Key Stage 2 tutors: turn school feedback into a plan

School feedback gives a starting point, not a complete tuition plan. Put the comment beside a recent task and ask your child where help was needed. The examples below show how to turn broad concerns into questions a tutor can investigate.

Suppose schoolwork shows correct whole-number addition but repeated fraction errors. The first question is whether the child understands what the denominator represents. These illustrative checks can make the tuition brief more precise.

Adding fractions in lower KS2. For 2/7 + 3/7, a child might add both numbers and write 5/14. Draw one strip divided into seven equal parts. Shade two parts, then three different parts: five of the seven parts are now shaded, so the answer is 5/7. The denominator, the bottom number, stays seven because the size of each part has not changed. Same-denominator addition within one whole is part of England’s Year 3 programme.

For a follow-up, try 6/7 − 2/7. Cross out two of six shaded sevenths to leave 4/7. A useful sign of understanding is explaining why the answer still counts sevenths, without copying the first calculation.

Revisiting decimals in upper KS2. A child may say 0.35 is larger than 0.4 because 35 is larger than 4. Write 0.4 as 0.40: forty hundredths is more than thirty-five hundredths, so 0.4 > 0.35. This consolidates decimal place value developed in Year 4; later work extends the range of numbers. The next step depends on whether the child can explain the comparison, not just select the correct symbol.

Agree which difficulty to address first. For example, ask for a new same-denominator fraction task after teaching and check that the child can explain why the denominator stays unchanged.

In both lower and upper KS2, England’s English curriculum asks pupils to support inferences about characters with evidence. An inference is an idea worked out from clues, rather than a fact directly stated.

Try this short, invented passage: “As the classroom door opened, Maya pushed the broken ruler beneath her book.” Ask: How might Maya be feeling, and what suggests that?

“She is worried” gives a possible feeling but no explanation. “Maya broke the ruler” adds an event the passage does not establish. A stronger response is: “Maya may be worried that someone will see the ruler, because she hides it as the door opens.” This connects an interpretation to an action while recognising that another explanation is possible.

A child who needs support could begin, “Maya may feel … because …”. Then try answering without that sentence starter and point to the words that support the idea. For an upper-KS2 reader, build towards explaining and comparing clues across a longer text.

Writing needs its own practice too. In Years 3–4, rehearse a sentence aloud and group sentences about the same topic into a paragraph. In Years 5–6, consider who will read the piece and how each paragraph follows from the last. A tutor can use a short piece of the child’s writing to agree one revision to practise.

Turn the observation into a brief: “Please check whether the difficulty is finding a clue or explaining how it supports an answer.” Keep a new reading response for the review, so the comparison is not just a neater copy of the original.

England’s Year 3 science programme includes comparing movement across surfaces. A toy-car investigation can show the difference between guessing and using evidence.

The question: does the same toy car travel farther on a smooth surface or on carpet after leaving a ramp? If the child changes both the surface and the ramp height, the result cannot show which change mattered. Keep the car, ramp height and release point the same, release without pushing, and change only the landing surface. Measure from the end of the ramp to where the car stops, in centimetres.

Illustrative results: three runs on the smooth surface give 70, 72 and 68 cm; three on carpet give 25, 27 and 23 cm. These are invented readings for this example. Even the shortest smooth-surface run is longer than the longest carpet run. A supported conclusion is: “In this test, the car travelled farther on the smooth surface.” The readings do not establish how far every car will travel.

A younger pupil can identify what changed and describe what happened. In upper KS2, ask the learner to explain the variables, meaning the things that could change, decide which to keep the same, and explain why repeated readings help check the result.

If this is the difficulty in schoolwork, ask the tutor to check the child’s explanation before adding more facts to learn. A review task can change the surfaces while keeping the question about a fair comparison; ask what should remain the same and what the readings allow the child to conclude.

For pupils following England’s assessment system, these have different purposes. Choose tuition around the skill your child needs to develop, whether or not an assessment is approaching.

Latimer’s service centres on online one-to-one tuition. Microsoft Teams is the default lesson platform, and you can agree another meeting method with the tutor. For a primary lesson, have the relevant book or worksheet, paper and a pencil ready. Check that your child can hear the tutor and show their working; agree when a parent should be nearby or join the conversation. In-person lessons require an individual arrangement with the tutor.

Each tutor sets their own hourly rate, shown on their profile. Latimer invoices for lessons after they take place on a pay-as-you-go basis. Before booking, agree the lesson length, total cost and cancellation arrangements, and choose a pattern your family can sustain. There is no single lesson schedule that suits every child.

If you would like help choosing, the tutor-matching request is free. Describe the school year, subjects, learning concern and preferred lesson times so the enquiry starts with your child’s needs.