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Ep. 83: Should I get a tutor for my teenager?
282 Plays9 months ago
Ad: This episode is sponsored by tutoring organisation Explore Learning.
If you have a teenager, it’s pretty much inevitable that you’re going to come up against exam stress and GCSE results at some point, and it’s quite possible you’ve considered getting a tutor for your child.
Carey Ann Dodah from Explore Learning has more than 20 years experience in education. She’s also been a school governor, and chair of the PTA, and has two teenagers of her own, so she gets it. I ask her to give us her best strategies for effective study, online learning tips, and how parents can navigate educational challenges when we’re worried, especially about GCSE exam results.
5:30 - Is getting a tutor really worth it? Why parents aren't always the best people to support their teenagers academically, and the value of a tutor.
12:45 - How do we help our teens transition to adulthood?
16:40 - Why maths and English are the most useful subjects to have a tutor in.
21:30 - What's the most important thing a child will learn from a tutor?
22:45 - Is it ever too late to get a tutor for GCSEs?
25:30 - Is there ever a reason NOT to get a tutor for our teenagers?
31:00 - How to choose a tutor for your teenager. More about how Explore Learning works and the benefits of working with experts who help you find the best tutor for your teen.
Explore Learning offers maths & English, SATs, 11 Plus & GCSE tuition both online and in person at UK centres. Check out their website for more information.
More from Helen Wills:
Helen wills is a teen mental health podcaster and blogger at Actually Mummy, a resource for midlife parents of teens.
Thank you for listening! Subscribe to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear new episodes. If you have a suggestion for the podcast please get in touch.
You can find more from Helen Wills on parenting teenagers on Instagram and Twitter @iamhelenwills.
For information on your data privacy please visit Zencastr's policy page
Please note that Helen Wills is not a medical expert, and nothing in the podcast should be taken as medical advice. If you're worried about yourself or a teenager, please seek support from a medical professional.
Transcript
Introduction to Teenage Kicks Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Teenage Kicks podcast where we take the fear out of parenting or becoming a teenager. I'm Helen Wills and every week I talk to someone who had a difficult time in the teenage years but came out the other side in a good place and has insight to offer to parents and young people who might be going through the same.
Episode Sponsorship by Explore Learning
00:00:30
Speaker
I'm delighted today to have Explore Learning as my sponsor for this episode.
00:00:36
Speaker
If you have a teenager, it's pretty much inevitable that you're going to come up against some exam stress at some point. And it's quite possible you've considered getting a tutor for your child. If that's something you're wondering about, then this is the episode for you.
Meet Carrie Ann Dodar: Study Strategies and Challenges
00:00:52
Speaker
I'm talking to Carrie Ann Dodar from Explore Learning, a maths and English tuition company providing both in-centre and online tuition for children aged four to 16.
00:01:04
Speaker
Kerianne has more than 20 years in education and I'm going to ask her to give us her best tips for effective study strategies, online learning tips and how to navigate educational challenges when we're worried.
00:01:19
Speaker
She's also been a school governor, the chair of the PTA, and has two teenagers of her own, so she gets it. Carrie Ann, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. It's really good to see you. We have talked about exam stress previously because it's something that comes up all the time, so we will probably talk about that.
00:01:41
Speaker
But one of the things that I see in my kind of online communities and people talk to me about on social media quite frequently is the question of tutoring, whether it's online or in person, it happens. Most weeks somebody in one of my Facebook groups will say, oh, this is happening. My child's only getting a C or my child's GPA for getting into sixth formal college is too low. And
00:02:09
Speaker
Is it too late to get a tutor? So I'm going to ask you all those sorts of questions because it's quite stressful. I remember wondering this about my own children and feeling quite stressed and not knowing where to begin. So I'm hoping you're going to shed some light.
Inspirational Teachers and Educational Environment
00:02:23
Speaker
But before we do that, as is the tradition on this podcast with all of my guests, I'd love to know about your teenage years. What was it like growing up for you? Teenage time for me was actually really
00:02:39
Speaker
positive time. I think I loved school. I really thrived in that structure and I had a great rapport with my teachers and I wanted to do well.
00:02:51
Speaker
Wow. I was probably one of them. I was head girl. I was one of those students that took on the responsibilities and I was very driven. Yeah. It makes sense why you've ended up in the job that you've got. Yeah. And you've been a governor and the chair of the PTA. You just love school, basically. I think I had an
00:03:14
Speaker
truly inspirational head teacher. And he is somebody that I've stayed in contact with and he passed away recently. And he was what made a huge impact, not just on me, but on a whole generation of people that went through the school that I went to. But his philosophy was that we should want to enter the world and make a difference. And it sat with me so strongly that everything that I have sought to do
00:03:43
Speaker
from school onwards is to always question, am I making a difference? Am I doing something positive with my skills that can benefit the community that I'm in? And he was always saying that if something is wrong, don't sit back and just look at it and let it happen. Then question, what can I do to be a part of this? And
00:04:13
Speaker
That's inspired me in all aspects of my life, really. And it is definitely why I had a great school experience. It's very much thanks to his leadership.
00:04:24
Speaker
Well, oh, that sounds amazing. He sounds amazing. His name was Andy Thompson. So just to put it out there, for those that might have known him too. Andy Thompson, we salute you. You've done a great job. Yeah, no, a lot of people will say that, not necessarily a head teacher, but it was a teacher that really helped them be who they were, get through school, inspired them. And that's the power that teachers have, right? They're just everything to some kids.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, teaching is an incredibly important and meaningful and powerful position to be in. And for some kids, all it takes is one person along their journey to have a connection that goes beyond perhaps the normal teacher pupil conversation, somebody that just seems to be a real champion of theirs.
00:05:23
Speaker
And that's the catalyst that can set them off on a different trajectory. Yeah, that could be really hard as a parent, because you think, well, why, why can I? Why am I not that person? Maybe, you know, and but I think that having somebody external from your family space, especially when it comes to learning is has a very different impact on your child.
Roles of Parents and Tutors
00:05:51
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I
00:05:51
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And you know, I have lots of experience tutoring. Did I have a good time during lockdown tutoring my then year, second daughter? No, it was horrendous. I mean, to the point that she decided she wanted to report me to her father because she decided that he must be the head teacher in this circumstance. And I was her teacher. Ooh, all sorts of issues there. I know, I know the complexity.
00:06:21
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I was not a good teacher and she did not want to have lessons with me anymore. I think that we don't have to be the master of everything as a parent. That's what I told myself. You can be a great tutor to other children because you haven't got
00:06:45
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all this emotional baggage that unfortunately we tie up with being a parent. Because we really are concerned for our kids. And we want them to do well. And when they are struggling at school, that that's a really difficult time for us to know what to do for for the best. And we feel that we should have all of the answers. And we feel that we should be in the position to be able to coach them through whether it's that
00:07:13
Speaker
science that they're not understanding or their maths or their English, you know, and that we should be the one to provide all of that. But we don't have to be. And actually having tuition as part of our toolkit as a parent can be really powerful and really relieving because you're putting your hands, you're putting your children in the hands of somebody that has got experience of building a rapport
00:07:43
Speaker
with a child on a different level. They're able to be a role model and they're able to be inspiring and they haven't got any judgments or sometimes knowledge of their history or expectations. And sometimes, and I am myself completely included in this, our expectations of our children then
00:08:09
Speaker
blur our ability to really be the best kind of support for them. So yes, being a tutor and finding a tutor that can be that external support is actually really beneficial to both you and your child. And
00:08:29
Speaker
and gives them an opportunity to find maybe their champion. I love how you just brought that full circle back to the inspiring teacher message. My son's got a teacher like that and I never had it
00:08:46
Speaker
There is no geography in our genes. There's nothing that we've ever shown an interest in in geography and our family and our wider family, but he absolutely adores geography. And it was such a shock to us because we're like, what, what, what? We can't help you with that. We know nothing about geography. How's that going to work? And it's because of one teacher who adores his subjects so much that my son's not the only one that's inspired. All his class are lucky.
00:09:15
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to have him as their teacher and they're so inspired to learn more about the natural world because of this great teacher who's built a rapport with students exactly as you say in a different way to how a parent can because we come with our expectations but we also come
00:09:35
Speaker
with a knowledge of our child's foibles and the history of them dumping all of the worst parts of themselves on us for the entirety of their lifetimes. And this is no disrespect to teenagers because every single one of us, including me, has a worst part. So kids, if you're listening, they don't listen. But if they ever do, yes, your mum is not perfect, even though she tries to pretend that she is.
00:10:03
Speaker
And so we've got that sort of, it's like an ingrained response that we have to our children sometimes because we've learned it on a
00:10:17
Speaker
uh, almost on a biological level because we've grown up with them for so many years and we know so much about them that they wish we didn't know and that doesn't work for them anymore. We know what they were like when they were two and now they're 16 and it's, and we're still behaving like that. So I totally get what you're saying. And you've actually answered one of the questions I was going to ask you, which was, why is it worth getting a tutor at all? That's why. Yeah, I, I, I really think that
00:10:46
Speaker
it shouldn't be something we see as a failing in our parenting to consider tuition, just as we would need maybe at times medical advice or any other support with if we wanted our children to develop their skills in music or dance or art, we wouldn't necessarily think, well, I should be the one to
00:11:16
Speaker
They definitely wouldn't learn dance from me. For me, the same extends exactly to education. In the same way, because we might have done art at school, but that doesn't necessarily make us the expert now. And sadly,
00:11:34
Speaker
As we know, if you've tried to look at some of your children's homework, a lot of the methods that we thought were perfectly adequate so many decades ago don't seem to be the same anymore. So, you know, we're all safe. Absolutely.
00:11:49
Speaker
I remember trying to help one of my kids with long division. And I was like, oh, I know how to do this. And so I showed them how to do long division the way I know it. And they just looked at me like I was from a different planet. What are you doing? But there's a different way to do long division. Yes, yes. So for all those reasons, we should see it as a tool that can help us and can really reduce
00:12:20
Speaker
some of that parental stress that we take on that burden that we have. Absolutely. And I guess that's one of the first moments at which, as a parent, we have to learn to step away from our responsibilities for our children.
Independent Learning and the Role of Tutors
00:12:38
Speaker
This is something that I bang on about a lot because I think it's the hardest part of creating an adult who's independent is when
00:12:47
Speaker
They go from needing us to tell them what to do and guide them on every single thing and keep them safe to not needing us at all. And we have to get used to giving up that level of, I will call it control because we do have control over them to begin with. It's very, very hard to let that go.
00:13:09
Speaker
when we're so used to needing to protect them and make sure they have the best possible life. Maybe this is the first point at which we have to say, this is not my job, and I have to trust him or her to do his or her best with the help of a different person. Yeah, absolutely. And we put that help in their path. That is part of our control, as it were. But, you know, we're having that say still.
00:13:38
Speaker
in their education and their journey. But yes, what they choose to take out from that experience is then in their court. And that is also something that is very important for the next stages ahead of them, whatever journey they decide to go down. Because when they're at college or university or at an apprenticeship and the expectation is on them to learn,
00:14:07
Speaker
as an independent individual, they really need to know where to start with that. And if we've done too much handholding and always being there and available.
00:14:20
Speaker
and they think that we've always got the answers, then they're not necessarily going to look for the other people that can help them. In self-resource, yeah, exactly. So one of the questions I wanted to ask you, so you only tutor, am I right in maths and English? What's so important about maths and English?
00:14:43
Speaker
Yeah, the reason we decided to focus on maths in English, and when we started Explore, we worked actually with younger children, so it was really more primary that we focused on initially. And it's really because we felt that those two subjects open up the rest of the world of learning, really, if you can have a really strong foundation in reading and writing and
00:15:12
Speaker
and basic understanding of numbers and number manipulation, then that gives you a platform to access everything else really beyond that, because all your humanities, your sciences, they require that strong foundation. And we've continued with that philosophy because I think it's something that then, you know, we knew we did really well, and that it is a core
00:15:41
Speaker
that then those students can use to go. And once they need to specialise and go beyond, then they've got that platform to do so. Yeah, I totally get that because when our kids are in primary school, the majority of what they do is based maths and English. It's reading, writing, doing mental maths, as my kids call it. And
00:16:08
Speaker
I've always seen that kind of maths as almost as brain training, just to have an agile brain. Then right through to GCSE, my son doing his physics exam said to me something about, well, physics is fine because it's just maths at the end of the day. There's a few concepts in there and they give you some equations, but the rest of it is just making your brain do maths.
00:16:34
Speaker
And I'd never thought about it like that, but yeah, and probably with chemistry as well, there's maths in there because you've got to figure out what goes with what and it's mathematical thinking. And apparently music and maths. My nephew teaches music and maths, which I thought was a really weird combo, but apparently music's very mathematical. Yes, yeah. And my daughter actually is looking to study both of those.
00:16:58
Speaker
at college for sixth form, she wants to do music maths, further maths and physics. Right, right. But they obviously do. Yeah, there is a logical thinking that I think can connect all of them. And I think what you've touched on there, Helen, as well is just it's really about our approach to learning and
00:17:21
Speaker
our attitude towards it. And if we can help children to unlock a bit of that joy and enthusiasm for, you know, recognizing the good feeling that you get when you start to unlock something new, something that's been unclear or problematic, and you start to unravel, kind of find the building blocks that help you find success in that area.
00:17:50
Speaker
that's something that our tutors work a lot on instilling is this really great learning habits. Because if we can teach children, you can, you can master any of these skills, then you know in yourself that you can apply that to learning anything, anything in the future. It's really the principle of having that
00:18:17
Speaker
attitude of, I can't do it yet. Not that, you know, this kind of closed mindset of I've got a fixed intelligence, I only know this amount. We really work hard with children to help them to see that, that, that isn't true. You know, we can all, we can all unlock all the information in the world. We just, it takes different levels of commitment and different
00:18:46
Speaker
and a different amount of resilience.
00:18:48
Speaker
for different children.
Adapting Teaching Methods to Individual Needs
00:18:50
Speaker
Yeah. And different ways of looking at it, I'm imagining. Because I do remember one particular time during lockdown when my daughter, she must have been doing GCSE maths at the time, was really struggling with something. And we've got quite a good WhatsApp group as a family. And I think she must have mentioned this. And my nephew said, oh, I'm happy to talk you through that if you want. And I was sort of mulling around in the kitchen as they were on a Zoom call together.
00:19:18
Speaker
And a couple of times, he's such a good teacher, I can tell, because he makes kids laugh, but he gets through to them. And a couple of times, I was like, well, I don't understand it, but it's GCSE math, so why would I? But she was like, no.
00:19:37
Speaker
I sort of know what you're saying, but still it's not clicking. I don't really get it. And he tried three different ways to explain it to her. And he wasn't fazed. He was just kind of, okay, all right. So let's look at it from a different angle and try it a different way. And the third time she was like, oh, right, I get it. Is that what your tutors are like? You just keep experimenting until you find the thing that works for that child. Absolutely. And that's the magic. That's the magic of tutoring is sort of being able to have that
00:20:06
Speaker
that time and that patience and space to go through that with an individual child. Sadly, you know, I would want that for every child. And that is, that's the utopia of education. You would really want every child to have that very personalized, very tailored and timely education. But it unfortunately isn't possible in our current education system. So
00:20:36
Speaker
being able to have those moments outside of school, through supplementary education, through tutoring, then allows you to just progress those children that little bit further, that little bit faster than they're able to do in the current school setting. And even maybe just clear a particular blockage that then allows them to continue and do better than in their normal classes.
00:21:06
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. And once they've overcome that hurdle, that helps them build their confidence. Confidence is such an underrated thing. It's one of the things that most parents say within the first couple of weeks of starting with explore learning. It's the main comment that we get is, I've really seen a change in their confidence. Right. And that's so powerful because that applies to
00:21:35
Speaker
how they then see that subject at school and perhaps how they see other learning in general. So, you know, we really feel like that's the key. If you can just help a child feel that, no, it's not hopeless. Maths isn't hopeless. You're not hopeless. You can find, you know, we can help you find the ways to unlock those
00:22:01
Speaker
elements that you're not understanding and build on that. Make it make sense to you. Yeah. Is it ever too late to get a tutor? Because what I see quite a lot of is in the run up to exams when mocks weren't as good as parents and kids thought. And the child is starting to really knuckle down, but has maybe not done enough groundwork previously or there is a block.
00:22:31
Speaker
I see people, you know, someone once said three weeks before a maths GCSE, I really think my child should have a tutor because I'm really panicking that he's not going to get what he needs in his maths. Is that too late? Is it ever too late? I think it's not too late. We just have to manage our expectations of what we hope to achieve during that time.
00:22:58
Speaker
Because tutors aren't miracle workers. And if a child has struggled for a long, long time, and we've only given them a short number of weeks, there's only so much that they can cover and unlock. However, sometimes in that run-up to the exams, students are getting blockages because of stress and overwhelm.
00:23:27
Speaker
And the information is there, they're just struggling to access it because their brains are too busy, too consumed with that. And it is very overwhelming, the number of exams that they have to sit in a very short period of time. What a tutor can do is to help calm that and to help direct that thinking back to the information that they do actually know. They can help them see.
00:23:53
Speaker
that, no, but you do know this. Look, it's there. You've been able to answer that question. And they can help them think about the right steps to take in those weeks coming up to keep calm, to be able to answer questions in the best possible way. And they can talk them through exam technique and those little things that can make the biggest difference actually on the day.
00:24:21
Speaker
But what they can't do in those three weeks is to help teach new concepts that a child hasn't fully understood before. Because when we're into that whole revision time, it really should be all about revisiting, re-seeing something that you've already learnt, not having to start from
00:24:45
Speaker
scratch on any areas. So I think what you're telling me is that there's never a bad time to get a tutor and actually just because they're English and math tutors, it doesn't mean that they can't just help with overall approach to revision and exam stress. And we do have a couple of episodes on exam stress and how parents can help, which I'll link to as well. But so
Deciding on Tutoring: Necessity and Expectations
00:25:12
Speaker
I do see a lot of parents worrying and not knowing whether they should get a tutor. I think most of the time they're really just panicking that their kids aren't keeping up with what they think the whole class is doing, what they think is necessary. It's a real difficult one to
00:25:36
Speaker
avoid getting sucked into, but my child needs all nines at GCSE and all A stars and needs to be permanently getting the top grades, but to be worth anything. And we all, you know, we don't all know. Most of us know that's not true, but it's very easy to panic when our child's maybe getting some C's or some sixes and think, gosh, are they actually going to make it to the thing they want next, which is the college place or the sixth form place.
00:26:03
Speaker
At what point should we, you might not even be able to say, at what point should we, or what should we do about those anxieties before we decide, you know what, yeah, are tutors the right thing? How do we know that a tutor's the right thing? Okay. I think there's a few bits I want to kind of unpick with that. But firstly, tuition doesn't just need to be about getting a better grade. If
00:26:33
Speaker
As I think we've sort of alluded to, there's so much more that can happen in that positive kind of role modeling relationship. And one of the things that I love about the relationship actually my daughter has with her tutor is that she's a role model. She's already at university. She's doing a degree. She's kind of gone through some of that journey that my daughter has coming up in the next few years.
00:27:02
Speaker
It's really nice, I think, for her to see someone that's just quite close in age, but just that step ahead. And for her to think, yeah, I actually, this is, I can see how I can follow that trajectory. So I think there's, I think there's the connection and the role modeling. I think that if you and your child feel like there's more that they would like to be getting out of their learning, and this is a really
00:27:31
Speaker
great time to be discussing it. And sometimes it's a one sided thing, you might think that they need more and they might think no, I'm absolutely fine. I'm happy. And I don't need anything else. Good point. But you do know your child, you know, you know your child better than anyone. And, and I'm sure you do really know what they're capable of. And, but it does need to be a mutual decision, especially with our teenagers, because
00:28:01
Speaker
If they're not bought into having additional support, they're not going to get the most out of it. And you could be throwing your money at something that you feel is then not really giving you the desired results. At the teenage stage, more than ever, it needs to be an agreement between both of you that this is something that's worthwhile and worth you trying. And there's no harm in ever trying anything, right, as an intervention.
00:28:31
Speaker
if it's something you're considering, give it a go. And does it make a difference? Does it help your child feel more calm or more confident? You know, you're not tied in to your decisions. So you could just try it out for a few weeks and see how that fits with family life with the studies. And does it make a difference? And then I think from there you can then decide
00:29:01
Speaker
whether to carry forward or not.
Finding the Right Tutor and Student-Tutor Dynamics
00:29:03
Speaker
Yeah, well, you've touched on one of the questions I was going to ask is, is there ever a reason not to have a tutor? And I guess, as you say, with teenagers, if they're not engaged and they're not up for it, that would be a really good reason not to have a tutor. Yeah, because you'd be investing in something that you're not going to really see.
00:29:26
Speaker
the benefit from. It's not going to be a happy time for your team and or for the tutor really if they don't want to be there. And however, there are some great people that we said that you might not be able to connect with them or maybe they've not found that connection with a teacher, but they might find that connection with somebody else. That's not in school. That's not know doesn't know their history doesn't have, you know, doesn't
00:29:55
Speaker
think of them as having a reputation that precedes them. Because unfortunately, that does happen in our schools. And I know our teachers are really passionate about making a difference to every child, but it can, you know, inevitably follow kids along if they've historically been disruptive or not very engaged.
00:30:25
Speaker
in a class. You maybe just need a fresh pair of eyes with no history that comes to this job with a different agenda. And that can make the difference. So I think it's still worth giving a go. You know, even if you feel like this maybe isn't going to work in the long term, I guess you just never know until you
00:30:52
Speaker
until you try it. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm just wondering, I imagine that it's a good idea to try a few tutors to see, like you would on a dating app, just to see if you click and if you get that relationship that is going to help your teenager. Yeah, I think we're finding more and more people, there's more options certainly now than ever have been. And online,
00:31:20
Speaker
has opened that up vastly because if we think back to when we were our team selves and if we had sought out tutoring, really the only solutions we would have been looking at are often retired teachers or teachers in our local area who might come to your home or do something
00:31:46
Speaker
one-to-one. There weren't really many any group tutoring or anything like that going on at that time and the options that we have available to us now are vastly greater and there are online tutors, there are tuition centers and we're at the cusp of the advent of the AI tutor which
00:32:09
Speaker
is a whole other conversation. But, you know, sticking with humans for now, I think that we can, we can shop around a lot more. There's certainly a lot more profiles we can look at and people we can connect to. And that in itself can be quite overwhelming. And because again, it's making you maybe feel responsible, like I've got to choose my
00:32:37
Speaker
right tutor. How do I get it right? Yeah, exactly. And that's something that Explore, we've decided not to go down that route. So you don't choose your tutor, you choose Explore and then we pair you with that tutor. And obviously, it depends on the setting. If you're doing one to one online, that will be the same tutor. If you're coming into one of our education centres, it will be
00:33:06
Speaker
a variety of tutors that will be supporting you. And then that's really about trusting us and trusting our experience of recruiting and finding the very best people and training them, rather than it being more of a pop-up marketplace. Obviously, I'm biased to this, but I also do feel that it should be something that we take
00:33:34
Speaker
responsibility for ensuring that you have the best people rather than just allowing you to choose from tutors that maybe haven't been vetted in quite that same way.
00:33:45
Speaker
Yeah, I really liked it when you said that because I know what you mean about the overwhelm. If you're given a massive pool of choice, how would you ever know that you were getting it right? And I was going to ask you, what should we be looking for when we're choosing a
In-person vs Online Tutoring
00:34:02
Speaker
tutor? But I'm minded to sway more to how, with your model, how do you match kids to a tutor?
00:34:13
Speaker
Really, it's about thinking about that individual child's needs. Do they have special educational needs? What are their particular interests? And it's really about finding the kind of energy levels of a tutor that we feel would match with that.
00:34:34
Speaker
Right. So do we fill in some kind of a form to say this is what we're struggling with, this is what my child's like? It's more a part with initial conversation and a free trial session where you will discuss your particular needs. And then it's really a case of us and our managers knowing all of their tutors very well, knowing kind of who's going to fit best. And that might not always be the perfect fit from the start and then
00:35:03
Speaker
Obviously, there's opportunity to feed that back and find the right people. But we pride ourselves on just always having very good systems of support for our tutors so that we can make them the very best that they can be so that they can support all the children that they work with. And there's feedback mechanisms for them as well to be able to say.
00:35:30
Speaker
I'm struggling to support this child with this aspect of fear.
00:35:35
Speaker
maybe of their behavior or of what they need out of the session so that we can be on hand to support that as well. So it sounds quite joined up and quite personal. So if I've got this right, you would have a conversation with the child and their parent to begin with and then allocate the tutor that you think fits them best. And then that's reviewed. And that tutor has kind of almost like supervision and an ability to check in.
00:36:05
Speaker
Yes, yes, very much. Slightly different in a centre model because in our centres, then you're bringing your child in at a certain time each week, there'll be a bank of tutors that are working at that time. And they will be the regular people that your child will see when they come in. Again, different environments work for different children.
00:36:31
Speaker
Some children thrive on having one-to-one and being in the comfort of their own home and so experiencing that tuition online. Other children actually need to be in a physical learning space and they prefer to be outside of their home. Like maybe their home is not where they want to learn and they need that physical removal. And having a learning space
00:36:59
Speaker
And our learning spaces are really different and dynamic and they're not school. So they're somewhere that children can come in and feel that there's a lot going on. There's other kids, different ages, but they're also somewhat anonymous. There's not the sense of, oh, you know, you're in this group sitting on this table because you're doing this level work. Nobody knows.
00:37:25
Speaker
Anything about what level anybody's working at in that. That can be very refreshing for students.
Explore Learning's Network and Curriculum Focus
00:37:33
Speaker
And sometimes they can really thrive on just that motivation of other, I'm not the only one. There's not a stigma. Nobody's kind of feeling embarrassed to be coming into this space. This is something that we're all doing and we've all got in common. That's pretty special too.
00:37:49
Speaker
Yeah, loads of people need to do extra work outside of school. I get what you're saying about being in a different place because one of the questions I was going to ask is, is online versus in-person tutoring worse or better? Because I guess there may be a perception that by seeing a tutor online, you're getting second best because you're not with that person in real time. I don't know why I'm still thinking that way on the basis that we've been doing most of our work meetings online for the last three
00:38:19
Speaker
years through necessity and it's been fine and you've just pointed out that for some kids it's actually better.
00:38:25
Speaker
And my daughter had this issue when she was doing revision. She could not revise at home because home had the option to put friends on her laptop rather than work. And home had the kitchen where she might distract herself with some baking or snacking. So she had to go to the library. She went to the university library when she was revising for array levels. I mean, there was distractions there. It was a social thing as well. Everyone was there.
00:38:54
Speaker
She just could get more work done outside of the home setting, which I found really interesting. Yeah. It's wonderful that we have the opportunity and that the tech is
00:39:11
Speaker
So forward now that we can have, you know, really brilliant live streaming and that those conversations can be very natural and organic online, rather than it being something that, you know, your bandwidth is not allowing you to have, you know, hopefully, as long as there's no technical issues, then that conversation can be as natural as being in person. And it is different for some children. And especially I find with younger children that
00:39:41
Speaker
Having a physical person there in their space has a very different impact for them in terms of their concentration and their desire to kind of keep going. As our teams, they're more resilient to longer periods of attention and studying. Sometimes. Depending on the content. Not when there are hash browns and an often downstairs. Yeah.
00:40:11
Speaker
So, but yeah, again, like with your daughter, sometimes just being in a more social space where other people are learning. Yes. Yeah. Makes it feel less lonely and just makes, as I said, we really, we really don't want there to be a stigma for kids feeling like this is a problem or there's something wrong with me because I need this extra support. It's really not the case. It's just, this is another avenue to
00:40:41
Speaker
enhance your learning and, you know. And a different way of understanding as we described. And so explore learning, you have centres, if somebody wanted in-person tutoring, you have a sentence all over the UK, right? How many centres do you have? We've got 95 centres throughout the UK and they really are from Aberdeen through down to Southampton and in Wales and
00:41:10
Speaker
and, you know, all in between. So that's an opportunity for people to come into the centre space. And if there isn't one nearby, then we have our online service that's available throughout the UK. Yeah. And all our tutors are British tutors and they're all tutoring from within the UK.
00:41:31
Speaker
and they all experience within the British curriculum, which is, I know, another question that's out there with the now opening up of tuition from online, then there is the opportunity that you could be tutored from it.
00:41:48
Speaker
from tutors that come from abroad, but that's not something that we do. So they know the national curriculum in the UK, so they're teaching the stuff that they know what they're going to be tested on in exams. Yeah, exactly. So their knowledge is current and appropriate to the exams that they're supporting. Yeah.
00:42:09
Speaker
Are there any other questions that you get asked a
Supporting Special Educational Needs
00:42:12
Speaker
lot? You must have a FAQ section, I guess, on your website. What else gets asked a lot? We get asked about our support for special educational needs. I think that's obviously parents often are concerned about that. My argument on that is that every child is unique. Every child works differently and we
00:42:37
Speaker
We work with many children with varying needs and we work hard to find what suits them best. And for a lot of children, whether they are dyslexic or on the spectrum with autism or dyscalculia, there's lots of different needs, but we just approach each child as an individual and where are they at right now.
00:43:03
Speaker
And where would they like to be? And what is the kind of outcome that they're looking for? And then we can advise whether our settings, whether online or in-centre or our tutors are the best place to support them with that. And hopefully give parents a very honest idea of what support we can offer. Similarly with students that are being homeschooled and
00:43:32
Speaker
and helping parents get the balance with in-schooling and supported learning, then explorers available to help with that too. Yeah. So I think the beauty of our approach is it's very individualized and the curriculum that we use is a smart learning tool that is always adapting to the students answers. So we're able to give immediate feedback and we're able to
00:44:02
Speaker
quickly adapt to each child's learning style in a way that previous kind of old, old style kind of marking and tutoring would be a much more delayed kind of process. And so it's lovely when you know that every child is working on their own program of work, they're at the right pace and level for them.
00:44:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And that's what makes it so different to what goes on in schools. The best will in the world. It can't be personalised. Yeah. We're not teaching as groups. We're not teaching by age or ability. We're really taking each child as where they are right now. And that for both parent and child can be really refreshing and to not feel that they've got to categorise themselves, which is kind of, you know, which is hard on a lot of kids.
00:44:54
Speaker
It's hard for all of us, isn't it? I mean, that's how we're taught to operate. Kerri-Ann,
Episode Wrap-up and Listener Engagement
00:45:00
Speaker
thank you so much. It's been really interesting. I will put the link in the show notes for anybody that's listening. Just go down and click afterwards. But can you just say what the website address is for anyone that's listening? Yes, we're explorelearning.co.uk. Very easy.
00:45:18
Speaker
And that's where you go to find out about pricing, I guess. Yes, pricing and booking in a free session. So the way that's the best way of trying out Explore is to book a free trial. You can choose to do that online or you can come in and person in a local centre to do that. And we would love to see you and just to show you really how that all works. No expectation.
00:45:44
Speaker
that you need to join. It's really just an opportunity for you to find out more. And then you can take it from there. Amazing. Thank you so much. It's been really interesting. And yeah, all cued us to your old head teacher. What a legend. Did he know that you got to this point after his education? Yeah, no, he did. I would hope that that's something that
00:46:14
Speaker
that he could take forward knowing that, and many of his students have gone into education. Amazing. Many of his students are head teachers themselves now. Fantastic. Obviously had some real magic. Yeah. Seek out the teacher who inspires you and create a relationship with them. That's great. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Helen. Thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate it.
00:46:42
Speaker
Thank you to everyone who's already rated and reviewed the podcast. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Amazon, it would mean the world to me if you could leave a review. It really helps get the word out, as well as making me very happy to read what you have to say.
00:46:57
Speaker
If this episode strikes a chord for you, please share it with anyone else you know who might be in the same boat and hit subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. If you have a story or suggestion for something you'd like to see covered on the podcast, you can email me at teenagekickspodcast at gmail.com or message me on Instagram. I'm, I am Helen Wills. I love hearing from all my listeners. It really makes a difference to me on this journey.
00:47:27
Speaker
See you next week when I'll be chatting to another brilliant guest about the highs and lows of parenting teens. Bye for now!