"Struggling" is the word on the report, and it hides the most useful fact about a struggling student: they are nearly always struggling with one specific thing, usually from two or three years earlier, which has made everything since impossible and which nobody has found. This page is about tutoring built for that student: what the research says works, how a class for a struggling student differs from an ordinary one, and what the first month should look like.
What "struggling" usually is
A child who is failing Year 8 algebra is rarely failing algebra. They are failing fractions from Year 5, or negative numbers from Year 7, and algebra is where it finally shows. A child who "cannot do comprehension" in Grade 5 usually reads too slowly to hold the passage in mind, or has never been taught to find where in the text the answer is. A child who "hates chemistry" in Grade 10 missed the mole in the first term and has met it, disguised, in every chapter since.
The gap is invisible from inside. The child feels that this year's subject is hard. The teacher sees this year's test. The parent sees the grade. The one thing that fixes it, finding the gap and teaching from there, is the one thing a classroom of thirty cannot do, and it is what tutoring for a struggling student is for.
The other thing "struggling" usually includes, by the time anyone acts, is a decision: the child has decided they cannot do this subject. That decision is now part of the problem, and a class for a struggling student has to deal with it as deliberately as with the gap.
What the research says
The best evidence on tutoring comes from studies of students who were behind, and it is unusually strong. Programmes of intensive tutoring, with one tutor and one or two students, by trained tutors, several sessions a week, aligned with the school's curriculum and running for a school year, produced gains of several months of learning, among the largest effects measured for any intervention in education, with the largest gains for the students furthest behind. Programmes with untrained volunteers, or one session a week, or a separate curriculum, produced smaller gains or none.
So the form matters: the research did not find that "tutoring" works for struggling students; it found that a particular kind does. The summary of the evidence, and what happened when tutoring moved online, is in does online tutoring work.
How a class for a struggling student differs
| An ordinary class | A class for a struggling student |
|---|---|
| Starts on this week's topic | Starts with a diagnosis, going backwards until the student is sure, and teaches from there |
| An hour, once a week | Thirty to forty-five minutes, two or three times a week, because attention and confidence are both short |
| Explains, then practises | A small win in the first ten minutes, every class, before the hard thing |
| Marks the answer | Reads every line of working and catches the error at the step where it happens |
| Moves on with the school | Does not move to a new topic until the old one is automatic, even if the school has moved on |
| Homework set | Homework short enough to be done, and checked next class, so the habit of doing it returns |
| Progress at the test | Progress named in writing to the student and the parent every week, because the student needs to see it before they will believe it |
The small win matters more than it sounds. A student who has decided they cannot do maths needs to do some maths, correctly, early in every class, before they will try the thing they fear. Tutors who skip this and go straight to the hard topic lose the student in the first five minutes.
By age
- 6 to 8: nearly always reading or number facts. Twenty-minute sessions, daily if possible, a parent beside the child, games where they work. The gap is young and closes fast.
- 9 to 11: fractions, place value, times tables, reading for meaning. Thirty minutes, three times a week. The child can still be told honestly that the gap is small and will go, and will believe it.
- 12 to 14: the first algebra, negative numbers, ratio; science as a subject; the confidence decision is usually made by now. Forty-five minutes, twice a week; the gap is usually in Year 5 or 6 work and must be fixed before the current year's work makes sense. How to find an algebra gap specifically is in how to get better at math.
- 15 to 18: exam years, where the gap and the exam compete for time. The tutor must do both: close the gap in short daily practice while teaching the exam content to the board's mark scheme. Here a trained subject teacher is not optional.
The four things that make a struggling student worse
- More hours of the current year's work. It does not reach the gap, and it teaches the child that effort does not help.
- Explaining the current topic again, more slowly. The child understood the explanation the first time; they cannot do the thing underneath it.
- Labels and comparisons. "Not a maths person", "your sister found this easy". The child believes it and stops trying.
- Giving up after the first tutor. A tutor who did not find the gap is a tutor who did not find the gap; it says nothing about tutoring or the child. Change the tutor, not the plan. How to tell a tutor who diagnoses from one who does not is in qualities of a good online tutor.
A plan for the first month
| Week | What happens | What the parent should see |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The first class is a diagnosis: questions going backwards until the student is sure. The gap named in writing. A win in the first ten minutes of every class | A written note naming something specific, two or three years below the current work |
| 2 | Work on the gap only. Short sessions, two or three a week. Short homework, checked | The child does the homework without a fight, or with less of one |
| 3 | The gap closing; the first bridge to the current work | Homework from school in that subject is quicker |
| 4 | The current year's work, with the gap fixed underneath it. A short test on the gap topic | The test shows the gap closed; the child says something like "that's actually easy" |
If week four looks like that, the next two terms are about the current year and the confidence comes back on its own. If it does not, change the tutor. The signs that a child needs tutoring at all, and the ones that mean wait, are in signs your child needs a tutor.
Where to get help
A 1-on-1 online class with a tutor who holds a master's in the subject, built the way this page describes: the diagnosis in the first class with the gap named in writing, short frequent sessions where the parent wants them, every line of working read on a shared whiteboard, and progress named every week. For maths, the sciences and English, from Grade 1 to the final exams, in the child's own curriculum. The free 30-minute first class is the diagnosis, with you in the room. The team page says who the tutors are.
Questions parents ask
1Does tutoring help struggling students?
2How do you tutor a struggling student?
3What is the best type of tutoring for struggling students?
4How long does it take for a struggling student to catch up?
5What should you not do with a struggling student?
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Shobha
Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha
Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.