Guest Blog: I wish there was a MagiKats Tuition Centre near me and I’m not alone!
The following blog has been contributed by Lucy, a mum who wishes there was a MagiKats nearby for her three kids! Read on to see why - I bet you can think of quite a few similar stories around your community!
If I’m honest, I never thought I’d be looking for a private tuition centre for my children. I did OK in school, so I just assumed that my children would too. Oh, how wrong I was.
On the face of it, they are doing OK
I’ve got three children who are now all at secondary school. Looking back, they could all have probably done a lot better at primary school and in their SATS than they did. But I put my faith in the teachers and accepted their reassurances that all was well.
But underneath the surface they are struggling
None of my children are outstandingly bright, or really naughty. So, they each sit quietly in that space just under the teacher’s radar that tends to be ignored. After all, they’re not causing trouble and let’s face it, teachers at a large secondary school have bigger issues to deal with.
But actually, what this really means is that they are just not getting the help and attention they need. They’re not stupid but if they haven’t understood something, they often come home and complain that the teacher just told them to figure it out. The result is that between them they are falling behind, losing their confidence and getting stressed and they’re definitely not achieving their full potential.
The achiever
My oldest is now into her GCSE years. She’s reasonably bright and hard working. But she could be and should be doing much better than she is. She’s got a love of English and languages but up until now, she’s not been challenged in class and quickly gets bored, so resorts to being naughty.
Now the pressure of GCSEs is also beginning to sink in, and she has regular assessments. If she doesn’t do well, she gets really stressed and I can see this eroding her confidence! Maths isn’t her strong point but it’s not mine either so I can’t help and this just ramps up the pressure that she feels she is under! Throw in a few teenage hormones and it all gets pretty messy.
The day dreamer
My middle child is a total day dreamer who has an extremely positive outlook on life. He daydreams his way through most of his classes and often has no idea what’s going on around him. I call him my zen child!
Unfortunately, that means he will tell me he’s doing brilliantly at more or less everything he does. He’s not lying, he’s just happy with what he achieves. He’s in year 8 which seems to be a year when they drift. They’re not new intakes anymore but they’re not GCSE either. And drifting is his speciality!
With a different way of learning
However, he also learns completely differently to how the curriculum is taught. He likes to take things apart, learns by doing and views things from a totally different perspective from most.
A teacher once told me that this means he’ll be a great problem solver and “out of the box thinker” later in life but, “Don’t expect him to do well at school! Exams won’t be his thing.” Great! I don’t know how to help him because I learn in the traditional way so don’t see things the way he does. The school says he’s doing ok with a flight path of grades of 3s and 4s. They’re just happy he’s not flunking out but I know he could do so much better with some extra help.
The lazy one
My youngest is reasonably bright but fundamentally lazy! If something is hard, he gives up. Homework has always been a bit like pulling teeth with him and we’ve had many a Sunday afternoon spent at war over it. One of us usually ends up shouting. So much for developing a love of learning!
He’s a bit of a charmer so he bluffed his way through much of primary school. Now he’s at secondary life is harder with homework due in every day. It’s not going well. I’ve tried buying Key Stage learning books to help teach him myself, but frankly, he’d rather eat his own liver than plough through mathematics with me! So, it’s back to shouting at each other again!
The trouble is, he’s not keeping up with his peers and it’s beginning to eat away at his confidence. He frequently tells me that he’s stupid and everyone is so much cleverer than him and that puts him in a vicious circle of not trying because he thinks he’s going to fail. It’s so frustrating when I know it’s not true! But he doesn’t believe me.
And me? Well I feel rubbish
I do try to help with homework, but to be honest, I left school a long time ago. The curriculum and teaching methods have changed. Sometimes, I really don’t understand their homework which makes me more of a hindrance than a help. I’m not blessed with great patience either and with pressures of work, and three children to help, I really do struggle to find the time.
The frustrating thing is, I know that in different ways all three of my children would benefit enormously from a MagiKats private tuition centre. I’ve also seen a number of other people on Facebook asking about private tuition for maths and English in our area, so I know I’m not alone.
But the trouble is, unbelievably, we haven’t got a local MagiKats yet! So I guess for now, we’ve just got to keep muddling along, trying not to shout too much at each other and hoping they’ll do OK. But frankly, it’s far from ideal.
Has Lucy’s appeal sparked your interest? Find out how you can start your own MagiKats Tuition Centre by enquiring today.