You are currently browsing the 121 Home Tutors blog archives for the year 2012.

Categories

Archives

RSS Feed

RSS Subscribe to RSS

Archive for 2012

University admissions down – what are the options?

Saturday, December 29th, 2012

UCAS (The University Admissions Service) have just released figures showing that early admission to universities are down again this year by 8%.  This is the second year running that applications to universities are down following the introduction of higher fees. The official deadline for applications is the 15th Jan so the whole picture won’t be […]

Ready for 2013?

Thursday, December 27th, 2012

By now you’ll be well into a lovely long break over Christmas and New Year. It’s important to have some downtime but this is also a great time to reflect on how the year has gone and if your first term back at school has been enjoyable and successful. Now is a great time to […]

Is txt speak the future?

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012

Did you know 20 years ago this month the first ever text message was sent. A Vodafone employee sent a message from his computer to a colleague’s mobile phone – then known as a telenote message (and for those interested it said ‘Merry Christmas’). Fast forward twenty years and telenotes have become texts and around […]

The end of tutoring to get into grammar schools?

Friday, November 30th, 2012

Competition for places at the 164 selective schools in England has always been fierce – with parents going to great lengths to help their child secure a place in their chosen school. A popular way to help children has been to employ the services of a one to one tutor or tutoring school to help […]

How did you learn to read?

Friday, November 23rd, 2012

Can you cast your mind back and remember how you learnt to read? How does it compare with how your children have learnt to read? In most UK schools children are taught to read using a phonics system (decoding words by sounds) but the debate about whether this is the best method continues to rumble […]

Numeracy skills add up to good job prospects

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

When was the last time you had to do a bit of mental arithmetic at work? Tot up your hours for a timesheet?  Understand a graph or chart for a presentation?  Last week the BBC reported that 17 million working age people in England have only primary school level maths skills and there are fears […]

GCSEs to be replaced by EBacc – Part Two

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

Last month it was announced that GCSEs are going to be replaced by a new qualification, the EBacc or English Baccalaureate. Last week we gave you some information on the changes and what they might mean for your child and this week we’ll continue helping you understand how the changes might affect your child. Our […]

GCSEs to be replaced by EBacc – Part One

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

In the last few weeks, a huge shakeup of the secondary education system has been announced. Michael Gove, Education Secretary, announced that GSCEs will be scrapped and a new English Baccalaureate qualification will be introduced from 2017. The EBacc is seen as more academically rigorous and is being introduced as a way to regain confidence […]

Is tutoring really worth it?

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

Last week we stumbled across this article from Canada about whether private tutoring really offers students any advantages. The article states that about a third of Canadian parents hire private tutors. In the UK, according to the Sutton Trust charity in 2005 around 18% of 11-16-year-olds received some private or home tuition. Last year that […]

How to feed your brain

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

We know healthy eating in schools is a hot topic, mostly thanks to chef Jamie Oliver making a big fuss about the state of school dinners and the rising obesity epidemic in this country. We speak to parents all the time and we know there is lots of guidance around what children should and shouldn’t […]