Penguin Tutoring Blog

2010 has been a trying year for our young learners at school. The Soccer World Cup, exciting and inspirational as it was, played havoc with the school timetables and learning programmes.  Added to this, an extended teachers strike put additional pressure on teachers and learners to complete the curriculum in time. Prelims were postponed, teaching days were lengthened and communities rallied around our precious  Grade 12’s to help them prepare for the all important “MATRIC“

The first exam takes place on October 25th. By now, all attention is focussed on preparing for this important event.

We at Penguin Tutoring Co understand the pressure and the difficulties that learners and their parents are faced with. For their entire school career, they are  told of the importance of this final measure of their capabilities. Their future relies on these results. This is all scary and daunting stuff and in addition to this, many young people are faced with the dilemma of making a career choice - which degree? which university? which residence?

We would like to pass on some tips on making the exam experience a bit easier for both parents and learners.

Parents, try and maintain a consistent environment for your children.  Avoid change, crisis and conflict. Be there to support and love. Be available to discuss the post-mortem of the exam if your child needs to share - but just listen, don’t judge. Provide healthy satisfying meals and ensure a restful environment for a good night’s sleep. Make time for family fun and entertainment and encourage your child to keep active and fit. Consider enlisting the help of a tutor. Even at this late stage of the academic year, these young people have the experience and expertise to help your child with exam techniques and study methods. They act as mentors and role models and can defuse unnecessary tension.Get a good night’s sleep before the exam.

Learners, try these helpful tips:

• Get a good night’s sleep before the exams
• Don’t try and cram the night or morning before the exam
• Arrive early and be ready to write with all the correct equipment
• Check you have received the correct paper
• Read and understand instructions
• Preview the question paper and allocate writing time
• Read the questions and underline key words
• Set out answers clearly, numbering in accordance with the question paper
• Write neatly
• If uncertain of a question, or find you are running out of time, answer at least in part
• Don’t panic
• Review your answers
• Stay till the end of the allotted time

Finally, keep all things in perspective. Keep focused and keep a positive attitude. Believe in yourself, and if things go wrong, don’t give up.

Good luck!

Penguin Tutoring is the leading provider of specialist academic tutors in the country. Our professional management and extensive tutor database will ensure that your children get everything they need and more out of their extra lessons.

June 2010, Johannesburg - Penguin Tutoring and the I am Changing the World Trust (iACTw) have teamed up again to provide personalised extra lessons to previously disadvantaged learners from Grades 10, 11 and 12 in Maths, Accounting and Life Skills.

The week-long program conducted from 21 to 25 June in Sandton was dedicated to improving the understanding and capacity of the learners as well as providing them with the guidance to realise their individual potential.

‘The end goal of this program is for learners to consider their futures more seriously and how it is possible to become successful by harnessing the power of education’, says Murray Legg, Marketing Manager at Penguin Tutoring.

Penguin Tutoring is a national company that offers the highest quality one-on-one tutoring in all school subjects and has enjoyed a 100% success rate of assisting its learners to improve their individual marks - during its four year lifespan. Penguin teamed up with I am Changing the World in 2009 to extend this service to those in need.

There is no doubt that an alarmingly high percentage of learners around the country are suffering from poor quality education. It is not the desire within the learners that is lacking, but rather access to qualified material and teachers, suggests Sonia Berisford-Murray, founder iACTw.

Together, Penguin and iACTw hope to make available the opportunity for all learners, from all backgrounds, to excel in their chosen subjects and fields so that they are equipped with the best tools to make a success of their lives, and South Africa as a whole.

‘Success for us is about promoting and enabling the positive difference every individual can make in preserving our environment, society and wildlife. Education is the basic platform required for the advancement of all citizens – both in South Africa, and globally, concludes Berisford-Murray.

If you are interested in doing a project with us, please contact us at 2010@penguintutoring.co.za.

Penguin Tutoring is the leading provider of specialist academic tutors in the country. Our professional management and extensive tutor database will ensure that your children get everything they need and more out of their extra lessons.

Penguin Tutors - Heading for the Beach!

Matric exams are almost over, schools and universities are emptying and 2009 is drawing to a close! Those familiar signs of exam panic on the faces of South African students have been replaced with tans and care free smiles! There can be no mistake now…it’s finally holiday season!

Our tutors have worked exceptionally hard this year, with some incredibly rewarding results. Long term friendships have been forged and the company has grown enormously but most importantly, hundreds of  learners, from Cape Town and The Winelands, to Johannesburg and Pretoria, to Durban and Pietermaritzburg, will be going into the next academic year feeling confident and enthusiastic, all because of the superior work of our tutors!

We would like to say an enormous thank you to every one of our tutors and wish them a fantastic holiday! With all the amazing choices our country has to offer for a good getaway, we can’t know what all of our tutors will be doing. But I think you can guess where most of our Pretoria and Johannesburg tutors will be going…just like these gorgeous African Penguins, they’ll be joining that wonderful summer pilgrimage to the beach!

Happy Summer Holidays!

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.

• Organisation of tutors, including induction and training, scheduling of interviews, system activation and a level of management, in support of area managers
• Writing up and releasing of Electronic Newsletters
• Booking advertising campaigns at schools
• Providing telephonic support for general enquiries
• Providing franchisee support for client, tutor and system queries
• A small amount of filing - but we are virtually paperless!

“I am definitely going to recommend Penguin Tutoring to anyone and everyone who needs private tuition!”

It’s easy to have confidence in our tutors and in our management when we hear these kinds of comments from our clients!

Penguin Tutoring is the leading provider of private extra lessons in South Africa. From  Afrikaans to Zulu, from Maths and Science to Art, Penguin Tutoring has a skilled, specialised and trained tutor in your area, waiting for the opportunity to help your child achieve academic confidence and success. Please visit www.penguintutoring.co.za for more information.

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 & her high school sweetheart have been together for 15 years of which 9 have been as a married couple.  She is the mother to a 6 year old son Connavah Joshua and a 5 year old daughter Skyla Jade.  She regards motherhood as the one title on her CV that is her most triumphant achievement.  Although it is a daily learning experience, it is also the most rewarding to her.

Most of her corporate experience has been gained in the Maritime Industry as part of the Client Services team, for then, the second biggest shipping line in the world.  Clients experience life as individuals and therefor they have different expectations and needs; this fact has led Melenie to approach each client with respect and individual focus.

If Mel could have her life over, she would be “almost the same” person, but with the exception of making more informed decisions.  She would most probably take time to ask the question and then wait for an answer and accept it with a positive outlook.  Those places she would like to visit would firstly have to start with a pilgrimage to Israel, then the great pyramids in Egypt, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and the list continues on to any place she has not seen yet ….. to experience life, culture & be changed as an individual.

Her experience with Penguin Tutoring has shown her that all households, regardless of socio-economic status, language or culture, are affected by similar external factors. Parents only do the best they know how;  kids only want to be loved, heard and accepted;  everyone wants to attain some measure of success.

In another response by Joseph Liebenberg, in much the same way as Megan Reeves finds the benefits of tutoring, he also shared his thoughts on what inspires him. Joseph is studying a B Com LLB and has tutored over 160 hours with us.

“The opportunity to use private tutoring services is an opportunity reserved for only a privileged few students, often separated from other students by the financial circumstances of the parents, and importantly the sacrifices made by those parents. Often, in our modern society whilst parents work hard to create these privileged circumstances, the time available to parents for their children is diminished. This is unfortunately a situation that many South African parents are confronted with, leaving them insufficient time to sit down and become an active part of their child’s school life.

The ultimate goal with regard to private tutoring is to improve academic performance, this is uncontroversial. However, the ways in which academic performance are improved, as well as the reasons therefore, are not as clear cut as the ultimate goal. As discussed above, there is no doubt that time spent tutoring a child personally is the most productive way to improve academic performance, but this is not always a viable option. However, this cause and effect relationship of more time equaling better marks is not that simple.

As a tutor, the one to two hours spent a week with any student should be time spent as productively as possible, including work given that should be done outside of lesson time, assessments in some form, and feedback to the parents. However, a tutor provides far more than simply the time that a parent cannot.

A tutor has the opportunity to be a role model, one that is personable and approachable, beyond the simple questions of Active and Passive in Afrikaans or the issues that underpinned the Cold War in History. I am only 22 years of age, which makes me far closer in age to many of the teenage students I have tutored than their parents – and whilst my parents and I will argue this fact too, times have changed! I feel that the world is not as simple as it used to be. There are societal gaps that many of the current youth simply slip into, and may never climb out of. I feel it is crucial as a tutor, holding that power of being a peer to many of the students to use this to build up a student’s confidence, on top of simply academic performance.

Confidence is what prevents a student slipping into the gaps, and confidence is probably the most important tool that school should equip a student with, but often this doesn’t happen, and this is a gap that a tutor truly can help with. Confidence can be built up directly by a tutor. For example by being a peer to the student that the student can bounce ideas off for their future, and return a relatable, objective opinion – that a student is far more likely to accept than their parent’s opinion that often seems far removed simply because of the opinion being of their parents. Indirectly, improving academic performance builds confidence in that subject, and if you speak to many successful people, they will tell you that confidence has a habit of spilling over to all areas of ones life. Thus, even simply achieving the core goal of improving academic performance can have the effect of improving one’s confidence.

I believe that confidence is the best gift that a parent can give their children; it leads to happy, successful student that will make positive decisions moving forward in life. As a tutor, I feel that bringing this element into the tutoring environment is what makes a tutor a successful one, and this is what can be expected from Penguin Tutoring.”

Thanks Joseph, you’re an absolute asset to our team.