A Research Plan for Improving Primary Pupils’ Academic Performance at After School Provision in London

It is generally acknowledged that tuition benefits students and primary pupils but little is known about the benefits of after school tuition and how parents and teachers could help primary pupils achieve in this activity. Generally speaking, primary schools share common characteristics and this is evident in the London Boroughs of the UK. It is acknowledged that schools do not always provide the conditions of learning where all pupils flourish in achieving learning goals. One way by which parents and carers feel they will raise a child’s standards is by private tuition. It is suggested that one way of overcoming this would be to guide teachers in the ways they can help parents of children who attend after school tuition to teach their own children and so raise their academic performance at school. To achieve this, centres would need to be interested in presenting themselves as a marketable product where pupils gain sufficiently in academic excellence. It is suggested that parents and carers would benefit from a training programme using cognitive style research aimed at facilitating interest and reflectivity. The training programme is based on data gathered by a survey which informs parents and teachers how to help pupils achieve goals set by the school. However, it is suggested that using theories of cognitive styles such as reflectivity-impulsivity to tutors of year three pupils may be unwise as the pupils may not have yet developed interests in particular areas.