Private Tuition & Maths Tutors in Edinburgh
Why is it that academic success seems to flow with apparent ease to some children whilst others need to apply significantly more effort in achieving the same grade? As parents, we would all love to watch our children sail through school life but sometimes an extra helping hand is needed to supplement the school education. Thankfully there are a number of experienced, highly qualified tutors and education centres that are able to offer children this complementary support. Extra help is also available to children who may be showing signs that they have dyslexia or dyspraxia or signs of ADHD. Once a condition has been identified, teachers are able to guide a child to make significant steps to move on with their education.
Here, we’ve taken a look at a variety of local tutors and education centres in more depth and in particular, have explored some of the different techniques used to help a child who appears to be struggling with maths...
Helping children to succeed
Learning is a multi faceted set of skills requiring a strong foundation. All five senses are used in the learning process and if they are not fully integrated, it impacts on the ability to learn.
Parents see the presenting symptoms: difficulty remembering information, poor fine motor skills, inability to sit still, poor social skills, difficulty with reading, spelling or writing, anxiety or frustration. More of the same doesn’t seem to be impacting on their progress.
Kb-Insights considers the underlying difficulties behind the presenting symptoms to ascertain which intervention would benefit the child. By creating more efficient pathways it addresses the underlying difficulty making the foundations stronger thus releasing brain space for higher learning. Visit www.Kb-Insights.co.uk or call Karen 0783930714 to see how your child could benefit
A Maths Success Story…
Raviv Scotland helps children learn on a one-to-one basis using focused and effective exercises over 24 weekly sessions. To explain the benefits of using Raviv, Melanie, a pupil who attends Raviv Scotland said “As a child I was classed as a "daydreamer" and "stupid". I couldn't see numbers and they appeared to me as Arabic writing. No one had heard of Dyscalculia. My parents didn't have a name to put to what hindered my progress through school. I failed my Maths exam and the little confidence I had, shattered. Then I started on the Raviv programme. The past six months have been the best in my life - I can see numbers and can understand how to use them! I am looking forward to living my life thanks to Karen and Raviv Scotland.” For more details contact Karen for help on 07711 623 605 or go to www.learningdifficulties-raviv.co.uk or email k.wexelstein@btinternet.com
Explore Learning Maths and English Tuition centres
Explore Learning is a network of learning centres that provide maths and English tuition to children aged 5-14 of all abilities. The centres are designed to improve knowledge, increase confidence and encourage enjoyment in learning.
As members, children work with tutors who are great role models, enthusiastic about learning and fantastic motivators. All of the work is mapped to the National Curriculum, so whether your child needs a bit of a boost in their schoolwork, or would love an extra challenge, Explore can create a course that is perfect for them! To find out more contact the Blackhall branch on 0131 332 3300 or the Murrayfield branch on 0131 337 7401 or go to www.explorelearning.co.uk
Making Maths Add Up
Love it or loathe it – there’s no denying its worthy place in the national curriculum. An integral part of education, it is a subject that will test the grey matter in a way no other subject could. Filled with perplexing puzzles and patterns, logical brain-teasers, basic arithmetic and challenging calculations; maths enables a child to gain a true understanding of numbers.
Many children are able to grasp the concept of maths with seemingly little effort yet others, despite their best attempts struggle with numbers and patterns. As a result many parents try to offer extra maths assistance to their child from the comfort of their own home. This may sound like an ideal set up, however it can pose its own problems; for example, with long multiplication, children are usually taught in one of two ways, the grid method and the vertical method, yet many parents are only familiar with the vertical or ‘column’ method they were taught when they were at school so feel unqualified to teach their child an unfamiliar method.
Helping your child with maths
To help your child with maths you may wish in the first instance to talk to your child’s teacher who will be able to advise you of the best resources and tools available to use at home. The teacher will be able to instruct you on what is being taught in school at any one particular time and will be able to advise you on ways you can offer relevant support and guidance on these topics at the right time. Your child’s teacher may also be able to recommend specific supplementary material to assist the learning process or you may wish to use a web based ‘maths school’ resource instead. There are many websites that provide online maths tuition designed to support primary school aged children, at a pace which is right for them. Online maths resources often include lessons, tricks and tips, quality tutoring, interactive games and rewards. Many sites also offer explanations to parents who want to learn the maths themselves in order to be able to help their children.
Aside from traditional methods there are more fun and practical ways a parent can teach maths and build it into everyday life. You can ask your child to work out simple sums based on items seen in the supermarket and let them handle money and work out how much things cost.
Also as maths is very visual, one of the easiest ways to understand it is to try to see a pattern in the sum. A good idea to help a child see a pattern is to display posters of the time tables in your child’s bedroom or you can stick some magnetic numbers to your fridge and persuade your child to play with them to make their own patterns! After a while a child will be able to view maths as a language and start to identify patterns for themselves.
What can I do to help make the maths learning process easier?
Nourish the learning process by creating a quiet and clear work environment to make it easier for a child to establish a regular habit and undertake say, 10 to 20 minutes of maths homework, ideally straight after school. This approach is in favour of an arduous stretch of learning once in a while which may be too stressful and may be counter-productive in the long term. At such a young age, a child’s concentration levels may not stretch for much longer than 20 minutes. Research has shown that children are more receptive to learn the fundamentals of maths in small chunks. And the trick is simply to have plenty of practice!
Knowing how to teach maths to a child is an exemplary skill that few possess so, many parents seek extra tuition from private tutors and education centres to supplement their learning at school. A good place to start looking for providers of out of school tuition is on these Primary Times pages. Or why not visit www.primarytimes.net for more ideas?
