We live in a totally and utterly personalised world. We have playlists curated to our musical preferences, fitness programs matched to our individual fitness goals and phone cases with our initials on them. We also extend this predisposition for personalisation to our children. How often do you think about your child’s individual needs and wants? The clothes they like, the games they enjoy, the books they favour, the friends they like to spend time with? Probably more than you realise, right?
Every day we make decisions that consider our children’s uniqueness. 85% of parents we surveyed agree their children’s clothing and accessories reflect their personalities. 93% of parents claim to buy toys and games that appeal to their child’s personal interests and 86% say that their children only participate in extracurricular activities that are of interest to them.
However, the vast majority of parents agreed that one area that lacked this inherent sense of personalisation was education. According to the parents surveyed, the majority do not believe the current educational system is lacking this feature. 77% agreed it’s a ‘one size fits all’ approach. 88% agreeing their child could do with more individualised attention at school and 90% agreeing that, now more than ever, kids need additional learning support.
Our Chief Learning officer Dr Selina Samuels says, “It is no simple matter to accommodate the needs of 25 or 30 unique learners at the same time, which is the reality of most classrooms. Often the need to cover specific curriculum requirements dominates at the expense of the individual learner. With that in mind and with the benefit of our extensive experience in the classroom, Cluey’s programs are both fully mapped to the curriculum and designed to adapt to the needs of each student.”
Other findings included:
- 84% of parents agree that the pace at which their child is taught a new subject or concept doesn’t suit them
- 88% of parents wish there was more time to go back and revise any areas their child may not have understood during the school term/year to ensure they’ve grasped the concept
- 87% of parents agree that they would love more feedback when it comes to their child’s learning progress than just school reports and parent teacher meetings
- 65% of parents consider purchasing new stationery an essential part of Back to School planning, but less than 1 in 4 (23%) look at signing up to a tutor
It’s clear from these insights that although children can experience the benefit of personalisation in many aspects of their lives, it’s lacking when it comes to their learning. That’s why we’ve launched a campaign to draw attention to the benefits of personalisation when it comes to our children’s education including our very first tv ad:
To raise awareness around the importance of personalised experiences, whether that’s something as routine as a haircut, or as fundamental as how children learn, we also decided to give away 1,000 free back-to-school haircuts at Just Cuts for school students across Australia.
We all know how great a good haircut can make us feel (and equally, the terrible impact of a bad one!). The impact of personalised tutoring on a child’s experience of learning is not so different: it makes them feel heard, valued and optimistic and gives them confidence to tackle the challenges of the world.
The free haircuts proved a big hit with over 9,600 parents entering the giveaway and 1,000 lucky kids heading down to their local Just Cuts and picking their own personalised haircut. Keep an eye on your inbox as it was such a hit we’ll likely do something to continue celebrating the uniqueness of every student sometime in the future!
For full researching findings & additional data or for any media enquiries contact Cluey here.
About Cluey Learning
Cluey Learning delivers personalised online tutoring support for students in Years 2 -12, across Maths, English and Chemistry. All content is mapped to the Australian National Curriculum and is based on the unique learning needs of each individual student. Cluey has supported over 15,000 Australian families, run over 192,000 sessions and has been rated 4.7/5 by parents and students.
About Dr Selina Samuels
Dr Selina Samuels is the Chief Learning Officer at online education company Cluey Learning. She has been in education for over three decades and has been working with schools since 2013 to establish and provide remote education programs across a range of subjects. Qualifications: BA (Hons), LLB, PhD, MEd.
