A frank message to a caring parent

Dear fellow parent,

I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you, some facts, ideas, and opinions, and thereby offer one or two suggestions which you may find useful. Despite my experience and the expertise that I have gained whilst serving in various positions in the secondary education sector in England since 1993, I will always consider myself a parent first and a teacher second.

Before COVID-19, there have always been constant changes in the English education system and all the pandemic has done is to widen the already huge chasm in education between children from different backgrounds. It must be said that in my view, it is not just about rich and poor. From what I have seen, how much parents value education is more of a determining factor in their child’s success than how wealthy they are.

I would like to quickly touch on three points: how grades will be awarded in 2022; online and offline teaching and finally, how we do things at Excel.  

“There will be examination in 2022” – says the government

The government is correct in providing clarity on this, as we now have a clear position to work towards.

Given that examination was promised in 2021 and ended up being cancelled and replaced with teacher assessment, not the government or any person or institution, can say with absolute certainty where we will all be with respect to coronavirus come the summer of 2022. However, we think there is a 95% chance that the exams will hold.

It surprised me when, in the middle of May 2020, both Cambridge University and Bristol University moved all their lectures online until the summer of 2021.  From what we saw, those two institutions have been proved right. 

The best way to prepare for an exam has always been to take it as a marathon and not a sprint. This is what the vast majority of the most successful students have always done. The so-called mavericks sometimes pull it off by working hard in the weeks leading to the exam, and end up doing well. However, it must be said that although it is a little easier to get away with that at GCSE, especially before the new, more challenging Grade 9 to 1 curriculum, that approach does not work well at A-level. The young people in that category suffered in 2020 and 2021, as grades were awarded by teacher assessment.

Those students who take a more consistent approach to studying will always reap huge rewards irrespective of whether grades are awarded by a proper exam or by teacher assessment.

Experience as a parent and a teacher shows me that private tuition can be the game changer – the difference that makes a difference. Provided the tutoring is done by a competent teacher, with a genuine interest in helping the exam candidate, the student can make a substantial improvement in knowledge and skills within a relatively short period of time.

Quality of online teaching

The variation in the quality of online education provided by many schools during the pandemic is something many parents find difficult to comprehend, as it was of a sub-standard quality. Let us hope that the quality of online education has now improved. Given that all the schools have had time to prepare. The virus is still very much around and online teaching, although second best, will continue to be part of the mix for the foreseeable future. There are two reasons for this. The first one is because teachers and students are always being asked to self-isolate whenever they or their close acquittances test positive for coronavirus. The second is that no one knows if there will be another lockdown, as new variants of the virus keep cropping up now and then…

Every institution that is serious about delivering high quality education must continue to develop its expertise in three modes of teaching: in-person; online and online-offline-mix. What I mean by online-offline-mix is a case where some of the students are in the classroom and some are attending lessons from home, via their computers or other devices. Another version of this is where the teacher is teaching from home and some of the students are in the classroom and some online.

How we do things at Excel and why

Our module of tutoring is “individual support within a small-group setting.” We have found that this is often much more effective than one-to-one teaching on its own. There are two factors that can make our small group teaching more effective than one-to-one in many cases:

1. The course is led by a top-notch teacher – a good communicator, with subject knowledge and familiarisation with how examiners ask questions.
2. Peer learning in a healthy and competitive small group environment, where the young people are from homes where education is highly valued.

We teach mainly in small groups of about 3 to 4 students at A-level, and 4 to 5 at GCSE. In addition, we also provide individual one-to-one tutorial to the students in the group. This is done when we identify the need, or when it is requested by the student or their parent. We give one-to-one tutorial for up to 10% of the teaching hours at no extra fees.

In-Person and online lessons at Excel iLearn

At Excel, we are providing both online and offline lessons in the academic year 2021-22. We are of the view that in-person lessons are the most effective for young people. However, given the current climate with the pandemic, it is good to have the option of providing online lessons for those who want it for one reason or another, and also to be able to switch all classes to online if public health situation demands it.

We are very fortunate that we were able to get online teaching going very quickly at the start of the lockdown and it continued for the remainder of 2019-20 and for the whole of 2020-21 academic year. We are very pleased about how effective the teaching we have been providing via online video lessons has been. Having said that, there can never be any room for complacency, as we must keep finding ways to further improve the quality of education we deliver. I believe there are two key factors that made our online teaching so successful:  providing one-to-one tutorial in addition to small-group teaching, and the fact that we insist that every student switches on his or her video camera during the lesson, so the teacher can see them.

 In conclusion, I refer you to the statement I made earlier in this letter: “The best way to prepare for an exam has always been to take it as a marathon and not a sprint.”

Digital detox!

We all know how instrumental technology is to the learning process and we must continue to develop our expertise in the use of devices to communicate, learn and entertain ourselves. Given the right piece of technology, things can be done with speed and convenience. Years ago, one had to order past exam papers and wait for perhaps one week for them to arrive in the post. This is no longer the case, as you can access them online in seconds. For many teenagers, revising with past papers involves browsing through the question, thinking about the answer and then checking the mark scheme to see if the answer they thought of is the correct one. This is not a very effective way to revise. A few past papers must be printed out and the student should answer the questions under exam conditions. It is recommended that for each exam paper, they attempt at least two or three under exam conditions, as part of their preparation. They should use between five to six past questions for each paper, but they only need to do two or three under exam conditions. It is more time consuming but more effective.

The main reason why it is important to print out the question and do it with a pen on paper is that the vast majority of exams are still done with pen and paper. This is good for handwriting practice and also for getting used to timing of the exam.  

I wish you fellow parents all the best in getting your teenager to understand and appreciate that you are trying your best to help them succeed. It is my sincere wish that they cooperate with you and work hard enough to see themselves succeed as well!

Thank you for investing the time to read this message. My team and I at Excel are looking forward to working with your family to help your child to achieve his or her full potential in core academic subjects.

Your sincerely

 Idris Musty

BSc. PGCE