Sadly Toota are no longer trading – but the below all remains relevant; private tuition is an incredibly beneficial tool in your parenting arsenal when trying to help your teens boss exam season, even if it’s just a few odd sessions.
Reading this purely because you’re hunting for FREE online maths tuition? You have my sympathy. Home educating isn’t easy, is it?! Come on – how many of us can still remember GCSE-level maths well enough to teach it to someone else?
No. Me either.
So when toota offered me (and all of you!) a FREE online maths tuition session via a toota code – yes, that’s a 40-minute one-to-one private lesson with a qualified maths teacher – I jumped at the chance.
Now, we may have chosen to home educate our four kids seven years ago; but now every parent across the country have been literally shoved into it. And it’s tough going! I’m sure like all home schooling parents, you’re finding helping your kids is hit and miss – some stuff you remember, some stuff you know, but you probably work it out differently, and use the ‘wrong‘ method (*eyeroll*). And once they reach their teens there’s probably a lot that you’re really just not qualified to help with.
Maths is our biggest hurdle. We knew that once they needed formal learning in maths, it was best if someone else helped. We’ve always used online courses (you might be interested in how full time home educated kids usually do GCSEs, in non-global-pandemic times) – but this week T (17, currently studying GCSEs) used the toota code to try out a one-to-one 40-minute FREE online maths tuition session with toota.
To say T was nervous is an understatement. He felt the gaps in his knowledge would be judged somehow – he knew in some areas he was weak and would benefit from help; but was concerned about showing that to a stranger, expecting an air of judgement and mild mockery if he didn’t know something relatively basic.
And he’s not alone – right now more than at any other time, I should think. Our teens are missing out on a huge chunk of schooling, and whilst schools and teachers are working really hard to keep them up to date, it’s not possible that there won’t be an impact for the kids who’ve been pulled out half way through their exam years.
Any help we can give them as parents is a bonus – and private tuition isn’t the preserve of the privileged these days. I know a lot of families who use it simply for a single specific subject (yes, I’d lay good money on maths being the most common!), to help boost grades, aid understanding, and provide some much-needed feedback, quiet assistance – and in our case a welcome dose of confidence.
toota is a new service offering online one-to-one maths tuition with fully qualified teachers. Part of the UK’s largest education staffing business, Supporting Education Group, toota gives you access to some of the best maths teachers in the UK.
The toota system is seamless, and so easy; simply book your first FREE online maths tuition session with toota code LITTLEFREE – it’s very like booking your online grocery order! – and all the details of your session will be emailed through. You’ll receive reminders, and then simply log in a few minutes before the allotted time.
We had a slight technical hitch where we couldn’t see the tutor, but T was fine with that – a faceless voice was all he needed, and the screensharing worked perfectly.
The screen sharing worked so that the tutor wrote on the screen, and T watched, using his own notebook to do his own working out. Here’s what T thought about the experience:
To go through the process of learning something in the environment of your home, where YOU have the control, and YOU have the responsibility to teach yourself, takes a large amount of dedication. Yet now, this has become the normal way of going about education. Until schools return, most children are working at learning from home. There are many ways of going about this – and toota is one fantastic option for maths.
toota simply takes what you want to learn, where you’re struggling and how you want to improve, and partners you with a tutor dedicated to a one on one session with you. There is no judgement, no pressure and it’s all about improving your education at your pace, with a tutor to walk you through it.
I’ll be honest, being out of the education system for a while, have struggled with keeping up with the school curriculum from home . For the past few years I have pursued my own educational interests – I’m a massive history nerd, but haven’t even looked at the GCSE curriculum. Until around two years ago I stuck to my own routine of simply studying what interested me – yet now, coming up to adulthood, I realise that I need to get a hold of my education, and sort myself out – otherwise I’ll find myself going nowhere. This is where toota comes in!
The subject I have particularly struggled with in the past is Maths, and knowing that exams are coming up soon I decided I needed to vastly improve my Maths skills otherwise I would find myself in trouble. So when I was offered the toota code for a free trial lesson, I jumped at the chance see where my skills were at and improve them where necessary.
I was notified three days prior to my free online maths tuition that it had been confirmed, and they had partnered me up with a tutor of their choice based on the areas I had requested to brush up on. When the day came, I made sure to seclude myself in a quiet room with sufficient tools such as a calculator, notepad and pen and of course a laptop. I joined the toota ‘room’ with my tutor approximately 5 minutes before the session began, where my tutor introduced himself to me and took me through the tools available in the toota room. After we had covered the basics of the tools, I began to explain my situation to my tutor, how old I am, what I’m doing, where I want to be, so on and so forth. Once my tutor had a good idea on my persona, he adapted his lesson to my knowledge, where he tested my basic maths knowledge, before taking me through things I had forgotten or didn’t understand.
With his assistance I worked through one or two subjects, enhancing my maths skills and reinstating forgotten mathematical knowledge lost in my mind. Not once in the session did I feel judged, though I was worried my maths was not where it should be at. It was quite evident that it wasn’t, but my tutor was not concerned for where I was – the aim in his opinion was merely to get me to where I should be, and he would do everything in his power to navigate me to said point with any assistance he could provide. The session only lasted around 40 minutes, but by the end I certainly felt more confident in myself and less shy with my ability to pick up mathematical information fast.
The overall experience was brilliant. The communication with the toota site was quick and no-nonsense, and the partnering with my tutor was fantastic. Though I was absolutely terrified before it began, I came away feeling oddly satisfied and confident in myself.
T H, 17
If you’re interested in using the toota code to book a free session for your own child, then here’s a few quick facts on toota for you:
- Fully registered UK teachers
toota only connect students to registered teachers who offer a great online tutoring experience. The selected tutors stand out for helping students gain entrance to top schools, pushing them to achieve top tier grades, or supporting borderline students to grades they didn’t think were achievable. - Seamless and Bespoke online experience
toota is built on a tailored online tuition platform. No need to download any software, just a seamless online tuition service built and designed for just that. - Revision library
Every session is recorded and accessible with your child’s own dedicated account. With every lesson they have, they’re building their own bespoke revision library, which they can access and playback at any time.
And it’s not just for exam prep – toota cover all ages, from Key Stage 1 to A-level maths.
5 November 2020
Great post!
I always have struggled with maths and music. Learning piano
5 December 2021
Hi there
I am an adult looking for some maths help but wanted to try a free lesson to make sure I get the right help i am looking for. Please do let me know if you offer free trial to adult learners too. Thanks