Supporting Learning at Home with Exemplar Education | AD

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There is no denying that LP loves school. She comes home each day telling us things she has learnt, new words she now knows the meaning of or which number she counted up to – as well as all the games she played, songs she’s sung and new friends she’s made. But, there are times in every child’s life where they could do with a bit of support with their learning, where extra tuition could help them and where they could just do with a helping hand. At these times you could buy books to help learn at home or you could hire a private tutor but, wouldn’t it be better if a child could have help to learn whenever they wanted it, not the same time each week or even every week? And this is where Exemplar Education comes in.

What is Exemplar Education?

Exemplar Education is an online tutoring system focusing on maths and english from Year 1 through to Year 12, covering the whole of primary school and secondary school National Curriculum. But, it’s so much more than just a website that you subscribe to. LP has been using Exemplar Education for the last few months and when we first registered her we had a home visit from a lovely Exemplar Education representative. He spoke to us all about Exemplar Education, explained how it works and made sure that the learning plan was completely tailored to LP’s current stage of learning.

During this visit I chatted to Paul from Exemplar Education and LP just had to do a couple of simple quizzes to gauge where she was at with her learning. This information was then programmed into Exemplar Education to build LP her very own learning plan tailored to her.

How does Exemplar Education work?

LP has her own login details and can login from anywhere in the world. She can use any computer as well as our own parent Exemplar Education family login. We were told that the service works best on a Firefox browser and we have set LP up on a spare laptop to work from – also sometimes she loves to borrow my Macbook if she gets the choice!

When LP works through the activities on Exemplar Education they each have three stages. There’s a tutorial where she watches a video showing her how to do whatever it is she is learning. This could be something like Addition to 99. Once she’s watched the video she can practice doing the addition herself. When she’s comfortable that she knows how to do the activity she can do the assessment to test her learning.

Do you need to get certain pass marks to progress?

Each topic needs an 80% pass mark to complete the activity. LP can try different topics and then come back to any that she is really stuck on. The great thing about Exemplar Education is that LP can watch the tutorial video again whenever she likes. She can also revise as much as she likes until she really understands the topic.

Each set of topics make up a complete course. At the end of each course there’s an assessment to test the overall learning. Just like with individual topics there is an 80% pass mark. After that LP can go on to the next course and the next selection of topics.

The Exemplar Education home education topics are set automatically. LP works through them in the order that Exemplar Education think would work best. If at any point there is something specific that LP needs to learn or wants to refresh we can change to a manual mode to go straight to a certain topic. The whole interface is really user-friendly for both us, as parents, and LP as the learner.

LP loves using Exemplar Education. It’s one of her first times using a proper laptop at home. Being able to sit at the table and work through the different activities makes her feel so grown up. But, more than that, she is actually really learning from it and doing everything at her own pace.

Can parents monitor progress on Exemplar Education?

So that we can monitor LP’s progress Exemplar Education has a report section where it gives you so much information. It shows how long LP has been practicing for and how long it took her to do an assessment. It also shows her pass marks. This is great to see whether she is just flicking through the questions or if she’s actually taking time to answer them. LP also gets certificates after each assessment and we get emailed results each time she completes one too.

One of the best things about Exemplar Education is that you can contact one of their tutors on their freephone helpline if you need someone to explain any of the topics to you. This can be used even if your child has a problem with their homework. Sometimes you just need to have a teacher explain something to you. Exemplar Education are on hand to do just that. Plus, if you need technical help then there are contact details for that sort of thing too.

What are our overall thoughts of the platform?

For us this is the perfect tool to aid LP’s learning. I know that she isn’t the sort of child who could sit and learn for an hour at the same time every week with a private tutor. An hour, or even half an hour, is too long for her to stay engaged and concentrating. Exemplar Education lets LP dip in and out of learning. She can have ten minutes here and there, saving her progress as she goes. It’s the sort of thing she can work on when she’s in the right frame of mind. When she’s not too tired and happy to learn. Those times change each week and so we have to grab them when we see them. At those times it’s a joy to watch her learn.

This has fit well into our lifestyle and LP really enjoys it. She can work through the topics by herself. And she can read the questions herself and loves getting her score at the end. She feels like she’s really achieving something each time a certificate appears.

How much does it cost?

Now, Exemplar Education isn’t cheap but it is great value comparable to other options. Most families using Exemplar Education are paying somewhere between £16 and £18 per week. This covers all the kids in the family. So, if you sign up for an older child the younger siblings will also have use of Exemplar Education with their own learning plan tailored to them.

How does it compare to a home tutor?

It’s a great alternative to a home tutor. It can fit around your existing commitments and is perfectly tailored to the needs of your children. If you have a child that needs additional help with maths and english then Exemplar Education would definitely be worth looking into. They offer a free initial assessment too.

LP has loved using the service. I know that Little Man cannot wait to start using it too when the time comes. He could use it now but we’re waiting until he can read a little better by himself first. It’s great that you pay one price as a family. I know that Exemplar Education has taught LP so much already. I’m looking forward to seeing how much she learns as the months go by.

You can find out more about Exemplar Education over on their website and book your free assessment too. You can read our two year update here too.