Marli B. is our February 2021 Tutor of the Month!

Micaela D. is our November 2020 Tutor of the Month!

Valued BrightSparkz Clients, Tutors & Partners,

The start of Spring brings us a new season for education, with almost all learners back at school, the economy opening up and lockdown restrictions easing. Learners are also needing to get used to the reality of being back in the classroom, with tests and assignments due, and exams around the corner. The way our learners are being assessed has changed in most schools, with a larger importance placed on classroom-based learning and assessments, and a smaller emphasis on exams. The curriculum has also been adapted to account for the shorter school year. 

All of these changes are stressful for children, and as parents, now is not the time to downplay the importance of the rest of the academic year on your child’s future. The time between now and the end of exams is integral to ensure that your child has all the support that they need. 

BrightSparkz is stepping up to the challenge, and we’re continuing to provide the safest possible learning support:

• Online lessons for all subjects and levels, to catch up on the year, keep up with their current classwork or address problem areas

• In-person tutoring for learners who have found that online schooling doesn’t suit their learning needs

• Learn@Home tutors & facilitators for parents who have opted not to send their child back to school, but still need some in-person support

• Test & exam concessions facilitators (online and in-person) so that your child has the support that they need in assessment environments

• Study Skills Crash Course (online and in-person) to ensure your child knows how to study and doesn’t waste any of the precious academic time remaining this year

• Little Sparkz & Little Sparkz Parent Edition to keep younger learners stimulated and learning while until they go back to kindergarten

Whether or not you’ve decided to send your child back to school, we hope you’ll allow us to continue supporting their education with our online or in-person solutions. We are dedicated to minimizing the impacts of this pandemic on your child’s continued education, as well as minimizing the financial impacts to you by allowing you to take advantage of the continued reduced prices on the majority of our core services. 

We are here for you! We hope we can make this difficult time easier for you by allaying your education concerns. If you have any other learning support or tutoring needs, please let us know.

 

Amy Stockwell & Dominique Hsuan – BrightSparkz Directors

Belinda N. is our August 2020 Tutor of the Month!

Belinda has such a great passion for education, evident in the effort she puts in with a smile and a laugh everyday. Belinda has been absolutely amazing in understanding how to teach the basics of a language, and bring nuance to each lesson she provides. She is always helpful and never misses the opportunity to find out how you are or check in with you. Belinda is always willing to help out, or assist with extra projects. 

The global Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in many changes to our daily lives, not least of which is the advent of online schooling, or schooling from home. Many schools quickly adapted to the new normal by providing resources for parents to continue their children’s education from home, including homework, tasks and activities, and even tests. While some schools are able to provide access to teachers via online lessons, not all schools are able to do so, and this places the brunt of managing children’s homeschooling on their parents. It can be very difficult for parents to juggle managing their children’s education with their own work, particularly for parents of younger children who are less able to self-study. The curriculum has also changed hugely in the past 10 years, meaning that there is a massive learning curve for parents trying to teach their children from home for the first time! The good news: BrightSparkz can help!

We’ve spent more than 13 years since our inception creating a variety of learning solutions to the problems faced by both learners and parents over the years, with our most recent being the introduction of Learn@Home tutoring and homeschool facilitation to our range of learning support services. Whether online tutoring doesn’t meet your child’s needs, or you aren’t yet comfortable with sending your child back to school, we can help. 

What is Learn@Home or homeschool facilitation?

Our Learn@Home tutors & homeschool facilitators are available to assist with your child’s prescribed schoolwork or homeschool curriculum. Instead of you trying to fit in a few hours of schooling between your own work, our facilitators will come to your home 3 – 5 times per week, for several hours of focused schooling. This can include:

• Helping with homework and activities set by teachers, 
• Lesson creation and execution around new content, 
• Catching up on any previous parts of the curriculum, and
• Tackling problem areas or areas needing reinforcement

This gives you the space to continue with your own work, knowing that your child’s educational needs are being taken care of by a trained and screened professional. 

How is this different to tutoring?

We are not yet advising that face-to-face tutoring sessions resume, however we are still providing online tutoring. If your child is back at school, and requires subject-specific or content-specific help for just a couple of hours per week, online tutoring is your best bet. Online tutoring may not be suitable for those with severe attention difficulties, or those without a reliable internet connection. 

Online or face-to-face tutoring takes place for 1, 1.5 or 2 hours, and focuses on a specific subject or content area that the learner is struggling with. While some schoolwork can be completed during this time, the focus is on tackling problem areas and improving understanding. 

In-home childminding and homeschool facilitation uses the content and information sent by your child’s school to create more of a “school at home” environment, where your child’s learning will be managed by a professional for 3 – 5 hours on between 3 and 5 days per week. This can include subject-specific assistance, but is designed to cover all aspects of in-home schooling, including learning support and supervision over breaks between schoolwork sessions. The focus is on completing the learner’s prescribed schoolwork and activities. 

 

Please note that Learn@Home services do NOT include:

• Transporting of children
• Additional childcare activities such as meal preparation, bath or bedtime routines, bathroom breaks, chores, errands or shopping
• In-home tutoring services for less than 3 hours/3 times a week
• Medical care of children who are sick with COVID-19 or other illnesses
• Supervision of children without another adult present at the home

We have obtained a permit to continue to run essential childcare services, in the form of Learn@Home tutors & facilitators, during Level 3 of lockdown. This service is for parents requiring childminding for a minimum of 3 hours per day, 3 times per week. If you would like to find out more information about this service or need a more tailored solution, read more here.

Prior to commencing Learn@Home facilitation, comprehensive hygiene and sanitation protocols will be provided each to each facilitator, and an indemnity signed to state that all precautions were taken prior to Learn@Home facilitation commencing. This includes informing BrightSparkz Tutors immediately, in writing, if the facilitator or an immediate family member living in the same household has been exposed to COVID-19, or have contracted COVID-19, at which point all Learn@Home facilitation will cease until the facilitator has tested negative for COVID-19, and at the discretion of all parties concerned.

 

Written by Tessa Cooper, BrightSparkz Staff  Blog Writer