Mentor Education have London’s top teachers on hand to help your child with their remote learning. We are able to assist international families currently homeschooling with online tuition.

Parents and children around the globe have been struggling with the consequences of Covid-19 related lockdowns and school closures. At Mentor, we share parents’ concerns that children’s education is suffering.

Homeschooling and remote learning for children taking international exams

We are currently supporting a substantial number of international families, including many in Portugal, where the government has made it illegal for schools to provide any remote schooling at all. This is an urgent and critical problem for British families with children who should have been taking public exams this year. The IGCSE exams taken by children studying abroad in international schools have now been cancelled for the 2021 exam season, and the International Baccalaureate exam boards are still considering their options. We hope to hear from them shortly. If, as expected, all the international exams are cancelled, children will be expected to submit work and undertake multiple assessments in their school to enable their teachers to evaluate them, and show evidence of their suitability for a particular grade. The benefit of this approach is that children will get many opportunities to show what they can do, but will also need to be working at the level of the grade they hope to finally achieve as soon as possible, bringing forward the acquisition of higher-order skills and knowledge. Last-minute cramming as an option is gone!

Teachers are doing their best, but provision is undeniably variable. Children elsewhere are receiving live lessons every day, whilst others, such as children in Portugal, are receiving no schooling at all. The burden on parents is considerable. They are often juggling their career and supporting their children home-schooling at the same time. Pedagogy is very different from when parents were at school, making it hard for them to meaningfully support their children. The impact is plain to see.

Families, businesses, local authorities, and governments themselves are turning to us to plug the gap. With a 40-year pedigree of working with both the state and independent sector, we are well placed to help.

How we can help international families with remote learning

At Mentor, we have considerable experience working with families and schools to provide individual children or small groups with online learning and homeschooling. Given that disruption has been constant now for twelve months, we have significantly developed our online learning expertise, and lessons are already up and running for international families. We are on hand, ready to provide international families and schools with our support and expertise in online tuition.

International Baccalaureate support

As at the third of February 2021, IB exams are still tabled to go-ahead for this summer. IB students complete courses from six different subject groups, ensuring a depth and breadth of knowledge that parents and Higher Education Institutions appreciate. All IB pupils must sit exams in:

• Literature
• A Modern Foreign Language
• A science
• Mathematics
• A Humanity or Social Science subject.

Whilst the breadth of syllabus provides young adults with a wide education and avoids them specialising too early, it can mean teenagers will continue to study subjects that they are weaker at. This is where parents find that some tutoring and individual attention can really help their child.

We offer IB Exam support to individuals and small groups of children studying the same subjects and have great depth of experience providing this to families and organisations.

Please contact us for individual support for your child, or to discuss how we can arrange lessons for a small group of children studying the same subject and syllabus. For example, with Literature we require pupils to be studying the same set texts. Our IB tutors are familiar with the specific requirements, exam styles and marking schemes of the International Baccalaureate, leaving you to get on with your work, with your child in capable hands.

IGCSE support

IGCSEs are known for their rigour and their focus on final examinations, but with this year’s exams cancelled, schools will be asking pupils to submit coursework, take internal assessments and create a portfolio of work to support their final grade. This leaves parents based abroad, particularly in countries such as Portugal under particular stress, with no formal schooling currently taking place. The good news is that children of IGCSE age are digital natives, who have coped the best with digital learning throughout the pandemic. Furthermore, online learning allows parents to source the very best tutors, unrestricted by geography.

Here at Mentor, we have a database of over 250 tutors, all a degree in the subject they teach. Most of our tutors are qualified teachers, teaching in London schools. We have many specialist iGCSE tutors, who are quickly snapped up given their specialism and record of accomplishment. They have proven experience in helping children to lift their final grades from their predicted or mock exam grades. Please call us as soon as you can if you would like to engage with our specialist IGCSE tutors. We can assist IGCSE students abroad and in the UK with online tuition, revision support and exam technique.

Online support for homeschooling abroad:

Your Options

Most families choose to engage us for at least one hour a day to support their children in lockdown, ensuring they receive some targeted attention every day. Many families receiving little or no school support, such as those in Portugal, engage us to provide a suite of relevant lessons. These are, on average, three hours a day, covering an agreed group of subjects. Lessons are often taken with a group of friends studying together. We can be flexible and are here to help.

Please do get in touch. We understand the magnitude of Covid related learning loss and are ready to help.

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