English Tutoring is Key
Of the subjects young people experience at school, English is the most central to their learning and English tutoring can, as such, have enormous benefits. English is the language that the majority of children and young people learn ‘in’ and learn ‘through’ in this country. As such, colleges and universities will have a qualification in English as part of the entrance qualifications for almost every course. It is vital to be able to read for information and to write at a suitable standard to ‘show what you know’.
It is because of this that English is mandatory through to 4th year and is recommended by schools beyond that. A Higher English qualification or equivalent will be required for entry onto almost all university courses.
So what does studying English look like? Well, let’s start from the structure of both the National 5 and Higher courses and work from there. The 100 marks available are split into sections as follows:-
- 30 marks for folio writing. These are pieces of course work, two essays each worth 15 marks. Each essay is of a different genre, (creative/personal or discursive for example), and has to be no more 1000 words long for National 5 and 1300 words for Higher. These are worked on both in class and at home and are submitted to the Scottish Qualification Agency, (SQA), before the exam.
- 30 marks for ‘Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation’ or close reading
- 40 marks for Critical Reading – 20 marks in response to Scottish Texts that have been studied and 20 marks for a critical essay on another genre of text studied.
Whatever stage and level your child is working at, the skills needed to succeed in these components will form the basis of the English tutoring work we do. Reading a text and answering questions may sound straightforward but finding and selecting the relevant information and then clearly and concisely presenting the answer are skills that need to be learned and developed. Likewise, structuring the thoughts, information and ideas to structure an essay of 1000 words or more, either as coursework or in the pressurised atmosphere of the exam hall needs to be practised and the skills honed. We are here to help your child achieve this.
Another thing to bear in mind is some young people, especially in the earlier years of high school, can find it challenging to seek help from a teacher if they have a question or are finding something tricky. Young people in this age group can be reluctant to draw attention to themselves for whatever reason – self-regard and peer pressure can be a powerful forces. In a 1-2-1 English tutoring session, these pressures are removed and a youngster can ask a question openly and can work on strengths and weaknesses without having to worry about what others will say or think about them.
Please get in touch to discuss any aspect of your child’s learning – we are here to help.