You may have seen on Facebook last week that we are running a competition with a prize of one week's free placement for one lucky winner at our summer club in our private tuition centre in the Arcade in Bedford. Our summer club is offered to students aged 5-16 and runs Mondays to Fridays throughout summer. The days consist of exceptional tuition in the core subjects, tailored to a student's individual needs as well as fun and educational activities such as drama, arts and crafts, creative writing, and science experiments. 

In classrooms it is often the case that students' poor behaviour is recognised and rewarded with instant attention. This can fuel said behaviour and even encourage it because students who display poor behaviour repeatedly are often met with lower expectations to do well from their teachers, a reputation for being 'naughty' and often also admired for this 'naughty' badge from peers. This can serve as a form of recognition for students who, for different reasons, are acting up in class. Those students who are working quietly and diligently are often overpowered by this type of behaviour and the great work these students do can go unnoticed. 

The government recently announced a National Tutoring Programme to support disadvantaged students who have been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The programme will make high-quality tuition available to state-maintained primary and secondary schools across the country, helping students who have missed out most on their learning as a result of school closures. 

 

 

 

With plans for a wider opening of schools where all primary school children would return before the summer break now having been scrapped by the government some children won't be back at school until September, at the very earliest. 

 

After the initial reopening of schools at the beginning of the month saw reception, year 1 and year 6 children return to school, the government had plans for a wider reopening with further primary year groups as well as some secondary pupils able to return to school this academic year. These plans are now not materialising in the way ministers first announced. 

 

 

 

As many schools have now reopened for certain primary year groups and some secondary year groups are set to go back to school on 15th June, life is slowly starting to return to some form of normality for many children. However, with schools having been closed for well over two months and many students still not back at school, a lot of parents are worried about their children missing out on valuable education and falling behind academically. Other parents are having to think about preparing their child for upcoming entrance exams such as the 11 Plus on top of their usual education. Whatever the situation may be, we are excited to be able to offer academic help to families during these difficult times and with our centre now reopened we are excited to also offer our Marvellous Minds Summer School in addition to our regular classes. 

With some year groups going back to school next week and others set to follow in a couple of weeks, we are seeing an increase in enquiries from parents who are looking for tuition support for their children. This is commonly to help those students who have struggled with homeschooling and perhaps fallen behind where they should be or lost motivation for their studies. Other parents are looking for help to ensure their child can quickly catch up when back at school and many parents are now starting to either think about, or step up, preparation for entrance exams such as the 11 plus. Regardless of the reason for seeking tuition, we are here to help. 

 

As of next week we will be continuing to offer our online timetable of classes as well as resuming in-house classes at our centre. If you are interested in enrolling your child with us we would usually recommend the steps outlined below. 

We hope you are well and staying safe. 

 

As you will know, the government has advised that schools and other educational settings such as our private tuition centre are likely to open again on 1st June. This has not yet been fully confirmed but in line with the government advice we are preparing to reopen our private tuition centre on 1st June. 

 

The safety of our students and staff will be of highest priority when we do reopen and we are carrying out a thorough risk assessment to ensure our centre is a safe learning space. 

We are into week 7 of lockdown now and many of us will have experienced feelings of boredom, fatigue and a lack of energy. Mental health has also been adversely affected for many people. While we all understand the benefits of keeping physically active (Joe Wicks daily challenges anyone?) it is also extremely important to keep our minds stimulated and engaged, particularly for children who are being home educated at the moment. 

Schools in the UK have now been closed to all students, except for those children classed as vulnerable and children of key workers, for nearly 7 weeks and many expected them to stay closed until the next academic year. However Boris Johnson is due to announce at the end of the week that schools are to reopen for some students as early as 1st June as part of the government's plans to ease the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Students in year 6 are most likely to go back first, followed by the remaining primary years, and pre-GCSE and AS level years in secondary schools. 

Reading comprehension is an important part of any student's education. Students need good reading comprehension not just for the regular reading comprehension tasks and tests they will face in literacy, but perhaps more more importantly, in order to absorb, process and understand anything they read across any subject. 

 

Many of the students we work with struggle with reading comprehension and parents don't always know how to best help. Luckily there are a number of tips and methods that we have found useful in improving students' comprehension skills!