How Primary Tutoring Supports My High-Achieving Child

Leah, a bright, thoughtful Year 5 student, had always excelled at school. But over time, her mother, Sarah, noticed Leah starting to become less curious and engaged. In this post, Sarah shares why they turned to tutoring—not to catch up, but to go deeper. If your child is doing well but seems a little switched off, read on to see how they could benefit from primary tutoring too!

Table of contents:

• Our situation before primary tutoring
• What sparked a change
• Why we chose Matrix primary tutoring
• The results since we’ve started primary tutoring
• My advice for parents of primary school students

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I used to think tutoring was something you looked into when your child was falling behind. My daughter was doing well at school—she actually topped the Matrix scholarship exam. But even with strong academic results, I started noticing small things that made me pause:

• Homework was getting rushed.
• She was doing the work, but not really engaging with it.
• When I’d ask her how school was, she’d say things like, “It’s fine,” and change the subject.

Let me share why we decided to try tutoring even though our daughter wasn’t struggling, how it’s helped her stay engaged, and what I’ve learned as a parent through the process.

If you’re wondering whether tutoring might be useful for a child who’s already doing well, this might help.

Our situation before primary tutoring

Academically, everything with Leah looked fine. My daughter enjoyed school well enough. She was getting good marks, and there wasn’t any pressure from us to overachieve.

But she’s the kind of child who likes to understand why something works, not just get the right answer. And over time, I noticed she wasn’t asking as many questions.

For Maths class, especially, she’d complete the worksheets quickly, but when I asked her how she got an answer, she’d sometimes say, “I just knew.”

It felt like she was relying on instinct rather than really thinking it through.

She was also starting to get a bit bored. I worried that if she kept coasting, she’d lose interest altogether.

What sparked a change

There was no big event that made me take action. It was more of a build-up of little moments.

One night, she finished her Maths homework in under 10 minutes. I looked over it and realised she hadn’t shown any working out. When I asked her to explain a few of the questions, she struggled. Not because she didn’t understand, but because she hadn’t really slowed down enough to think.

I realised, just because your child is doing well on paper doesn’t mean they’re getting everything they could out of learning.

I wanted her to stay curious, not just efficient.

Why we chose Matrix primary tutoring

We enrolled her in primary tutoring at Matrix, not to accelerate her, but to support her mindset and give her space to engage more deeply.

The structure of the lessons helped as it:

• Teaches one topic at a time
• Covers the syllabus in detail
• Uses examples and explanations that encourage real understanding, not just quick answers.

Along with this, we helped her at home by:

• Not adding much more to her schedule.
• Making sure she had quiet time once a week to go over what she’d learned.
• Talking more about how she solved problems, rather than just checking whether the answers were right.

What worked well was the pace and clarity of the tutoring lessons. What didn’t work as well in the beginning was our tendency to over-check her work. We learned to give her more space and focus on her process instead.

The results since we’ve started primary tutoring

There weren’t any dramatic changes, but we started noticing that she was taking more time with her work and thinking more carefully about how she solved things.

Every child learns differently, and progress doesn’t always look like a jump in marks.

In Maths, she began showing her working without being asked and could explain her reasoning more clearly.

More importantly, she seemed more engaged.

She asked questions again—not because she was confused, but because she wanted to understand more.

One day she told me, “I like the way they explain things in my Matrix tutoring classes. It’s clear, and it actually makes sense.” That stuck with me.

My advice for parents of primary school students

If you’re considering tutoring for a child who’s already doing well, here are a few things I’ve found helpful:

• Don’t wait for a problem. Tutoring can be just as valuable for extending thinking and keeping kids engaged as it is for catching up.
• Focus on learning habits, not just results. Helping your child build a calm, thoughtful approach to learning pays off in the long run.
• Check in, but not too much. Asking “how did you solve this?” is more useful than asking “did you get it right?”

For us, tutoring wasn’t about fixing anything. It was about supporting a mindset. And while my daughter might not say it outright, I can tell she appreciates having that bit of extra space to slow down and learn properly.

That has been 100% worth it.