Math Recovery: Customised Holiday Help for Your Child’s Weak Areas
Find out exactly where the marks went. Then let me help your child fix it, before the new school year begins.
I read your child’s exam paper and build a plan for your child alone. Your child works on that plan with me at the table. A few other children may be in the studio, each on a plan of their own. You choose the afternoons.
I read the paper free · 2 to 20 November 2026, weekdays 3pm to 7pm · $90 a session, three to start
Math Recovery is MathArchery’s November and December holiday programme for Primary 3, 4 and 5 students in Bukit Timah, Singapore. It is customised after-exam maths help. Teacher Elaine reads each child’s marked school papers, plans individual sessions around that child’s weak areas, and works with the child in 2-hour sessions on weekdays between 3pm and 7pm, from 2 to 20 November 2026, with December dates on request. Each session is $90, and children start with three.
Where did the marks go?
“She knew this. So where did the marks go?”
The end-of-year paper comes home, and you turn the pages. Some of the questions your child got wrong were in the homework last month, and the homework came back correct.
Maybe this is the first paper that has worried you. Maybe it is one of many, and your child has started to say “I’m just bad at maths.” Maybe you have tried to go through the corrections together at the dining table, and it ended with both of you upset.
I’m Teacher Elaine. I have been that parent, with my own two sons. What I learned with them is what I do now: I read a child’s paper slowly, one wrong answer at a time, and ask what the child was thinking. A wrong answer is rarely random. Let me show you what I mean.
One wrong answer, three different reasons
Three Primary 4 children all lost the mark on the same question: 3/4 + 1/8. The answer is 7/8.
The idea is missing
Child A wrote 4/12.
She added the tops, then the bottoms. She does not yet see a fraction as one number. The idea itself is missing, and it has been missing since Primary 3. More worksheets will not help her. We go back to fraction tiles and a drawn bar until she can see why quarters and eighths are different sizes.
The method is half learned
Child B wrote 3/8 + 1/8 = 4/8.
He knows the bottoms must match. He changed the 4 to an 8 and forgot the 3. The idea is there, and the method is half learned. We rebuild that one step, and practise it in bite-sized questions until he gets it right every time.
A slip
Child C wrote 7/8 in her working, and 7/9 on the answer line.
She understood everything and copied it wrongly. She needs no reteaching at all. She needs a checking habit.
All three lost the same mark, for three different reasons. Put all three in one revision class on fractions, and Child A is still lost, Child B gets it right some of the time, and Child C is bored. This is why Math Recovery has no fixed syllabus. Your child’s plan comes from your child’s paper.
Which of these sounds like your child?
“Maths was fine until this year.”
Primary 4 and Primary 5 ask for more, and a good student can suddenly drop marks. The cause is usually a few specific topics, and the paper shows which.
“There are gaps everywhere, and I don’t know where to begin.”
No child has too many gaps for this programme. Often your child needs to fix fewer topics than the list suggests, because several weak topics can come from one earlier topic. A child who struggles with percentage, ratio and fraction word problems may need one thing first: fractions. I work out which topic to fix first, and we go in order.
“My child says ‘I’m just bad at maths’.”
A child says that after too many wrong answers with no explanation. I start from the point of weakness with questions small enough to get right. Small wins come first, and confidence follows them.
“She did fine, but lost marks in one or two topics.”
Send me the paper. I read it without charge. If it shows mostly careless slips, with no missing idea, I will tell you so.
“Every time I try to teach him, we fight.”
Many parents tell me this. You can hand this part to me.
Why fix it before the new school year?
Because maths builds on itself. A child who is unsure about equivalent fractions in Primary 3 can still get through the Primary 3 paper. In Primary 4 the same child meets 3/4 + 1/8 and cannot do it, because the Primary 3 idea was never secure. By Primary 5 the chapter is called percentage and looks brand new, but the missing piece is two years old.
Because new topics start in January. When school reopens, the new level’s topics begin, and they assume last year’s ideas are in place. Your child’s new teacher has a full year of work to cover.
Because this is the one time no new topics arrive. The exam is over. In school, the year’s teaching is done, and the year-end holidays follow. The marked paper is fresh, so I can see what your child was thinking only a few weeks ago. We have time to go back to one idea, slowly, and get it right, before the new school year begins.
Sometimes it just takes something to click in a child’s mind. When an old idea finally makes sense, the later topics that use it start to make sense too, and a child can improve from there.
See how one idea runs from Primary 3 to Primary 6
The Ministry of Education’s primary mathematics syllabus puts it this way: “Progress in mathematics learning is dependent on the mastery of pre-requisite concepts and skills.” Here is fractions, level by level.
Primary 3
Teaches: Equivalent fractions, simplest form, adding related fractions.
Takes for granted: A fraction as equal parts of one whole.
Primary 4
Teaches: Mixed numbers, fraction of a set, adding fractions with two different denominators.
Takes for granted: Equivalent fractions.
Primary 5
Teaches: Multiplying fractions, and percentage as a part of a whole.
Takes for granted: Everything in the two rows above.
Primary 6
Teaches: Dividing by fractions, ratio, finding the whole from a part and its percentage.
Takes for granted: Everything above.
How does Math Recovery work?
You send me the papers. Phone photos over WhatsApp are fine. The marked end-of-year paper is the one I need. If you kept this year’s other papers, send those too, because a year of papers shows me the pattern.
I read them before your child arrives. I sort every lost mark: an idea that is missing, a method that is half learned, or a slip. I trace each one back to where it began, even if that is a level or two down.
I tell you what I found, before you pay for anything. I do not charge for reading the paper. You hear which ideas we will work on, in what order, and how many sessions I recommend. Children start with three. If your child needs more, I say so at this point, with the reason. You decide, and you can stop at three.
Your child works with me. Each session is two hours, and your child takes a break whenever they need one. I teach the idea with something your child can see or draw, then the method, then questions that get harder a little at a time. The studio is a safe-to-be-wrong environment. Nobody sees anyone else’s paper, and every child is busy with their own work.
Your child shows they can do it alone. Once an idea is in place, I give your child questions like the ones they stumbled on in the paper, and they do them without my help. When your child gets right the kind of question they got wrong in the paper, they gain confidence. If an idea is not yet secure, I tell you which one.
Your child can do Math Recovery and keep their weekly tuition, mine or anyone else’s. A weekly class moves forward with the school term. This goes back, to the specific ideas your child’s paper shows are missing.
How do the sessions fit around our family?
I planned this so that you choose the afternoons that suit your family.
You pick the days.
Any weekday from 2 to 20 November. Different days each week are fine.
You pick the start.
Sessions run between 3pm and 7pm. Your child can start at any time from 3pm to 5pm, straight from school or after a rest at home.
We fix the schedule together, before your child starts.
Once I have read the papers, we agree the dates and times over WhatsApp, so you know the whole plan from day one. If something comes up after that, message me and we look at it case by case.
Anyone can do the drop-off.
A grandparent or helper is welcome to bring and collect your child. The car park gives a 10-minute grace period.
December is possible.
If November does not work, tell me and we find dates in December.
When is the Math Recovery holiday programme, and what does it cost?
Choose your afternoons
Each session is 2 hours, between 3pm and 7pm. Your child can start at any time from 3pm to 5pm.
Week 1: 2 to 6 November 2026
Monday to Friday · any 2 hours between 3pm and 7pm
Week 2: 9 to 13 November 2026
Monday to Friday · any 2 hours between 3pm and 7pm
Week 3: 16 to 20 November 2026
Monday to Friday · any 2 hours between 3pm and 7pm
December 2026
If November is not possible, message me and we find dates in December.
You pick the afternoons that suit your family. After I have read the papers, I advise you on how to space the sessions, and we confirm the dates together before your child starts.
- Fee
- $90 for each 2-hour sessionChildren start with three sessions, which is $270. That covers everything: the plan, the sessions and all materials. Reading your child’s paper is free, and you pay only when you decide to go ahead. I charge no other fee. If I recommend more sessions, each is the same $90, I tell you the number before you decide, and the choice is yours.
- Seats
- I keep the studio group small so that each child gets my attention, which means I can take only a few children each afternoon.
- Where
- At MathArchery, 9 King Albert Park #02-22, KAP Mall, Bukit Timah, Singapore 598332. King Albert Park MRT (DT6) is about 10 minutes’ walk away, largely sheltered. More on getting here is on our contact page.
- In person or online
- I recommend in person. At the table I can see your child’s working as they write it and guide them straight away, which is faster and more direct, and it matters most for a child who is finding maths hard. Online sessions are possible too. Tell me your situation and we decide together, case by case.
Fees and times for weekly classes are on the schedule and fees page.
About Your Coach
I’m Elaine Goh, Teacher Elaine to my students. I have taught Primary, Secondary, IP and IB Mathematics for over eight years, and I hold a Specialist Diploma in Specific Learning Differences. My own two sons each learn differently, and I have been through two rounds of PSLE as a mother, so I know what a worrying paper feels like at home.
Top performers with one weak area and children who need an idea rebuilt in small steps both belong in my studio.
What parents say about learning with Teacher Elaine
These parents wrote about my weekly classes.
“…teacher Elaine helped her to love the subject so much that she is now asking me to sign her up for year end math to learn more before school lessons. My daughter is now much more confident and does not delay doing her math homework.”
“She is an incredibly patient and thorough math tutor who has made a huge difference in my son’s learning. Her teaching style is clear and methodical, ensuring that my son fully understands each concept before moving on.”
Questions parents ask
Can my child do the sessions online?
Yes, it is possible, and we decide case by case. I recommend in person where you can manage it. Guidance at the table is faster and more direct, because I see each line of working as your child writes it. That matters most for a child who is finding maths hard.
Is it one-to-one?
Your child has a plan of their own and works on it with me. A few other children may be in the studio at the same time, each on their own plan. I move between them. No child follows a lesson planned for someone else.
Will the other children see what my child is working on?
No. Every child has their own work in front of them, and the levels are mixed. A Primary 5 child rebuilding a Primary 3 idea looks the same as everyone else at the table.
My child is tired after the exams. Is this more drilling?
No. I do not give practice papers. We work on a few ideas at a time, with questions small enough to get right. Your child gets to feel what it is like to get maths right again.
Which papers should I send?
The marked end-of-year paper, every page, so that I can see your child’s working and the teacher’s marking. The mid-year paper and class tests help too.
The school has not returned the paper, or keeps it. What now?
Message me anyway. Send the other tests and marked worksheets from this year. I plan from your child’s own work, so I need to see some of it.
Is three sessions too much for one topic?
One session finds the gap and begins on it. It takes the second and third for your child to understand it fully and use it without me.
Is there work to do at home?
Sometimes. If your child needs extra practice for an idea to stick, I give them some work to do between sessions. It is work they can do on their own, so you do not have to teach it.
What happens after November?
You decide. Some children are done. Some carry on in my weekly Primary 3, Primary 4 or Primary 5 classes. I also run a separate December programme for children who want to get ahead on next year’s topics. Message me for the details.
Does my child need to be a MathArchery student?
No. Any Primary 3, 4 or 5 student is welcome.
How do we sign up?
Message me on WhatsApp with your child’s level. Send the papers when you have them. I read them without charge, tell you what I found and what I recommend, and then you decide.
Tell me about your child
Message me with your child’s level and what worries you about the paper. Send photos of the paper when you have them. Your child may have many gaps or only one or two. I will read it without charge, tell you honestly what I see, and tell you how I would help.