I’m a Year 9 Teacher – These Three Kids Need Tutoring RIGHT NOW 

These Three Types of Year 9 Students Need Tutoring RIGHT NOW

I love teaching Year nine. It’s a year that’s filled with promise, challenge, and breakthrough. Kids of this age are experiencing a monumental shift in hormones, cognitive development, and neuropathways. They are figuring out who they are and who they want to be. They are exploring their social side and the development of all different types of relationships.  

This makes them a joy to teach and it’s invigorating to see real buzz in the classroom. Engaging learners in exciting, rich, and relevant material is our bread and butter. Year 9 can be such a wonderful time.  

However, as a classroom teacher, I can’t be there all the time and I can’t work with each student one-on-one as much as I’d like to. It’s simply impossible to be everything to everyone. That’s where Year 9 tutoring can help. It’s tailor-made to identify the child’s strengths and weaknesses and to come up with real strategies for success and understanding.  

I’ve been tasked to come up with the three types of students whom I feel will most benefit with tutoring. While part of me wants to yell “all of them!”, there are three distinct categories that come to mind.  

Learners Who Present with Differentiated Educational Needs

We meet all types of kids in our classrooms. Students from EAL backgrounds, students with specialised needs like Dyslexia and Dysgraphia, students who struggle with SLD and learning comprehension issues. We work as hard as we can to accommodate for their needs, but these students typically require more help than their regular classroom teacher can provide.  

One-on-one tuition can not only improve student confidence and give them ownership over their work; it can mean that work can be broken up into digestible ‘chunks’. Learners with identifiable disadvantages often feel overwhelmed and lost in a big classroom environment. What seems like easy tasks for others can be impossible for them which has a huge impact on their self-esteem and preparedness for tasks. For students on modified programs, Year 9 tutoring can tap into the gap between what’s taught in class and what’s being understood and processed.  

The Highflyers and Those Who Require Extension

These kids are the ones who are desperate to learn. They are champing at the bit in class. From class work to homework, everything is meticulously delivered. These students are crying out for more work and more challenge.  

We differentiate the curriculum as much as is possible but it’s often difficult to find time in the day to fully extend these students to challenge them and prepare them for senior schooling. If these students are not fully encouraged to do and be more, they can become disengaged and demotivated. A tutor can really help here by covering content that lies ahead in later years of schooling and delivering specialised resources designed to challenge and excite. For these kids, an A is easy. But the worst possible outcome is that they become blasé and decide to coast through into Year 10.  

The Disengaged Students

In my experience, I have come across many students who are disengaged with the curriculum. They may have struggled in the past and felt let down. They may not be able to establish a good working relationship with teachers. They may have been disappointed with previous results and developed a case of “why bother?” 

Tutors can work with these students to help build up their confidence and find ways into the texts and content they are studying that their classroom teacher may not have considered. A professional tutor can help with organisation, motivation, and consolidation of learning in a home environment.  

Teachers and Tutors? Who Knew!

As a classroom teacher, I’m all for students receiving outside of hours tuition. I don’t consider it a threat to my professionalism to put my hand up and admit that this extra help can make all the difference. After all, I wake up every day wanting to help students blossom. Why would I mind if some of the water and sun comes from somewhere else to help the buds of potential bloom!