All About Getting Help for Students Weak in English

[quirkymum]

Pen88n:

My fren's kid is in P6 next year and not too motivated in improving his English. He is with a popular English tuition centre, but has recently failed his CA2 English in school.


My fren is staying in the north and asking for parents' feedback on the below centres before he decides whether to change tuition for his son as it is not working well now. The current options he is considering are:
1. The Alternative Story at Yishun
2. Mindstretcher at Bishan
3. British Council

Parents with upper primary kids in these centres, please help to provide your comments / feedback. As his son is already near PSLE next year, there is no time for trial and error. Personally, I've not tried any of these centres above, so I do not want to give wrong advice.

Appreciate your help. Thanks

Hi,

I have had experience with BC, I feel they focus more on enrichment, which is good. However, there is not much drilling to get ready for exams. Hence, you cannot really see clear cut improvement. I am trying out The Alternative Story myself for holiday programmes so I also cannot comment on it. For Mind Stretcher, I do not have personal experience so better not say.

[Trapwithin]

I have a relative dd whose is in Mind Matters in Woodlands Civic Centre.

Apparently the program is helping her, your friend might want to find out more.

BC is not so academic driven, so might not be suitable.

[Pen88n]

Thanks for the quick reply, Trapwithin and Quirkymum. Really appreciate your feedback.


Seems like BC is not the place then, as kid really need \"exam focus\" English tuition for PSLE. Understand from my fren for paper 2, kid is weak in cloze and compre. Compo is also weak and marks ranges between 22 - 24 (out of 40) on average. My fren is really worried now for SA2 and PSLE - even said this is more stressful than his job!

[PretzelT]

I actually rushed my DD for a few lessons with The Alternative Story once I knew about them. I got her to go just before her PSLE. She told me that she could understand how to write compos much more. Of course she had to study a lot of the notes they gave as they could not teach her everything in so few lessons. But the notes were very good. She was also much clearer on her synthesis. My feedback may not be worth much as it was only for a few lessons. But I find that for just so few lessons, she could learn, I was quite impressed. So now thinking about whether to send younger one.


For BC, I heard a lot of feedback that it is not suitable for older students as they are not academic.

For mindstretcher, I know they are quite established but I have not heard anyone say anything personally.

[Pen88n]

PretzelT:

I actually rushed my DD for a few lessons with The Alternative Story once I knew about them. I got her to go just before her PSLE. She told me that she could understand how to write compos much more. Of course she had to study a lot of the notes they gave as they could not teach her everything in so few lessons. But the notes were very good. She was also much clearer on her synthesis. My feedback may not be worth much as it was only for a few lessons. But I find that for just so few lessons, she could learn, I was quite impressed. So now thinking about whether to send younger one.


For BC, I heard a lot of feedback that it is not suitable for older students as they are not academic.

For mindstretcher, I know they are quite established but I have not heard anyone say anything personally.

Thanks, PrezeIT. Really appreciate your feedback.

[jasmineong]

Hi Pen88n,


Sorry I cant help you here as I do not have personal experience with the 3. For TAS, it is experience through forum and book but no classes yet.

By the way, I am also looking for a centre for next year. Just want to make sure I do not choose the wrong one, can I find out which centre your friend’s son went. Can pm me? (if not so nice to say cos maybe it is actually good for others but somehow did not work out for your friend’s son)

[Pen88n]

Jsamine, hv PM you. I think it works for some kids and not for some. So not too nice for me to post name in this forum. Hope it helps.

[Trapwithin]

Do note that no matter which centres are chosen.

Parents monitoring is also a MUST to ensure improvement.

My 2 cents worth.

[isabella.026990zola]

Trapwithin:

Do note that no matter which centres are chosen.

Parents monitoring is also a MUST to ensure improvement.

My 2 cents worth.

It is true, my friend's son goes to a brand name centre but parents just 'throw' him to tuition. Without monitoring, his grades still went down. No matter how good the centre or teacher is, the parent must help at home. My child is not in primary school yet. Even so, for early childhood education, I find the effectiveness is multiplied many times when I go through with her what she has learnt in the enrichment centre. JMHO

[BigDad]

Hi Pen88n,


The Alternative Story (TAS) works for my DS1. He is in P5 also. Used to dislike writing but now looks forward to it. He also used to be weak in comprehension but I can see improvement in his understanding now. But need to caution you, all this takes time. I joined their holiday programme, then stopped then joined their regular classes again. I only started seeing improvement recently.

I think especially for languages, they take time to improve. Unless the child is very good already, if not, improvement will not be so fast.

I don’t know if your friend has tried Learning Point? I heard that they are quite good too. I preferred TAS as it was nearer for me and also their writing notes seemed better. But can give Learning Point a try too.