Hello everyone!
I hope you’re all surviving the start of the year. The tinsel is down, the tree is looking a bit sad in the garden (or is that just mine?), and we are back to the daily grind. I’ve been incredibly busy behind the scenes here—juggling the toddler, the business (hence another episode of ‘Low-effort January posts!), and trying to find matching socks—but I’ve also been doing a lot of thinking. Dangerous, I know.
Specifically, I’ve been thinking about sport.
Now, don't panic. I haven’t become a gym bro. You won’t see me posting selfies with a protein shake anytime soon. But looking at the work I do at Ignite Education, I’ve realised something: I’ve been getting the "Tutor" bit wrong. Or at least, I’ve been missing a trick.
We shouldn't just be tutors. We should be Coaches.
The "Coach-Tutor" Hybrid
If you send your child to football training or gymnastics, the coach doesn't just lecture them for an hour about the physics of a ball. They run drills. They focus on "marginal gains"—that 1% improvement that, over time, adds up to a gold medal (or in our case, passing the 11+, gaining confidence, or acing GCSEs).
So, I’ve been working on a new approach. It’s a "Coach-Tutor" model. It takes the discipline and iterative improvement of high-performance sport and mashes it together with the cognitive rigour of academic teaching.
Basically, it’s about training the brain like a muscle, but without the sweaty gym kit.
And the best part? We do it through games. But—and here is the science bit—these aren't just games for the sake of it. They are "interactive learning games" engineered to trick your child’s brain into learning. Sneaky? Yes. Effective? Absolutely.
Here is a peek at the "training equipment" I use (incidentally, all these resources are available for free over on www.igniteeducation.co.uk:
1. Writing Roulette
Getting children to write can be like pulling teeth. We know this. They stare at the blank page, terrified of making a mistake. In the trade, we call this the "affective filter"—basically, their stress levels go up, and their brain shuts down.
Writing Roulette is designed to smash that filter. It turns writing into a game of chance and challenge. It takes the pressure off "being perfect" and focuses on "being creative." By gamifying the process, we lower the anxiety, meaning they write more, they write better, and they actually enjoy it. Plus, it helps with "orthographic mapping" (which is a fancy way of saying it helps the words stick in their long-term memory).
2. Rebel Writing Society
This one is for the creative souls (and the reluctant ones). It’s designed to foster "creative inference." We want children to look at a prompt and not just see what is there, but what could be there. It’s about stretching that fluid intelligence—the ability to solve new problems without relying on old knowledge. The Rebel Writing Society runs over the Summer break, so if this has piqued your interest, drop a comment to pre-register your interest!
3. Non-Verbal Reasoning (NVR) Challenges
If you’ve ever looked at an NVR paper, you’ll know it looks like an IQ test designed by aliens. It’s tough. But by treating it like a sport—drilling the patterns, spotting the rules, practising the logic—we can train the brain to spot the connections. I once worked with someone who refused to include VR and NVR in their tutoring sessions because, and I quote, “they can’t be taught”. But here’s the thing… they absolutely can be! It’s not about being "born smart"; it’s about training smart.
The "100% Attention" Rule
The other thing I’ve taken from the coaching world is the idea of "mediated explanations." In a classroom of 30, a teacher can’t spot exactly why little Johnny didn’t understand fractions. But a Coach can.
My model focuses on "100% attention." I act as the scaffold (hello, Vygotsky!) to bridge the gap between what your child can do and what they could do. It’s about real-time feedback, correcting the "form" of their thinking just like a tennis coach corrects a serve. Sometimes this means allowing myself to look silly in order to bring that confident ‘I can do this’ element out of a child. It works every time.
So, what can you do?
You don't need to sign up for a coaching qualification. Just try shifting the mindset at home.
Focus on the marginal gains: Don't worry about the whole essay; focus on fixing one sentence.
Gamify it: If they’re stuck on spellings, turn it into a competition.
Be the Coach: Encourage the effort, not just the result.
Right, I’m off to see if I can apply "marginal gains" to the mountain of laundry in the spare room. Wish me luck.
Until next time, take care of yourself; check in on your friends; and remember: you can do this. You're awesome!
Carl Headley-Morris
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