Schooling

Homeschooling: Home Educating a Child With Special Educational Needs

Many parents who have children with special educational needs consider home educating their child.While homeschooling may be the right option for the child involved, it’s essential you understand all it entails before you make a decision. If you’re considering educating your child at home, as an alternative to a mainstream or autism school, make sure you establish the reasons why…
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Schooling

Scholarships: what they are and how to apply

Private schools can provide high quality education for your child, but the benefits of private school come at a real cost. Private education evokes images of £30,000 a year tuition fees, with private school fees UK adding up to well over £150,000 for parents by the time the child turns 18. There are lots of different ways to pay for private school, however, you can avoid breaking the bank with…
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Schooling

FREE EVENT: Find out about changes to the 11+ examinations and interviews for 2018-19

At JK Educate, we are keen to share our many years of experience in education and help parents guide their children through thefundamental stages of school life. As part of this service we deliver free talks for parents regarding key aspects of education, and our next talk will focus on the many changes being made to 11+ assessments over the next year or two. 11+ Talk for Parents Katie…
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Schooling

Assessing Academic Potential and Performance

How is your child doing at school? Many parents remain confused about how their child is doing at school; with the best of intentions, a short appointment at a parents’ evening and a standard school report cannot give them the full picture. To make informed decisions about their child’s future, and to be sure they are aiming for the senior school that will best suit them, parents need to know…
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Schooling

The Gift of Reading

Holiday fun with reading!   The Christmas holidays are the ideal time for family fun, great food, party games and outings. The learning needn’t stop at this time, but it should be kept fun and festive. Classic board games help improve word power, from Boggle to Scrabble to Articulate, and others such as Monopoly require numeracy (and cunning!). Puzzles, reading Christmas…
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Schooling

Parental Impact on Success at School

  As an experienced educator, I know that parental involvement is key to children performing well at school.  It can really make the difference between under-performance and success! Nature vs. nurture Science has yet to identify the gene responsible for intelligence and there is disagreement about the amount of intelligence that is inherited. However, attributes such as hard work and…
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Schooling

THE IMPORTANCE OF READING – AND HOW TO ENCOURAGE IT

  Reading is vitally important in the development of thinking, expressing ideas, expanding vocabulary, and communication skills. Of course, it’s also important for pure enjoyment! Some children are reluctant readers. They need encouragement and stimulation with whatever type of reading matter you can find that interests them. Other children would happily have their head…
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Schooling

Summer Tutoring. Yes or no?

  My previous two blogs have covered the question of when you should and shouldn’t tutor your child and, if you decide to do so, what you should look for in a tutor. At this time of year, parents’ thoughts turn to the summer holidays and whether a child will need tutoring support during that long break. In principle, the summer holidays should be a time of play and relaxation for school…
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Schooling

Exams and How to Survive Them

  Exam season is upon us and stress levels are high. This can be a challenging time of year for everyone in the family. It is not just the children who lose sleep, but also their parents who agonise over academic pressure and worry about studying techniques and results. That being said, with the right approach, exams can be managed and conquered while the family’s sanity remains…
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Schooling

What to look for in a tutor

This month, I’m following up my last blog on “When should (and shouldn’t) you tutor your child” with one that gives advice on what to look out for if you decide to find a tutor, or a tutoring company. The tremendous surge in the number of parents looking for help, assessments and tutoring, expresses their deepest desire to help their children do well, in whatever ways they can. It can…
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