What is the Clara James Approach?

The Clara James Approach is more than just a support group, it’s a heartfelt solution for parents of primary school children who want to support their child’s English and maths, but aren’t ready (or able) to commit to tutoring.

How it all began

In 2012 a friend talked me into tutoring. Life was going through a pivotal moment, and I didn’t think I was in the right place, nor did I want to take up tutoring. However, I am essentially a people pleaser, and I didn’t have the heart or confidence to say no thanks more than once so, Starr Tutoring was born.

Starr was my maiden name, and I had lost my dad at 16, a man, to this day I admire more than anyone and naming the business like this was a nod to my dad’s memory.

The business grew quickly and in 2019 I decided to franchise. One of the first steps was to trademark the business name. Because Starr is such a popular term, when someone contested it I was told it was going to be a challenge that could take years and potentially thousands of pounds. In the end I decided I needed to pick my battles and renamed the business Clara James Tutoring (with an angel for the logo). Clara is my oldest daughter; my lad is called Jamie – and a nod to my dad whose middle name was James. My youngest is called Angel. When the logo designer sent back the brand logo of the angel reading a book, it worked perfectly as she has been a bookworm since being very, very young.

Then lockdown happened and the world changed for so many people in so many respects.

What I Learned About Learning

At 25 I decided to return to education. I had three children under the age of 4 and Steven (my then husband) worked away, so whatever I decided to do had to fit in around the kids. Like so many women, that took me down the road of education. The journey started in early years, then as my confidence grew, I took a voluntary role in a local primary school where 4 children in the class where I worked were diagnosed as ADHD.

At the same time, I attended a course on reading and spelling difficulties at the local college, after which the tutor suggested I speak to the school about Clara Being mildly dyslexic. So, I plucked up the courage and went in. Their response was “Dyslexia is an excuse for laziness, I don’t think there is a problem”. So, lacking the faith in myself to fight my corner I decided to learn as much as I could about different learning styles. My thoughts were that I could use this knowledge to support her, but at the same time it would compliment the degree that I was now doing through the Open University.

I pushed myself further and started working at a local residential hostel for children who had profound autism and couldn’t cope in mainstream schools. Everything was adapted for the child’s needs; from the environment to the staffing levels, to the work presented for the child.

Then fast forward to 2012 and it was suggested that I have a go in tutoring. From my experience of working in early years and the residential hostel (by then we had moved back down south from North Yorkshire so I had worked in several other educational environments of various types) I thought education had moved on and it was now more adapted to working with the needs of the individual, making it fun and relatable to the child.

I had also learned that if we just give a child a worksheet to do, and then another worksheet and so on, all we are doing is making one memory then making it stronger. If instead, we give them a range of resources to help them to learn, we are providing them with multiple memories making it easier to recall the information when it is needed. In my mind, this made perfect sense.

So, this became the values by which Clara James Tutoring were based.

Why Tutoring Isn’t Always the Answer

Not every parent can afford a tutor. Not every family has the time to squeeze another activity in. Tutoring wasn’t the right answer for everyone.

The Clara James Approach: What It Is

Parents had often commented on the resources we had created for use in the lessons; things like board games with relevant questions on each square, lily pad games where you have a game of “Tiddly-Winks” and must land on the question to answer it. Guess Who to guess the number, rather than the character, etc.

Sometimes parents had mentioned how they had struggled to help their child with their homework because they hadn’t understood it themselves.

Often comments were made about how their child was averse to reading.

Two Ways to Join

So, what if I provided a platform where parents had access to the resources that we used in the lessons with a new focus bundle to be uploaded each month. This would provide them with the resources that they could use whenever they were needed but also offer them the opportunity to spend quality time with their children.

A group where parents could ask each other for help and I could pitch in and offer my help and support as well. Maybe even include a book club for children where we could work through a book together offering different tasks and activities as we went. Not structured comprehension worksheets but tasks like drawing and annotating the main characters, charades to act out what the characters did in the chapter, word searches with key grammatical techniques used in the chapter. Things that felt less like a chore and more like they were designed to be fun.

The idea was growing. It would need to be affordable so if it was all presented online the costs could be kept to a minimum.

But what if the family didn’t have access to a printer to print out the resources? Ok, maybe I could create a premium option where I could post the monthly bundle of resources out to you, and invite you to a monthly zoom call so you could talk directly in person to me, and I could give you specific advice for your child. I could put my 25-years of knowledge around neurodiversity to use, I could also relay back what we had done in lessons and what I had learned from experience.

Then I started getting asked about group lessons (this was something I had never done as I feared a child would be less confident to speak up in a group than if it was just 1:1), but maybe I could do a maths group inside the premium membership with the option to join us for the sessions if you wanted. It wouldn’t be formal learning it would be the opportunity to join us for some games, fun and help your knowledge and confidence in the process.

A Little Extra: Why We Give Back

My momentum and enthusiasm grew. I also decided that 1/3 of the profits each month would be donated to a charity because I wanted to give back, starting with an animal charity because I was so grateful for all the love my old dogs had given me in my life, especially my rescue dog, Snow; 3-legged Collie cross from Romania.

That was it, the Clara James Approach. Now I just had to make it happen. And that is my journey forward now, to offer this to as many people as possible so that we can support children in gaining a love of maths and English in a way that works for them.

Is It Right for You?

If you’re curious whether the Clara James Approach might be right for your family, you can learn more here:

The Clara James Approach

or click here if you are interested in The Clara James Approach Premium Membership

You’re welcome to try it out, there’s no contract, and you can leave any time. We’d love to support you, however we can.

And although the resource bundles are growing, we still have a long way to go, so if there is something that you need help with, please do ask and we will make it a priority to get it in there.

I wish you all the best on your journey supporting your child.