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A new tutoring business for children of all ages has been launched in the Bath and Bristol region by a Bath-based mother of two teenagers who aims to build the confidence of her students in a more personal, one-to-one way than is traditionally offered in the classroom.

Lucy Billington founded Inspiring Kids following her 17 years of classroom teaching experience and her previous career in law. She initially took on a franchise of a national tutoring business and enjoyed running this for two years, but could see how in some cases, just providing tuition for some children wasn’t enough.

“I could see how great the link was between a student’s self-belief and achieving his or her highest potential. Some children lose so much self-esteem, especially those struggling with any form of special need, that they cannot access the learning unless they are first helped in this area. Sometimes, a sensitive tutor with the skills to make a lesson reach a child is enough. However, at other times more specialist help is needed.

“This is why, as well as tutors, Inspiring Kids works with many different types of therapists and mentors in order to provide a holistic approach to nurturing and empowering the whole child.”

Lucy explained that Inspiring Kids provides a hub for parents and children to access education and wellbeing services. Aware from personal experience that CAMHS can be too over-stretched to be able to cope with the number of children struggling with anxiety, she wanted to provide a variety of therapy styles to meet all needs.

“As well as the more traditional CBT and counselling approaches, we have a number of creative therapies where the therapist can reach a child through art, play, drama or movement. We have mindfulness teachers, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) specialists, as well as experts in hypnotherapy and more general relaxation techniques – and the list is growing.”

In addition, Lucy is keen to help children who are simply not able to engage with education or therapy during a difficult period of their lives. “To help with this period and try to ease such children back to a more positive mindset, Inspiring Kids provides mentors who are experienced in working with children with different needs,” she adds. “These mentors will work flexibly to meet the child wherever is best for them, which can include simply turning up each week until the child is ready to begin engaging and gradually encouraging them to go for a walk, play a game, do some cooking or whatever works for that individual child.

“Just spending time with someone outside the family who is not perceived as a threat can make just the difference some children need and in this way we have already helped a number of children back towards wanting to learn.

“Inspiring Kids has an excellent team. All tutors and therapists are fully qualified and, of course, all of the team are DBS and reference-checked.

“The members of my team are all passionate about helping children grow and develop, not only as pupils but as individuals too, empowering and inspiring them to reach their full potential and lead their fullest lives.”

For more details, go to www.inspiringkids.co.uk