Merry Learners

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Merry Learners

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Helping primary children build confidence and enjoy learning again 💛
🎓 Experienced primary teacher (13yrs)
🌟 Fun, confidence-building tutoring
💛 Support for diverse learning needs
🌿 Calm, relaxed & positive approach
📋 Full GTCS & Disclosure Check

29/08/2026

Keeping the important things up to date 💛

Child Protection training refreshed and complete ✅

Not the most exciting part of running Merry Learners, but definitely one of the most important. Creating a safe, nurturing space for every wee learner will always come first. 🥰

28/08/2026

Feedback Friday 💛

I've been looking back through some of the lovely messages I've received from parents recently, and there's one thing that keeps coming up again and again...

“She's actually keen to learn.”
"He’s excited about learning again.”
“She asked if she can go back for another class.”
“Merry Learners is her favourite class!”
“Her whole attitude towards learning has changed.”

Of course I want the children I work with to make progress. I want reading to become easier, number skills to grow, sentences to get stronger and those tricky concepts to finally click.

But I also want them to want to learn.

Because for lots of children who come to me, learning hasn't always felt easy. Some have lost confidence. Some are anxious about getting things wrong. Some have simply decided that they're “not good” at something.

So when a parent tells me their child is asking when they're coming back, talking about what they've learned in the car, or voluntarily carrying on with something at home...

I know we're doing something right! 💛

And when the confidence, enjoyment and progress start appearing together?

That's exactly what Merry Learners is all about. 🥰

27/08/2026

Why are we starting with Place Value? 🔢💛

If you've asked your child what they've been doing in Maths since going back to school, there's a good chance you've heard the words Place Value!

It's something you'll often see being revisited at the beginning of the school year and there's a really good reason for that.

Place Value is SO much more than knowing which column a number goes in.

It's about really understanding numbers and what they're made up of.

If we look at a random number, say 56...

It's 5 tens and 6 ones.

It's 50 + 6.

It's 6 more than 50.

It's 4 less than 60.

And we can build it, draw it, break it apart, compare it to other numbers and put it back together again.

When children really understand numbers in this way, they've got a much stronger foundation to build on when we start moving into things like addition and subtraction.

And that's exactly why we've started the term with Place Value in my Merry Learners Maths groups too. 💛

We're building numbers with practical resources, breaking them apart, ordering and comparing them and using lots of mathematical language like more than, less than, greater than, fewer, before and after.

I don't just want the children to remember a method that gets them to the right answer.

When we start exchanging 10 ones for a ten in addition, for example, I want them to understand WHY that works.

That's also why you'll see so many practical resources in my Maths sessions.

Yes, they make learning more fun (and I'm obviously a big fan of that 😂), but they also let children actually see, build and move the maths before we expect them to understand it as numbers and symbols on a page.

So if you're doing a little bit of Maths at home, don't be afraid to go right back to basics.

Pick a number and ask:

How many tens? How many ones? Can you make it another way? What's 10 more? What's 10 less? What number comes before it? What number comes after it?

You can do SO much with one little number! 🔢💛

There'll still be plenty of dice throwing, games and probably things flying across the room at Merry Learners, obviously. 😂

But there's always a reason behind what we're doing. 💛

25/08/2026

I'm building a wee Literacy group 💛

I've currently got two lovely wee learners ready to get started in my Wednesday Literacy group, and I'm looking for a few more children working at a similar stage to join them. 🥰

The main focus of this group will be reading, phonics and blending, alongside developing writing skills and learning how to structure a sentence with lots of opportunities to build confidence along the way.

It might suit a child who is still sounding out quite a lot of words, needs a little extra time to blend sounds together or often looks for reassurance before having a go.

Or maybe they can read more than they think they can, but just don't quite have the confidence to trust themselves yet. 💛

With writing, we'll be working on getting ideas down on paper, building sentences and remembering all those little things like capital letters, finger spaces and full stops without writing becoming a big daunting task!

We'll be practising all of these important literacy skills, but in true Merry Learners style, there'll be plenty of games, movement, practical activities and chances to learn together too. 🎲

One of the things that's really important to me when I'm putting a group together is finding children who are working at a similar stage and who I think will learn well together.

It means I can keep the group small and really get to know each child, where they're confident, where they need a little more support and what we can work on next while they still get all the lovely benefits of learning alongside other children. 💛

First Level Literacy
📍 Bargarran Community Centre, Erskine
📅 Wednesdays
⏰ 3:45–4:30pm
💷 £22.50 per session

I'm looking at roughly P2–P4, but the learning stage is much more important than the class they're in.

If you're reading this thinking “that sounds a bit like my child” send me a wee message. We can have a chat and arrange a free 15-minute Meet & Learn so I can meet them and we can see whether the group feels like a good fit. 🥰

24/08/2026

Merry Monday, Merry Learners! 💛

Well… we survived the first week back! 😂

It was SO lovely seeing some of my little learners again last week after having the summer off. 😍

I've still got a few wee faces I haven't seen yet as some families have been easing their way back into the school routine, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them this week! 🥰

I do think easing back in is sometimes exactly what's needed.

I spoke to quite a few children (and parents! 😂) last week who found that first week back a bit tricky. New classes, new teachers, new routines, earlier mornings, concentrating all day again… it's a LOT after weeks of summer mode!

Even when children are excited to be back at school, getting back into the swing of things can still bring some big emotions and VERY tired wee people by the end of the day. 😴

So if last week felt a little more chaotic/emotional/exhausting than expected in your house… I don't think you were alone! 😂💛

Over here, I'm excited for another week of Merry Learners and properly settling into our new term. 🥰

How's everyone feeling going into week two?

😍 — We're back in the swing of it!
😴 — Still absolutely shattered
🫠 — It's been a LOT
💛 — Getting there!

23/08/2026

Why I love small group learning 💛

I absolutely loved being a class teacher.

There are still lots of things about classroom teaching that I miss, but one of the things I've really come to love since starting Merry Learners is having the chance to work with really small groups of children.

There's just something so lovely about getting to know a wee group really well.

Not just what they can and can't do on paper, but their strengths, their wee worries, their silly sense of humour, the things that make them light up, the things that make them immediately go “NOPE” 😂 and all their little quirks in between.

And that's what makes my wee groups so special. 😍

They're small enough that I can still notice when someone needs a bit more help, change an activity if it isn't working, give individual targets and really get to know where each child is with their learning.

It can be reassuring to hear someone else saying “I got that wrong too!”

A child explaining to another their method for working something out.

Playing games together, helping each other, having a laugh, celebrating when someone finally gets something they've been finding tricky.

And sometimes just realising that you're not the only person who doesn't know the answer straight away.

I think that's probably why I'm so passionate about the direction Merry Learners is going in.

I still get to teach, which I just love.

But I get to do it with the time and space to really know the children I'm teaching, build their confidence and create the kind of little learning community I always wanted Merry Learners to be. 🥰

And I feel very grateful that this gets to be my job now. 💛

22/08/2026

A little something I've introduced with my Merry Learners groups… 🥰

Merry Milestones Badges! 🏅💛

One of the things I really want to encourage this year is a little practise between our group sessions but without it feeling like a big pile of homework coming home every week.

So each child has their own little target depending on what we're working on.

For one child that might be writing a few sentences at home.

For another, it might simply be reading regularly.

Little, manageable things that will actually make a difference when they're done consistently. 💛

And, of course, there are badges to collect along the way because everything is more exciting when there's a badge involved. 😂

This is one of the things I love about keeping my Literacy and Numeracy groups small! We're learning together, playing games and working as a group, but I can still get to know each child and think about what they need to work on too.

Our new groups are getting started next week and I do still have some spaces available. 💛

21/08/2026

A little bit of sand makes everything more fun, right? 😂

This was such a simple reading activity but went down a treat!

I hid a mixture of real and nonsense words in the sand and we had to use the tweezers to find one, read it and decide whether it was a real word or a made-up one.

Such a simple way to practise blending and decoding without just sitting with a list of words in front of them. 💛

I love finding little ways to make the same learning feel more fun and playful! Sometimes all it takes is hiding it in a tray of sand. 😂

And yes... The sand did end up everywhere. Obviously. 🤣

20/08/2026

This started life as a worksheet… 👀

A perfectly good worksheet, actually. 😂

The task was simple: unscramble the words to make a sentence, then write it correctly using a capital letter and full stop.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But instead of handing over the whole sheet and asking the children to work their way down it, I chopped each sentence up, popped it inside a different coloured magnatile and added a colour dice. 🎲

The children had to roll the dice → find the matching block → open it → unscramble the sentence → write it correctly.

And suddenly, a worksheet feels a little bit more like a game. 💛

The learning hasn't changed.

We're still working on sentence structure, handwriting and punctuation.

I've just changed how we're getting there.

And I think that's such an important part of teaching.

Engaging learning doesn't always need fancy resources or hours of preparation. Sometimes it's literally a worksheet, a pair of scissors and something fun from the cupboard. 😂

Same skills.
Less pressure.
A little more curiosity.
And children who are much more willing to have a go. 💛

19/08/2026

💛 And that's a wrap on our Merry Learners Open Evening! 💛

Thank you so much to everyone who popped in tonight 😍 Whether you came along to meet me for the first time, have a little look around, or were one of my Merry Learners who couldn't resist coming back for another play! 🥰

I absolutely loved getting everything set up and being able to show a little bit of what learning looks like here.

We had tricky words flying around, bean bags being thrown, paper cup towers falling apart, toy cars zooming around, games, reading, writing, building, drawing... and plenty of tea and chatting for the grown-ups too. 😂☕️

Because that's exactly what I want Merry Learners to feel like.

A place where children can move, play, explore, make mistakes, have a go and build their confidence along the way. 💛

And now... it's time for our new term to properly begin! 🥳

My small Literacy and Numeracy groups are starting back next week, and I still have a few spaces available for children who might benefit from a different way of learning.

I'll be sharing much more about those over the next few days. 👀💛

But for tonight thank you to everyone who came along and made use of all the things I spent FAR too long setting up. 🤣💛

Address

Bishopton

Telephone

+447773713727

Website

https://merrylearners.tutorbird.com/, https://scottishtutordirectory.teachery.co/lessons/tutor-spotlight?fbclid=IwY2xjaw

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