Maths tutoring for Prep students (aged 5 and 6), taught to the Victorian Curriculum, with a free Skills Check first, a tutor who knows what Prep maths actually expects, and a progress note after every session.
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This page is for parents of a Prep student who need help with maths specifically. Below: what the Victorian Curriculum expect in Prep, the pressure points of the year, the topics we cover, how a Prep maths session runs, group versus one-to-one at this age, prices and a typical week. Start with the free Skills Check and a tutor will call you.
Prep maths is about quantity before it is about symbols. A child needs to count reliably (one number per object, in order, knowing the last number is the total), to see three or four objects and know how many without counting, to compare more and fewer, to make and continue simple patterns, and to sort and name shapes. Our tutors use counters, cards, dice and games rather than worksheets, because the concept has to be physical before it is written.
The most common Prep maths gap we see is a child who can recite numbers to twenty but cannot count a set of nine objects accurately, or who cannot say which of two groups is bigger without recounting both. That is not a sign of a problem with maths; it is a sign that the child needs more practice with objects and number words together, and it responds to a few weeks of short, playful sessions.
The reason families come to us in Prep is rarely that a child is failing. It is that a teacher has mentioned, kindly, that the child is a little behind with letter sounds, or is still counting one by one when others are recognising groups, or that Victorian government schools' English Online Interview and Mathematics Online Interview at the start of the year showed a gap. In Prep those gaps are small and close quickly with the right ten minutes a day; left alone, they become the Year 1 and Year 2 reading gaps that are much harder to fix.
Start the free Prep Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
These are the topics our Prep Maths tutors cover, by year level, drawn from the curriculum-aligned question banks that power the free Skills Check.
Maths is the subject where gaps compound. A Year 8 student who cannot add fractions confidently will struggle with algebraic fractions in Year 9, then with rational functions in Year 11 Methods. That is why every RHZ maths student starts with a free online Skills Check pitched at the top of their year level, not the middle: we want to see which of the year's topics are secure, which are shaky, and which earlier-year skills (times tables, place value, negative numbers) are quietly holding them back.
Our tutors teach to the Victorian Curriculum, the same document your child's school plans from. In primary, that means a heavy emphasis on number: counting and partitioning in Prep and Year 1, regrouping in Year 2 and 3, multiplicative thinking and fractions from Year 3 onwards, decimals and percentages in Years 5 and 6. Many of the students we meet in Year 5 or 6 are still counting on their fingers for basic facts, so we rebuild automaticity first: short daily practice, not worksheets of 100 sums.
In Years 7 to 10 the curriculum moves fast: integers and algebraic expressions in Year 7, linear equations and indices in Year 8, surds, trigonometry and linear graphs in Year 9, then quadratics, simultaneous equations and the first taste of VCE-style problems in Year 10. Our secondary sessions follow the school's sequence so that tutoring reinforces class, but a tutor will step back a year whenever the Skills Check shows the foundation is missing. Year 10 is also where we prepare students for the Methods versus General decision, so they choose from strength rather than fear.
A typical session runs for an hour. The first ten minutes are retrieval practice on the previous week's skills, the middle thirty-five to forty minutes are new teaching and worked examples with the tutor watching the student work (not just marking), and the last ten minutes are a short check that the student can do it alone. After every session you receive a plain-English progress note: what was covered, what is secure, what is next. Homework is small and specific, usually ten to fifteen minutes a night.
Small-group sessions (three to five students of a similar level) are the most popular option for primary and junior secondary maths because the price is lower and students often work harder alongside peers. One-to-one suits students who are a long way behind, a long way ahead, or anxious about maths. Both are available at our Truganina centre and online, and the tutor, the Skills Check and the reporting are the same either way.
Prep sessions are one-to-one, forty-five minutes to an hour, and broken into five- to ten-minute segments: a phonics game, reading a decodable book together, counting with objects, a short writing task, a story. The tutor sits beside the child, not across a desk. Nothing is timed and nothing is graded; the tutor is watching for which sounds and which number ideas are secure and which need another go. You get a short note after each session and a two-minute activity to repeat at home.
For Prep we recommend one-to-one, in person at our Truganina centre. Small groups work well from about Year 3, but a five-year-old learns to read by reading aloud to an adult who is listening, and that does not happen in a group or, for most Prep children, over a screen. Online is possible for a confident child with a parent sitting beside them, and we will say honestly whether we think it will work.
For Prep we recommend one-to-one at $35 an hour; small groups (from $25 an hour) are available from Year 3. Across all year levels, small groups are from $25 an hour and one-to-one is $35 to $45 an hour, with VCE at the top of the range. Plans are monthly, you choose how many sessions a week, and you can cancel any time. The Skills Check and the consultation are free. Online and in-person sessions cost the same.
Here is what a typical week looks like for a Prep student doing Maths with us alongside school; most families run one session a week per subject, two in the term before a test or exam.
Before or alongside tutoring, your child can try our free online practice quizzes for Prep, built from the same curriculum-aligned question banks as the Skills Check. They are short, marked instantly, and a good way to see which topics need work.
Not if there is a specific reason: a teacher's comment, an Online Interview result, or a child who is anxious about reading. Prep tutoring is short, playful and one-to-one, and it is the cheapest year to close a gap. If the Skills Check shows the child is on track we will say so and suggest waiting.
A short set of questions a parent reads aloud with the child, covering letter sounds, simple words, counting, comparing and shapes. It takes about ten minutes and a tutor talks it through with you for free. It is pitched at the end-of-Prep standard so we can see what is already secure.
Yes. Victorian schools have moved to systematic synthetic phonics, and our tutors teach the sounds in a compatible order and use the same language (sounds, blending, segmenting) so the child hears one consistent message.
Usually yes, because most students who hate maths actually hate feeling lost in class. Once the Skills Check shows us the two or three missing skills and the tutor rebuilds them, the class work starts making sense again and the attitude follows. We do not push extension work until the confidence is back.
Both. We plan from the Victorian Curriculum, so the topics line up with your child's school. Within that we follow the Skills Check result: if a Year 7 student cannot yet do fractions, we fix fractions before we touch algebra, even if the class has moved on.
One hour a week is the norm for Prep to Year 6 and is enough for steady progress if the short home practice is done. Two sessions a week are worth it for a student who is more than a year behind, or in the term before a NAPLAN test or a scholarship exam.
Start the free Prep Maths Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
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RHZ Tutoring · 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029 · 03 9509 3293 · info@rhztutoring.com.au · Prices