Penguin Tutoring Blog

Penguin Tutoring is the leading provider of inspirational extra lessons in South Africa. Our specialised tutors are carefully screened and trained to provide your child with the highest quality private tuition in the comfort of your own home.

Penguin Tutoring would like to wish every single one of South Africa’s matric candidates the very best of luck as they write their final exams! We are especially holding thumbs for all of our own matrics across the country who benefitted from the knowledge and guidance of our extra lessons. Please don’t forget to let your tutor know how the exam went when it’s over and also how your results improved when you find out how you did!

Some of our best tutors are the ones who know first hand, how important good extra lessons can be, so if you’re heading off to university next year and are thinking about getting a student job, why don’t you consider becoming a Penguin Tutor yourself? Go to www.penguintutoring.co.za/tutors/apply to fill out an application!

Good Luck Class of 2009!

Matric 2009: You're Never Alone with Penguin Tutoring!

Penguin Tutoring Cape Town personalises the placement of a screened and trained tutor, matched to your child’s needs, and provides inspirational extra lessons and tutoring for them in the comfort of your own home. Visit www.penguintutoring.co.za to find out more.

When his son was battling with Grade 9 Maths, the client approached Penguin Tutoring for help, not necessarily to get him up to an A symbol immediately, but rather to cement a strong foundation that might stop him from struggling in later years.

But in the space of only four months, his son has become an A Maths student and has shot to the top of the class!

An even greater sense of satisfaction came upon going through the June exam paper with their tutor, who found an extra 10% that the teacher had missed!

Now, our young learner is sharing his knowledge and new found passion for Maths with his class mates and is now confidently assisting the teacher to explain concepts to his classmates who are struggling to understand!

It just goes to show that not only does good tutoring improve understanding of subjects like Maths or Science, it does wonders for a child’s self confidence as well!

Visit www.penguintutoring.co.za for more information about what we can do for your child!

Penguin Tutoring Pietermaritzburg personalises the placement of a screened and trained tutor, matched to your child’s needs, and provides inspirational extra lessons and tutoring for them in the comfort of your own home. Visit www.penguintutoring.co.za to find out more.

Penguin Tutoring Pietermaritzburg would like to say a very big welcome the newest tutors who have joined as members of our tutoring team. We are extremely excited to have you all on board and look forward to a great 2010! Among our newest members we have tutors who, as well as having received excellent matric results, hold among them honours degrees in soil science, accounting sciences, marketing management, special needs education and even homoeopathy to mention a few. These exceptional qualifications allow them to tutor subjects such as accounting, Geography, Biology, Maths, English and Science. Each tutor is passionate about the subjects they specialise in and among them have great experience working with children of all ages including those with special needs. Who could ask for a better tutor than one who is a passionate expert with real world experience in the subjects they tutor? Welcome to each of you!

We would also like say good luck to all those learners in Pietermaritzburg who are preparing for their final exams. We wish you the very best. If you need help, remember there is still time to give us a call for any last minute extra lessons!

You can contact Jessica Scholey to assist with arrangement of your extra lessons by contacting her here.

Penguin Tutoring personalises the placement of a screened and trained tutor, matched to your child’s needs, and provides inspirational extra lessons and tutoring for them in the comfort of your own home. Visit www.penguintutoring.co.za to find out more.

The efforts of educators all over the world are being recognised today which has been set aside by UNESCO as World Teacher’s Day. Every year, the 5th October is dedicated to a celebration of teachers and their incredible significance in the global community.

In the Western Cape, learners have taken time out of their exam preparation schedule to prepare a booklet containing messages of gratitude and appreciation for the work their teachers do. Some 31 000 of these booklets are being distributed today. The Gauteng Department of Education has also planned a series of events honouring teachers in that province, culminating in a personal message from the MEC for Education, Barbara Creecy.

While the day is earmarked as a celebration, World Teacher’s Day is also being used as a stark reminder of our nation’s teacher shortage and teachers themselves will be calling attention to the extremely difficult working conditions they face so tirelessly.

For those of you benefitting from the work of Penguin Tutoring’s inspirational tutors, don’t let today go by without also acknowledging the work that they do for you.

The extensive knowledge, communication skills and consistent support that they offer have become indispensable to so many of our valued clients, so if your child has extra lessons today, please don’t forget to say Thank You!

Happy World Teacher’s Day, Penguin Tutors!

Penguin Tutoring personalises the placement of a screened and trained tutor, matched to your child’s needs, and provides inspirational extra lessons and tutoring for them in the comfort of your own home. Visit www.penguintutoring.co.za to find out more.

Melenie van Wyngaardt is our Operations Manager based in Port Elizabeth. She heads up operations for Johannesburg, and provides support to franchisees. She is a mother of two, and has been with the company for over a year. She has spoken to many moms and dads, and shared in the trials and tribulations of those childrens’ academic challenges. Call her today, she’ll be certain to provide advice, or assist you in personalising a tutor for you. She has shared her findings on exam preparation below. Please comment and share your own tips.

Our extensive experience in this field, but also as parents ourselves, has led us to conclude that the burdens for any examination weighs more heavily on young learners and cause them more stress than any other form of academic assessment.  Many people will not face a more stressful situation for the remainder of their lives.  We wish to share a few tips on what we as parents, can do to relieve the pressure:

• Make them aware that they are being supported by all in the family.  Sometimes the scariest prospect for our children is what will happen if they disappoint us. We can let them know that we are on their side, regardless of their results.
• Be considerate to the pressure they might be putting on themselves. Help them to set realistic goals and put the exams in perspective!
• Let them know that their studying is a priority for the whole household by trying to minimise any sense of isolation they may be feeling. Put a copy of their exam timetable on the fridge to make it easier for everyone to talk to them about it. If regular household habits, such as having the TV on all afternoon, are making it difficult for them to remain focussed, try and make temporary changes that demonstrate the family’s support.
• We can make ourselves more available, by offering to help with study planning or even perhaps setting time aside at the end of the day to test them.  Give them tips on other ways to jog their memory during an exam, e.g. acronyms or keywords or perhaps even those sometimes silly rhymes to remember scientific elements.  Discuss any problems they may have with their exam technique.  Address time management & the importance of taking time to read and interpret a question before answering.  Try and come up with creative ways to help them improve on their mistakes.
• Our individual dynamic strengthens / inhibits our relationships with others and likewise so our children may have trouble relating to their teachers.  Take time to discuss their individual relationships with their teachers.  Schedule an appointment with the teacher and discuss these related issues. Also, discuss possible guidelines on areas which should be focussed on.
• The internet is a vast resource for previous exam papers.  Our website also has a useful link to these resources, which can be found at www.penguintutoring.co.za
• Stress can deplete our systems from necessary nutrients and inhibit the brain from maintaining optimal concentration levels.  Get an appropriate multivitamin to aid them with concentration.  Make sure that they are getting enough breaks during their study sessions.  Encourage them to be outdoors and carry on with their extra murals.  Make sure that all meals are balanced and have a few healthy snacks on hand.  Ensure that they are getting enough sleep as this is vital to clear & calm thinking.
• A tutor can be an enormous help during this stressful time.  These young individuals would be equipped to mentor, offer support and act as an understanding ear.  Furthermore, they would be sensitive to the stressful nature of an exam as they would have experienced exactly the same!

We understand that the approach to learning needs to be done in a specific manner and each learner needs to be especially catered for - you need look no further than Penguin Tutoring to invest inexpensively in your child’s future.  For a tailored solution, find out more about our offering at www.penguintutoring.co.za.  Our national footprint now includes Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town and the Winelands.

Please leave a comment on how you’ve found exam preparation made easier.

Come the 15th of September, the class of 2009 will be entering the last stage of their exodus from matric, with 40 days…and 40 nights left before this year’s final exams are scheduled to begin.

But it’s still too soon to panic because our specialist tutors are standing by all over the country, just waiting to help you help yourself. Visit www.penguintutoring.co.za for past papers, study tips or to find out about extra lessons in any subject!

GOOD LUCK MATRICS 2009!!!!!