It all adds up

IF it takes one child studying for ten minutes a day six months to learn how to do quadratic equations, how long will it take 60 children?

There is, of course, no answer to this conundrum. Every child is different and every child will learn at their own pace and their own level. But, according to the Kumon method, every child can make the most of the skills they have if they commit themselves to concentrated learning for ten minutes a day.

Kumon started in Osaka in the 1950s and is now a worldwide phenomenon. It has around 560 learning centres in the UK alone catering for more than 45,000 children, 60 of whom attended twice-weekly sessions at Fulford Methodist Church in York.

The system, which is based around 4,000 work sheets spanning 23 levels, from basic counting to calculus, promises to help youngsters master core academic skills by studying little and often.

"It might only be ten minutes a day, but it has to be done every day - Christmas and birthdays included," said Jenny Scanlon, who runs the York Kumon Centre.

"And it is not just the child who has to be committed. Parents have to mark the work as soon as it is done every day and they have to bring the child along to a session once or twice a week after school. This is a tremendous commitment for a family to make."

The key to Kumon lies in the worksheets. There are two sets covering maths and English. The easiest levels involve counting ducks and repeating basic words such as 'cat' and 'dog', while the toughest levels take on differential and integral calculus and the critical dissection of Shakespearean scenes.

Simple diagnostic tests show where each child should begin on the programme - whether they are at the duck-counting level or the simple addition level. Their progress up through the levels is then determined by one thing alone, their own ability.

Once enrolled, a child receives individually-tailored work for every day of the month. This work is carried out independently, marked by their parent (you'll be relieved to know that answer books are provided) and corrections done afterwards. Once or twice a week, the child attends a local study centre, where an instructor collects and assesses completed homework, monitors their activity and ensures they leave with homework to take them through to the next centre day.

"I always set children off at a relatively easy level, so they can do the work quickly and accurately," said Jenny. "This gives them confidence and encourages them to continue.

"All the topics flow gradually and each worksheet builds towards the next. No great leaps are made and children don't move on until they have completely mastered a section. We encourage them to take very small, but very confident, steps to reach their destination."

Kumon instructors - they are not teachers - are on hand to guide and motivate students. They don't set out solutions for the children; they try to help them to find their own.

Children join the programme for any number of reasons. Some of the York students have learning difficulties, some have dyslexia, some are high achievers looking for extra challenges and some just want to catch up with their schoolmates. But most share one pivotal area of need: mental arithmetic.

"Put simply, a lot of children can't do sums in their head," said Jenny, who did three maths A-levels before completing a degree in marketing and engineering. "It's not as bad as it was 15 years ago when everyone automatically reached for their calculator, but children still find it tough.

"We don't use calculators in Kumon at all. We have found that once a child has cracked mental arithmetic everything else begins to fall into place. It gives them a solid foundation to build on."

The programme doesn't suit everybody. The York centre has turned down applications from some families in which the parents were enthusiastic but the child was not.

"You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped," said Jenny with a philosophical shrug of her shoulders.

If a child is committed and motivated enough to complete their work sheets and attend sessions, they are rewarded with 'Kumon pounds'. They can spend these on a variety of treats, from bouncy balls to CD vouchers. As a general rule, the younger children like to treat themselves to something every week, while the older ones save up and splash out on something more substantial.

"We had one little lad who bought a bouncy ball every week. He bought dozens," said Jenny. "One day I asked him where he found room for them all at home. He said he didn't, he sold them for 20p a piece in the playground. I couldn't help but admire his resourcefulness."

Kumon is designed to complement the work children are doing in school, not fight against it. Some teachers welcome its use - some instructors are teachers by profession - but it is not without its detractors too.

"Every school, indeed every teacher, has a different attitude to Kumon," said Jenny. "All I can say is that whatever we do, we never do any harm. Education can never be a bad thing."

Children attending the York centre range in age from four to 15. The Nesom children from Dunnington - Ginny, 12, Soozy, nine, and Philip, seven - are typical examples. They signed up to the Kumon programme two years ago and haven't looked back since.

"Ginny had basically lost her confidence with numbers," said their mother, Maggie. "And the other two wanted to come along too because they didn't want to miss out.

"I began to notice a difference after about six months. They all just seemed far more confident with numbers. My middle daughter in particular has come on very quickly. She's very keen on maths and is now ahead of her older sister."

The Nesoms do their Kumon work every day, come rain or shine, including birthdays, Christmas and holidays. This also generates three lots of work for their parents to mark every day too.

"If they are willing to sit down and do the work, we have to be willing to do the marking," said Maggie. "I have to use the answer book because a lot of what they do is beyond me, but their father can usually manage without it. Then again, he does get some of it wrong."

As this hard-working family has discovered, the only way you can really make Kumon work is to incorporate it into your daily routine.

"Yes, it can be a chore to do it every day," said Jenny, whose nine year old son is on the programme. "But some chores are worth doing. It's like brushing your teeth: if you want to reap the rewards over a lifetime you have to do a little bit every day."

For more details about York Kumon Centre, phone Jenny Scanlon on 01757 268114. After an initial registration fee of £15, tuition costs £41 per subject per month.

A potted history of Kumon...

The education system was first developed by Toru Kumon, a maths teacher, for his three children in Osaka in the early 1950s.

He set up his first centre in Japan in 1958, giving children a thorough grounding in arithmetic before they went to secondary school.

There are now study centres in 43 countries around the world, catering for more than 3.5 million children. In the UK alone, more than 45,000 children attend 560 centres every week.

Each centre is run by one main instructor, with several assistants helping out with between five and 15 students at a time.

A typical Kumon instructor comes from a teaching background, but others might have switched career. All must have a degree and all attend a six-week training course, followed by a series of assessments in their first year of instruction.

To find out more, check out the website at www.kumon.co.uk

Updated: 09:10 Tuesday, February 01, 2005