The Importance of Having Tuition During School Holidays
When school holidays are coming, the students will always look forward to it. Since there is no school, that usually means more free time for their hobbies. You might even be compelled to give your child the break they deserve.
So the question is: Should children continue their tuition during school holidays?
This question has always been a tricky one for most parents, since on one hand, a break from the books can get them ready for the new semester or the new year.
On the other hand, study results have revealed that academic skills can decline if not practiced. Your brain is just like a muscle. To maintain its condition, it needs exercise.
Here are some compelling reasons you should continue tuition during school holidays.
Before you read on, you might want to download this entire article in PDF format to print it out for your child, or to read it later.
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1. To Prevent Loss of Knowledge
While it is great that your child can rest and have fun, long holidays means that the students would have a higher chance of forgetting what they have learned during school.
In fact, it is such a common occurrence that there is a term called “the summer slide”, where they will struggle to retain the knowledge they have learned while school was in session. It often occurs during extended breaks, like the June or December holidays.
During these long periods away from school, students often lose around two months’ worth of mathematical skills and knowledge. Additionally, their reading abilities can decline by up to one month of progress.
Moreover, should your child return to school with the loss of whatever they learned, it can hamper their learning progress, since no new learning can occur until the existing gaps and deficiencies in the current knowledge are addressed and resolved.
2. It Helps Fill Knowledge Gaps and Strengthen Foundations
Letting your child continue with tuition during school holidays provides an excellent opportunity to tackle any knowledge gaps or weaknesses that may have been spotted when school was in session.
This is because tutors would be able to work closely with the students to review concepts that are difficult to grasp, strengthen the foundations and fill in any learning gaps outside of normal school demands.
With the school holidays, specific, targeted lessons can be implemented, and anything that is in need of extra reinforcing can be focused on now.
By targeting specific areas of improvement, it helps your child overcome any difficulties in grasping the concept and build a solid foundation. With a strengthened foundation, it would allow for smoother progression in your child’s learning progress.
3. It Aids in Maintaining Good Study Habits
When it comes to crucial years, whether it’s PSLE, N-Levels, or O-Levels, maintaining good study habits is essential, because your child is essentially putting everything they have learned in that exam. This also includes knowledge they have gained for the previous year.
Tuition during school holidays can help, as a tutor would be able to reinforce the learning points and suggest a study schedule that is tailored to your child’s needs.
From there, they can advise the student on the approach they should take and even assist in developing a good study schedule to help address their weak points.
As aforementioned, it will be difficult for your child to transition to a new term if they did not continue a learning routine during the long holidays. It can be especially detrimental if that year is their PSLE, N-Level, or O-Level year.
Hence, tuition during school holidays would help keep your child focused on their studies, allowing them to have an easier time learning, even when the holidays have ended.
4. It Helps Them Get Ahead
In addition to closing current learning gaps and keeping your child’s learning progress in check, tuition during school holidays can even help get your child ahead of the current school curriculum.
Your tutors would be able to help with more comprehensive assignments and address new challenging concepts early that your child would face later on. After all, by preparing your child for the next semester or academic year, your child will get a preview and know what to expect.
With this head start, it would ease their transition, especially to the next grade. It would also be easier for them to cope with their assignments and improve their school performance, boosting their confidence in their coursework.
5. Boosts Your Child’s Confidence and Self-Esteem
When it comes to succeeding in academics and your child’s overall well-being, confidence is key. Whenever your child is faced with challenging concepts or an exam, they would inadvertently struggle with self-doubt and anxiety.
Moreover, when it comes to asking questions in class, they might hesitate to do so in front of their peers and stay silent, even though they are unable to fully grasp a particular topic and actually needed the clarification.
Therefore, tuition during school holidays can provide that supportive environment where they can build confidence in their abilities via personalised attention and positive reinforcement.
With this, your child would be able to overcome their academic difficulties and able to celebrate the small progress that they have made. Moreover, as the tutors are able to give on-on-one attention, your child would feel more comfortable asking questions without the presence of peers.
Hence, the learning environment during the holiday tuition is an ideal starting point for your child to seek clarification on the areas they have difficulty in.
Over time, perhaps your child can even build up enough confidence to interact with their class teachers and classmates and be assertive enough to ask for any clarifications should they need them.
To Whom Would the Holiday Tuition Be Most Important To?
The extra time available for tuition during school holidays can be crucial for those preparing for PSLE. After all, the PSLE can come disarmingly fast, especially since the P6 students would have to take their Prelims before that. In fact, their oral exams would commence as early as August.
As a result, the June holidays before the PSLE would be the most opportune time for your child to gain the knowledge the tools needed to succeed, such as exam techniques and establishing a study schedule. The tutors themselves might go through revision just to reinforce the core skills before PSLE commences.
It would be great if you can discuss with your child what their goals for PSLE are once they reach P6, since their results would affect which secondary school they would want to go. Research the requirements needed to get in, and have your child work towards that goal.
Secondary 2 Students Choosing their Subject Combinations
Secondary 2 may not seem as important as N-Levels or O-Levels, but this is where their streaming year occurs. Secondary 2 students are supposed to choose their subject combination for Secondary 3, and whether or not your child gets the subject they want depends on how well they do in their Secondary 2 exams.
Unlike primary school, secondary school exams are comprised or at least 7 subjects, with just as many exams. The pressure to excel is there, as the subject combination they choose will have potentially long-term impact later in their school journey.
Any improvements that can be achieved or preparations that can be made throughout Secondary 2 is invaluable, as secondary school curriculum usually progresses at a head-spinning pace. That is why tuition during school holidays would be a great way to help your child cope with it.
Secondary 4/5 Students Taking N/O-Levels
For those taking N or O-Levels, having tuition during school holidays can offer several potentially transformative benefits. While your child might yearn for a break from the books, the thing is, their first exam, Mother Tongue, will occur in July! Sure, they can take it again, but it is always better to have one less subject to take at the end of the year. After all, this means one less subject to study for.
Moreover, as their exams would likely be back-to-back, a few extra sessions with a tutor to get a student ready for those exams would go a long way into preparing them for this challenge.
Since they are in their final year of secondary school, it’s even more important, as the big decisions are looming. Where would they want to go after secondary school?
After all, there are many possibilities. There is JC, poly, or they can even go ITE to gain working skills first. Hence, tutors can help by drawing attention to various options and aid students in forming their goals based on what their dream path is.
Hence, tuition during school holidays can be a crucial part of the support network, guiding your child towards the end of their time in secondary school. June holidays and December holidays (if the child is going to Secondary 4 next year) gives space for tuition that would make a significant difference.
How Can Grade Solution Help?
Let’s put it this way: Suppose your child wants to join the school’s rugby team, who might be having tryouts near the end of the school semester. They would need to exercise and practice beforehand for a chance to pass the tryout and get a spot in the team.
It’s the same for exams. You need to establish the vital groundwork in preparation for the main event. Doing it at the last minute would make the groundwork unstable.
Therefore, to help your child gain the exam mindset they need, we have holiday programmes for English, Mathematics, Chinese, and Science.
In particular, our PSLE Math Intensive Courses focus on understanding concepts and applying them to the problem sums. Aside from that, it also helps with addressing common mistakes and avoiding them, so that careless mistakes can be reduced by 80%, which also improves exam skills and answering techniques.
An analysis of your child’s strengths and weaknesses will also be given, so that your child would know what to focus on in their studies. This will help salvage the marks they need for an improved grade.
These benefits would also extend to our O-levels Intensive Courses. We have E-Math and A-Math intensive courses during the school holidays which will summarise all the must-know concepts of each chapter, allowing your child to master the foundation first before going in to more complex questions. After all, you need to learn how to walk before you run!
The programme also will help your child in identifying keywords and the concept needed to solve the math problem.
Conclusion
It is important to remember that when we talk about tuition during school holidays, we don’t mean that children should sit at the desk and be made to answer back-to-back questions, draining the fun out of the school holidays.
We only mean that learning should never be forgotten while they are enjoying their long school break. Especially if they are taking their PSLE, N-Levels, or O-Levels that same year.
It is alright to let your child take a break from the books as and when is needed. It’s better to let them do things a little bit often and make small progress, rather than waiting until they are falling behind before addressing their educational needs.
It does not matter how you approach it, as long as you can prevent your child from forgetting what is learned, so that they can return to school all recharged and without any learning gaps in their knowledge.
Should you need help in this, particularly in Mathematics, Jimmy Maths is here for you. Our Math teachers have taught mathematics for over a decade. With their expertise, they aim to aid your child in grasping the fundamentals of maths concepts and achieve mastery in applying them.
If your child needs help, feel free to reach out to us at jimmymathscoach@gmail.com.
Before you go, you might want to download this article in PDF format to print it out for your child, or to read it later.
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Does your child need help in his or her studies?
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