Supporting Your Child’s Education with TuitionWorks

I’m finding ways to help my son catch up on any learning he’s missed after the school closures and home-schooling of this year.

It’s scary to think how far behind some children have become, particularly those in their final secondary and college years.

Core subjects of English, Science and Maths are important grades to achieve in order to access further education and employment.

My 9-year-old son loves maths, but I don’t, so I’ve found another way to help him with this at home.

TuitionWorks

TuitionWorks, are a new online maths tuition service, providing online 1:1 maths tuition with qualified tutors.

The service offers tutoring with maths specialists from various backgrounds for children from Key Stage 1 to A-Level.

Each student gets their own online classroom which is tailored to their needs.

To ensure your child’s individual educational needs are met, they begin with a free 15-minute online assessment.

This is followed by a tutor introductory session to look at the results of the assessment.

This enables the tutor to individually tailor lessons for your child.

Virtual classrooms are set up in a way that makes the maths engaging and easy to learn for each child.

This includes the tutor using tools to create graphs, shapes and even animations to help engage children in the learning.

The work created during each lesson can be easily saved as a PDF for children to refer to another time.

My son and I tried their assessment and tuition this week, so I thought I’d share our experience…

Booking

Booking can be done online or via telephone, which I found it super easy to do.

I completed an enquiry on their website and received a call that same day to book the tutor introductory session.

This was booked for the following day and I was sent the confirmation and assessment link via email soon after.

The Assessment

The assessment was easy to open and follow, with clear, simple instructions on how to complete it.

It consisted of a set of maths questions for my son that only took 15 minutes to complete.

My son found this quite easy to follow, and even said it was quite fun!

The online assessment enables the tutor to gauge the child’s abilities and identify useful learning areas.

Meeting the Tutor

The following day we had an introductory video call with maths tutor, Federico, who is a mathematician and teacher.

The fifteen minute session was used to analyse the results of the assessment and identify any learning needs.

Federico explained the results of the assessment and we made a plan of what to focus on during lessons.

This was a great way for my son to meet his tutor and see what the online classroom looks like.

The tutor was warm and welcoming, which alleviated any nerves or worries my son had before the first lesson.

For my son’s young age, he did well on the test, and Federico explained that he’s excelling in many areas.

We decided that the initial focus would be perimeters, as this hasn’t been covered at school yet.

It felt great that I was listened to as a parent, and how my son was included in all decisions.

This helped my son engage with Federico quickly as he felt like he had a say in his own learning.

Lessons involve using pencil and paper which I’m pleased about, because the brain learns better through writing by hand.

Reassurance was given to my son whenever needed by the tutor and by the end of the call we knew what to expect from the first lesson.

The First Lesson

The lesson began with some column addition rather than going straight into perimeters.

Federico explained that he wanted to use column addition as a knowledge check so he could see how confident my son was with it.

This exercise linked nicely to perimeters as addition is required in order to identify a shape’s perimeter.

By starting with addition, it acted a warm up for my son, as he started with something he found easy and this helped him engage quickly.

A PowerPoint presentation was then used which had various perimeter tasks on display.

There was a space on the whiteboard for Federico and my son to write the equations alongside the tasks.

The whiteboard was my son’s favourite part of the lesson, because he was able to use it with the teacher which he found useful.

Lessons are usually one hour, but I asked for 30 minutes to see how well my son’s concentration span coped.

They were happy to cater to our individual requirements and we can amend the lesson length whenever we want.

I was impressed with how much was covered in 30 minutes. As well as column addition and basic perimeters, he completed perimeters of more complex shapes too.

After the lesson, Federico explained that finding an effective way to engage with each child is key. He tries to design lessons in a way that will appeal to the individual child’s interests.

He believes finding what interests them ensures the child wants to learn, and motivates them.

This includes using age-specific maths games, interactive online graphs, axis, pictures, and even animations to make it fun.

My son loved the animation of a rocket taking off every time he inputted a correct answer.

Did We Like It?

Overall I recommend TuitionWorks for maths tuition, because:

• It has a free online maths assessment that covers from Key Stage 1 to GCSE.
• The introductory session with the tutor is brilliant for working out what areas the lessons need to focus on.
• The lessons are easy to book.
• The lessons are easy to log onto, even for those with lower confidence with technology.
• No software downloads are needed.
• The online classroom is well laid out and is individualised for your child and their needs.
• Lessons can include a great range of tools that children engage with, including interactive whiteboards, graphs and animations.
• All tutors are qualified maths specialists so they know what they’re doing.

Get a Free Tutor Lesson

Lessons range from £35-75 per hour depending on which of the three tuition tiers are chosen.

You can get a free maths tutor lesson by using the code ‘SINGLEPARENTPESSIMISTTWFREE’ when you call or book on TuitionWorks (This offer is subject to availability).

This is a collaborative post. All views about this tutoring experience are honest and my own.