What parents say...

Dylan had always struggled with very poor handwriting.  After only a few months teachers can now read his writing and he feels more confident.  His coordination problems have been recognised “Thanks to your suggestion,” and this has helped at school.   It has made a big difference to his schooling as he enjoys it much more now.  
Samantha WildingParentPortsmouth
winner “We had planned to stop the tutoring after the 11+ exam, but with the next lockdown and more disruption to her education, we quickly relented when she literally begged us to continue going! The sessions are adjusted to her needs and she describes them as ‘really fun’ and she likes it that the work is specific to her level and much more individualised than the class work at school.”
Penny Meeking
She loves coming, and sees that it helps her at school.  Her scores are going up all the time and recently she got three class awards in three weeks, she says this is ‘Thanks to you.
Mrs C Walker
We brought him to the centre in Year 6 because he just had no idea about maths.  This year won the ‘Most Improved in Maths’ certificate for his year.  He also came top of his class in 2 out of 3 maths exams.  Coming to here is the best thing we ever did!
Mr S White
Alex had been tested in Year 4 for dyslexia and he came out mildly dyslexic for spelling.  He has a poor short term memory, and we were concerned about him going to Senior School with these problems. Alex started off a bit ‘anti’, but now he agrees that his writing is better and the improvement has been commented on by teachers.  We are so pleased he is getting professional help, and are especially pleased that he now see the benefit and is self-motivated. He now is now asking for help with his Maths too!
Mrs D Wilson
“We also had a parent’s meeting at his school earlier this week.  I am pleased to say that his maths teacher was very impressed with not only his work, but also his attitude toward it.  I can only say that this is because of the wonderful service you and your colleagues have given.  Thank you so much for this.  Ellis is really enjoying his time with you and also seeing how well he is doing and this has resulted in a positive attitude towards learning.” James (parent) 2021
James Hannon
Albie
Albie had been diagnosed with mild dyslexia and his reading age was around 2 years behind!  The standard in private school is often higher, so we were worried about the Entrance Exams.  Soon after he enrolled he started making rapid progress.  The school say he is now Level  5 in literacy and the teacher can see a lot of difference.  His reading age has shot up and the gaps in maths have been filled in and he has caught up amazingly quickly. It has definitely, definitely made a difference and I have recommended the centre to my friends.
Jilly (Albie’s Mum)
The way you teach is brilliant.  Kids really enjoyed working/learning with you.  Hope to be back next year.  Thank you once again
Mr & Mrs Renji
Firstly, I would like to thank yourselves and your staff for all your help and dedication to helping my daughter Saoirse with her maths.  She has shown an improvement with her confidence at attempting to handle the mathematics she is give by her school.  And I feel this is due to the staff at your centre, she had a very rough year in Year 4, with her very unsympathetic teacher and you all helped her through that.  For that I’m very grateful.
Mrs R Wall

She says “I Love to Learn Now!”

Mariana brought her daughter to us as she was having a few problems with maths at school.  She liked it so much that now she comes for English as well!  Mariana says that now “She is more confident with math now and she’s coming to I Love to Learn for pleasure.  She is very happy with her teacher, she says she is very kind and patient.”    
Howard JonesI Love to Learn

Can’t we just use Spelling Checkers?

Why is Spelling so Hard?

infographics_2 (1)Those of us who struggled with learning to spell or are in the process of helping little ones learn their ‘tricky’ words, would love the answer to this question to be “Yes!”  Spelling rules just seem, well, unruly, and anyway don’t too many corrections crush creativity?

The problem is that we learn spellings in a variety of ways.  Sometimes we have to spell the whole word from memory, these are the dreaded ‘sight’ or tricky words, but more usually we need to sound out and decode words using phonics (letter sounds).

Words are both symbols on paper and sounds we say.  So when we read words we hear them in our head.  This is what makes poetry or songs work well and sound attractive (or not).  If we can’t hear words when we read them we won’t enjoy their rhythm or rhyme.

You might say, but why not just spell phonetically?  Sadly, there is no one way to say a word (just watch Coronation Street), and this is made more complicated by English being spoken by people all over the world.

Also, if words that sound the same (e.g., rain, rein and reign) were spelled the same way, their meanings would be harder to work out.

Spell checkers are fine as an aid, but the student who spells “does” as “dose” will not see the mistake, and will continue with the misspelling habit.  However, the good news is that technology can help us learn our spellings more efficiently, with tuition programmes, online resources and spelling gadgets.

Back to the tricky words then; try getting the child to see the shape of the word (using joined up handwriting), say, and hear the word.  This will help the ‘working memory’ learn better!

Find out more about tutoring here…

spelling

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