“Have you heard?”, asked one of the mums at school the other day. “X says that all the kids in the class have got tutors.”
I shook my head. I hadn’t heard. We laughed about it and discussed how our kids didn’t have a tutor, so X was obviously wrong! But I still felt uneasy. In fact, I felt a real sinking feeling. All I could think was “why?”
My daughter has just turned seven. She attends a perfectly good state school, popular locally and over-subscribed. She’s happy there, has a lovely teacher, and seems to be doing well. I don’t think she needs a tutor. I simply don’t see why she should need to do more structured learning at home – the homework’s more than enough. But then I don’t think most seven-year-olds need more work either.
