From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

Curriculum, Teaching and Learning 53
Other students spoke about the different teaching approach used in grind
schools where they were less likely to be disrupted and, compared to
their class in school, they had more opportunity to ask questions and be
corrected when they were wrong. This was not possible in school as their
teacher ‘wants to move on’ and feels these questions are ‘disrupting her
class’:
I get them in Maths like because I find Maths hard. It’s way better
when you’re one to one because they know what you’re doing wrong
and they can correct you, I think it’s way better.
… Because like in Maths if you say something to her [the teacher at
school], she’ll go off the head like. (Park Street, boys’ school, socially
mixed intake)
It’s one on one as well like. If you don’t understand, you can ask.
(Hay Street, coed school, working-class intake)
Other students also felt they benefitted from the individual attention they
received in grinds and the lack of distractions:
You learn more in grinds like.
Because it’s one-to-one tuition.
… It’s not a whole class like.
You don’t have any distractions. (Argyle Street, coed school, mixed
intake)
You’re not given the one on one here, there’s 30 others in the class
and you’re sitting there going I don’t know, that’s why you need
grinds. (Fig Lane, coed school, middle-class intake)
Some students, however, were critical of grinds schools, feeling they
were overpriced and that students could learn by paying attention in
school or spending more time on study:
My Spanish woman [grinds teacher], it’s me and another girl, we’re
friends and we went to her last year as well. We do an hour and a
half and it’s €50 each week for two of us, so she gets €100 for doing