Explore Learning
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Not ideal for 11+ prep, support is standardised and not well equipped to deal with areas of challenge
This may be for some, but the below is based on our experience as parents who wanted to get our child some specific tuition support for the 11+ grammar school entry exam, we can't speak for anyone who needs other exam support or a "revision club." Based on 11+ prep over most of Year 4 and Year 5, our experience was that the tuition was not at all individualised or differentiated for our child's abilities. It was insufficient for addressing gaps, challenges, or producing any advantage that could not have been received by simply practising at home and using a generalised online tool. The service lacked an understanding of our specific school entry (despite claiming this early on), continuously said good progress was being made and failed to raise the issue that our child had fallen severely behind the required standard. We provided our child with a practice paper, and the ~40% grade highlighted that despite enrolling our child early enough to avoid pressure over the summer before exams, that is what we would need to subject them to in order to pass. We have since found that much of the issue is the topics and teaching style due to standardisation (both in-person and online), which were completely mismatched with the required school paper. An example of this is our child spending weeks writing articles when this is not a requirement of our specific school entry paper. The saddest part is our child was given a false impression of their progress and chances, we believe in highlighting the positive but being honest about development areas. This service failed at this. The facts... Centre-based, good for childcare, poor for addressing challenges: - The centre manager seemed to know what they were doing but left the organisation - The remaining staff were junior, non-professional and appeared to be "between jobs" (though bright and dedicated) - Plan was based on a fixed calendar; if you missed a lesson, you missed the topic - Online support is based on answering questions with a helpful description, but this is limited to a text explanation and is not highly effective at teaching (lacking video or interactivity) - Our child dedicated large amounts of time to online practice but was getting stuck - Class setting is less than ideal, and our child received minimal direct support/attention; the best sessions tended to be when the other kids were on holiday - We flagged gaps, and the response was to practice online - Due to several alarming gaps, we switched to online only so that our child would receive 1:1 differentiated support Online: - Very nice and engaging tutors - Plan for our child was presented at the beginning, and areas of concern were shared by us - Weekly reports from tutors were positive and flagged no gaps - For a large period of time we were unable to access progress in the online tool - After ~5 months of work, a number of gaps remained (in the online tool) but weren't being shared by the tutor - Following flagging the gaps, the response was "Here's the areas she can practice online" (rather than that this would be resolved by the tutor) - After flagging our child's need for differentiated support (as we were promised when we switched), we were simply told they were working through a schedule and would "get to practice areas" - Our decision was to immediately remove our child On balance, what they did do well: - Safe, clean, bright open centres - Surrounded by children who mean well - A good way to spend time after school in a productive way - A low pressure-entertaining way to engage with education Edit: I'm aware of the response below; I highlighted my concerns at a number of points, spent more money, was reassured that things were on track and steps were being taken. I was wrong. For parents, If you're considering a course (ANY course), be clear on your target school needs, ask direct, specific questions, then validate with external evidence rather than relying purely on tutor feedback (but this goes with any solution).