Here are the key points that will be discussed in our parents' meeting.
Venue
All face to face classes take place at St Mark's School. You can find details here. The school have installed security fencing around the school, but the gate next to the hubs is normally left open. Please wait outside the fence, even if the gate is open and the tutor will come out and collect them at the start of the lesson.
Parking
There is normally plenty of place to park at St Mark's. The school gates are closed between 3 and 3:30. The first lesson is timetabled for 3:33, but we just start as soon as we can.
On Saturdays, the school gates are normally locked. If they happen to be open do not park in the car park and go for a walk. When the person that unlocked the gate goes home, they will lock the gate behind them and your car may have to stay there until Monday morning!
What to Bring
You don't need to bring anything - just a pencil and the worksheet from the previous lesson, hopefully completed and marked.
Toilets
We have toilets on site, but as they are a walk away, if one child needs them, we all have to stop and have a toilet break. Most classes don't waste any time with toilet breaks but some quite like the break and it becomes a regular occurrence (often when the work gets harder). We would never say a toilet break is not allowed, but we will just write to parents to let them know how many toilet breaks your child requested, just in case they were avoidable and we didn't need to waste the rest of the class's time. We do have some children arrive with pints of coke, they often need a little break ...
Parent Support and homework
I'm afraid that the children who progress the most are those with parents involved in the process. You don't need to be a maths expert, but mark their work using the answers provided. Don't write down the correct answer, just ask them to do it again. This will help them realise how many silly mistakes they are making and hopefully learn to take a little more care.
Write a short summary on the front page and bring it to the next lesson. We will do our best to give some immediate feedback and return it in the same lesson but if this is not possible, we'll take the worksheet home and bring it back the next week.
Progress
We don't assess any children before the course starts. We often see dramatic improvements during the course and so we never write anybody off. We don't require everyone to look as if they are going to pass. As long as they are enjoying the lessons and benefitting from, they are very welcome.
We know that something like 75% of our students go on to pass the 11+ and although we won't make predictions, we will do plenty of small assessments as we go along so you can see if they are on track or not. If they are in the top half - fantastic. If they are in the bottom 25% it could be a sign they are unlikely to pass or it could just be they are not good at timed tests.
Discipline
Although we don't require a certain academic level to stay on the course, we do ask that their behaviour does not prevent others from learning as best as they can. This could be things like continuously shouting out answers, demanding extreme levels of personal attention or insisting that they are right and the tutor is wrong.
If anything of this nature occurs then we will always inform parents after the lesson and not ask somebody to leave the course until parents have had an opportunity to do something about it.
Online Drive
Each child will have an online drive created for them where you can submit scores and monitor their progress. With time we will also include reports from mock exams and practice papers done at home.
The online drive will also have the answers to lessons and videos of Jan teaching the lesson. Details on how to access your drive will be e-mailed to you.
Pick up
Please let us know if your child is going to be picked up by somebody else or if you have an arrangement with them that you will wait in the car rather than outside the lesson. If you do, we will ask them to come back if you are not there ...
Missing lessons
Sometime it is unavoidable to miss a lesson. If this is the case please let us know as soon as possible. We do allow children that can't attend their normal class to take advantage of a space in another class. So if you know you can't come, letting us know could help somebody else.
We generally don't allow swaps other than during the current week and the next week. If you have a look on this page you will find a list of classes both long-term and in the current week and the next week. To request a swap, please e-mail.
Giving notice
Most students tend to stay the course, even if they don't plan to take the 11+ or don't think they are going to pass. If you do decide to stop, we ask for three lessons notice, or a month, whichever is shorter. You are, of course, welcome to come to the lessons during the notice period. If there is somebody on the waiting list for your space, then no notice period is applied.
Venue
All face to face classes take place at St Mark's School. You can find details here. The school have installed security fencing around the school, but the gate next to the hubs is normally left open. Please wait outside the fence, even if the gate is open and the tutor will come out and collect them at the start of the lesson.
Parking
There is normally plenty of place to park at St Mark's. The school gates are closed between 3 and 3:30. The first lesson is timetabled for 3:33, but we just start as soon as we can.
On Saturdays, the school gates are normally locked. If they happen to be open do not park in the car park and go for a walk. When the person that unlocked the gate goes home, they will lock the gate behind them and your car may have to stay there until Monday morning!
What to Bring
You don't need to bring anything - just a pencil and the worksheet from the previous lesson, hopefully completed and marked.
Toilets
We have toilets on site, but as they are a walk away, if one child needs them, we all have to stop and have a toilet break. Most classes don't waste any time with toilet breaks but some quite like the break and it becomes a regular occurrence (often when the work gets harder). We would never say a toilet break is not allowed, but we will just write to parents to let them know how many toilet breaks your child requested, just in case they were avoidable and we didn't need to waste the rest of the class's time. We do have some children arrive with pints of coke, they often need a little break ...
Parent Support and homework
I'm afraid that the children who progress the most are those with parents involved in the process. You don't need to be a maths expert, but mark their work using the answers provided. Don't write down the correct answer, just ask them to do it again. This will help them realise how many silly mistakes they are making and hopefully learn to take a little more care.
Write a short summary on the front page and bring it to the next lesson. We will do our best to give some immediate feedback and return it in the same lesson but if this is not possible, we'll take the worksheet home and bring it back the next week.
Progress
We don't assess any children before the course starts. We often see dramatic improvements during the course and so we never write anybody off. We don't require everyone to look as if they are going to pass. As long as they are enjoying the lessons and benefitting from, they are very welcome.
We know that something like 75% of our students go on to pass the 11+ and although we won't make predictions, we will do plenty of small assessments as we go along so you can see if they are on track or not. If they are in the top half - fantastic. If they are in the bottom 25% it could be a sign they are unlikely to pass or it could just be they are not good at timed tests.
Discipline
Although we don't require a certain academic level to stay on the course, we do ask that their behaviour does not prevent others from learning as best as they can. This could be things like continuously shouting out answers, demanding extreme levels of personal attention or insisting that they are right and the tutor is wrong.
If anything of this nature occurs then we will always inform parents after the lesson and not ask somebody to leave the course until parents have had an opportunity to do something about it.
Online Drive
Each child will have an online drive created for them where you can submit scores and monitor their progress. With time we will also include reports from mock exams and practice papers done at home.
The online drive will also have the answers to lessons and videos of Jan teaching the lesson. Details on how to access your drive will be e-mailed to you.
Pick up
Please let us know if your child is going to be picked up by somebody else or if you have an arrangement with them that you will wait in the car rather than outside the lesson. If you do, we will ask them to come back if you are not there ...
Missing lessons
Sometime it is unavoidable to miss a lesson. If this is the case please let us know as soon as possible. We do allow children that can't attend their normal class to take advantage of a space in another class. So if you know you can't come, letting us know could help somebody else.
We generally don't allow swaps other than during the current week and the next week. If you have a look on this page you will find a list of classes both long-term and in the current week and the next week. To request a swap, please e-mail.
Giving notice
Most students tend to stay the course, even if they don't plan to take the 11+ or don't think they are going to pass. If you do decide to stop, we ask for three lessons notice, or a month, whichever is shorter. You are, of course, welcome to come to the lessons during the notice period. If there is somebody on the waiting list for your space, then no notice period is applied.
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