Try some grammar, punctuation and spelling tests.

As the government rolls out its new Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation test this week in schools, grammar has become a topic of discussion for many.  Better Tuition‘s team of qualified grammar gurus (i.e. teachers) has explored the internet to bring you the best of the online quizzes, some of which are designed to elicit sympathy for the poor Year 6 students facing a barrage of questions about subordinating clauses, dangling participles and apostrophes of contraction.  None of the quizzes will take you longer than five minutes, so what are you waiting for?

Grammar

The Guardian provides 14 satisfyingly answerable questions, while the BBC’s quiz is rather a cut above, but if you are a true grammar geek, try these ten questions from the Times; teachers who answer the final question correctly can come and work for us at Better Tuition.

Punctuation

Test your knowledge of punctuation – including the fancy kind that ‘proves you went to college’ – courtesy of Bristol University.

Spelling

Warm up your spelling muscles with this ten-question quiz from Talk Talk before diving into the Guardian’s 20 tricky spellings quiz.

If you find punctuation tricky, you might want to read our post on how to use apostrophes or take a look at this useful infographic on the Oxford comma.  Are you or your child preparing to sit the Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling test?   You can download our grammar checklist (we also have a checklist for level 6).

If your child needs extra help with grammar, spelling, reading, writing, maths, science or entrance exams preparation, please get in touch with Better Tuition‘s team of expert, qualified teachers on 0161 748 3912.  We’ll be happy to book your FREE assessment in our welcoming, professional tuition centre in the heart of Urmston.

Image courtesy of [stockimages] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Courtesy of: OnlineSchools.com

Better Tuition’s sage advice is to use the Oxford comma where it clarifies meaning but to leave it out where it doesn’t perform any specific function.  If you like grammar, read our post on how to use apostrophes.  If you or your child is preparing to sit the Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling test you can download our grammar checklist (we also have a checklist for level 6).

Good luck to all those who are taking the test and, if your child needs extra help with grammar, spelling, reading, writing, maths, science or entrance exams preparation, please get in touch with Better Tuition‘s team of expert, qualified teachers on 0161 748 3912.  We’ll be happy to book your FREE assessment in our welcoming, professional tuition centre in the heart of Urmston.

Better Tuition: celebrating five fantastic years of tuition on the corner of Crofts Bank Rd.

Better Tuition is celebrating five fantastic years of tuition here on the corner of Crofts Bank Rd, and this well known young man helped us  out at the weekend. As a thank you for our customer’s support, Mr P handed out oodles of lollies and balloons to the children in Urmston town centre.

Better Tuition: celebrating five fantastic years of tuition on the corner of Crofts Bank Rd.

If your child needs extra help, please go ahead and contact Paul Syrett or Christine McLaughlin on 0161 748 3912 to book a FREE assessment.    Our teachers are all fully qualified, CRB checked and experts in their field.  Whatever your educational issue, we can help.

Better Tuition is celebrating!

Better Tuition is celebrating five fantastic years of tuition on the corner of Crofts Bank and Flixton Rd this week and we would like to offer our sincere thanks to the people of Urmston and Stretford for their kind support and custom.

Five years ago, as the economy began its awkward lurch towards recession, we stood at the foot of a mountain so tall we could barely see the summit.  We had decided to start our own business and after many months of preparation (lease negotiations, planning permission, decorating our new premises inside and out) we opened the doors of our new tuition centre (initially under a different name, history buffs).

We both arrived nice and early in order to deal with our expected inundation of telephone calls.  We sat at the desk, facing each other, and waited.  After ninety minutes the phone rang: it was someone looking for the golf shop.  They had dialed incorrectly and  seemed to view our proffered SATs booster lessons as a poor substitute for a forged iron.

It was a slow day: we didn’t have any customers so there weren’t any lessons to plan.  All the pencils were new so didn’t need sharpening.  Facebook had barely been invented and Twitter was just a twinkle in a programmer’s eye.  To be quite honest, it was a slow year: 2008 was not a good year to be starting a business.  The back of our sofa was frequently searched for loose change/ mortgage payments over the months that followed.

Things sped up over time (about two years) and, missing out a lot of stuff that would frankly bore you, today we are celebrating five years of tuition on the corner of Crofts Bank Rd with close to 120 customers.  We couldn’t have achieved this without the support of the people of Stretford and Urmston, to whom we owe an enthusiastic vote of thanks.

Few things could ever beat the satisfaction of helping a child conquer maths demons, pass an important exam or develop simple literacy skills. For us it is also so important that we are able to employ local people so that the money Better Tuition makes stays in the local community. We make a point of spending our money in small, local businesses and we love knowing that we are part of the community.

Five years ago we stood at the foot of a mountainous learning curve while the country’s economy teetered on the brink of a precipice. Better Tuition could not have survived without the loyalty of our customers. We hope to repay you with many more years of dedicated service.

Find out more about Autism Awareness Month at lightitupblue.org

April is Autism Awareness month. On Tuesday 16th April Trafford Council will be raising awareness of autism in Trafford by holding an Autism Living Library event in Urmston Library. A Human Library works very much like a regular library. Members of the public can go in, browse a list or catalogue of Books and ask a member of staff to borrow their chosen title. The difference is that Books are people, and reading is a conversation!

This intriguing event, which aims to educate the general public about autism, starts at 3:30pm today (Tuesday, 16th April 2013) and ends at  18:30pm.  If you would like further information, contact organiser Jane Forrest on 0161 912 2807 or via email at jane.forrest@trafford.gov.uk.

Better Tuition is looking forward to hosting the next meeting of Trafford’s new support group for young people with Asperger’s syndrome or high-functioning autism on 24th April 2013.  You can find more details here.

Newly formed support group for young people with Asperger’s/ high-functioning autism.

We went to a pebble trail event in Lymm, which had been organised by Picthatevent, a local company who make personalised story books for children who suffer from autism/ Asperger’s/ anxiety.  Village traders had turned their windows blue for the day and there were posters and an awareness raising blue pebble trail around the village with flags, balloons and a biscuit at the end of the trail. The event raised money for the National Autistic Society.

As you may be aware, Better Tuition is hosting a meeting for a newly formed support group for children and young people with Asperger’s/ high-functioning autism.  The meeting is on Wednesday, 24th April at 7.30pm.  We want as many people as possible to find out about this.  Please print off a copy of the poster and distribute it wherever you think it will be useful:

meeting poster-colour

meeting poster-grayscale

The posters are in Word format.

The group (which still has no name) aims to support young people with or without a formal diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome/ High-functioning autism.  Please visit the group’s forum at www.traffordasd.com, or email for more information.  You can also follow the group on Twitter – so please do!

Read Better Tuition’s Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling checklists for Key Stage 2 SATs.

This test is being introduced in May for all Year 6 students.  Read our previous post on changes to Year 6 SATs.  You can use Better Tuition’s checklist to help you ensure your child has covered everything s/he needs for the test.  You can read the checklist below or download it as a PDF.  The Level 6 test will be 20 minutes long and may cover everything on the Level 3 – 5 test as well as the following areas: 

SATs preparation is important in order to give your child confidence to tackle these important tests.  Your child’s results will be passed on to their new secondary school and very often used to set them according to ability.  If you need extra help, please do not hesitate to contact Paul Syrett or Christine McLaughlin on 0161 748 3912 to book a FREE assessment.  Many parents send their children to Better Tuition to help prepare them for Year 7.  Please give us a call to find out how your child could benefit from lessons at Better Tuition.

The test will be 45 minutes long and will check whether students can:

SATs preparation is important in order to give your child confidence to tackle these important tests.  Your child’s results will be passed on to their new secondary school and very often used to set them according to ability.  If you need extra help, please do not hesitate to contact Paul Syrett or Christine McLaughlin on 0161 748 3912 to book a FREE assessment.  Many parents send their children to Better Tuition to help prepare them for Year 7.  Please give us a call to find out how your child could benefit from lessons at Better Tuition.

Find support for Asperger’s/ high-functioning autism in Trafford at www.trafforasd.com.

You can read all about the meeting on the group’s forum, but here are some observations I made:

1.  Support for under 10s with Asperger’s/ high-functioning autism is scarce in Trafford.  This is partly because it is so hard to get a diagnosis before the age of 10.  Even when a diagnosis is given, it is often accompanied by an discharge from CAMHS.  Parents and carers are quite desperate for support at an early stage, to prevent issues such as lack of social skills causing huge problems in later years.  The group aims to help children and young people of any age and a formal diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome/ high-functioning autism is not necessary.

2.  Parents and carers really benefited from being able to share experience.  Being a parent of a child with Asperger’s/ high functioning autism (and many other SEN or disabilities) is isolating; there is comfort in knowing others understand.  Furthermore, the daunting labyrinth of diagnosis and professional support services can seem almost impossible to negotiate.  Parents can share information that helps others access services more easily.  The group may well organise some coffee meetups for parents and carers in the future.

3.  There is a real need for teachers to become more aware of Asperger’s Syndrome/ high-functioning autism.  Autistic people have a different take on the world.  They don’t access information in quite the same way; this affects their ability to understand instructions, for example.  Because young people with high-functioning autism are generally very able, failure to understand a task can be mistaken for obstinacy. Group member Jayne Dillon has already met with a representative of Hearts and Minds, a local charity which plans to offer training in autism awareness to schools.

The meeting was extremely positive and full of energy, ideas and knowledge.

The group agreed to meet again at 7.30pm on 24th April 2013 at Better Tuition.  All are welcome.  You can visit the group’s forum at www.traffordasd.com or contact the group via email at traffordaspergers@yahoo.co.uk.

Aspergers/ High-functioning autism support meeting at Better Tuition.

The planning meeting will take place from 7.30pm this Wednesday, March 20th, at Better Tuition, 1 Crofts Bank Road, Urmston, M41 0XH (entrance on Flixton Rd).  All parents, carers and interested professionals – as well as any of the young people the group aims to support – are invited to attend.

“We hope that parents and carers of young people with Asperger’s Syndrome will attend the meeting and help shape the group,” says Jayne Dillon.  Jayne has appeared on TV and in newspapers across the world, speaking about how her cat, Jessi-cat, voted Cat of the Year 2012, helped her son Lorcan overcome selective mutism, which can be a feature of Asperger’s Syndrome.  She is currently working on a book about this.  You can read more about Jayne’s appearances in the media here, or follow her on Twitter.

Asperger’s Syndrome is a form of high-functioning autism, a developmental disorder that affects communication and language functions.  Young people with Asperger’s Syndrome often go under the radar in schools.  They often perform well academically and because they tend to be socially withdrawn, their behaviour does not pose a problem in lessons.  Diagnosis is therefore often delayed and intervention in school can be patchy.  There can be crippling shyness, a phobia of interacting with others, and an inability to pick up on social signals and all of this can lead to severe depression.  A support group is urgently needed to inspire, embolden and empower these young people.

The group aims to have two strands:

- helping primary school aged children with social skills.

- providing teenagers with a forum for support and socialising.

“We know that there is a desperate need for support in the area and we hope that by coming together we can make a huge difference to children and young people with Asperger’s,” says Jayne.  The group has already made contact with local autism charity Hearts and Minds, and has received offers of support from Stretford and Urmston MP Kate Green, among others.

If you cannot attend the meeting but would like to be involved, please get in touch with the group via email.  There is also an internet forum.  Children are very welcome at the meeting, but do be aware that this first meeting is primarily for planning, so there won’t be any organised activities for them.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net