Bangor

Kip McGrath is an international company which has been helping children with reading, spelling, English and mathematics for more than 25 years. There are now 400 Kip McGrath Education Centres throughout the world.

Kip McGrath is a qualified teacher who began tutoring students in Australia. He developed carefully graded curriculum programmes in the basic subjects: these have been adapted to suit the curriculum in the UK. The material is organised into text- books, activity sheets and booklets, cassette tapes and computer activities. The variety of work materials encourages the children to remain interested and motivated.
 
Alan and Rosemary Morrison own and run the Bangor Centre, the first in Northern Ireland. They are qualified teachers with two children of school age and so are well placed to understand the anxieties parents experience over their children's education.

We provide professional tutoring in reading, spelling, English and mathematics in a neutral, purpose designed, motivating environment using internationally tried and tested curriculum materials which are unique to the Kip McGrath Centres.

We can help students between the ages of 6 and 16 who are having problems in these subjects at school. This may be because:

• They have missed the teaching of key concepts through illness
• They have changed schools
• They have had an emotional upset
• They have had difficulty learning to read
• They have found some concepts particularly difficult, have become confused, frustrated and de-motivated

How we do it…

Following a free, no-obligation assessment, which will be discussed with the parents, an individual programme is designed for each child. This uses a variety of written and computer work and starts them at their level of understanding, progressing them at their own pace so that they are never overwhelmed. They achieve the goals set for them and by doing so are motivated to continue. Failure is eliminated.

Students attend one, or perhaps two, 80 minute sessions each week where they work independently in groups of no more than 4 or 5. They are taught individually by qualified teachers fully trained in the Kip McGrath system.

A short homework is set and this is marked in the centre the following week. The completion of the homework is important because it lets the tutor see if the student has grasped the concepts and is ready to move on in their programme. For this reason parents should encourage their child to complete the homework without assistance.