Six reviews, each labelled and dated

The six reviews

1. 01

   What matteredA note after every lesson

   C01–C08

   Our daughter came into Grade 10 geometry convinced she was bad at maths. Rebecca started from the proofs test she had failed rather than from the front of the book, and after each lesson we had a short note saying what they had covered and what still felt hard. The grade moved slowly, from a D to a C by the winter break, but the bigger change was that she stopped avoiding the homework. Nobody promised us more than that, and we appreciated it.

2. 02

   What matteredThe maths step taught first

   C01–C04

   My son’s chemistry class moved on to stoichiometry before he was comfortable rearranging an equation. Daniel noticed that in the first session and spent twenty minutes on the algebra before touching a single mole calculation. Everything was drawn on the board first. By the end of the unit my son could explain the problems back to me, which he could not do in September.

3. 03

   What matteredTold what to practise, not what to expect

   C07–C12

   Before the block started, Thomas said plainly that he could tell us what our daughter would practise but not what score she would get. The diagnostic showed she was losing most of her time on the long reading passages, so most of the eight sessions went on those. She sat the SAT in March feeling prepared, and the halfway email meant we were never guessing how it was going.

4. 04

   What matteredHer words stayed her own

   C01–C06

   Priya never rewrote a sentence of my daughter’s essays, which surprised me at first. The drafts came back with questions in the margin instead: what do you mean here, where is the evidence for this. Over a term the questions got fewer. Her English teacher mentioned at the spring conference that her paragraphs had become much easier to follow.

5. 05

   What matteredA plan built from real dates

   C09–C12

   I went back to community college at thirty-eight and was drowning in deadlines by week three. Four study-skills sessions with Thomas turned three syllabi into one written weekly plan, and he showed me how to test myself on a chapter instead of re-reading it. It was not magic. It was a calendar I could actually follow, and I finished the semester.

6. 06

   What matteredA straight answer on where to start

   C01–C12

   We booked the starting assessment because we honestly did not know whether our son needed help with reading or with maths. Rebecca spent the first half hour talking with us and the second working through short tasks with him. The written plan arrived two days later, recommended reading support first with Priya, and explained why. It was not the answer we expected, and it was the right one.