The Importance of Having Tuition During School Holidays
When school holidays are coming, the students will always look forward to it. Since there is no school, that usually means more free time for their hobbies. You might even be compelled to give your child the break they deserve.
So the question is: should children continue their tuition during school holidays?
This question has always been a tricky one for most parents, since on one hand, a break from the books can get them ready for the new semester or the new year.
On the other hand, study results have revealed that academic skills can decline if not practised. Your brain is just like a muscle. To maintain its condition, it needs exercise. This is where the importance of tuition during school holidays becomes clear, whether your child is preparing for PSLE or working through secondary school math.
Here are some compelling reasons you should continue tuition during school holidays.
Before you read on, you might want to download this entire article in PDF format to print it out for your child, or to read it later.
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1. It Prevents the Holiday Learning Slide
While it is great that your child gets to rest and have fun, long holidays increase the chances of forgetting what was learned during the school term.
In fact, this is so common that there is a term for it: the “holiday learning slide“. It typically occurs during extended breaks like the June or December holidays, when students go weeks without structured learning.
During these long periods away from school, students can lose around two months of mathematical skills and knowledge. Reading abilities can also decline by up to one month of progress.
When your child returns to school with these gaps, it becomes harder to move forward. New learning cannot happen until existing gaps are addressed first. This is one of the clearest reasons why the importance of tuition should not be overlooked, even during the holidays.
2. It Helps Fill Knowledge Gaps and Strengthen Foundations
Continuing tuition during school holidays gives your child a valuable opportunity to tackle weaknesses that were spotted during the school term.
In a typical classroom, teachers have a packed syllabus and dozens of students to manage. There simply isn’t always time to revisit concepts that your child didn’t fully grasp. Tuition changes that.
With no school demands to work around, a tutor can work closely with your child to review difficult concepts, strengthen foundations, and target specific areas that need reinforcing.
For primary school students in particular, a strong foundation in the earlier years makes all the difference later on:
- Struggling with fractions or ratios in Primary 3 or 4? Work through them now before they affect P5 Math and P6 Math.
- Finding it hard to keep up in P4 Math? The holidays are the best time to consolidate before the content gets harder.
- Just started primary school and finding P3 Math tricky? Building good habits early sets the tone for years ahead.
- By targeting specific areas of improvement, tuition helps your child build a solid foundation for smoother progress going forward.
3. It Aids in Maintaining Good Study Habits
One common challenge parents face after a long school holiday is what we call the “back to school shock“. After weeks of late nights and relaxed routines, your child suddenly has to wake up early, sit through lessons, and complete assignments again.
Continuing tuition during the holidays softens this transition. Your child stays in a learning rhythm, making it much easier to get back into the swing of things when school resumes.
This is especially important in crucial years. Whether your child is sitting for PSLE, N-Levels, or O-Levels, they are being tested on everything they have learned up to that point, including content from the previous year.
A tutor can help reinforce key learning points and suggest a study schedule tailored to your child’s needs, keeping them focused without burning them out.
4. It Helps Them Get Ahead
In addition to closing current learning gaps and keeping your child’s learning progress in check, tuition during school holidays can even help get your child ahead of the current school curriculum.
Your tutors would be able to help with more comprehensive assignments and address new challenging concepts early that your child would face later on. After all, by preparing your child for the next semester or academic year, your child will get a preview and know what to expect.
With this head start, it would ease their transition, especially to the next grade. It would also be easier for them to cope with their assignments and improve their school performance, boosting their confidence in their coursework.
5. Boosts Your Child’s Confidence and Self-Esteem
When it comes to succeeding in academics and your child’s overall well-being, confidence is key. Whenever your child is faced with challenging concepts or an exam, they would inadvertently struggle with self-doubt and anxiety.
Moreover, when it comes to asking questions in class, they might hesitate to do so in front of their peers and stay silent, even though they are unable to fully grasp a particular topic and actually needed the clarification.
Therefore, tuition during school holidays can provide that supportive environment where they can build confidence in their abilities via personalised attention and positive reinforcement.
With this, your child would be able to overcome their academic difficulties and able to celebrate the small progress that they have made. Moreover, as the tutors are able to give on-on-one attention, your child would feel more comfortable asking questions without the presence of peers.
Hence, the learning environment during the holiday tuition is an ideal starting point for your child to seek clarification on the areas they have difficulty in.
Over time, perhaps your child can even build up enough confidence to interact with their class teachers and classmates and be assertive enough to ask for any clarifications should they need them.
To Whom Would the Holiday Tuition Be Most Important To?
While any student can benefit, the importance of tuition during school holidays is especially significant for these groups:
Primary 6 Students Preparing for PSLE
The PSLE can sneak up quickly. P6 students have Prelims to sit before the actual exam, and oral exams can begin as early as August. That makes the June holidays a critical window for revision, exam technique practice, and consolidating everything learned so far.
It would also be a good time to discuss your child’s PSLE goals with them. Their results will influence which secondary school they qualify for, so understanding what they are working towards helps keep them motivated.
Find out more about our P6 Math Tuition to see how we support students through this important year.
Secondary 2 Students Choosing Their Subject Combinations
Secondary 2 may not seem as high-stakes as N-Levels or O-Levels, but it is a pivotal year. Students select their subject combinations for Secondary 3, and the subjects available to them depend on how well they perform.
Unlike primary school, secondary school exams cover at least 7 subjects, and the curriculum moves at a fast pace. Holiday tuition gives Secondary 2 students the breathing room to consolidate their learning and prepare for the choices ahead.
Find out more about our Sec 1 Math Tuition and Sec 2 Math Tuition programmes.
Secondary 4/5 Students Taking N/O-Levels
For students in their final year of secondary school, every bit of preparation counts. Their Mother Tongue exam begins as early as July, and the rest of the exams follow in quick succession.
A few focused sessions with a tutor during the June holidays can make a real difference in how prepared and confident your child feels going into exam season. Tutors can also help students think about their post-secondary options, whether that’s JC, polytechnic, or ITE.
Find out more about our Sec 3 Math Tuition and Sec 4 Math Tuition programmes.
How Can Grade Solution Help?
Let’s put it this way: Suppose your child wants to join the school’s rugby team, who might be having tryouts near the end of the school semester. They would need to exercise and practice beforehand for a chance to pass the tryout and get a spot in the team.
It’s the same for exams. You need to establish the vital groundwork in preparation for the main event. Doing it at the last minute would make the groundwork unstable.
Therefore, to help your child gain the exam mindset they need, we have holiday programmes for English, Mathematics, Chinese, and Science.
In particular, our PSLE Math Intensive Courses focus on understanding concepts and applying them to the problem sums. Aside from that, it also helps with addressing common mistakes and avoiding them, so that careless mistakes can be reduced by 80%, which also improves exam skills and answering techniques.
An analysis of your child’s strengths and weaknesses will also be given, so that your child would know what to focus on in their studies. This will help salvage the marks they need for an improved grade.
These benefits would also extend to our O-levels Intensive Courses. We have E-Math and A-Math intensive courses during the school holidays which will summarise all the must-know concepts of each chapter, allowing your child to master the foundation first before going in to more complex questions. After all, you need to learn how to walk before you run!
The programme also will help your child in identifying keywords and the concept needed to solve the math problem.
Conclusion
It is important to remember that when we talk about tuition during school holidays, we don’t mean that children should sit at the desk and be made to answer back-to-back questions, draining the fun out of the school holidays.
We only mean that learning should never be forgotten while they are enjoying their long school break. Especially if they are taking their PSLE, N-Levels, or O-Levels that same year.
It is alright to let your child take a break from the books as and when is needed. It’s better to let them do things a little bit often and make small progress, rather than waiting until they are falling behind before addressing their educational needs.
It does not matter how you approach it, as long as you can prevent your child from forgetting what is learned, so that they can return to school all recharged and without any learning gaps in their knowledge.
Should you need help in this, particularly in Mathematics, Jimmy Maths is here for you. Our Math teachers have taught mathematics for over a decade. With their expertise, they aim to aid your child in grasping the fundamentals of maths concepts and achieve mastery in applying them.
If your child needs help, feel free to reach out to us at jimmymathscoach@gmail.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is tuition important during school holidays?
Long breaks give academic skills a chance to fade if they aren’t used, a pattern known as the “holiday learning slide.” Tuition during the holidays keeps your child’s learning momentum going, so they return to school without gaps that make it harder to keep up with new material.
Will tuition during the holidays take away from my child’s break?
Not if it’s approached the right way. Holiday tuition isn’t meant to be back-to-back drilling that drains the fun out of the break. It’s about a few focused sessions that keep learning consistent, while still leaving plenty of room for rest and the activities your child enjoys.
Which students benefit most from holiday tuition?
While any student can benefit, it matters most for students at key transition points, such as Primary 6 students preparing for PSLE, Secondary 2 students choosing their subject combinations, and Secondary 4 or 5 students taking their N-Levels or O-Levels. These are the years where consolidating learning during the holidays has the biggest payoff.
What is the “holiday learning slide”?
It refers to the loss of academic skills and knowledge that can happen during extended breaks like the June or December holidays. Students can lose up to two months of mathematical progress and around a month of reading progress when they go weeks without structured learning.
How can holiday tuition help with the transition back to school?
Continuing tuition during the break helps your child stay in a learning rhythm, which softens the “back to school shock” of returning to early mornings, lessons, and assignments. It also gives them a head start on the next semester’s content, so the return to school feels less overwhelming.
Before you go, you might want to download this article in PDF format to print it out for your child, or to read it later.
This will be delivered to your email inbox.
Does your child need help in his or her studies?
1) Live Zoom Lessons at Grade Solution Learning Centre
At Grade Solution Learning Centre, we are a team of dedicated educators whose mission is to guide your child to academic success. Here are the services we provide:
- Live Zoom lessons
- Adaptably™, an innovative smart learning platform featuring thousands of PSLE and exam-based questions tailored for your child’s practice. Adaptably not only tracks your child’s progress but also identifies their strengths and areas for improvement, providing valuable insights to enhance their learning journey.
- 24/7 Homework Helper Service
We provide all these services above at a very affordable monthly fee to allow as many students as possible to access such learning opportunities. We specialise in English, Math, Science and Chinese subjects. You can see our fees and schedules here >> https://gradesolution.com.sg/schedule/
2) Pre-recorded Online courses on Jimmymaths.com
If you are looking for something that fits your budget, or prefer your child learn at his or her own pace, you can join our pre-recorded online Math courses. Your child can:
- Learn from recorded videos
- Get access to lots of common exam questions to ensure sufficient practice
- Get unlimited support and homework help
You can see the available courses here >> https://jimmymaths.com/our-courses/
