Sharing Our Thoughts on Education and Tutoring
School’s Out, Reports are In
It’s the end of another busy school year and our students are settling into a well-deserved break. But beneath all the excitement of summer holidays lurks the bi-annual report card anxiety. As parents and carers, we might look forward to seeing where our children have...
Children’s Writing, Creativity and Exam performance
We receive lots of inquiries about students and their problems with writing. The connection between the tech age and writing is apt in this instance. We have great tools to enhance children's learning, however while these tools are a standard in classrooms, how much...
Nepean Tutoring: Delivering Results
More than a tutoring business, Nepean Tutoring is a team of passionate educators with heart. We strive to provide the best individualised support for students regardless of age or ability level. Our tutoring team includes past and present teachers, disability support...
Sleep to live and learn
Why good sleep is essential for health, wellbeing and even academic success. It’s already more than half way through term one, and the heat is on for students in years 11 and 12. Assessments pile up, test times loom and the realities of senior years stress start to...
Help Your Child Improve Their School Marks and Confidence: Adopt a Growth Mindset
A ‘growth mindset’ is the belief that abilities are developed over time, and any skill or area of knowledge can be developed with hard work and perseverance. A term coined by educational psychologist Dr Carol Dweck, growth mindset contrasts to the much more common...
Help Me Help My Child to Read!
3 Essential Things to Know When Teaching Your Child to Read Reading is an essential early skill that underpins so much future learning. But what can you do if reading really isn’t as easy as ‘a b c’ for your child? How can you help get them back on track with reading,...
Teachers and Mentors: Bridging Two Roles as a Tutor.
Increasingly, tutors are fulfilling the role of ‘mentor’ for young people. As well as teaching the skills and knowledge students may need in a tailored one-on-one setting, tutors can provide mentoring support - helping students build study skills, test skills,...
Treating Maths Anxiety: Un-learning Beliefs and Building Self-efficacy
Mathematics anxiety is the apprehension and crippling fear of doing maths, whether it be in a maths classroom or taking a test. Like many anxieties, the central problematic behaviour is avoidance. Anxiety itself is an adaptive trait to protect us from possible harms....
3 NAPLAN Myths Busted: Demystifying Common Misconceptions About the NAPLAN Test
Just hearing the word ‘NAPLAN’ is enough to raise anyone’s blood pressure; images of stressed out kids, parents and teachers spring to mind. Since 2008 the NAPLAN tests have been measuring the reading, writing, literacy and numeracy skills of Australian children, and...
Education – A Matter of Wisdom
During the past month, there has been a media focus on the drop in Literacy and Numeracy standards in Australian compared to the global community. To arrive at a reason for this phenomenon would be too broad to address in this short article except to say that we...
How Learning a Second Language Benefits Students’ Development and Education
Increasingly, Australian schools are taking positive steps towards making language lessons a compulsory part of the syllabus. Many primary and high school students now learn Italian, French or Japanese, among other languages. But languages classes aren’t just a ‘fun...
Pleasures of Reading: Benefits
Children's inherent appetite for books should be encouraged through activities that build a passion for reading. This can be achieved through active participation in literature that whet's their imagination and interests. Whilst technology, for a time, reigned in...
Balanced Life During Christmas Holidays
The Christmas Break…A Time to Study? Ho ho…No! It’s looking a lot like Christmas… and the holidays are upon us! When you hear of the festive holidays, you’re either one of two people. You’re thinking, “No, please get me out of here! I have work to do!” OR, you’re...
Finding the Right Tutor For Your Child
Tutor-Student Matching: How does it work? It is a well-known fact that as social beings, humans, especially children, learn from those they interact with closely on a daily basis. Children spend an average of 30 hours a week in school, and with other commitments like...
Student Resilience and Anxiety Disorders
There has been a great deal of discussion in 21st century education, especially in the past few years, about the importance of resilience for success in school. Glazed-eyed students study their fingernails for many an hour in Life Skills lessons in junior high school,...