For us, that challenge has been our son’s cancer treatment and subsequent bone marrow transplant. For over a year, his immune system has been compromised, meaning months in hospital or at home isolation and a slow, careful recovery at home.

When a traditional classroom setting is suddenly off-limits, the pressure to maintain normalcy and prevent huge educational gaps feels immense. I remember looking at his untouched book bag and feeling a knot of panic: How is he going to keep up?

That’s when we discovered the true, life-changing benefits of online learning with the right tutor.

This isn’t just about homework or academic success; it’s about providing a safe, consistent lifeline to quality education when everything else is chaotic. It’s about giving children back a sense of purpose and confidence when their world has shrunk to a hospital room.

We found our educational superhero in Karen Lander, The Top Cat Tutor, and her one-to-one online sessions have been the consistent highlight of Toby’s recovery journey. If your child’s learning has been disrupted by long-term illness, medical needs, or anxiety, here is why online tutoring services, especially with someone as supportive as Karen, are the practical solution your family deserves.

This is a guest post written by Nikki Knight, the parent of a Top Cat Tutor tutee. Her son was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2022 when he was 4 years old. He then relapsed 5 months after completing treatment and needed to have a bone marrow transplant. Nikki blogs about her family’s experiences at www.unicornsdinosaursandme.com.

Learning from the Hospital Bed: The Ultimate Flexibility

The first and most critical advantage for families like ours is location independence and flexibility. When your child’s health dictates their schedule, education has to follow suit. We’ve logged into sessions with Karen at three different hospitals in three different counties, at home, at a grandparents’ house, and at a Young Lives V Cancer home from home. All you need is a laptop or tablet, along with a stable internet connection.

This flexibility meant that there was more consistency, and it was easy to fit in with busy schedules. In our case, our son was not able to attend school, but wasn’t in the hospital all the time. At first, he was in the hospital and was having teachers see him there, but then he was discharged to a home from home. Here, he did have a few lessons when we went back to the hospital for appointments or for visits to the schoolroom. After that, he was at home for a couple of months, where there was no hospital education. After that, he went back to the hospital, but this time it was a completely different hospital that he’d never been to before. After 6 weeks there, he was discharged back to the original for an additional 8 weeks. At both hospitals, he was having some hospital schooling. After discharge, we finally went back home, where hospital teachers came out to see him. Throughout all of this, he has seen a conveyor belt of different teachers with different styles who all needed time to get to know him. The one constant has been Karen.

Why Online Tuition is Crucial for Immune-Compromised Kids

Let’s talk about germs. When a child, especially one post-transplant like my son, has a severely compromised immune system, the traditional classroom setting is simply too dangerous. Online tuition immediately solves this safety risk.

It allows him to learn from the safest environment possible—his hospital room or his quiet, sterilised space at home. We didn’t have to worry about the winter colds or the hundred new germs he’d meet at school.

This removes a massive layer of parental stress. It means he can continue his education with a personalised learning experience but without the physical or emotional risk, ensuring continuity and consistency.

The Ability to Go at Your Child’s Own Pace (Even After a Rough Night)

Hospital life is dictated by machines, check-ups, and energy levels that swing wildly day to day. A scheduled school day is impossible. This is where Top Cat Tutor shines.

Karen designs her lessons to be incredibly bespoke. If he had a bad night or if the doctors just finished a check-up and he’s tired, we simply tell Karen. She immediately adapts the lesson plan to the student’s specific needs, perhaps focusing on a short, engaging game instead of a long writing task.

The power to set his own pace and reschedule appointments with minimal fuss means learning is never another source of exhaustion or stress. It is a genuine, therapeutic distraction.

The Top 5 Reasons Top Cat Tutor is a Lifeline for Medically Homebound Kids

When searching for one-on-one tutoring, you need someone who understands that missed school days are about more than missed lessons—they’re about emotional fallout, anxiety, and learning gaps. Here’s why Karen’s approach works brilliantly for children with medical or other special needs:

1. Bespoke, Personalised Learning

Karen’s approach is Bespoke 1:2:1 Online Tuition. She doesn’t use a one-size-fits-all programme. She actively works to fill the specific knowledge gaps left by long absences, ensuring the curriculum directly addresses the child’s educational needs, whether it’s reinforcing phonics or catching up on multiplication methods. As she is such a good tutor and she is not bound by the traditional education framework, she can tailor her online lessons to suit the learning style and interests of each individual child.

2. Building Confidence, Not Pressure

For a child who feels “behind,” the thought of returning to a competitive classroom can be terrifying. Karen creates a safe, low-pressure environment where children feel secure enough to ask questions. This focus on building confidence is just as important as academic progress.

3. The Teacher-Parent-Tutor Connection

Karen is an experienced and qualified primary teacher. This expertise means she understands the National Curriculum (although she is not bound by it) and can communicate effectively with the school to keep them in the loop. But more importantly, she communicates brilliantly with us, the parents, providing clear monthly reports that keep us up to date with his progress without adding to our burden.

4. A Sense of Normalcy and Routine

In the midst of medical chaos—endless tests, scans, and treatments—the structured, familiar face of Karen on the screen provides a comforting routine. For 30 minutes, he is just a student working on a topic he loves while practising his key English and Maths skills (without even realising it), not a patient. This small dose of normalcy is invaluable for his emotional well-being and our family’s morale.

5. Support for Additional Needs

We know that long-term illness, medication, and the sheer trauma of treatment can lead to concentration difficulties or anxiety. Karen is especially experienced at supporting the child’s needs with unique learning styles, including those with anxiety or neurodivergence. This compassionate, informed approach ensures that the tuition works with the challenges children are facing, not against them.

Practical Tips for Maximising the Benefits of Online Tuition

If you’re ready to start the online education journey, whether it’s with The Top Cat Tutor or online teachers, here are my top, practical tips for making the logistics work during a health crisis:

1. Prioritise Comfort Over Classroom: Don’t stress about a perfect desk setup. If your child is comfortable on the sofa, propped up in bed, or nestled in their favourite hospital chair, that is the perfect learning environment.
2. Communicate Everything (Seriously): Be honest with your tutor about your child’s energy levels that day. If he is exhausted from a procedure, we let Karen know, and she turns the session into a lighter, review-based check-in. This flexibility is one of the core benefits of online tuition.
3. Use it as a Parent Break: Hospital life is relentless. While he is safely engaged with Karen for half an hour, I can use that time to grab a coffee, make a private phone call, or just take a much-needed breath. It’s a structured, guilt-free break you desperately need (and deserve).
4. Embrace the Technology: Ensure the Zoom link is ready five minutes early. If your child struggles with fine motor skills or tiredness, having the tutor use interactive tools like virtual whiteboards, screen sharing or different types of virtual visual aids to allow them to drag-and-drop answers or annotate on screen makes a huge difference.

A Supportive Bridge Back to Learning

When we first faced our son’s long school absence, I felt entirely alone, worried that his academic future was slipping away. But online teaching and the patient, expert support from Karen at Top Cat Tutorhas provided a sturdy bridge.

It’s more than education; it’s a therapeutic and supportive environment. It’s a constant reminder to your child that they are capable, they are seen, and that their learning journey continues, no matter where they are or how they feel that day.

If your family is navigating long-term illness or school absence, I wholeheartedly recommend exploring online classes to find that crucial support that respects your unique situation.

Your Turn!

Has your family used online tutoring platforms during a difficult time? What was the biggest benefit you noticed in your child’s learning or confidence? Share your experience in the comments below—it helps all of us know we’re not alone!

The post The Benefits of Online Tuition: Our Lifeboat for Hospital Stays appeared first on Karen Lander - The Top Cat Tutor.

There’s something similar in the fine art world. Sculpture is at the pinnacle and is regarded by The Establishment as the highest form of art, the most important and valuable. At the very bottom are things like pottery, knitting and basketry – derogatorily named “craft” by The Establishment – not even worthy of being recognised as art. Landscape used to be considered a much lowlier artform than portraiture (not anymore thanks to JMW Turner).

The Tutor Subject/Age Hierarchy

Non exam-based tuition for primary children is the pottery and basket weaving of tuition, whereas A Level or elite private school exam prep is the sculpture.

Can we please take a moment to reflect how utterly ridiculous (and discriminatory) this is, and how it creates a glass ceiling for what tutors feel they can charge?

And yes, it annoys me because according to this hierarchy, I’m right at the bottom. Which is, to be frank, an insult!

Research is clear that THE most important stage in a child’s learning is the early and primary years. According to this logic, I should be at the top of the hierarchy. However, because working with young children is so infused with patriarchal beliefs that it is menial women’s work (I write more about this here), it is seen as just that. Menial, easy, not important, anyone can tutor primary, helping them become secure with the key foundations for all future learning (reading, writing, maths) is not as important as passing an exam, especially an exam for a top private school or university.

I’m not saying we all hold this belief dear to our hearts, I just think it’s become so conditioned into us that we don’t even notice or question it.

However, I have noticed it and questioned it.

If No Hierarchy – What?

I don’t believe it would be logical to switch the hierarchy so what I tutor was now at the top. Hierarchies don’t help anyone. They keep large groups of people small and suppressed while a minority get the riches.

I believe that ALL learning is equally valid and important, and the abilities needed to tutor someone in learning that thing are equally skillful – it’s just that the skills needed are different.

The skills needed to help a child pass the 11+ are different to those needed to teach someone to play the piano for pleasure, but the tutors are JUST as skilled in helping that person with their EQUALLY valid learning.

I decided to throw this outdated, patriarchal, and elitist nonsense in the bin and start charging according to my qualifications (I have lots of them), skills (I have lots of them) and experience (I have lots of it).

It works for me and it can work for you, and together we can move the tuition industry into the twenty-first century and make it be valued as the highly skilled profession that it is (or should be). That ALL learning is valid and important and the skills needed to help someone with that require training, development and nuance.

I’ve finished recording the videos for my course 10 Steps to Changing How You Charge and once I’ve worked out the tech (and, ironically, what to charge!) it will be available so you too charge appropriately for the highly skilled, top quality work you do, based on your qualifications, skills and experience, not what or who you tutor.

Sign up to my newsletter and/or join my free Facebook Group to be first to find out when it’s available.

The post Charging based on who and what you tutor is a problem. Here’s why. appeared first on Karen Lander - The Top Cat Tutor.

Where does undervaluing of education come from?

As with everything, to understand it we have to look at the history (my favourite subject!)  Let’s go back to the late nineteenth century when schooling became compulsory for children aged 5-13. 

When elementary education became compulsory in 1880, and free in 1892 to educate “the masses”, the teaching profession as we know it today came into existence. 

Prior to this time, children who went to school, or received an education via a private tutor, were from families who could afford to pay for their child’s education.  I say children, I mean boys.  Middle- and upper-class families who paid to educate their daughters were rare, and even if girls did receive an education, it was often very restricted compared to their brothers’. The teachers/tutors they would have had were mostly (if not exclusively) men.  Because education was elite.  It wasn’t available to everyone.  It wasn’t about masses of children, but developing the select few.

Working class families needed income and children were sent out to earn their keep from a young age.  School was not part of their world.

Unlike other professions developing at the time as a result of the Industrial Revolution, such as medicine and the law, which came with high status and a high salary to match because they dealt with important things like life and death and dealing with criminals, which were only open to men (women were unable to attend university to train in these professions), teaching was not accorded the same status.

Why?  Because it was working with children.  And working-class children at that.  Children = women’s work.  Women’s work = caring and menial – less important than the life and death, saving society from criminals work of the men. Women’s work = we don’t need to pay them as much as the men.  The younger the children, the more menial the work is perceived to be.  Of course, there were male teachers too, but because teaching was an option for women, it was afforded a lower social status. 

And we are still living under the consequences of this patriarchal belief system 130+ years later. 

How this impacts what tutors charge today

Many, if not most tutors today come from a teaching background.  According to government research (which I normally take with a big pinch of salt, but it seems about right in this case) 75.5% of teachers in the UK are female (even higher in primary schools).  However, only 38% of headteachers in state secondary schools are female.  Women are at the chalkface; men are in positions of power.

Following these statistics through to their logical conclusion, a large proportion of private tutors will be female. 

We come into tuition from a profession which is chronically underfunded, which has one of the highest rates of unpaid overtime, who work some of the longest hours for some of the worst pay in any OECD country (www.neu.org.uk), where “doing it for the children” is used to justify overwork and underpay in the form of toxic positivity.

This becomes ingrained into us.  It is normal.  It is how it is.  It comes with the job.  We stop even noticing that we are undercharging and working for free because it is so normal to us it is practically invisible.

We also think we can’t charge as much as other service providers because “it’s for children”.  We are a caring profession.  If you charge well you stop being caring. You are greedy, cruel and unkind.

Or so we are conditioned to think.

Why what we think about what we “should” charge is nonsense.

It’s nonsense, btw.  I charge well (compared to most tutors).  It doesn’t make me cruel or heartless or greedy.  The amount I care is not reduced by how much I charge. In fact, I am able to help more vulnerable children and support charities, organisations and ethical businesses as a result of charging well for my service, because now I can afford to.  If anything, charging well has enabled me to show I care more, not less.

It’s time to challenge this chronic undervaluing (in all senses of the word) of caring professions such as tuition.  As educators, we know how vital education is.  Any problem society faces, from obesity to climate change, the key to making things better is always education.  Education is the key to moving out of poverty, better physical and mental health, financial security…  The list goes on about how and why education is absolutely fundamental to society.  It is as important as the life and death work of doctors, and the law and order of lawyers and barristers.

Yet because education is about children, and a predominantly female workforce, and those “menial”, wishy-washy, “feminine” traits of caring and nurturing young minds, it is not valued by the holders of power (the patriarchy).  This trickles down to society; insidiously, subtly over many years.  It is so ingrained it becomes deeply embedded in our beliefs about our own value.

Teaching is not something anyone can do.  It requires training, deep understanding of how people learn, and skill in applying this appropriately.  It is a very highly skilled job. 

How to start shifting your mindset around charging for tuition

1. Charge appropriately for your qualifications, skill and experience. If you have undertaken training to develop your practise and skills, you have invested in yourself.  This needs to be reflected in your price.  Charge appropriately for your qualifications, skill and experience.  The more qualified, skilled and experienced you are, the higher your fees. It has nothing to do with where you live, what age or subject you teach, or what gender you identify as. Charge appropriately for your qualifications, skill and experience and this starts to raise us, and our profession, up.
2. Recognise that you are worthy and deserve to be paid appropriately for your service. I tutor because I wholeheartedly believe in the importance of education and love supporting children in their learning – giving them opportunities and a brighter future.  But not at the expense of my wellbeing – physical, mental and financial.  I can’t support them properly if my needs are not being met.  It’s basic Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but the system only wants us to apply it “to the children”. 

Just because the service we provide is for children, it doesn’t mean we should charge less than for services for adults. This comes from the toxic positivity of “doing it for the children”.  What this phrase actually means is, “do everything you can for the children, at all costs to yourself.  The child is more important than you in every way.”  This is not true and dangerous.  The most important person in a classroom?  A qualified teacher. 

Charging well and being caring are not mutually exclusive

Caring professions are essential (as the pandemic and recent strike action highlights), and women are drawn to them, yet because of the patriarchal conditioning around this type of work which really took hold during the Industrial Revolution, women continue to be undervalued and receive lower pay.

And when we become tutors, either self-employed or via an agency, we don’t appear to be questioning the chronically low hourly rates, compared to other professions which require equally qualified and highly-skilled people to do them well; or the amount of work we do for free through the normality of charging by the hour (read why I don’t charge by the hour here). By continuing to work in this way we continually undervalue ourselves and our profession, perpetuating the problem.

By charging well for my service I’m saying:

This service is important

This service delivers life-changing transformations

This service requires a high level of training and skill

I deserve to be paid well for my qualifications, skill and experience, regardless of my gender.

I’m going to finish with a quote from Phillipa Perry, psychotherapist and author, taken from the podcast “The Kindness Economy by Mary Portas”:

“It’s culturally implanted that we [women] do the caring and we need to change the culture… I think caring should be as valued as a trait, in men, and in women, as much as being able to add up is.”

For more information about mindset for tutors, follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram.

The post Why what we charge in the tuition industry is a feminist issue appeared first on Karen Lander - The Top Cat Tutor.

If you look at your child’s maths homework or pop into their classroom, you may notice that the way maths is taught today looks nothing like it did when you were at school.

This can be unsettling for many parents because they don’t understand the new methods and don’t feel confident helping their child.  They may also question if their child is being appropriately challenged or if the new ways of doing things are any good.

Maths is taught so differently today because our knowledge and understanding of how children learn and understand maths has developed.  This is a good thing.  Just as you would want your doctor to be prescribing the most up-to-date treatments based on cutting-edge research (which might not be medication, but perhaps talking therapy or exercise), schools should be keeping up to date with the latest, cutting-edge research on how children learn and understand mathematics, and teaching in-line with this.

How is maths taught in primary schools today?

Let’s start with the word maths.  Maths is reasoning and problem-solving about problems in the world around us using logic.  What we were mostly taught at school under the name “maths” was actually closer to “arithmetic” in the form of memorising and solving number facts and calculation methods to be recalled at speed.  

Arithmetic is a branch of mathematics – it is not mathematics in and of itself.  And the speed thing is just something schools seem to have decided was important decades ago. 

Professional mathematicians are not always quick at solving arithmetic questions, and if they are, it is because they have excellent number sense – they can play around with and manipulate numbers.  They understand how numbers work.  When Rachel Riley works out the number round on Countdown in under 5 seconds, it’s because she has excellent number sense – she knows how to play around with the numbers to find the solution.  She isn’t just recalling facts, she’s applying her knowledge and understanding of number.  She is using logic to solve a problem.

What is “Mastery Maths”?

Most primary schools (and increasingly secondary schools) are now teaching a subject that fits the definition of “maths” much better – with arithmetic skills alongside –  and they are doing this using a method of teaching maths called “mastery maths”.

This teaching method originated in Singapore (one of the highest-ranking areas in the world for maths teaching) and began to be adopted in the UK about 8 years ago.  The school I was working in at the time was one of the first in Gloucestershire to implement this method of teaching.

The principles of mastery teaching are very different to how you would have been taught maths (and how I was taught to teach maths), and align with what maths actually is, and how children learn and develop an understanding of maths concepts. 

When my school introduced Mastery Maths, it really blew my mind and I didn’t think it would work after over ten years of teaching in ways that are perhaps more recognisable to parents. 

After just a few months teaching this way, I was totally converted and wished I’d been taught maths this way at school.  It is a much better way of developing maths skills that align with child development and ensures children understand what they are doing.  It teaches skills that are relatable to everyday life, and also the reasoning and problem-solving skills employers are, and most probably will be, looking for in the future.

Principles of Mastery Maths

Mastery Maths teaching is based on the principles that everyone can learn and enjoy maths.  It is about reasoning and making connections between concepts.  It is about developing a deep and secure understanding of key ideas that are needed to understand future learning.

It is about understanding how and why numbers work and connect, having mathematical dexterity, and being able to link concepts together.  For example understanding that multiplication and division are linked, and in turn, understanding that division is linked to fractions, and in turn, understanding that fractions, decimals and percentages are different ways of representing numbers less than 1. 

These skills set children up for success in any future mathematical study, and the use of maths in everyday life, far better than how maths used to be taught.  Most people disliked maths and find it hard to engage with because we were taught how to do something with no understanding of why it worked or why it was necessary or how it relates to other things, or that speed was a really important aspect (pressure of having to give an answer in a set time triggers our stress response and shuts the brain down into survival mode – not helpful!)

Mastery Maths teaching methods

In Mastery Maths – children are taught the same concept all together, broken down into small steps so that children build on previous learning and make connections.

This whole class approach makes people think that brighter children are not being challenged and children who are struggling are not supported.  This is not the case. Differentiation is still happening, but in much more subtle and effective ways.  Children who grasp the concept quickly are challenged by solving problems and reasoning about the concept, in more and more depth – they keep digging deeper and deeper into it so they have a solid understanding. Children requiring more help are supported with apparatus, different ways of presenting the concept to find a way that clicks for them, and repetition to practise and consolidate learning, alongside immediate, targeted teaching in small groups.

Research is very clear that putting children into ability groups and giving them tasks that create a ceiling on their ability holds children back and sends the message “this is all I think you will be capable of doing – don’t even try what that other table are doing”.  It impedes their learning, not develops it.  Expecting all children to be able to learn something (some will get there quicker than others) shows children they are capable and able to achieve.  And they do! You can read more about this research on my blog here.

The way concepts are presented is where most parents will come into contact with mastery maths.  You may see bar models, whole-part models, images of apparatus such as Numicon, place value counters or dienes apparatus.  These are all ways of representing a problem.  They are not methods like column addition or long division.  They help children visualise number problems and see them in different ways and how different connections can be made.  This helps learning not hinders it.  They will be taught the “traditional” methods, but, taking division as great example, diving straight into short or long division when children don’t understand that division is “sharing equally”, and firstly building a deep understanding of what this means through various representations, and then understanding we can divide through “repeated subtraction”, before moving onto the “traditional” methods– means that most children will struggle to understand what they are doing and therefore won’t remember the method.

By deeply understanding what dividing is and having done it in different (often less efficient, but more conceptually obvious ways) helps children take the step up to formal (“traditional”) methods because they understand why that method works.  The “ah ha” moments happen and they remember the formal method better, and if not, they have other methods to fall back on instead. They are able to access maths because they have a number toolkit.

Why not just teach them one method?

My Year 6 teacher always said “there is no right or wrong way to do maths” and she was spot on.  It doesn’t matter how a child gets to an answer if they have a method that works for them and they understand it.  There are a multitude of ways of reaching a solution – none is “better” than the other, although some are more efficient. It is important to develop an understanding of “efficient methods” but that is all part of the mastery process.

Why not keep things as they have always been? I’m OK at maths.

To return to my doctor’s analogy.  A few decades ago, if you had a bad back, doctors would have told you to lie down still.  Now, due to research and professional development of doctors, they will now tell you to move around as much as possible.  When this was a new idea it would have felt counter-intuitive and weird and “that can’t possibly work?!”

The way maths is taught is just the same.  The old ways are not necessarily the most helpful ways.  Just because something has been done a certain way for a long time, doesn’t mean it’s the right way going forward, in light of new research. 

Teaching methods are constantly being refined due to new research about how children learn. Teaching things the way they always have been is as unhelpful, and even as damaging as, prescribing treatments for medical issues which the research now shows impedes rather than helps.

How to help your child with maths:

If you feel unsure about helping your child using these methods you can:

• Ask your school for help in understanding the methods – many schools run parent information sessions to explain them.
• Ask your child to explain it to you.  If they can, it shows they have a really good understanding of the concept.
• Don’t beat yourself up.  You are not a qualified teacher and aren’t expected to understand these methods inside out.  Encourage your child to think back to their lessons and have a go.  Developing independence in learning this way actually helps learning, not hinders it, especially if they make mistakes (remember, mistakes are wonderful things and are needed for connections in the brain to be made).
• Read my other blog about how to help children with their learning here.

I use mastery maths methods in my tuition to develop a deep and secure understanding of maths concepts and to tie in with methods being used in schools so that children make links instead of being confused.

Contact me if I can help your child develop a love of maths.

The post Why is maths taught differently today? appeared first on Karen Lander - The Top Cat Tutor.

In a matter of weeks, it was clear this was not enough.  I realised that if I lived 20 miles away in Cheltenham I could easily charge another £10+ per hour.  My rate of pay was lower because of where I lived, even though I work online and location is irrelevant.  This seemed unfair!  After a few months I upped my price to £30/hour, nobody batted an eyelid and I rumbled on for 6 months or so.

Why charging by the hour didn’t work

During this time, I became fully booked.  I was tutoring every evening from 3.30pm until 7.30pm Monday to Thursday and until 5.30pm on Friday.  I was spending all my mornings planning sessions.  Once I took off money for the tax pot (just in case I owed any), business expenses and my own “personal survival budget” – my essential living bills – I had nothing left to pay myself with.  I was literally working to pay the bills.  Nothing more. 

This was not the plan.

I felt like I was back in teaching, working all hours (not as many as a teacher, but more than I was getting paid for and more than I wanted to), doing most of the work for free.  All the session prep and planning was not covered by my hourly rate – that was literally for the time I am working with the child. Add on all the time I spent on running a professional, proper business such as social media, training, marketing, networking, and more than half my working week was totally unpaid. 

When I left the teaching profession in summer 2020, broken, with chronic stress and depression, I promised I would prioritise my own wellbeing going forward.  No more working to burn out, no more not being valued for the work I do, no more working for free.  I wanted:

-flexibility to work when I want, how I want.

– to make a good income, at least equivalent to my part-time M6 teacher salary to start with.

– To look after my wellbeing.  I come first.  I value myself.

Tutoring for 15 hours a week, with at least that again on top for free, with no time to nurture and grow my business at £30 an hour was not sustainable in meeting these goals.

Charge for skills not time

By summer 2021 I was seriously frustrated and wanted to change up how I did things.  I’d been tutoring full-time for a year, and was not even earning the equivalent of an ECT.  I knew it would take time to reach a salary level on par with what I earned as a teacher, but equally, I didn’t see why it would have to take years.  I’ve been working in primary education for 20 years – I’ve put in a lot of graft already.  My business might be new, but my skills in doing it are expert and advanced.

I began to notice what other service providers were charging: 

My hairdresser – £40 for a cut and blow dry; a local copy writer, £90 for a power hour, or £250 a month for a done-for-you package; a beauty therapist – £40+ for most treatments; coaches – double my rate at the bottom end. 

At the time, I was having hypnotherapy to help with a phobia.  I was paying her (very happily) £50 for my hour long sessions.  She had a sliding scale, the lowest being £40/hour.  A few years earlier I had seen a counsellor and paid her £40 for 50 minutes. 

It struck me that what these people were providing was not all that different to what I do.  Highly skilled professionals who have trained and worked hard to develop their expertise.  They move people from point A to point B using this skill and expertise. And they were charging a lot more than the average hourly rate for a qualified and experienced tutor.

I also became interested in how many service providers didn’t charge per hour.  They sold packages for a fixed price.  They weren’t selling their time, they were selling their skills.  I came across this more and more – selling your time is unstainable and outdated.  It’s based on Victorian “clocking in and out” systems, being paid for the time you stood at your “machine”. 

This is not the world we live in.  We live in the 21st century, not the 19th. People choose me as their child’s tutor because I have excellent knowledge of primary learning and know how to encourage children, build their confidence and help them understand the foundations of concepts that will hold them in good stead for the rest of their life – my skills and experience.  They aren’t paying me to sit with their child for an hour – my time.

My money mindset journey begins

In June 2021 I began working with a mindset coach who put me on my money mindset journey.  I discovered Denise Duffield Thomas and other amazing business women changing the old, patriarchal narrative.  I went through a huge shift:

Key money mindset shifts

• Money is a tool that helps women take care of themselves and have the energy to help others.
• You deserve to get paid (and not with the scraps.)
• Charging appropriately is an act of self-care and self-love.
• It is not greedy or unethical to charge well for what you do.
• You serve, you deserve.
• Work doesn’t have to be hard.
• Making money doesn’t have to be hard.

My coach helped me realised all these things.

I threw the concepts of charging by the hour, charging based on my location,  charging based on the “going rate” and charging based on the age of the child and subject taught out of the window and moved to a fixed monthly fee that recognised my qualifications, experience and skills. 

No sibling discounts, no refunds, the same amount every month paid in advance.

It is now 11 months since my full-price monthly package came into being.  I’m fully-booked and earning the equivalent of my M6 full-time salary. I am paid appropriately for all the work I do. I work fewer hours, have time to invest in growing my business and am earning more as a result.

It wasn’t all plain sailing.  It was difficult and I’ve had doubts I did the right thing at times, but in less than a year I’m where I wanted to be financially and personally and looking forward to growing even more. 

Summary

• Charging by the hour is unsustainable, outdated and makes you work for free.
• Charging by location is an anomaly in our modern “Zoom” community.  It doesn’t matter where I am.  Why should my postcode influence what I charge?  I’ve lived all over the country and whilst some places are cheaper to live than others, the differences in cost of living outside of London and the South East are not that pronounced.
• Charging “the going rate” creates limiting beliefs about what you “should” charge.  Ignore it and charge appropriately for your qualifications, skills, experience and the results you get.
• Parents happily pay my rate, and understand what the fee includes.  The fixed amount each month helps them budget and they value me and my service even more because they see excellent outcomes for their investment.

For more information about money mindset for tutors, join my free Facebook Group or follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram.

The post Why I don’t charge by the hour. appeared first on Karen Lander - The Top Cat Tutor.

Screen time is a big concern about children’s health and behaviour in the early 21^st century.  The pandemic has heightened worries that children spend too long using technology.  It is a problem that can be traced back further than ipads and phones.  When I was a kid, it was playing computer games on consoles was bad for a child.  Before that, it was watching TV, and even before that it was – books!  Yes, parents used to worry that their child was reading too much!  It’s the same problem, projected onto the latest technology.

Some parents are wary of online tuition because they think their child won’t concentrate and they spend too long on screens already.  I debunk the concentration myth in my blog here, but I’d like to debunk some more screen time misconceptions.

I’ve dug about the internet and done some research into the research around children using screens.  I’ll be honest, I haven’t gone into the same depth I did when writing my MA thesis, but I found credible sources of information: 

https://www.nct.org.uk/baby-toddler/games-and-play/screen-time-for-babies-and-toddlers-evidence#:~:text=Interestingly%2C%20American%20Academy%20of%20Pediatrics,children%2C%20one%20hour%20a%20day.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200925-how-screen-time-affects-childrens-brains

https://www.techadvisor.com/article/726637/how-much-screen-time-for-kids.html#:~:text=Ofcom%20in%20the%20UK%20estimates,and%206.5%20hours%20for%20teenagers.

What the research says:

The first thing to note is that screen use is still very new and there has not been a huge amount of research into the effects on children.  However, what the research that has been done shows is fascinating, when compared to the beliefs we hold around children using screens.

The key takeaway from my research (and what I knew instinctively from working with children), is that it is not screen use in itself that is the problem, it is the nature of the screen use. 

*Screens are neither good nor bad.

*Screens are purely a tool.

*Not all screen time is equal – some screen time can be hugely beneficial, and some less so.

Beneficial screen time

Screen time is beneficial when the child is engaged in well-designed, interactive, educational activities.  Such screen time could include watching high-quality educational programmes or videos, listening to story readings or joining live online storytelling sessions and interactive video calls – such as Facetiming a friend or relative, or 1:2:1 tuition.

In these instances, children are interacting and learning, and research shows their understanding is the same as if it were face-to-face.  This didn’t surprise me because I’ve seen it with my own eyes.  Learning via online tuition does not lead to a reduction in understanding – children learn just the same as if I were sat next to them.

Problem screen time

Screen time becomes a problem when children are engaged in passive, inappropriate or badly designed activities, such as endlessly scrolling through uneducational videos on YouTube, and playing games with no or poor educational content. 

Research has found that technology can lead to increases in lack of physical activity, reduced BMI, families eating fewer meals together and poor sleep.  But again, it is not as simple as a child looking at a screen and these negative traits occurring.  It is when screen use is passive and poor quality, and when something called “technoference” happens. 

Technoference is when parent-child interactions are interrupted by technology, and seems to correlate with more whining, sulking, restlessness, frustration and temper tantrums.  If adults are glued to their screens, and they prioritise what is happening on their screen over their child’s needs, then negative behaviours can occur. (A good example would be if your child is talking to you, or you are playing a game together, and your phone buzzes and you pick it up, look at the notification and reply to the message instead of ignoring it and continuing to interact with your child).  For children to use screens appropriately, parents need to set good screen use examples. 

Recommended screen time

Ofcom estimates that children aged 3-4 spend 3 hours a day using screens, 5-7 year olds 4 hours and 8-11 year olds 4.5 hours. 

NICE (National Instutute for Health and Care Excellence) recommends that daily screen time for children should be no more than 2 hours a day, but this screen time does not need to include educational, interactive use. 

So, Facetiming a friend or relative is a good use of a screen because it is encouraging communication and connection.  Using the internet for homework research is a good use of screen time because it encourages learning, thinking and problem-solving skills.  These types of screen time can be added onto the recommended time if you choose, rather than being part of the child’s screen time ration.

Online tuition and screen time

So, where does this leave online tuition?  If the tutor is qualified and skilled in helping children learn, then online tuition is definitely a beneficial use of screen time.  It is interactive and provides a high-quality educational experience.

To ensure the screen time I spend with children is as good quality as possible I also do (or don’t do) the following:

Timings:

Younger children have earlier slots so that they are not using a screen too close to their bedtime.

Homework:

I don’t set homework.  Research shows it has little to no impact on learning in the primary years anyway.  I’d rather children were off doing other things – use the time to go play, run around, climb a tree, do a puzzle, read a book, play a game…

Interactive:

Zoom calls are interactive.  We are communicating and the children are directly engaging with the activities.

Educational:

Should go without saying, but your child is receiving a very high-quality educational experience every time they log into their tuition session with me.

No multi-tasking:

Multitasking is bad for us.  Flicking between tabs on a computer and watching a video while also messaging a friend is not good for us.  With online tuition, it is just me and your child and we can focus on one task at a time at a pace that suits your child.

Instead of assuming all screen time is bad, instead, let’s think about the nature of the screen time.  Some screen time can be hugely beneficial to your child if it is interactive and of well-designed, high-quality educational nature.  The children I work with and their parents can testify for that! 

If your child could do with some support with their learning, do contact me to discuss how I can help. If you would like to join my free Facebook group supporting parents with their child’s learning in the primary years, click here.

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Parents’ evening!  Does it make you feel nervous?  Does it bring up old memories of your own school days?  Are you worried about what the teacher may say or what you should ask?

Fear not!  I’ll fill you in on what you need to know to reduce the parents’ evening anxiety.

Things to know about parents’ evening:

Schools must provide at least one opportunity a year for parents to discuss their child’s progress with a teacher.  Most schools hold two parents’ evenings a year – one in the autumn term and one in the spring or summer term.

For primary school children, and children in Year 7, the autumn meeting should focus on how they are settling into their new year group and class and if they are happy and content at school.  If they are, then they should be learning well, if not, then that will impact their progress, and discussing strategies that will help them both at home and school should take place. 

Remember that your child’s teacher is on your side.  They want your child to do well and be happy at school as much as you do.  They will give you positive feedback and if there are any areas of concern, these will be raised in a professional manner with a view on how to help resolve them in the best way for your child.

It is fine to bring your children (and any siblings) into the meeting with you, but you don’t have to (sometimes the children prefer for you to go in without them – so do check).

Dos and Don’ts of parents’ evening:

DO ask how they have settled in and if they seem happy at school. Hopefully, the teacher will tell you this anyway and you won’t need to ask.

DO ask about any routines or procedures (eg homework systems) that you are unsure of, or are causing difficulties at home.  If the teacher is aware, then they can help solve any problems.

DO let the teacher know if anything is happening that may affect your child’s learning – this could be friendship issues or things happening at home.  Personal issues will be treated confidentially and sensitively, but it is important for the school to be aware so they can best support your child.

DO ask how you can help your child with their learning at home. 

DO be aware of the time – your appointment will be around 10 minutes long.

DO look at any work your child has done if books are laid out.

DO raise any concerns you have politely and with a view to working together to solve them.  Going in angry and all-guns-blazing will not get you the results you want.

DON’T ask how your child compares to others in the class.  The teacher can’t give you this information and it’s not helpful to you anyway.  Focus on your child – no one else’s.

DON’T compare your child to their siblings.  They are a person in their own right.  Just because their older brother did something well, or struggled with something, it doesn’t mean their sibling will too.  Treat each child individually.

DON’T tell the teacher how to do their job.  Paying your taxes which pays their salary does not make you their boss. (Yes, I have had parents say this!) You are there to get their professional input on your child’s learning. Listen to them and take on board their advice and suggestions.

DO go!  It may be scary, it may take up time, and it may interfere with your daily routine, but it is once or twice a year and it honestly has a huge impact on your child’s learning.  As a teacher, I have understood the children in my class so much better, and been able to better meet their individual needs due to meeting their parents and discussing how best to help them at parents’ evening.  If you can’t make the scheduled parent’s evening, it is absolutely fine to make an appointment with the teacher for another time.  If you can’t go to both parents’ evenings, attending just one is better than none.

If you are separated from your child’s other parent, then it is fine to make separate appointments for you to see your child’s teacher individually.

It is also OK to bring your child’s step-parent, grandparent or aunt or uncle along to the meeting if you would like to have someone else with you.

DO say thank you at the end of the meeting.  My job-share teacher and I were once presented with a bag of mixed fruit and nuts at the start of a meeting by a mum because she knew we were having a very long day, with little to no time for breaks or refreshments between appointments.  It blew our minds!  It was such a small act of kindness but made a massive difference and kept us going into the evening.  Gifts like this are not necessary or expected, but two little words that show you understand how much that teacher does to help your child goes a long way. It is common courtesy but so many parents don’t bother. 

If you have found this blog helpful, then do come and join my free Facebook group Primary Matters for more help and advice about learning in the vital primary years.

To discuss how I can help support your child’s learning, please see my services or contact me.

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I’ve spent a large part of the summer watching large multi-event sporting events on TV.  First, there was The World Athletics Championships, followed by The Commonwealth Games, and then hot on its heels, The European Championships.

As well as enjoying the competition, I find the background stuff really fascinating.  How the athletes have got to be competing in a world-class event, at the top of their discipline.  They aren’t just “really good” at running, jumping, throwing, or swimming and magically found themselves at the competition.  There is a lot of hard work, perseverance, disappointment, failure, resilience, and LEARNING happening over a long period of time that got them to that competition.

This is why I think athletes are such great role models for children and why we should encourage children to “think like an athlete”.

From listening to commentators, coaches and athletes talk about how athletes prepare for competition, and cope when things don’t go their way, it is clear that athletes have mastered “growth mindset”.  I’ve talked about this before in other blogs.  Essentially, if you believe you can do something if you have a go, learn from mistakes and persevere, then you will find the learning process much more enjoyable and achieve higher levels as a result.  World-class athletes have growth mindset in spades, and they are world-class athletes because of this growth mindset.  If they had fixed mindsets – “I can’t do this.  This is hard.  I’ll never be able to run that fast,” then they wouldn’t be at the championships, or winning medals, because they would think they’re not good enough and therefore won’t even try. 

As an example, let’s take Eilish McColgan who won gold in the 10,000m and silver in the 5000m at The Commonwealth Games and just over a week later won a silver medal in the 10,000m and bronze in the 5000m at The European Championships.  This is an astounding achievement and one she had been waiting to achieve for a long time!

How did she achieve it?  It’s not just about running faster than the other people in the race.  It’s not as simple as that. It took lots and lots and lots of practise.  Lots and lots and lots of learning from mistakes.  Lots and lots and lots of disappointments where she didn’t medal in competitions or didn’t run as well as she wanted to, or had injuries and illnesses which meant she couldn’t compete or run to the best of her abilities. 

Every single training run, every stumble, every defeat and disappointment were all essential to her achievements.  They all added up to help her refine her technique, learn how to manage her energy, when to run slow, when to run fast, where to place herself in the pack, when to make a move, when to hold back, how to get out of being boxed in by other runners, how to run in the most efficient way.  Small changes to make marginal gains which helped her win the race.  It’s as much, if not more so, about mindset and learning than it is actually putting one foot in front of the other as quickly as you can.

Another example is the high jump.  While watching this event the commentator was explaining how after an unsuccessful jump, the athlete will make tiny tiny adjustments to how they approach their next jump.  These alterations are imperceptible to us novices sitting at home. We can’t see them starting their jump a few milliseconds before they did previously, or making a tiny change to the angle of their body going over the bar.  But they are constantly learning and tweaking.  If they do knock the bar down, they might have a moment of frustration, but then they stand up, wave to the crowd and walk off to think through what to change next time with their coach. They are probably still feeling disappointed and frustrated, but they are able to manage this and not just have a hissy fit and give up. They learn from their mistakes to make the next jump better.

So, how does all this help children with their learning?  How can children “think more like an athlete”?  Here are my top takeaways from watching athletes this summer:

 Practise

Top athletes keep practising their key skill a lot.  Runners run every day.  Swimmers swim every day.  Round and round the track, up and down the pool.  Once they’ve learned how to run/swim/cycle they don’t stop doing it – they keep doing it, over and over again.  It’s not always fun.  It’s often very boring.  Especially in the cold and dark of winter.  But they get up, get out and get practising – keeping the end goal in mind – to enter a certain competition, to run a personal best, to win a gold medal.  If they are injured or ill and can’t train, they notice that their technique is not as good as it was when they go back to it, because they haven’t been practising. 

Children need to keep practising key skills.  Practise makes the connections in your brain stronger.  The more we practise the stronger the connections get and the easier it is to recall the fact, or do the skill or whatever it is.  If we stop practising, the connections become weaker and it is harder to do.

If you don’t keep practising your times tables, your recall will not be so fast and it will hold you back in other areas of maths.  Just because you know your 3 times table it doesn’t mean you stop practising it.  Eilish McColgan knows how to run. But she keeps practising her running so she can get better and better at it.  Keeping practising the things you can already do are essential to help keep you moving forwards. 

They are resilient

Resilience is the ability to cope when things go wrong.  Athletes want to win every race, but they also know how to cope when they don’t.  That’s not to say they don’t feel disappointed or frustrated.  They absolutely do!  But they use that to help them get better, rather than giving up at the first hurdle (excuse the pun!)  In so many post-race interviews where the athlete has not done as well as they wanted to, they say things along the lines of “I’ll look at what went wrong and what I can improve and I will do better next time”.  This is growth mindset.  This is learning. 

Children need to learn that we all make mistakes and this is normal.  Things don’t always go our way.  This is good!  This is how we get better at things.  Instead of giving up, think about how you can change what you did, so you don’t do it again (this might take practise!)

They persevere

Athletes are this good at what they do because they have kept practising, they haven’t given up, they kept trying.  Athletes don’t turn up to the Olympics having done no preparation in the 4 years beforehand. Those 4 years are full of perseverance.  Perseverance to keep training in the cold and dark, early in the morning and late at night.  Perseverance to keep practising key skills.  Perseverance to keep trying even when you didn’t win the race.  Perseverance to try and beat your best time, or best distance.  Perseverance to move up one place in the rankings.  Perseverance to get through the tough times because without those, no learning will take place and the successes won’t come your way.

Children need to understand that we don’t get good at things overnight or by magic.  People who are good at things work hard to be that good at it.  We often don’t see that hard work going on – we only see them being good at stuff.  If they want to be good at something they need to keep trying and accept it will be hard sometimes.

PMA

They have a positive mental attitude.  They don’t say things like “I can’t do this” “I’m not good at this”.  They believe they can win.  They believe they can be the fastest. They believe fully in their abilities because they have put the work in.  If they don’t win races they say things like “I haven’t won a race yet, but I will!” or “I didn’t beat my top competitor today, but I will one day!”

Changing the way we talk about our abilities is powerful.  Using the word “yet” is helpful for children – “I can’t tie my shoelaces yet, but one day I will!”  or, “I’m finding this difficult at the moment, but if I keep practising it will become easier.” 

 What’s the goal?

Depending on where athletes are in their career, they might not be aiming to win the race.  Their goal might have been to get into the competition itself, or to make it through the heats into the final, or to get a personal best, or top finish in the top 5.  Many athletes don’t go to major competitions to win a medal – that isn’t the goal.  Some do go on to win a medal, and that’s a bonus, but it wasn’t the goal.  Every athlete has their own individual goals and they focus on those. Your child can focus on their own goals.  What do they want to achieve?  Take small steps, keep practising, think like an athlete and you will get there.  Many athletes say things like “I ran my own race and it paid off”.  This means they focused on the skills they had practised, kept their goal in mind and didn’t worry about what their competitiors were doing. 

Don’t worry what others are doing.  You focus on you.  Practise, persevere, welcome mistakes and use them to help you get better.  That’s how you can think like an athlete whether you’re running, jumping, swimming, writing or doing long division!

If you have found this blog helpful, then do come and join my free Facebook group Primary Matters for more help and advice about learning in the vital primary years.

To discuss how I can help support your child’s learning, please see my services or contact me.

The post What can we learn about learning from World Class Athletes? appeared first on Karen Lander - The Top Cat Tutor.

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Choosing which school to send your child to can be a bit of a minefield.  Asking other parents is OK to a point, but, their opinion is biased by their own child’s experience of the school, and for every parent who dislikes a school, there will be another who loves it. 

Here, I’m going to talk you through some things to look for, from the point of view of a teacher.  Many of these are things teachers look for when applying for jobs.  “Do I want to teach here?” often translates across to “Do I want my child to learn here?” 

Whether to choose state or private is a whole other blog post.  All I’ll say is, state does not automatically mean lower quality and a worse education for your child and private does not automatically mean superior quality and a better education.  They each have pros and cons.  (Did you know private schools don’t have to employ qualified teachers or follow the national curriculum?) 

If you are considering private, do visit local state schools too and compare them.  You might be surprised that there is sometimes very little difference between them and you can get just as good, if not better, schooling for “free” (you’ve already paid for it via your taxes) at the local state primary.

1. Ignore Ofsted reports (or at least take them with a pinch of salt).

Ofsted is the body that inspects schools.  It is 30 years old and has always been controversial.  Ofsted has proven itself to be not fit for purpose within the teaching profession.  In a recent survey of 4,888 state school teachers, 79% rated Ofsted as “inadequate” or “requires improvement” (TeacherTapp), less than 1 in 10 teachers think Ofsted has improved standards in their school (The Times) and it is one of the top reasons why teachers leave the profession.  There are increasingly loud calls for Ofsted to be scrapped and replaced with a more supportive and positive accountability system.

A book could be written about why Ofsted does more to damage schools and learning than it does to support and help them improve, so all I’ll say is, don’t base your opinion of a school on a one or two word phrase given to the school by someone who has come in for a day or two (with little to no understanding of the area and the demographic of the children in the school), caused stress and disruption to learning in the process, and made a judgement on this snapshot of time that stays with the school for years to come.

Imagine a stranger coming into your home for a day, with no understanding of who you all are, and saying you are a “good” family or a family that “requires improvement” based on that one experience.  That’s Ofsted inspecting schools.

Schools in more deprived areas get a disproportionate amount of “requires improvement” and “inadequate” grades and schools in more affluent areas get a disproportionate amount of “outstanding” and “good” grades, but the schools in deprived areas are having to work harder for their children, often with less money and resources.  In my experience, it is these schools that are often providing a better education.

Schools rated “outstanding” between May 2012 and November 2020 (yes, Ofsted were going into schools during the pandemic and lockdowns!) were exempt from routine inspections.  This means there are “outstanding” schools that have not been inspected for 10 years. That’s a long time.  Things will definitely have changed.  Is it really still “outstanding”?  What is an “outstanding” school anyway?  My opinion, and that of most teachers on that, is vastly different to Ofsted’s.  (These schools will now be inspected by August 2025.)

Just because a school has been labelled “outstanding”, it doesn’t mean it is. Just because a school has been labelled “inadequate”, it doesn’t mean it is.

2. How close to home is it?  Can you walk there?

Gone are the days when children went to their local school and that was that. Parents now have more choice.  However, anyone who works in a school, or lives near a school will tell you the nightmare that is caused twice a day by children being driven to school and the problems of parents parking dangerously.  I think every school newsletter these days has a monthly reminder not to park like an idiot. Police have to be brought in.  Honestly. It gets that bad.

Children who walk (or scoot or cycle) to their local school are fitter, happier and safer.  They have better road sense because they learn how to deal with roads and traffic, whilst the children being driven are more at risk because they don’t develop these skills so quickly.  There is less pollution – that’s good for everyone.  The children who walk learn better due to the exercise and the mental health benefits of this. 

If there is a school within walking distance check this one out first.

3. How diverse is the school?

Teaching, primary teaching in particular, is a dominantly female profession, so most staff will be women.  However, I would be a little concerned if the whole staff, including support staff, office staff, dinner staff and cleaning staff were female.  All children, not just boys, need positive male role models, so look for diversity of gender.

Also look for diversity of age/experience.  There is a retention crisis in teaching and most teachers leave within the first 5 years of their career.  Experienced teachers are expensive and find it incredibly difficult to get jobs. 

If the whole teaching staff is made up of teachers all within the first 5 years of their career (clues – they are likely to be in their early to mid 20s and called “Miss something”) I would be cautious.  Where is the experience in the staff coming from?  Without experienced staff, teachers in the early stages of their career do not grow and develop from learning from those who have been doing it for longer.  Schools need a mix of fresh new enthusiasm and experience for the best outcomes.

How diverse is the school in terms of race or disability of both staff and children.  If you live in an area with little diversity in the population then this is obviously harder, but in some ways even more important.  The more diverse a school is, the more vibrant it is and the learning wider and the children more tolerant of others.  We need more tolerant people in society.  Diversity is good.  If everyone looks and sounds like you and your child, that might be a concern.

4. Look at the displays

If displays are of a range of children’s work then my heart sings.  Some of the work might look a bit messy or there might be mistakes, but for that child it is worthy of celebration by being proudly exhibited on the wall.

If all the work is looking beautiful and perfect, are the children who find things harder not being celebrated?  Are expectations unrealistic for some children?  Is the culture about getting things right, rather than effort and mistake making?

If displays are predominantly print outs of educational resources (eg alphabets or numbers, or prompt charts) with little to no input from the children themselves, I would be concerned.

5. Do they genuinely focus on the whole child, or is it a bit of an exam factory?

This can be really tricky to spot.  ALL schools claim to focus on the individual child, work in a child-centred way and put their wellbeing to the forefront, and 99% of schools do do this, but, some are better at it than others.  If you can, find out if children in Year 6 (and possibly Year 2) are doing practise SATs tests from the autumn term, or if they are expected to attend after school or holiday revision sessions.  If so, the school is putting more emphasis on exam results than child-wellbeing. 

Is there a nurture group or wellbeing sessions or strategies that are integrated into the school day, and not just fluffy add ons or one offs? 

Is there a pupil mentor or pastoral member of staff who helps children and families deal with difficulties. 

Is there a breakfast club?

Is there a wide variety of after school clubs that appeal to all sorts of different interests? 

Do the children seem happy, settled, and engaged in a variety of activities, or a bit “meh” and flat or robotic? 

What resources are around and do they look used, or is there just a lot of desks, paper, books and shiny resources that look nice but the kids clearly aren’t getting their hands on them. 

How much focus do the school put on foundation subjects (everything apart from maths, English and science)?  There should be a balance and evidence of other subjects being learned about.

Do visitors come in and do the children go out on educational experiences? 

Do they do Forest Schools or similar?

6. How do the staff come across?

Do the staff (not just the teachers, but office staff, Teaching Assistants, dinner ladies etc) seem happy and enjoying their work on the whole (there’s always one who doesn’t want to be there or is having a bad day!), or do most of them look tired, fed up, or exhausted (if it’s near the end of term, expect a bit of tiredness/exhaustion!)?  A school full of unhappy, stressed staff means they are not able to give your child the best learning experience they can.

If you can, find out about staff turnover.  Now, this might be hard, but if the Ofsted report is recent, it is one good piece of information you may find in it.  If staff have worked at the school for years, then that is a very good sign.  It indicates they enjoy working there, feel valued and there is likely to be a good mix of experience among the staff.  If there is a high turnover of staff, with lots of newly or recently qualified teachers taking up the vacancies, then that should ring some alarm bells that maybe not all is good up the ladder in management.

Talking of management – what do you make of the headteacher?  How much classroom teaching experience do they have (some are promoted very early in their career and have very little experience at the chalkface. In some academies or private schools, the headteacher will not even be a teacher!)  Do they keep their finger on the pulse and still take classes (even if occasionally) and muck into the wider school life? Are they respected by the staff, or are they sitting in their ivory tower and have lost touch with what teaching is all about?  This may be difficult to tell, as they will be putting on their best show to encourage you to join their school.  How do teachers/staff react around them?  Does the relationship seem natural and mutually respectful or fake? 

7. Teaching methods

The way children are being taught should look a bit different to how you were taught at school.  What we know about how children learn has moved on leaps and bounds in recent years, and some schools are very good at keeping up with modern pedagogy (the method and practise of teaching) and some are stuck in the early 2000s. 

If children are seated in ability groups I would be wary.  Research clearly shows that grouping children in this way hinders their progress rather than helps it.  Yet, so many schools still cling onto this outdated way of working.  Working in mixed ability ways doesn’t mean children aren’t being challenged or supported, but more sophisticated and developmentally appropriate ways of doing this are being used instead.  If the school follows a “mastery” approach then this is a good indication that they are keeping up to date with the research, so long as they are applying it correctly.

If there is a behaviour chart or smiley and sad faces on the board as a behaviour management tool, again I would be wary.  These approaches have been shown to be ineffective in helping children improve their behaviour and can in some cases make it worse.  Restorative justice systems and systems where children are rewarded for effort rather than achievement are much better and more effective. 

If children have points or rewards that they have already achieved taken off them, that is a big red flag to me.  If you have achieved something, that achievement still stands, regardless of how you behave afterwards.  Past successes should not be used to punish current wrong-doings.

Keeping children in to finish work in playtime is also a warning sign.  The children who need to get out and play the most are often the ones kept in more often.  It’s also a sign that either the teacher is struggling to pace their lessons appropriately, or deeper reasons why children are not finishing (eg processing delays or hearing loss) are not being picked up on.

8. Friends

You can send your child to the fanciest, most excellent school in your area, but if they don’t have friends there and are unhappy, it is pointless because they won’t be learning.  To learn we need to feel settled and happy.  If one school is amazing but your child has no friends there (and therefore is not happy about going) and another is not quite so good but they have friends there, the best option is usually option 2.  Unless your child finds making friends easy, or they are open to moving to a school where they don’t know anyone, they will find it much easier to settle and learn with friends around them.  The school day is long and hard without them.

9. Ignore strangers on the internet

I see so many posts on local Facebook pages asking about what schools are like. Just because little Tommy had a bad experience because Mrs Smith took a disliking to him (highly unlikely btw!) or little Jemima had the most wonderful time with Mr Jones, that doesn’t tell you anything useful about how your child will find the school. 

When I read comments about a school I used to work at online, we had to laugh (otherwise we’d cry) at some of the grossly inaccurate things parents were saying.  It’s school gate gossip gone online.  It’s mostly nonsense.  Don’t listen to strangers on the internet (or at the school gate).

10. Visit

Instead – visit the school for yourself.  Look out for the things I’ve mentioned.  Take your child with you if possible, but don’t base your decision purely on what they want – you are their parent and you need to make the ultimate decision taking into account all the elements and what fits best for them.  Get a feel.  If your gut is saying yes, or no, trust it.

No school will tick all of the above boxes (if you do find it – let me know!)  Focus on the most important elements for your child and family and go with a best-fit approach.  You will have to make compromises, but your child will receive a good education whatever school you choose.

If you have found this blog helpful, then do come and join my free Facebook group Primary Matters for more help and advice about learning in the vital primary years.

To discuss how I can help support your child’s learning, please contact me.

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