Tutor for primary?

Wini said :

‘Watson’ – I don’t know how you go about about making private contact through this site but I would be happy to talk to your friends about their child’s needs. I have extensive experience in teaching and learning (particulary the needs of children who fall outside of the mainstream – support as well as G&T). Whilst I don’t ‘tutor’ as such, I can point them in the right direction and introduce them to professionals who will be able to assist.

If you are still reading this… I created a new email address that I don’t mind publishing. It’s Watson2602[at]gmail.com

That sounds great Wini. Unfortunately you need to be a paying member of the site to be able to send private messages and I don’t want to publish my details here. I’ll have a think about it…

‘Watson’ – I don’t know how you go about about making private contact through this site but I would be happy to talk to your friends about their child’s needs. I have extensive experience in teaching and learning (particulary the needs of children who fall outside of the mainstream – support as well as G&T). Whilst I don’t ‘tutor’ as such, I can point them in the right direction and introduce them to professionals who will be able to assist.

magiccar9 said :

I had this great tutor back when I was in year 2. She was my Mum. Year 2 isn’t that hard to teach. Its not Uni level economics. Try teaching them yourself, then if you still have trouble use a tutor as a last resort. They will be more willing to accept someone from their own family before some stranger. Plus, you get the satisfaction of knowing you helped the child out.

Again, this is not my child. If her carers were able to help her themselves, I’m sure they would’ve done so. They are lovely, caring people who are just a bit out of their depth for a variety of reasons that I don’t want to go into.

From your response, I am guessing you don’t have kids of your own. Am I right? Or if you do, your child is easy-going and quick to learn (like my own child is).

Thanks about the info about the assessments, Wini. That is indeed useful advice.

I don’t know if it would be worth complaining about the lack of support at the school. Though my own daughter goes there too and it does annoy me that they have a social inclusion policy but then don’t bother spending any money on supporting those with “different needs”. Apparently they have one part-time support teacher for a school with over 400 kids. If it was my child who needed extra support, maybe I would kick up a stink.

I had this great tutor back when I was in year 2. She was my Mum. Year 2 isn’t that hard to teach. Its not Uni level economics. Try teaching them yourself, then if you still have trouble use a tutor as a last resort. They will be more willing to accept someone from their own family before some stranger. Plus, you get the satisfaction of knowing you helped the child out.

Maybe email the education department at UC? There’s always students there looking for an opportunity to practice some skills. They would probably be able to guide you towards a specific group of students who are more confident with teaching students with her individual needs.

Just a word of advice if I may, what ever you do – don’t put your child into one of the ‘learning centre’ classes. It may be a waste of her time and she might as well not have gone to school. Keep her in the mainstream and get outside tutour support or in school helper. I have a close relative who has been through this.

“This child falls into a few “high risk categories” and has some mild behavioural issues and is not getting the support she needs from the school.”

Go to the Department. If the school and the Principal are failing to give the support this child requires, go above them.

There are a range of things that you should consider before enrolling this little girl in any tutoring program, particularly as she falls into a “high risk category”. Firstly you need to have the following assessments: audiology and optometry, to establish if there are any existing hearing or vision issues that are resulting in her learning support issues. If these come back in the normal range, then the next assessment should be with a Speech Pathologist (they work with language delays and processing issues, rather than the wider-held idea of just ‘speech’). A Speech Pathologist will be able to pick up any learning issues that are evident and, more importantly recommend strategies that will support her learning.

Once you have these assessments you, and any tutor who you hire will be able to work with her with a detailed understanding of her support needs. Don’t just book into a program of ‘tutoring’ on its own – it will be a waste of time and money. You really need to find out what is going on, whether it can be rectified and then employ an experienced professional in that particular area. The sooner you can identify her particular learning support needs the better because as she grows older the problems will manifest.

I hope this helps…

housebound said :

Kip McGrath at Spence has a great reputation.

+1. One of my kids has been there, and it went really well.