassment or feeling rushed. This can clarify any doubts they may have about a topic or specific point, in turn boosting confidence, engagement and motivation.
• Mastering study skills: Tutors don’t just focus on academic content but can also pass on effective study skills, so that students understand how to manage their notes and other materials, how to revise and how to organise their time. And once they understand better how to study, they can apply this at school and feel more motivated generally. Other skills they might well learn include critical thinking and problem solving, as well as resilience.
• A new enthusiasm for learning: Tutoring in itself can simply reignite a student’s motivation to learn. Once they start to notice that they’re getting better marks and that they can overcome any academic hurdles, they become more engaged, in turn putting more effort into their academic work. Some of that can often be down to simply having a troublesome topic explained in a different way by a different instructor.
• Increased positivity: The supportive environment of tutoring sessions can reduce stress, and create a setting in which learners feel happy to address any concerns and ask for help, even potentially improving things like sleep. Self-esteem and confidence should also, as mentioned, go up. Tutors can also look out for and spot any signs of stress, anxiety or similar issues, not least because they are with the children less than their classroom counterparts, and in a more concentrated way, so any problems are likely to become more obvious. And we all feel more engaged when we’re happier and more confident. What’s more, a private tutor provides an objective, listening ear outside of school and the home, so your child may feel more comfortable talking to them about any school or personal matters.

How we can help

At StudyBox, we’ve seen many children become engaged, motivated students with a little help from us. We offer tutoring in maths, science and English, as well as kids’ coding, either online or at one of our teaching centres in Croydon, Sutton, Wallington or West Malling. We follow the UKs National Curriculum for SATs, 11+ and GCSE exams, and use a number of different teaching techniques and materials, both digital and paper-based.

Book your free trial today. We’ll thoroughly assess your child and where they are academically, before coming up with a personalised lesson plan that will see their motivation levels and engagement in school soar.