We do not usually receive anything as comprehensive as the one which we post below in its entirety.
If a prospective parent would like to learn more from the writer of the following, please contact us for his details, as he would be pleased to share his experiences of STEP AHEAD :
From: David Campbell
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 4:58 PM
Having recently received notification that our son has gained entry to a leading Edinburgh independent school, I thought it important to express our gratitude for the work of Ross’s tutor, Trevor Mendham, in assisting him over the past year, in conjunction with the oversight and confidence-building provided by George, the Director of Step Ahead..
Ours is probably a fairly typical story in that we tested the water on an Entrance Test in to P5 for our son who was attaining very good achievements in all aspects of schoolwork at his local state school but whom we wanted to offer the opportunities that can be given through one of Edinburgh’s top private schools. We were made well aware on him sitting the Entrance Test that there were no placements available for P5 but knowing that our son lacked a little in confidence we felt this was a good opportunity to assess his abilities and perhaps by providing a ‘dry run’ allow him to get over the nerves associated with the Entrance Test in preparation for the following year P6 intake when there were placements available through the intake of a new class.
What we had not been prepared for was just how nervous he was on the day and the effect this had on his performance in the Entrance Test. This together with areas of the Test which were not covered in state school resulted in him not achieving a high enough score in all the papers to allow him to be considered at that time.
After much debate and research we decided that we wanted to improve Ross’s prospects through using a tutor to not only assist in the identified areas of education that were not covered in state school but, more importantly, to generally raise his all round education and improve on his confidence in sitting such Entrance Tests.
We finally looked towards the services of Step Ahead – after some lengthy discussion with George and a referral from him to parents who had been in a similar position to ourselves with their children and whom Step Ahead had assisted in achieving their child’s aims.
George appointed Trevor as a tutor for Ross, who, although an established tutor with older youngsters, had not worked regularly with a pupil of Ross’s age, but was a tutor whom George felt – after assessing Ross – would be well suited to working with him.
What followed was a great deal of commitment from us as parents, in terms of the provision of weekly tutoring, a real bonding that developed between tutor and pupil, and staged re-assessments by George to check on progress throughout the following year.
This combination of factors was the basis of the plan agreed from the outset to meet our aims from the tutoring sessions. We could easily have just left things to closer to the following year’s Entrance Test and concentrated on tutoring for passing the various papers but wanted to achieve more than this in terms of raising Ross’s general educational standard to a point where the Entrance Test was easily achievable, whilst, as stated previously, building up his self confidence to assist in combating the nerves he had displayed the previous year.
The result was an outstanding success with Ross performing extremely well in the assessment (see results below) and being offered a placement for P6.
I strongly believe, as did George and Trevor, that Ross always had the abilities required to pass the assessment, however, the work and commitment provided through Step Ahead built on those abilities and provided the bedrock for a more able and confident young person and for this I cannot speak highly enough of the support provided by both Trevor and George. From the outset it felt very much as though Ross had a real team around him to help him in this venture and Step Ahead took a personal approach to the whole journey.
I cannot speak highly enough of the commitment and effort provided to help Ross over the past year and would highly recommend their services to any parents who find themselves in a similar position to ourselves.
Such is the belief we have in the help and assistance provided by Step Ahead that we are continuing with the tutoring for Ross and his younger brother which we feel will only but strengthen their self confidence and general all round academic ability.
Strangely one of the interruptions when I was writing the above testimonial was a phone call from the Deputy Head at the school of our choice – as I had called yesterday looking for some feedback on the Test results.
Rather than passing my request onto a P6 teacher the Deputy Head had called personally as she wanted to express just how well Ross had performed :
” ‘Ross was top of the team building exercise across the whole assessment with ‘real strength in leadership, enthusiasm and superb initiative.’
Verbal Reasoning:
‘Scored 126 with the national average being 100. ‘Well above the mark expected for a child of his age and a superb performance with fundamentally no weaknesses.’
English:
‘Scored 118 with the national average 100. Excellent performance with real strength shown in comprehension. Very few dropped marks and no weaknesses in any area. One or two mistakes in grammar and spelling but very minor in nature.’
Maths:
‘Scored 115 with the national average 100. Excellent performance with a real strength in his number work. Some minor areas for improvement in geometry based questions but these were common and to be expected.’
Overall : ‘a delightful young man who scored at the very highest end of the assessment process for the P6 intake and a pupil we are very much looking forward to joining our school family.’ “
Says it all really!
Kind regards,
David, Corinne, Ross and Rory