What to expect from your first lesson at SAT

We feel that the first lesson a child has at Sammie Allen Tutoring is incredibly important, both to the tutor and to the child! It can ‘make or break’ how your child feels about tuition, and can really impact future lessons! Especially if the first session is a bore…

We believe that throughout the first session with your child, there are two different things that we would like to see…

Assessment

Within the first session, we need to complete some type of assessment to see exactly what your child needs to work on, and more importantly, how your child feels about a certain subject/topic area! It is the moment that we get to see your child’s ability level through our own eyes, which means that these are usually quite structured, while also exploring many different topic areas throughout! We might also include elements that we expect children to get incorrect. Sounds scary right? But in fact, we try to make this session the most relaxed and engaging possible. We will not usually present your child with a test but instead, talk through ideas, explore answers that are both correct and incorrect, complete engaging activities to really get an idea of how your child likes to learn! Most importantly, the initial assessment gives us the ability to plan your own bespoke package of education.

Getting to know your child

The second is actually getting to know your child. We feel that when a student is comfortable and familiar with the tutor, the learning environment is more stimulating and enjoyable for all involved! Therefore we take this time to ask questions, tell jokes, engage in conversation! We might ask questions like, what subjects do you like/dislike? What do you like to do for fun? What is your favourite food or favourite movie? Let’s break the ice and get familiar with natural conversation!

We also like to have some fun in the first session. We like to leave a lasting impression that we are not scary people! We are all super friendly, and we like students to understand that when they have a lesson at SAT, they will always be surrounded by fun and interactivity! There is nothing worse than having a first lesson with a stranger where they ask you to do a test… So we might usually finish with a game, or an activity either to do with the assessment, or to do with what the child enjoys.

After the initial assessment, we will then contact you to have a little chat about how it went, and what provision we feel we would like to put in place going forward.

And that’s it, you’re officially a member of the SAT team!