Our Blog

The Benefits of a Private Tutor

Throughout lockdown, many parents and carers turned to private tutors to help make sure that their children will not fall behind because of the disruption to their learning. The possibility of a second spike is on the horizon, and it is currently unclear how a local lockdown could affect schools when they reopen in September. Key Stage Three, GCSE, A-level and Degree-level tutoring is a ...

Job Hunting Tips

Despite the chancellor investing £30 billion to kickstart the post-covid economic recovery, there are widespread concerns that unemployment could rocket over the next few months. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that a second wave of coronavirus could lead the unemployment rate to increase to 15%. These figures will be particularly intimidating for young ...

The Importance of Team Work

The lockdown has forced school children across the country to do their best to learn at home with the support of their families. Recent government guidance says that when schools in Wales reopen only around a third of pupils will be in school at any one time. Councils across Wales are responding to the crisis in a variety of different ways but it looks like most pupils will go to school on a part-...

How To Support Your Child’s Mental Health

Covid-19 and the lockdown has been a difficult time for all of us and many parents are concerned about the impact the virus will have on their jobs, their health and the economy. In the midst of this chaos, it can be easy to forget that the mental well being of children needs to be a major focus for all families. Children are in an unprecedented situation: they are isolated from their...

The Silver Lining of Lockdown

MORE TIME …. It may feel like a curse but honestly, it could be a blessing! A slower pace of life, more time to think, no exams to stress you out, space and silence between your thoughts – glorious! NO, what was that, I didn’t quite catch what you said? You’re Bored? Really? Well, here at Cardiff and Vale Tutors we have been thinking about how best we can suppor...

The Coronavirus Conundrum

Happy birthday never sounded this sinister. Staring wide-eyed at the latest fear-fuelled headline, it’s like Steven Spielberg has overthrown the system. We’re playing by his rules now. A clammy tremble of the hand, another discarded nail, a deep, mournful sigh. We’re here again. A stern, stone-faced man glares through the television screen as another scary...

Start Early!

You may be wondering why every supermarket you’ve encountered this month is steadily ratcheting up its bunny count whilst cautiously constructing mountainous foothills of discounted Easter eggs. It’d be easy to dismiss this as a premature venture, a corporate ploy designed to appeal to our collective weakness for cocoa… chocolate’s answer to Tibet, swaying and wobbling overhead c...

New Year, New Me?

Now that all of those mince pies have firmly attached themselves to our midriffs, now that all of our pets are certifiably traumatised by the clock striking twelve, now that gym owners nationwide are expectantly rubbing their hands together in anticipation, now is the time we take an optimistic glimpse into the future – or more specifically, 2020, and all of its futuristic mystery. ...

Stay Motivated-It’s Christmas!

So this is Christmas. And what have we done? Nothing.Well… nothing yet. Mariah won’t stop screeching. The sun has disappeared. There is no light. No glimmer except the blinding gleam of those blaring neon lights, beckoning us onto dying, slushy high streets to shop shopshop and save save save. It’s cold. Too cold. There aren’t enough tissues. Or chocolate. Or, it seems, time. Focusing is i...

Beat the University Application Horrors At Halloween And Apply Early

Melanie Hall, 6th form specialist careers adviser & tutor, and ex-university lecturer and admissions tutor, explains why the mid-January UCAS deadlines are misleading and that early Autumn is the season in which to complete and send off your university application. It really is the early-bird applicants who get offered the best courses at the most prestigious universities… Oh de...