My child is struggling with English. How can I help?

Your child might tell you immediately if they are struggling with English at school, enabling you to take action quickly to stop the problem from becoming entrenched. However, there are lots of children who will not tell their parents and so the news can come as a shock at Parents’ Evening or when reports are sent home. This can mean that issues might have taken root, and your child may have started to fall behind.

It might be tempting to just leave it and see if they improve as they get older or perhaps when they have a new teacher, and this may work for some children. For others though, any period of time where they are not following lessons or keeping up with the work set, can mean that they fall behind and have a mighty hill to climb to get back to where they should be; if the child believes they are “no good” at English, it will be very hard to motivate them to make this massive effort. For students in Key Stage 4 (years 10-11) or Key Stage 5 (Year 12-13), there will not be the time to risk “just leaving it.” This is where a tutor can help. I can help your child cover any work they may have fallen behind in and help to build their confidence in the subject to stop this perception of not being able to do it. If your child has fallen behind in English and needs help from a tutor, click here

 

The Importance of English

English is a core subject at school and all students will be expected to pass at a Grade 4 or above before they are 18. Most will do this in Year 11 when they first sit their GCSEs but those who get less than a Grade 4 then, will be expected to retake the English Language exam until they reach a Grade 4. For this reason, it is better to take action quickly if your child is struggling with English, either by following some of the tips below or by hiring an English tutor. Click here if your child is struggling with English and you need help

Practical help at home

Speak to the school

If you haven’t been told about your child struggling with English by the teacher themselves, talking to the teacher should be your first step. The teacher should be able to tell you which areas of English your child is having difficulty with so that you can then support in the most effective way. They may be able to provide material for you to help your child catch up on something they have missed or to support them in mastering something they are struggling with. Whilst teachers are unlikely to tell you to get a tutor, it is worth asking them if they think a tutor would help.

Schools are often able to recommend a tutor to you. Tutors, like me, are usually former teachers and may be known to the school so you can be confident that the person they are recommending is the right person to help your child.

Reading

There are many ways parents can support a child who is struggling with English if they have the time. If parents do not have the time, a tutor will be able to do this for you.

It will come as no surprise that reading is top of this list. As well as the numerous, widely-documented benefits to a child’s brain development and mental wellbeing (https://www.booktrust.org.uk/what-we-do/impact-and-research/Research/the-benefits-of-reading/), the educational advantages are abundant.

The more a child reads, or is read to, the wider their vocabulary will be. This will enable them to understand the increasingly complex texts they will be required to read in school. This widening vocabulary will also help them with their own written work – a requirement of the GCSE being that students use ambitious vocabulary.

The more a child reads, the wider their imagination will be. If they are not exposed to different worlds, people and knowledge in books, how will they be able to see beyond their own lives to write with imagination when it is required?

Reading helps children learn how language works.  Children who read are more often able to write fluently as they know how sentences should be constructed and tend to make fewer grammatical errors.

 

What should my child be reading?

This is a common question from parents at Parents’ evenings and the answer is anything! Fiction is important as children will all be expected to respond to fiction texts in English lessons and GCSE examinations, but it doesn’t have to be academic or impressive fiction. My love of reading began with Enid Blyton and then Sweet Valley High, neither of which are likely to make it onto any prescribed reading list! However, they instilled the habit of reading in me and, because they were series of books, they encouraged me to keep reading. So, my advice is to encourage your child to read absolutely anything!

It’s also not vital that your child finishes reading a whole novel. GCSE English Language exams use extracts from novels, so even getting your child to read lots of openings of novels is worthwhile. The only novels it is important that they finish are the prescribed exam texts for English Literature as they will need to know the whole text for those exams.

Reading nonfiction can be just as valuable in developing a student’s vocabulary, fluency and imagination and is often perceived as being easier to access by some unwilling readers, probably as it tends to be printed in smaller, more manageable sections. Many a reluctant reader in library lessons I have taught has been enthusiastic about reading the Guinness Book of Records!

Students will be assessed on their responses to nonfiction texts too, so this is still an important activity. There are examples of nonfiction texts all around us, in the real world and online – not only in books, magazines and newspapers but even recipes, food packaging and instruction manuals. Any opportunity a child can take to read is going to have a positive impact on their language skills and comprehension, so encourage reluctant readers to read whenever you get the chance – reading a recipe out to you while you cook; reading an instruction manual out when you have a new gadget; asking them to Google the person you are watching on TV. There are countless subtle ways you can make your child read without making them sit down with a book!

(If your child needs help with reading, click here)

 

Talking about reading

The value of reading can be increased by talking about it with others so, if you can, read to your children or ask them about the books they are reading to themselves. Many of the books studied by students will be books parents also read at school, so you might be able to share some of your memories and knowledge with your children.  Discussing what they have read, maybe arguing a book’s merits or ranking it next to others, is a brilliant way of developing comprehension and enthusiasm. My children are avid readers and have read many of the books I have talked to them about and now regularly inspire me to read new things. Making reading a shared experience within families can give children the zest to read and give them the skills they will need in an English lesson where discussion is a regular activity.

If this is not something you or your family can fit in, this is something I can help with as a tutor and would be a valuable part of Key Stage 3 tutoring. Encouraging fluent reading, developing comprehension and talking about a writer’s language choices gives students the best possible foundation for studying for their GCSEs and A Levels. Older students also benefit from reading their set texts (both at GCSE and A Level) with a tutor who can explain anything they don’t understand and make the text accessible to the student.

(If your child needs help understanding their set texts, click here)

 

Writing

There is little doubt that some children’s writing has suffered since so much of their communication is done on a mobile phone. Children no longer need to write letters when they can contact people so easily on their mobiles using pictures and emojis rather than words and sentences. Being able to write brief messages using abbreviations and text slang is great for social media but it means children have fewer opportunities to practise good spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Whilst the types of texts students study in English lessons have evolved with the times, there are still a number of types of writing that students will be expected to practise and use in both lessons and exams. Not only will they be expected to be able to write descriptions and narratives, but they will need to produce speeches, articles, letters, reports, interviews and more and adapt their writing to different audiences. The more children are able to practise these types of writing, the better their chances of success in English will be,  so any opportunity you can give your child to have this practice is useful.

This isn’t as easy to achieve as reading with your child – very few children are likely to be thrilled if their parents ask them to write a speech or report that hasn’t been set for homework by a teacher! This is where a tutor can really help.

(If your child needs help with their Writing, click here)

 

Support from a tutor

Whatever your child is struggling with in English, having a tutor can help.

Classrooms are busy and sometimes noisy environments which can make it difficult for children who are finding the subject challenging to concentrate and focus; working in the relative calm of the home can cut out these distractions and give children the peace they need to focus.

Many children find it embarrassing to ask for help in front of their classmates; one-to-one tuition allows children to ask for the help they need and check their understanding every two minutes if they choose to!

Teachers can be pulled in 30 different directions in lessons, and it is often the noisiest, most confident children who are most effective at getting their attention; having the undivided attention of a tutor means even the quietest child can be heard and helped.

Some children’s behaviour can stop them from progressing in a subject and this is often perpetuated by other students in the class; sitting down with a tutor, away from the pressure of their peer group, can give the student the space they need to be themselves and work in a way they can’t manage at school.

Whatever your child’s reason for struggling in English and whatever level they are, I can help them by identifying their needs and concerns and designing lessons which specifically cater for them. If you would like to arrange a session, click here.