Learning Journey: How Jessica Went From ‘I’m Really Bad at Maths’ to Loving It

Nine-year-old Jessica had something she wanted her tutor to know before they got started.

“Just letting you know that I’m really bad at maths.”

Maths was her least favourite subject. She didn’t enjoy it, she didn’t feel confident doing it and maths had started to feel like something that was simply beyond her.

That belief can be a difficult one to shift.

Because when a child expects maths to be hard and expects themselves to get it wrong, every tricky question starts to feel like proof that they were right all along.

Jessica didn’t just need help getting the answers right.

She needed to experience what it felt like to understand the maths behind them and realise that, actually, she could do this.

And that’s exactly what started to happen.

What the tutor noticed straight away

Jessica’s tutor knew that simply giving her more maths problems wasn’t going to build her confidence.

She needed the concepts to make sense.

One of the areas they worked on together was division, particularly understanding division facts and how they connect to multiplication.

Rather than focusing on memorising answers, her tutor helped Jessica understand the relationship between the two operations and gave her strategies she could use to work through the problems herself.

And soon, Jessica had the chance to put that new understanding to the test.

From one answer to all nine

When Jessica first attempted this set of nine division calculations, she could complete just one correctly.

After working on the concept with her tutor?

She correctly completed all nine. The calculations marked with stars in her work are ones she got wrong the first time. This time, she was able to finish them independently.

Itt just a better score.

Jessica had developed the understanding and strategies she needed to look at a problem she couldn't immediately answer and work it out for herself.

And for a child who had arrived at her first tutoring session announcing that she was “really bad at maths”, that mattered enormously.

Sometimes kids need a different explanation

When a child is struggling with maths, it can be tempting to think they just need more practice.

More worksheets. More times tables. More repetition.

But practising something you don’t properly understand can quickly become frustrating.

Sometimes the missing piece isn’t effort or practice. It’s finding an explanation that makes sense to that particular child.

That’s one of the reasons all of our Attain Education tutors are qualified primary teachers.

Qualified teachers have a toolkit of different teaching methods and strategies to draw from. If one approach isn't clicking, they can look at where the misunderstanding is happening and find another way to explain it.

For Jessica, understanding how multiplication and division were connected gave her a way into problems that had previously felt out of reach.

And with every problem she worked out for herself, her confidence grew.

The biggest change wasn’t the nine correct answers

Jessica has made fantastic progress with her maths skills.

But something much bigger has changed too.

She gets excited about maths.

The subject that used to be her least favourite has become something she gets excited about because she sees maths problems differently.

They’re challenges.

And, importantly, they’re challenges she knows she can tackle.

Jessica went into her first tutoring session with very little confidence in her ability.

Now she knows what it feels like to face a tricky problem, find a way through it and succeed.

That’s a learning journey worth celebrating.

Here’s how we get started

Every Attain Education journey starts with a free consultation call where we chat about what’s been going on for your child, where they might be struggling and what you’re hoping to see change.

From there, we onboard your family with a personalised tutoring plan designed around your child’s needs, learning style and goals.

Then the real transformation begins.

Through consistent one-on-one sessions with a qualified primary teacher, we build trust, confidence and genuine engagement with learning. Sessions are designed to meet children where they’re at and help them reconnect with learning in a way that feels achievable, encouraging and fun again.

If your child has started believing they’re “bad at maths”, that doesn’t have to be where their story ends.

Sometimes it takes the right explanation, the right support and a few hard-earned wins to show them what they’re actually capable of.

We’d love to help them find out.

At Attain Education, we know that every child's learning journey is different. Book your free consultation call today and find out how we can support your child.