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Homeschooling

Is Homeschooling Right for My Child?

With homeschooling becoming more common, you might be wondering if this could be an option for your child. There are many benefits to homeschooling, particularly for families who need to relocate frequently. Home education is not the best option for every child, as we understand that each individual has a different learning style. Alternative options that could be considered are remote tutoring or mentoring support.

 

This blog aims to help you identify whether homeschooling could be right for you and your child, by answering the following questions:

  • What is homeschooling?
  • Who might homeschooling be good for?
  • What are the benefits of homeschooling?
  • What are the alternatives to homeschooling?
  • How can Think Tutors help?

At Think Tutors, we offer homeschool tutoring support tailored to your child’s learning style and needs. You can contact us online to find out more about how we can support your child with tuition.

What Is Homeschooling?

Elective Home Education (EHE), commonly referred to as homeschooling, is where a child’s education occurs outside of school. Home education can be undertaken on a short-term or long-term basis, depending on what works best for you.

Your child’s education is extremely important, therefore you must think carefully when considering if homeschooling is right for your child. You might take the following questions into consideration:

  • Is homeschooling in your child’s best interests?
  • What does your child think about being home educated?
  • Do you have the time, resources and home environment to adequately educate your child?
  • Are there any alternatives to homeschooling that might suit your child better?
  • Do you, as a parent or guardian, have enough support from others? Homeschooling in the UK can be difficult and you need a good support system in place for yourself
  • What are your long-term intentions for your child’s education? Is homeschooling temporary, short-term or permanent?

At Think Tutors, our homeschool tutoring complements your child’s home education. Our expert tutors can travel around the world with you, if required, to ensure your child has educational stability no matter where they are. Get in touch to find out more about how we can help support your child’s educational journey.

Who Might Homeschooling Be Good For?

Homeschooling in the UK tends to be the most effective option for children and families for the following reasons:

  • Convenience – You may not have any issues with your child’s current education but want to go full time with a homeschool tutor because it is more convenient. Home education cuts down on travel expenses and saves you precious time that can be better spent elsewhere.
  • Health Issues – There can be hundreds, or even thousands, of children studying in a single school at any one time. If your child has health issues, keeping them away from the crowded school environment may help to protect from viruses or colds spread around the school. If your child has a mental health condition such as anxiety, the school environment can be overwhelming which could have a negative impact on their overall mental health.
  • Special Educational Needs – Sometimes, children with special educational needs do not have their requirements met in schools, particularly those that are not experienced or have the necessary facilities. Homeschooling is a personal, unique type of education that ensures your child’s requirements and special educational needs are met to help support them in their skills and growth, and most importantly making it a place they feel safe and happy.
  • Bullying – If your child is being bullied at school, or you feel that they are being treated unfairly by teachers, opting for homeschool tutoring support may help to prevent their education and mental well-being from being impacted in a negative way.
  • Relocation –  At Think Tutors, our homeschool tutors can travel with you around the world, and even relocate with you. We understand that, due to personal circumstances, some families have to relocate multiple times a year; this is common if someone within the household travels for work, or is in the armed  forces. As a result, one of the advantages of homeschooling is your child’s education will not be disrupted from frequently moving schools.
  • Covid-19 – The pandemic has seen a rise in homeschooling in the UK. Homeschooling can be undertaken on a short-term, temporary basis or can be made permanent for the entirety of your child’s school life. If you are concerned about the disruption that Covid-19 has had on your child’s education, or you still do not feel comfortable with your child mixing with other school children, you may opt to homeschool instead.

Homeschooling might not be the best option for all children, it is important to take that into consideration when thinking about home education for your child. If you do decide that homeschool tutoring is the best option for your child, you’ll need to take into consideration their current academic level. At Think Tutors, we offer academic assessments in each subject at every level, in order to help understand your child’s overall academic abilities including strengths and areas where additional support might be needed.

What are the benefits of Homeschooling?

Although homeschooling in the UK is not right for every child, there are many benefits of homeschooling that you should know about:

  • Unique, tailored learning – Homeschooling your child means  they receive a personalised education that is unique to them. Depending on what your child responds best to, what they enjoy, how they learn and their personal requirements, you can tailor their learning to get the most out of their homeschool tutoring.
  • Flexibility and freedom – Homeschooling in the UK does not need to follow the national curriculum which means your child has the freedom to study any subject they choose. This means they can concentrate on their strengths and weaknesses in different subjects. The flexibility of homeschooling is particularly useful during exam seasons as lessons can be adapted to prepare your child for their exams, whether that be through focusing on a specific subject or working on their time management skills.
  • Increased emotional and physical safety – One of the biggest advantages of homeschooling is that it removes your child from the school environment. This can protect their physical and emotional safety, for example, if they are being bullied or have mental or physical health conditions. If you are planning on removing your child from the school system for health reasons, our remote tutoring can complement your homeschooling efforts without your child leaving the house. Find out more about the benefits of remote tutoring, and whether this could be a good option for you and your child.
  • Stability – Children need stability to thrive, but Covid-19 has meant that the last two years have been uncertain. This may have been confusing and disruptive for your child’s education. One of the benefits of homeschooling is the stability it provides. Whether your family needs to relocate frequently, or if you are still cautious about Covid-19, UK homeschooling provides an alternative option to attending school.
  • Less stress – Homeschooling reduces stress for a child in many ways. Even if you decide to follow the national curriculum, you are able to follow it according to your child’s requirements, preventing unnecessary stress. Most schools have a heavy focus on mock assessments and exams, you can prepare your child for their exams according to their learning style.

There are many advantages of homeschooling, from flexibility to stability. You might however be concerned about your child’s socialisation skills if homeschooling, in this case there are other options such as, face to face tutoring support or even mentoring support which allows your child to attend school and can be provided outside of school hours.

 

Whether your child is in their younger years, or studying for their A Levels, Think Tutors provide tutoring support for all stages to help students flourish academically.

What are the Alternatives to Homeschooling?

If you are questioning whether homeschooling is the best option for your child, the answer could be no. Although there are many benefits of homeschooling, not all children will thrive in an elective home education environment. As a parent or guardian, you might also decide that homeschooling is not the right choice for you either.

 

You might decide against homeschooling for the following reasons:

  • Work-life balance – Your child’s home environment will also be their working environment, you might find that they struggle to maintain a work-life balance.
  • Reduction in socialisation – Although homeschooling can create experiences that are tailored to your child’s learning style, they will not experience the ‘standard’ experiences of a school pupil.

If you decide that homeschool tutoring is not the right choice for your child, there are alternatives to homeschooling that you should consider, such as:

Legal Responsibilities of Parents or Guardians

As a parent or guardian you take sole responsibility for the following:

 

  • Ensuring that your child is being adequately educated – You do not need to be the person who teaches your child. You could hire a homeschooling tutor or make use of online tutoring services, such as the tutoring support that Think Tutors offers.
  • All Costs – You must cover all the costs of education, including exam or assessment fees.
  • Any special educational needs/requirements – Local authorities are not required to provide extra support for your child, it is up to you to meet their requirements

Taking sole responsibility means that you could be held accountable by local authorities and be given a School Attendance Order if your child is not being adequately educated.

 

There are different types of homeschooling, so flexi-schooling is an option to consider if you are concerned about taking sole responsibility for your child’s education. Flexi-schooling means that your child splits their education between an education provider, such as a school, and home education.

Contact Think Tutors

There are many benefits of homeschooling in the UK because it provides unique learning opportunities that are tailored to your child’s personal requirements. Home education has the flexibility and freedom to focus on strengths and weaknesses of particular subjects, rather than being limited by the national curriculum. It is also more convenient as it reduces travel, time, and hassle if you frequently relocate, as our homeschool tutors can travel with you around the world.

 

If you are still wondering ‘is homeschooling right for my child?’ you might decide to consider alternatives to homeschooling, such as online tutoring or mentoring. Whether your child is studying for their GCSEs, A Levels or is in their younger years, we provide tailored tutoring services available to support them.

 

If you have an enquiry about homeschool tutoring, or you want to know more about our other tuition services or mentoring support, then please contact us and we will be in touch shortly.

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Homeschooling

Setting the Standard for Safeguarding in Private Tuition

Private Tutoring and Home Educating

The past 12 months of lockdown and social distancing behaviours have impacted the education sector at all levels. With schools closed for considerable periods, exam schedules torn up and some exam results ending in political headaches, it has been a tough year for schools, colleges and universities.

 

These shortcomings have highlighted the suitability of private tuition as a supplement to the problems listed above, as parents are rightly worried about the choices their children will have in the future. Private tuition can offer dedicated, one-to-one focus from a qualified tutor to help beat the uncertainty and give a child the support they deserve.

 

The recognition of this fact has led to an increase in the number of companies who are offering tuition services, often competing on price rather than quality in order to gain as much ground in the marketplace as possible. More and more evidence has emerged that, in the process of doing so, some companies are sidestepping critically important safeguarding elements that are so important to working with children.

Safeguarding

As a well-established and trusted provider of private tuition, Think Tutors has a safeguarding process that is unrivalled in its thoroughness. At the heart of this process is the fact that we treat all our tutors as a community, who share our values and strive to offer the best quality tuition to every child we work with.

 

We do not operate like many agencies do – our tutors are well known to us and we work with them in a way that benefits the child the most. From the very outset, our onboarding process is designed to evaluate the quality and suitability of tutors to work with our clients.

 

This begins with a formal interview, during which we take the time to find out about the tutor’s motivations in order to give us an understanding of how they can support the children we work with. All our tutors undergo an Enhanced DBS check, which is reviewed yearly. They are also requested to undertake, unless they otherwise have, a Safeguarding Children Level 2 course, providing an up-to-date knowledge of policies, guidance and legislation.

 

We also check two references from each tutor and explore questions related to safeguarding in their previous roles to determine suitability. We perform document and identity checks in order to satisfy ourselves that the tutors are who they say they are.

 

Once we are confident in a tutor’s abilities and satisfied that they have met all our safeguarding checks, we then send out our comprehensive onboarding pack, with codes of conduct, policies and agreements for tutors to read and sign.

 

If you would like to work with Think Tutors, or have any questions about our safeguarding process, please do get in touch.

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Homeschooling

What are the Types of Tutoring Support?

What Is In-Person Tutoring?

In-person tuition with Think Tutors resumed it’s popularity since it was deemed safe to continue after the pandemic, with students of all ages benefiting from both the convenience, and chance to connect in-person with their tutor.

 

A typical session lasts between an hour and two hours and is located at your house at a time which suits you. It is important to note that all our tutors all are briefed with the latest government guidelines relating to COVID-19 before they undertake an in-person assignment.

 

In-person tuition takes many forms, as our tutors offer a personalised style for each of their students. In the past we have found that Early Years students benefit from the one-to-one attention of an in-person session, where tutors can utilise a wider variety of games and innovative methodology to keep the student engaged and learning.

 

For older students at A-Level, undergraduate and postgraduate, tutors often draw from their own academic background to use the ‘Oxford Tutorial’ system. Through this method, the student and tutor engage in critical discussions about course material, coursework, exam questions and further reading.

 

We offer in-person tuition across the UK. If you are interested, please contact us.

What Is Online Tutoring?

Often, when people think of tuition, they picture the online tuition offered by schools, universities and mass market agencies in the past two years – impersonal and fraught with technical challenges. Online tuition with Think Tutors is available with our elite professional tutors, utilises an innovative combination of online resources, and students can be taught in the comfort of their own home. With 4K webcams, professional microphones and strong WIFI, all our tutors are equipped to deliver the same level of personal service, online.

 

Sessions typically make use of a video calling platform, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Skype as the major form of communication, with whiteboards and collaborative working software being used to supplement learning. If you would like to learn more about how online tuition can be scheduled to help meet your child’s learning goals, please do contact us.

What Is Homeschooling?

Homeschooling has increased in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic challenged the education system, with many parents choosing to educate their children with the freedom, both logistically and educationally, to design schooling around their lifestyle. There is no typical homeschooling assignment, rather, we cater for any request, offering homeschooling both in the UK and internationally in all subjects, at all levels.

What Is Mentoring Support?

Academic mentoring is offered to students who have a solid grasp of course content, but may struggle with the other challenges presented by full-time education. For example, students may need help with scheduling, essay techniques, revision methodology or a mixture of all three. With exemplary academic backgrounds, our tutors are fluent in helping them rise to the challenges of a demanding education to meet or exceed their academic goals.

 

Typically, students undertaking GCSE’s, A-Levels, undergraduate or postgraduate study, benefit better from academic mentors, however, students of all ages and levels can find a mentor helpful. Please see our mentoring page for more information.

Contact Think Tutors

From online tutoring, to homeschool tutoring and mentoring support, this blog has provided an overview of the key types of tutoring support offered by Think Tutors.

 

We also provide a wide-range of other services, such as Admissions Advisory, summer courses, easter courses, 7/8 plus tuition and 13 plus tuition. Please do get in touch if you would like to learn more about how our bespoke educational packages can help your child meet their goals.

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Homeschooling

Leadership and Mentorship

Academic Mentoring

Parents, teachers and tutors are leaders in terms of nurturing young people to find their own attributes and activities in life. At Think Tutors we offer extensive mentorship opportunities and even succession assistance as we know the importance of learning leadership skills early in life. Based on my experiences both as a tutor for over ten years and President of The Tutors’ Association for three years up to 2019, here are some attributes worth exploring:

  • Create and pursue a vision, share that vision and instil belief
  • Have passion for what you do, especially in voluntary roles
  • Find allies, build your team and learn to trust
  • Be a good listener
  • Communication – with your team and advocate to others, both internal and external stakeholders. Be prepared for a lot of conversations
  • Seek out role models
  • Seek out opportunities
  • Seek knowledge
  • Learn to manage people and expectations
  • Learn from mistakes
  • Grow emotional intelligence and self-awareness
  • Grow awareness of different constituencies, other people’s perspectives
  • Take responsibility and be accountable
  • Be decisive. Don’t be afraid to take risks
  • Be willing to make sacrifices, typically being personal ones
  • Lead by example but delegate where necessary
  • Stay strong, stay resilient and never give up!

How To Build Confidence

If you feel completely daunted by the prospect of becoming a leader, do not be afraid to ask for help. Our tutors, mentors and education directors are excellent resources with extensive professional and life experience. Moreover, there are great resources, books and motivational speeches readily accessible to support you in your ventures. I found the following books incredibly helpful during my presidential tenure:

Legacy – 15 Lessons in Leadership by James Kerr

Winning Matters by Sean Fitzpatrick

Leading by Sir Alex Ferguson with Michael Moritz

Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed

Start With Why by Simon Sinek

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey

Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet

How to Support Your Child

When it comes to nurturing children’s independence and exploring their own goals, whether through parenting, teaching, tutoring or mentoring, identify role models in their lives. In addition, getting children to think outside the box, to try a new sport or activity, bouncing ideas off them, is a gateway to new knowledge and new experiences. The recent books You Are Awesome and Dare To Be You by Matthew Syed are a great way for children themselves to do this. Autobiographies by public figures are also good: Mud, Sweat and Tears by Bear Grylls and Becoming by Michelle Obama being just two examples. There are many more out there to spur students to success.

If you would like further recommendations or want to organise new opportunities for your child through our extensive network contact Think Tutors for more information.

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Using Creativity to Learn a Foreign Language

The Case for Creative Learning

Parents around the world are interested in developing their children’s creative thinking skills and providing them with creative resources. Interestingly there are numerous studies in the field of linguistics, language pedagogy and second language acquisition backing up creative writing as an effective method that engages the cognitive part of the brain, develops creativity and benefits the development of foreign language learning. It has been shown that writing activities give language learners the opportunity to improve their word and sentence formation, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, cohesion and coherence.

 

Creative writing has been proven to engage both hemispheres of the brain, not only logic, strategy and organisation, but also imagination and emotion. Especially in the world we live in today, empathy, an aspect that creative writing not only relies on but also trains, is essential.

Learning Techniques

Language learning should be approached holistically as the broad picture matters as much as the details. Practicing creative writing in a foreign language helps you not only improve your grammatical accuracy and range of lexical resources, but also your sense of rhythm, imagination and humour. What creative writing can do compared to other language learning methods is that it encourages you to be inventive and make the most of the language you know, as you constantly try to find different ways to say the same thing or develop your ideas.

 

Sometimes less is more, so do not feel constrained or discouraged by a lack of knowledge. You do not need to be advanced in French or know all the Spanish tenses, nor do you need to master all the declensions in German to write a flash story or a short poem such as a haiku. A language learner does not need to have full control of the language studied to be creative, in fact, being creative helps you make the most of the little knowledge you have to play with. For me, creative writing activities are a true celebration of learners’ progress no matter what proficiency level they have.

 

Creative writing is a process: it takes time and dedication. Some people prefer to write their first draft as quickly as possible and then go through their text and edit it. Others prefer to reflect on each sentence written down as they had already decided on a genre, subject and format. Do not stress if you cannot come up with a good introduction: you can start writing your story fist and then decide on an introduction and conclusion at the end, once you have figured out the entire plot. What is amazing about writing creatively is that you can develop your language abilities without being under pressure, which in time helps you hone your skills. You can write a text based on your own interests, experiences, imagination and so it is one of the best ways in which you can counteract boredom. Not to mention that creative writing can be an individual, but also a collective activity. You can write a poem, a story or even a play online, with your friends, which improves not only your creativity, but also your communication and team working skills.

 

When you study foreign languages, practicing creative writing is not only effective, but also an enjoyable activity. It helps you break away from monotony, improves your language skills, nurtures your emotional intelligence and communication abilities and allows you to explore the language and the culture you are learning about without feeling under pressure. Creative writing helps you maximise your exposure to a new language, especially when travelling and social interaction are so limited these days. Step outside of your comfort zone and challenge yourself to write a little bit, if not every day, then once a week.

Academic Mentoring

Working with one of Think Tutor’s talented professional tutors or mentors could help you improve your writing skills, perfect your grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation, hone your personal style, as well as identify your strengths and weaknesses.

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Seven Steps for Applying to Study in the UK

Register

All higher education applications in the UK are made through UCAS (University & College Admissions Service). To start with, you will need to register with UCAS and make sure that all your details are correct.

Find a Course & Apply

Use the UCAS website to research and find the right course and university or college for you. To help you choose, we recommend reading as much as possible about the subjects you’re interested in and compare them. Remember to check the entry requirements for each course which can be found on each course page. This UCAS guide explains most of the higher education terms used in the UK system. Undergraduate & Postgraduate courses have different entry requirements and processes so double check the course you’re applying to for guidance.

Oxbridge Application

If you are applying for Oxford or applying for Cambridge (you cannot apply to both unless it’s for a graduate or postgraduate degree) then you will need to approach your application with special focus. We can provide expert advice on how to do this, offering services that cover everything from support on drafting your personal statement to conducting mock interviews.

Accept your offer

After submitting your application, your university or college will be in touch to let you know if you have received an offer to study, or not. Your UCAS portal will also be updated when an institution has made a decision. An unconditional offer means that you have a place regardless of any pending exam results. A conditional offer means that you need to meet the specified entry requirements in order to secure your place. This is commonly exam results.

Arrange Funding

There are a number of scholarships and bursaries available to international students studying in the UK. View the whole list to see if you may be eligible for one

Apply for a Visa

You may well need a visa in order to study in the UK. You can do a quick check via the Government’s website to ascertain if you require one. A student visa will allow you to live and study in the UK while you are on your course. There are two main types of student visa:

 

Tier 4 (General) Student Visas – for those over the age of 16 and looking to study at a higher education level.

 

Short-Term Study Visas – for students who want to join a course that is 6 months long, or, an English language course up to 11 months long.

 

If you’re looking to work during your stay, you will need to check your visa type and your sponsoring college or university as this will determine the type of work, and the number of hours that you can carry out.

Prepare for your stay

You’ve got your offer confirmed, a student visa sorted, now you just need to pack your bags and prepare for a life studying in the UK. Don’t forget to book flights and get student accommodation sorted with plenty of time before the start of term.

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COVID-19 Catch-Up Funding: 5 Key Questions to Support Your Child’s Education

So, why are industry experts asking questions?

The latest COVID-19 tuition catch-up plan announced on the 2nd June 2021 is comprised of an £1.4bn increase in funding, reportedly to be divided between:

 

  • Schools (£580m)
  • 16-19 year-olds (£220m)
  • National Tutoring Programme (approximately £100m)
  • Department for Education (£400m)

 

Whilst doubt remains whether schools will have autonomy to allocate the funds, it has been made very clear that investment is designated solely for the purpose of catch-up tuition. Despite widespread criticism of the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), it is expected the organisation will be the indirect recipient of the new funds, of which the international recruitment company, Randstad, is going to be the ‘Prime Delivery Partner’ responsible for its success. It is also unclear how exactly the increase in funds for the Department of Education relate to COVID-19 catch-up, with sources pointing to professional development as its primary use.

 

With ambiguity lingering as this eventful morning has unfolded, what are the key questions for parents, teachers, tutors and students?

How exactly are the funds going to be allocated?

Despite the UK’s increase in funding for catch-up education being considerably lower than the US (£100bn) and Netherlands (£7.3bn), the question of particulars is very pertinent.

What role are longstanding providers of professional tuition going to play in the latest catch-up effort?

Criticism of the National Tutoring Programme from respected voices of the tuition industry, such as The Tutors Association (TTA), over the quality of tuition providers has not been addressed by the recent announcement. Simply, parents, students and teachers alike have no guarantee that the tuition being delivered will be from professional tutors.

When is there going to be time for tuition in the school day?

With the core purpose of the investment catch-up, plans for a longer school day have been swept under the carpet amid reports of a shortened lunch break. Concerns remain about pupil burn-out and time for co-curricular activities.

What role will the arts, music, sport and other co-curricular activities play?

It goes without saying that the key to a well-rounded education often lies outside of core subjects. Furthermore, with concerns about student mental health rising to the forefront of the agenda for education policy makers, how much time spent on co-curricular activities, therefore, is a pertinent question for parents, teachers and students.

Are there going to be safeguarding measures in place?

With quality of tuition provided a vital factor in the success of the catch-up tuition, concerns over the safeguarding protections in place born from NTP controversies to assure parents and teachers are yet to be addressed.

 

With much left to be decided, and the future of catch-up tuition seemingly at a crossroads, Think Tutors remain poised to provide tuition to students who need it most.

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Top Benefits of Private Tutoring for your Child

Private home tuition has both the educational and personal benefits. Enabling your child to overcome any learning obstacles but also develop their confidence and self-esteem. We’ll cover the following, to help you gauge whether private tutoring could be an ideal option for you and your child:

 

  • What is private tutoring?
  • Educational benefits of private tutoring
  • Personal benefits of private tutoring
  • How Think Tutors can help

 

What is private tutoring?

Private tutoring is academic support provided to children outside of school. It is tailored to your child’s educational needs and capabilities. A private tutor is not required by the national curriculum, sessions can therefore focus on particular subjects or topics, depending on your child’s academic strengths and weaknesses.

 

In 2019, before the pandemic, according to private tuition statistics, 27% of 11-16 year olds in the UK had received a form of private tutoring. Since Covid-19, the demand has only increased.

 

Private tutoring is designed to enhance your child’s academic capabilities in the best way possible. We understand that everyone has different circumstances and needs, therefore we offer varying types of tutoring support bespoke to your child’s needs including:

 

What are the Educational Benefits of Private Tutoring?

Private tutoring with Think Tutors is a unique experience for every child, tailored to their scholastic abilities. It can help them to strive for academic excellence whilst developing their confidence. Educational benefits of private tutoring include:

 

  • One-to-one attention – Private tutoring offers a distraction-free space, which gives your child the one-to-one attention that school’s can’t provide, due to class sizes. One-to- one tutoring also creates an environment where questions are encouraged without the worry of judgement from peers.
  • Customised to learning style – It is vital that tutoring support is personalised, as every child has different capabilities and needs. A private home tutor can customise sessions to your child’s learning style, whether that be by creating visual examples or setting auditory tasks.
  • Break through learning obstacles – One of the biggest educational benefits of private tutoring is that it allows your child to overcome any learning obstacles. A private tutor will adapt to your child’s pace, planning sessions around what they want to achieve.
  • Prevent summer learning loss – Whilst it is important for children to rest, socialise and enjoy the summer holidays, six weeks away from the classroom can have an impact on engagement, confidence and reading levels, in what is known as summer learning loss. Private home tuition can keep your child engaged throughout the summer, and retain what has been learned during term time.

 

If you want to learn more about how our expert private tutors can support your child’s education, get in touch with us today.

What are the Personal Benefits of Private Tutoring?

Alongside the educational benefits of private tutoring, private home tutors can also tailor tuition, taking on a personal approach. Benefits of private tutoring include:

 

  • Flexibility –  One of the biggest advantages of private tutoring is flexibility. Work commitments, extra-curricular activities and busy social lives can make it difficult to find a regular time slot that suits both parents and children. A private tutor can work around your commitments with the flexibility to decide how often your child requires tutoring sessions. This number can be increased during exam season and decreased during school holidays.
  • Working outside of the syllabus – A private tutor isn’t restricted to the school syllabus. This means they can also support your child outside of the curriculum. Private tutoring can develop other study skills, including management, prioritisation and organisation, all of which are transferable skills used in everyday life.
  • Developing confidence and self-esteem – A private tutor is not a parent or teacher, they are a mentor who can nurture your child’s academic abilities and develop their self-confidence. If your child is struggling with a particular subject i.e English or Maths, private tutoring can provide support to enhance those all important grades.
  • Encouraging goals – Along with developing confidence, one of the most important personal benefits of private tutoring is that it encourages your child to have goals, aspirations and dreams. Schools tend to focus on short-term goals such as grades, whereas tutors often encourage students to have long-term aspirations.
  • Promoting educational responsibility – When students dislike school or are struggling with the curriculum, they tend to feel demotivated. Private home tuition can encourage your child to take responsibility for their education whilst they are given the support required to help them flourish.

Contact Think Tutors

There are a myriad of educational and personal advantages of private tutoring; a tutor can give your child one-to-one attention, encourage educational responsibility and act as a mentor to build confidence and self-esteem.

 

From private A Level tutors to mentors, online tutoring and homeschooling, we provide tailored tutoring services to support your child’s education.

 

For details on our fees please visit our pricing page. If you have an enquiry about our private tutoring services, or are keen to know more about mentoring, then please contact us and we will be in touch shortly.

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Educating the ‘NextGen’: Why education should be a focus for Family Office leaders

Family Offices

In a model Family Office, to ensure maximum profitability and family harmony, business and ownership is balanced with family priorities. Whilst there are established guidelines and operational principles in the business and ownership spheres, structures within the family are far more unpredictable. Simply, succession threatens this balance, and Family Offices are worried about the consequences.

 

A service often done ‘in house’, succession planning involves effectively managing social capital, human capital and financial capital to make sure that the following issues are agreed upon:

 

  • Structuring (governance)
  • Tax and estate planning
  • Legal
  • Education and Financial Literacy

 

Whilst measures are in place to ensure governance, tax and estate planning and legal matters are protected, when it comes to education, a bespoke and actionable approach for each child is the most effective way to guarantee stability.

Educational Support and Mentoring

It is not only a school and university education that is vital for Family Offices. 28% of Family Office Leaders with a succession plan see education, technical knowledge, financial literacy, leadership and business experience as key qualities for the NextGen to possess. Equipping the NextGen with not only an excellent education, but sector specific knowledge and experience ensures they can thrive in a leadership position.

 

How can we help?

 

Think Tutors’ education consultants have identified five key steps to ensure the NextGen is ready for leadership:

 

  • Internships
  • Financial literacy
  • Independent school admissions
  • Subject specific tutors
  • Professional mentors

 

We can equip your children with the education they need to become business leaders. Our approach, underpinned by a tailored education strategy, combines on-the-job training with relevant work experience and mentorship.

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How to Nurture your Child’s Creativity

So, why is creativity important? Developing your child’s creative thinking skills not only helps them to perform better at school, research also shows that nurturing creativity in your child can make them happier and more fulfilled.

 

This blog will explore the fundamentals of nurturing your child’s creativity and will cover the following topics:

 

  • How to make a creative environment for your child
  • Improving creativity with creative activities and resources
  • Nurturing creativity through time
  • Building creative confidence in your child
  • How Think Tutors can help

 

At Think Tutors, we offer tutoring support that will complement your creativity nurturing, from Mentoring to Art Tuition. You can contact us online to find out more about how we can support your child with tuition.

How to Make a Creative Environment for your Child

One of the most important ways to nurture your child’s creativity is by giving them a creative environment where they feel safe, comfortable and free to unleash their imagination.

 

There are number of ways in which you can achieve a creative environment for your child:

 

  • Creative home environment – Having a creative environment at home will help your child to feel safe and comfortable to express themselves. Allowing them to think, play, create and express themselves without fear of judgement, providing an environment that helps nurture their skills. Creative activities can often be messy, noisy and chaotic but this should not be seen as a negative as they allow your child to freely develop their creative skills.
  • Go outside – Going outside is a great way of nurturing creativity in your child. There are a limitless number of things to do with your child outside, from inventing their own outdoor games to building objects with sticks and other materials.
  • Mix up your child’s environment – It is important to mix up your child’s environment as a way of nurturing creativity so that they don’t become bored. This could be as simple as moving to a different room in your house to do creative activities, or visiting somewhere new. You and your child could visit a park, museum or art gallery to spark their imagination.

 

At Think Tutors, our Younger Years Tuition combines learning and fun to inspire creativity and to develop core skills that are important for children. Find out more about our Younger Years Tuition.

Improving Creativity with Creative Activities and Resources

Knowing how to improve creative skills is important when nurturing your child. Creative thinking skills can be developed through a variety of activities and resources, such as:

 

  • Creative Resources – Keeping arts and craft materials around the house is a great way to nurture your child’s creativity. Paints, stickers, colouring pens and other creative resources are useful, but you don’t always need expensive materials to inspire your child to be creative. Recycled materials can captivate your child without costing you an extra penny; cardboard boxes, toilet roll holders and empty jars can spark your child’s creativity and encourage them to build their own fun!
  • Open-ended toys – An open-ended toy can be used in multiple ways for multiple purposes, such as building blocks, fancy dress clothes, and play dough. These toys are particularly good for unstructured playtime as your child has free reign over how they use these toys.
  • Role play – Participating in role play activities with your child is a fun way to get involved with nurturing creativity. Role playing as teachers, doctors, vets, popstars, superheroes or princesses develops your child’s problem-solving skills and encourages them to use their imagination.
  • Read, tell stories and talk – Reading and storytelling is a fantastic way of nurturing children’s creativity because it encourages them to visualise and imagine what the stories would look like if they were happening in real life. Also, encouraging your child to invent their own stories will improve their creative thinking skills.

 

You should consider your child’s learning style when deciding on creative activities to do with them. If your child is a kinaesthetic learner, play dough and building blocks are great creative resources, and if your child is an auditory learner, listening to stories and music is a brilliant way to nurture their creativity. Find out more about learning styles in our recent blog post.

Nurturing Creativity Through Time

Time is an important factor to consider when thinking about how you can best nurture children’s creativity. In particular, there are two key elements of time to think about:

 

 

  • Unstructured time – Children are often most creative when they are left alone to do what they want, rather than having a structured and planned out playtime. Allowing your child to have time each day to express themselves in whatever way they want will nurture their creativity and encourage them to use their imagination.
  • Screen time – Technology can be a great way to learn and develop skills, and has been particularly useful during the Covid-19 pandemic, as we have written about in our blog on learning outside of the classroom. However, screen time can limit your child’s creativity because it encourages passive engagement, rather than active engagement. As a result, your child is taking in other people’s creativity (other people’s videos, images, games) rather than creating their own. Reducing screen time, therefore, will help you with nurturing creativity.

 

While it is important to reduce screen time to nurture your child’s creativity, online learning is still an effective way of learning. We offer both in-person tutoring and online tutoring support, depending on your child’s needs. Find out more about how remote working can benefit your child.

Building Creative Confidence in your Child

Building confidence in your child is important in all aspects of their development, but particularly for nurturing creativity. You can develop your child’s confidence with the following:

 

 

  • Open-ended questions – Asking your child open-ended questions encourages them to think for themselves and gives them confidence in what they are doing. If you ask your child questions, they are also more likely to ask you questions and become more open to exploring new things. Open-ended questions are questions that avoid one word answers and usually begin with ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘why’ and ‘how’.
  • Being Different – Reminding your child that it is okay to be different, and that every person is unique, is important because it helps with building creative confidence and encourages them to express themselves in whichever way they please.
  • Lead by example – Leading by example is one of the most important ways of nurturing creativity because your child looks up to you as a role model. If you join in with their role play, draw with them, watch their performances, go on trips outside together or let them see you being creative, it will give your child confidence in their own creativity.

 

Alongside tutoring support, Think Tutors also offers mentoring support to help students reach their full potential in a healthy and happy way.

Contact Think Tutors

So why is creativity important? Being creative allows your child to express themselves, helps them to develop creative thinking skills, perform better in school and live a happier life.

 

Nurturing creativity can be achieved by considering four key factors: environment, creative activities and resources, time, and building creative confidence. You can find out more about how your child can reach their full potential by reading more of our blog posts.

 

Whether your child is in their younger years, studying for the common entrance exam, or a GCSE student, we provide tailored tutoring services available to support them.

 

If you have an enquiry about how to nurture your child’s creativity, or keen to know more about tuition or mentoring, then please contact us and we will be in touch shortly.