Maths tutoring for Year 1 students (aged 6 and 7), taught to the Victorian Curriculum, with a free Skills Check first, a tutor who knows what Year 1 maths actually expects, and a progress note after every session.
Start the free Year 1 Skills Check → 📞 03 9509 3293
Year 1 Maths is where a lot of families first look for help, usually after a test, a report or a SAC that did not go the way they expected. Here is exactly what we do about it: a free Skills Check pitched at the top of Year 1, a tutor matched to the subject, sessions at our Truganina centre or online, and a plain-English note after every one.
Year 1 maths turns counting into number sense. A child needs to see 47 as four tens and seven ones, to count on from a number rather than from one, to know doubles to ten and the pairs that make ten, and to use those facts to add and subtract without counting every object. We use tens frames, bundles of sticks and number lines, and we make the strategies explicit so a child can explain how they got an answer, not just that they got it.
The most common Year 1 gap is a child who still counts from one for every sum. Left alone, that child will be counting on fingers in Year 4. Our Year 1 sessions spend a few minutes every week on number facts until counting on, doubles and friends of ten are automatic, then apply them to worded problems, money and simple measurement.
Two things make Year 1 a pressure point. The first is the Year 1 Phonics Check, which Victorian government schools now run in Term 3: forty words, real and made-up, read aloud to the teacher, which tells you plainly whether decoding is secure. The second is that Year 1 is when a class spreads out. Some children are reading chapter books by Term 3 while others are still sounding out three-letter words, and a big class cannot give the second group the daily one-to-one reading they need. That is exactly what a Year 1 tutor is for.
Start the free Year 1 Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
These are the topics our Year 1 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.
Year 1 sessions are an hour, one-to-one, and always start with the child reading aloud for five to ten minutes while the tutor listens and notes errors. Then a phonics teaching point and practice, ten minutes of writing, and the second half on number: a quick facts game, then the week's concept with materials, then a few written problems. The tutor keeps a running record of sounds and number facts that are secure and sends you a note after each session with one thing to practise.
One-to-one, in person, is our recommendation for Year 1, for the same reason as Prep: the child needs to read aloud to an adult who is listening. Online works for some Year 1 children with a parent alongside, particularly for maths, and we will tell you after the Skills Check whether we think it will suit your child. Small groups are better left until Year 3.
For Year 1 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 Year 1 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 Year 1, 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.
Usually yes, provided the tutor teaches phonics systematically and hears the child read every session. Most Year 1 reading gaps are decoding gaps, and they close in a term or two with daily short practice. The free Skills Check will show whether the gap is decoding, sight words or comprehension.
It is a short check run in Term 3 in Victorian government schools: the child reads forty words, some real and some made-up, to the teacher. You do not need to prepare for it as a test; you need to make sure the child knows the sounds. That is what our Year 1 English tutoring does.
Some do. A child who is still counting from one for every sum, or who cannot say what 34 is made of, will struggle with Year 2 regrouping. Fixing number facts and place value in Year 1 takes a few weeks; fixing them in Year 4 takes a term.
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 Year 1 Maths Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
Year 1 pages: Year 1 tutoring overview · Year 1 English tutoring
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RHZ Tutoring · 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029 · 03 9509 3293 · info@rhztutoring.com.au · Prices