The Student Support Centre

...going through her workbook, explaining the homework and trying to instil some confidence in her abilities, every session ended in frustration, crying and me feeling completely helpless. After one short session I felt we were getting somewhere only to go to her room later and find her sobbing on her bed, she still didn't understand it. I felt I was going round in circles, the school curriculum was rumbling on before my daughter had thoroughly learned ...
...for French.
During the period whilst I was looking into a tutor, my daughter and I were out shopping at the village store when we saw a display for The Student Support Centre, I had never heard of this organisation so investigated further.
The lady fronting the display explained a little about it and I agreed to have someone call to my house in a week or so to discuss further. I read through the literature in the meantime and talked ... more

A LITTLE BACKGOUND
A few months back my daughter, who is 9, came home from school upset on a regular basis. She hated maths, felt she was useless at it and everyone was better than her at it. I spent countless evenings going through her workbook, explaining the homework and trying to instil some confidence in her abilities, every session ended in frustration, crying and me feeling completely helpless. After one short session I felt we were getting somewhere only to go to her room later and find her sobbing on her bed, she still didn't understand it. I felt I was going round in circles, the school curriculum was rumbling on before my daughter had thoroughly learned the previous task.
To cut a long story short I felt I needed additional support from somewhere; firstly I looked into personal tutors as she already has one for French.
During the period whilst I was looking into a tutor, my daughter and I were out shopping at the village store when we saw a display for The Student Support Centre, I had never heard of this organisation so investigated further.
The lady fronting the display explained a little about it and I agreed to have someone call to my house in a week or so to discuss further. I read through the literature in the meantime and talked it through with my daughter who was excited and a little apprehensive.

ABOUT THE COMPANY
The Student Support Centre was established in 1991 and the largest and most successful provider of home-based tuition in the UK.
It provides home-based tuition for the 2 core subjects of maths and English for students aged from 4 to 17. Depending on your child's stage at school the programme is tailored to suit what they already know and what they struggle on.
The programme is intended to supplement classroom teaching and basically follows the National Curriculum in the core subjects. The programme uses DVDs and video learning, it can incorporate all children in the family and the cost therefore is not per child.

THE FIRST VISIT
A couple of telephone calls were made to me to confirm and check the time was suitable before the gentleman arrived. I was very impressed with his demeanour and he was extremely well-spoken, first impressions were good. He explained about the company and how successful it was with children achieving their potential and so on. I really did expect a big sales pitch and expressions such as "You can't put a price on your children's education" but there was none of that and I got the impression he believed in the programme he was essentially selling.
He asked about my daughter and 4 year old sons' progress in school and what they liked, disliked and felt they needed help with.
As my daughter is in year 4 at Key Stage 2 level he gave her a couple of worksheets in English and maths to complete by herself to asses her ability.
Whilst she was doing this I watched one of the lessons to give me an idea of the style of teaching. I chose fractions; I must honestly admit that when the word "Improper Fractions" came on the screen I was perplexed as I didn't have a clue (I was bad at maths) He allowed me to watch the 6 minute lesson on improper fractions then set me a test, the lesson was so simple and easy to understand that I got all my questions correct from not knowing what an improper fraction was, you are probably laughing at me but it's true.
My daughter came back with her completed worksheets and the man set about marking them, she obtained an 90% mark for English and a mere 40% mark for maths, I was astounded as this is stuff she should have already covered at school. The man was reassuring to my daughter and assured her that it's hard to do the worksheets with the pressure of him being in the house.
He explained that learning is like building a wall and if some of the bricks are missing it all falls down, pretty basic stuff but I never thought of it that way, her maths work was plodding along at school but some of the basic principles of maths have been missed, whether it be times tables, addition, division or whatever, subsequently to progress to the next stage, geometry, algebra or calculus, if the child could not grasp or understand the groundwork stuff at school then it will get harder and harder.

THE PROGRAMME
I chose the maths programme which will take her up to Key Stage 3 at age 12 which goes over basic introductory maths (addition, subtraction etc) up to calculus, trigonometry and geometry. For English where she is more confident and not struggling we chose not to start from level 1 which covers topics she knows but opted for level 3 and 4 which covers essay writing, variety of expression, spelling skills and so on.
For my son I chose a basic alphabet and times tables DVD as he does not start reception until next year, so he can use my daughters DVDs later on but use his basic ones now.
Each DVD may contain up to 23 tutorials on it. So instead of a bookshelf full of DVDs I found that only 6 DVDs covered the whole programme of maths and 2 DVDs on English. Each tutorial is only 6 minutes long on each topic, then the child goes to their workbook to complete the questions they have just learned, the programme works based on the target eventually to be reached being 90% so if they don't get 90% the first time, they do it again on another day. With the man we set out a plan of 3 half hour session per week including watching and completing the work. So for example, if my daughter watches her fractions topic on Monday evening and only obtains 70% I put the work away and do it all again on Wednesday evening, where she normally would get 90%, if she doesn't we put it away again and do it on Friday where without fail she will obtain 90% correct. The programme goes on this way through each topic working at the child's pace. We don't rush or try to go ahead of what she is learning in school.
The child is rewarded throughout the programme with certificates after completing assessments of the work learned. The child also has access to a freephone number to contact a qualified teacher if she comes across any problems, the centre encourages the child to ring and talk to the teacher.

THE NEXT VISIT WITH YOUR LEARNING PACK
Once I chose the programme to suit my children another visit was planned for when the pack would be delivered. The same gentleman came out with a big box, wall charts and lots of goodies. I received a big folder with my instructions. Again the man went through everything making sure I knew what I was doing.
My daughter received a big wall chart for her times table to write in the answers and wipe them off - She had one already but the answers were already filled in, the Student Support wall chart encourages her to go through her times table again and again as the novelty factor is there. There are also study aids for when she gets up to future topics, a dictionary for English and progress charts for when she completes each topic.

MY COMMITMENT
I must admit it was a bit daunting to start with but after a few months of using the programme we are settled into a routine; my daughter watching the DVD, doing the work and me marking it straightaway, depending on the result we are either finished for the week or will repeat the exercise another evening. I can see instant results in maths as her confidence has soared as she is recapping and basically re-learning all the work which she should have learned in years 2 & 3 at school. I was amazed at the amount of work she forgot from the classroom or sometimes work which she didn't understand in the first place before the school moved onto another topic.
English has been more straightforward as she has always enjoyed writing and making up stories and her use of punctuation and grammar is excellent, therefore we are following the English programme as a refresher and sharpening skills which she was unclear about.
From my point of view I now have a clear programme on how to help my child with maths and no longer feel helpless and confused about what stage her school is up to and what she should have learned but hasn't.
The programme is designed to follow the Key Stage programme in schools so all the child learns is information that has already been taught (or in my daughters case, not) Therefore we aim to follow the classroom work but never overtake it.

THE COST
Depending on what programme you can start tuition from around £9 per week, the programme I chose worked out at £12.50 per week (which included my sons learning DVDs) which works out at £50 per month, until she reaches Key Stage 3. You can opt to pay this interest free over the 3 year period or in full, which worked out at £1800. I thought carefully about the cost and the advantages outweighed that downside plus it was less expensive than a private tutor at £18 per hour or indeed, a private school.
I can compare the results to a private tutor as she has one in French and although she is doing well I feel that the maths programme from Student Support works better as she learns at her own pace and feels more in control.
There's not much else I can say on the cost as it will vary from between £9 to £15 per week depending on the child's needs and the length of programme.

FINALLY
Providing you use the programme to its full potential the results you see in your child are amazing. Don't go into the programme half-heartedly and don't expect them to jump to the top of the class. It wouldn't bother me if my children were in the bottom, middle or top group as long as they try their best and have the confidence in the work they are learning. I really feel that the programme has improved all aspects of, especially my daughter's, approach and disciple to learning.
Also the DVDs are always there for her to refresh certain subjects should she need to do so, I have realised that the schools don't recap previous 'taught' topics and just rumble onto the next, so in my daughter's case she was getting seriously left behind and badly losing her confidence, not only in maths but it spilled over into subjects she was good at.
I only wish I had found this company a year or so ago before my daughter temporarily lost confidence in her ability.

MY DAUGHTER'S LAST WORD
I enjoy doing the programme, I don't like maths but I know that maths is an important subject at school so I am watching the tutorials to help me get better. I want to pass my assesments so I can get my name on the Student Support website.

 

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