“The course was pitched at students aiming for grade 8/9, which we weren’t aware of. My child came away feeling worried, which was the opposite of what we were trying to achieve.”
Hi Alice, we're really sorry to hear that your daughter didn't find the course level appropriate. The course register was streamed so that the group was all students working at a level 5-6 and aiming for a 6-7, so we are disappointed that you didn't find this reflected in the way the course was taught. We never want a course to have a negative effect on a student's confidence, and we hope that the course materials have helped to boost your daughter's confidence since attending the course. If you have any specific feedback about the way the course was pitched, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us via our contact form. Wishing your daughter the best of luck for her exams! -Honor
“The concept is great. But the king online days didn’t work. It was too hard to focus. It would have been better to do it over 5 days for a few hours each time. Also the teacher didn’t have a camera on and neither did the kids. Not really worth the high cost”
Hi Bernadette,
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on your daughter's experience on our summer refresher course. We're sorry that the format of our intensive courses did not work well for your daughter. We understand that the length of the days may not suit everyone, and we do our best to provide detailed information about the course timings and timetable on our website to help parents and students make informed decisions. However, we also recognise that students have varying preferences, and our intensive format may not align with everyone's needs.
Regarding the issue of the tutor's camera being off during the sessions, we have thoroughly investigated this. The recordings show that the tutor did have her camera on during the sessions, and these recordings are saved in the classroom for your reference. There can be instances where Google Meet temporarily stops video displays if an individual's internet is slow to conserve bandwidth, this could explain why you could not see the tutor.
We also want to clarify that while we strongly encourage students to have their cameras on for a more engaging and interactive learning experience, we cannot force students to do so. Participation in this regard can vary from one course to another, and some courses may have more cameras on than others.
We are sorry your daughter didn't feel she benefited from the course. If she is seeking shorter, more personalised sessions, we would recommend exploring our 1-2-1 tuition options, which can be tailored to meet her specific needs and preferences.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us through our contact form.
“Hi, I did try to contact you directly but have had not response. I was really disappointed with the courses that both my son and daughter attended. There was no alignment across the courses, my son received course materials, my daughter did not. The quality of teaching for the GCSE refresher was very poor with my daughter becoming even less confident in her maths skills until I pointed out that the tutor had given the wrong answer. My daughter had assumed she was wrong and that the tutor was right, did not have the confidence to challenge this and spent the rest of that session thinking she was wrong. In the afternoon session, having sat with my daughter and pointed out that the tutor was wrong on several occasions, my daughter had the confidence to share this and the tutor said, "well we're all getting tired now." This is not ok. These courses are not cheap and I expect tutors to be able to maintain concentration throughout. The A Level refresher courses were disappointing and spent far too much time going over GCSE material rather than A Level.”
“My daughter found the Mechanics course very slow and many of the questions were not covered. She had to ask for the marks scheme to work through the questions herself. This should have been provided immediately after the course.”
Hi Sue, thanks for your feedback. We are really sorry your daughter didn’t find our mechanics course useful.
Our courses are mixed ability and this Easter we found the range of abilities in some courses, particularly maths, to be much larger than previous years - we assume because of disrupted learning due to Covid. This large range of abilities means that the pace of this course wouldn’t have suited all students and clearly your daughter found it too slow. Our tutor had to go at a pace which suited the majority of students and due to needing to spend more time explaining each question our tutor didn’t get through as many questions as usual. I checked the anonymous feedback form which students fill out at the end of the course and most really enjoyed it, with a few - like your daughters - saying it was too slow.
We aim to upload the mark scheme and recordings of the sessions within 24 hours of the course finishing. We are sorry if this wasn’t done as fast as expected.
We hope your daughter enjoyed the pure course and found the pace suited her more - Michelle
“Maths course was good but further maths the teacher did not explain anything just simply wrote down the answers. I didn’t learn a thing. Maths teacher was much more engaging and Talked through her answers.”
Hi Georgia, thanks for your feedback. We are glad you found our A-level mechanics course engaging. We are sorry that you didn’t find the further mechanics course as useful. This is the first time we’ve run a further mechanics course and our tutor gave us feedback after the course, saying that due to the longer format of further maths questions it was difficult to explain the answers to the questions and fit within the timings of the day. We are going to look again at the timetable to see how this can be resolved for next year. We hope your exams went well, good luck on results day! - Michelle
