With Tish – Manager of Breakaway Education- Wilton Hub.
With term 2 well underway and everyone thoroughly settled into the school year, below are the kinds of conversations I’m having with parents of children coming to tutoring at Wilton.
Anxiety around first tutoring sessions
Parents often approach the first tutoring session for their child every bit as anxious as their kids are. This is because the parents can see that their child may be struggling at school to either keep up with the work, or are not achieving the marks the child wants to achieve. For many parents, particularly in a place like Wilton, the decision to employ a tutor is almost always done with a serious consideration if it can be afforded by the family, and whether the money spent will result in the child attaining the goals they have in mind. Especially under the current horrendous economic climate.
So my conversations with the kids coming to tutoring is focused on helping them to understand that it is a safe, responsive learning environment, and my conversation with parents is all of that plus an empathic chat about what goals the parents want for their children, and of course, as much detail as possible about what prompted the decision to seek tutoring. After each session, I like to debrief (quickly) with parents, especially of children in primary school, about how the session went, and to chat about any problems that may be happening at school. This link, via the parent, between tutoring and school is important, as parents are the ones advocating for their kids at school and in the world generally.
Common themes in our discussions
One of the most common themes to emerge is that the student is not engaged in the classroom, and is stressed about the impact that may have on their marks and ability to progress through school. This is particularly evident in the last couple of years of primary school, and getting towards the middle and end of high school (years 9 and 10 onwards). It seems to co-occur with the beginning of puberty, which happens towards the end of primary school, and the more challenging years of middle puberty, and is in no way a fault of the students, but rather a symptom of being overwhelmed by changes in brains and an anxiety response to expectations from both within themselves and external things like school.
Why tutoring works
Tutoring, which is done one on one, works really well for such students, as each tutoring session is individually tailored for what they need, and proceeds as a pace that is responsive to how they are on the day. The agency this gives students acts to lower their anxiety about learning, because they are not in a race with anyone. Tutors take the time and work with strategies that are effective for that student.
Oftentimes, after a few tutoring sessions, the students realize what we have known all along, that they are more than capable of managing the academic demands of the subject, but have lacked the confidence in their own abilities. As adults, we can talk until we are blue in the face about how able they are to do the work, but we won’t be believed. Sitting with a tutor, going at the student’s pace, and seeing for themselves that they understand the work, is brilliantly effective.
Building their belief in self, helping the students to grow their own enjoyment of learning, their confidence in exploring new techniques and ideas, reinforcing the basics, and allowing them to explore how capable they are in a safe, supportive learning environment is one of the most powerful and joyful parts of tutoring.
For parents, seeing their children coming out of tutoring happy and energized, goes a long way to reassuring them that they are doing something amazing to help their kids.
