A Coalville company is ready to take the burden off parents who want their children to catch up at school following last year's Covid lockdown.

Kip McGrath Coalville offers personal tuition to pupils who missed large parts of their education between 2020 and 2021 - and has recently completed its 1,000th lesson.

And while students have returned to the classroom, Kip McGrath is aware that some would welcome the chance to get back up to speed - especially in maths and English.

The company teaches children from age 5-16 and covers most of North West Leicestershire.

The owner of the Coalville franchise, Helen Harper, says her company has an important role to play after an uncertain time for schoolchildren.

"We say 'catch up, keep up', our core business is about helping children catch up where they've fallen behind in lockdown, but it's also 'keep up' in terms of pupils for whom maths and English doesn't come naturally to them," she told Coalville Nub News.

"A commonly asked question is 'how long will my child need tuition for?'. Every child is different, for some, a short sharp 12 week block is enough to fix some gaps and misconceptions and they feel confident enough to continue alone.

"Some children stay a lot longer, either because they have a greater need or simply because they enjoy their lessons and the confidence and reassurance it gives them.

"At the moment we are seeing a surge in requests for help with reading for little ones, but also more secondary maths and English.

"That's where my background is - GCSE and A-Level maths, so I am still taking most of those classes myself.

Helen says one of the most rewarding parts of her job is seeing pupils make genuine progress as a result of coming to Kip McGrath Coalville.

"We were absolutely blown away by one student who started with us in October and had a reading age of five years," said Helen, whose Kip McGrath franchise is now a Coalville Nub News sponsor.

"But after eight months, she got up to six years nine months.

"She is now almost nine years old and her mum and I were almost crying at the progress she'd made.

"For a long time she had been thought of as a 'naughty kid', and mum said she struggled to get support but she is now diagnosed with ADHD and making huge strides.

"It felt so good to help a child like this.

"That's how Kip McGrath started in Australia over 40 years ago by a husband and wife team."

Helen explained the ethos of the company and its beginnings.

"Kip was a teacher himself and moved to a new school in Australia," she said.

"At one school, he told the head teacher: 'Half of the kids in this class can't read." He was told: "All of the kids in another class can't read." As if that was the way it was.

"So Kip and his wife decided that all children should be able to read.

"And they started tutoring in their garage, they created a programmed from scratch that worked.

"But they became busier and busier as they became known as the people who could teach children to read.

"The neighbours started getting grumpy because there were so many cars turning up to drop the children off.

"They then got premises and the franchise model started when someone else started doing it in a different state.

"Then it went all over the world and there are more than 250 centres in the UK alone."

But Helen admits that setting up the business last year almost seemed like a case of the worst timing possible.

"We opened at the start of March 2020 for our first lesson, but by the end of the month, we were closed," she added.

"We'd opened at the worst possible time, or so it seemed.

"We were unable to get out to fetes, fairs, outdoor events, the sort of places where you could promote the business and meet people.

"We had a soft start and built up slowly. We've had chance to get to figure out what works for us and for our students without any major hiccups.

"Things have picked up this summer and, all of a sudden, we're very busy. We're recruiting new tutors and building our team, to be able to offer more student places.

"Because we're OFSTED registered, parents can use childcare vouchers with us."

Helen says she is delighted to be associated with Coalville Nub News, a free, independent local news service: "We are keen to share more of what we do with the local community, and what better way to do that than with Nub News?

"It quickly became very clear that their passion for delivering great service is the same as ours."

Nub News CEO, Karl Hancock, said: "Kip McGrath is an ideal partner to work with because, like Nub News, the local community is at the heart of what it does.

"Without companies like Kip McGrath, we wouldn't be able to survive. This sponsorship enables us to provide news and what's on listings without any Google Ads, pop-up surveys and clickbait.

"We also provide classifieds, property, jobs and live travel."

Coalville Nub News is unique in that it lets you self-publish using the "Nub It" buttons found on the home page for news and what's on page for event listings. If you would like more information email the editor, [email protected].