Math Recovery: Customised Holiday Help for Your Child’s Weak Areas
Send us your child’s exam paper. We will find where the marks went, and work on those topics before the new school year begins.
Teacher Elaine works with your child on the topics their own exam papers show they are struggling with, on the weekday afternoons that suit your family.
Review of assessment paper · Primary 3 to Primary 5 · 2 to 20 November 2026
Math Recovery is MathArchery’s November and December holiday programme for Primary 3, 4 and 5 students in Bukit Timah, Singapore. Teacher Elaine will review your child’s marked school papers so that we can plan customised sessions around the areas they are weaker in. Sessions run for 2 hours on weekday afternoons, between 3pm and 7pm, from 2 to 20 November 2026, and December dates are possible on request.
Where did the marks go?
The paper comes home, and some of the questions your child got wrong were in last month’s homework, marked correct.
“Careless” is the usual answer, and it is rarely the whole answer. Send the paper over and we will go through it properly, one wrong answer at a time, and tell you what we find.
One wrong answer, three different reasons
Three Primary 4 children lost the same mark on the same question: 3/4 + 1/8. The answer is 7/8.
The idea is missing
The child wrote 4/12
She added the tops, then the bottoms. She does not yet see a fraction as one number, and has not since Primary 3.
What we do: Rebuild the idea with fraction tiles and a drawn bar.
The method is half learned
The child wrote 3/8 + 1/8 = 4/8
He knows the bottoms must match. He changed the 4 and forgot the 3.
What we do: Rebuild that one step, then bite-sized practice until he gets it right every time.
A slip
The child wrote 7/8 in the working, 7/9 on the answer line
She understood it and copied it wrongly.
What we do: No reteaching. A checking habit.
Same mark, three different reasons. In one revision class on fractions, the first child stays lost, the second gets it right some of the time, and the third is bored. Math Recovery has no fixed syllabus. Every plan comes from the child’s own paper.
How Math Recovery works
Send us the papers. Photos taken on your phone are fine, over WhatsApp. They give us a good idea of what your child has been struggling with.
We take a look before the first lesson. We go through the answers to understand what your child finds difficult and where the marks went.
We plan the lessons around what we find. We will tell you which topics we are starting with, and how many sessions we think your child needs.
Your child works with Teacher Elaine. Each session lasts two hours and your child takes breaks along the way. She starts where your child is weakest and builds up in small steps.
Your child tries the same kind of question again. This time on their own, and getting it right is what brings the confidence back.
Other children may be in the studio, each on their own plan. No child follows a lesson planned for someone else.
Which of these sounds like your child?
“Maths was fine until this year.”
Primary 4 and Primary 5 ask a lot more of a child. It usually comes down to a few topics, and the paper shows us which ones.
“There are gaps everywhere, and I don’t know where to begin.”
No child has too many gaps for us. Quite often several weak topics come from one earlier topic, so we start with that one and work through the rest in order.
“My child says ‘I’m just bad at maths’.”
We start with questions small enough for your child to get right. The small wins come first, and the confidence follows.
“She did fine, but lost marks in one or two topics.”
Send the paper over anyway. If it turns out to be careless slips with nothing missing underneath, we will tell you.
“Every time I try to teach him, we fight.”
Many parents tell us the same thing. You are welcome to hand this part over to us.
Why close the gaps before the new school year?
Maths builds on itself. An idea that was shaky in Primary 3 is still shaky in Primary 4, and by Primary 5 it turns up again under a chapter with a new name.
New topics start in January. The new level assumes last year’s ideas are in place, and the teacher has a full year of work to cover.
This is the one time nothing new is coming. The exam is over and the paper is still fresh, so there is room to go back over an idea slowly and get it right.
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 plainly: “Progress in mathematics learning is dependent on the mastery of pre-requisite concepts and skills.” 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 above.
Primary 6
Teaches: Dividing by fractions, ratio, finding the whole from a part and its percentage.
Takes for granted: Everything above.
How the sessions fit around 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, so your child can start any time from 3pm to 5pm.
We fix the schedule before your child starts.
Once we have read the papers, we agree all the dates with you over WhatsApp. If something comes up later, we look at it case by case.
Anyone can do the drop-off.
A grandparent or a helper is welcome to bring your child and collect them. The car park gives a 10-minute grace period.
December is possible.
If November does not work, tell us and we will find dates in December.
Your child’s coach
Teacher Elaine has taught Primary, Secondary, IP and IB Mathematics for over eight years, and holds a Specialist Diploma in Specific Learning Differences. Her own two sons each learn differently, and she has been through two rounds of PSLE as a mother, so she knows what a worrying paper feels like at home.
She reads a child’s work closely to find out what the child was actually thinking, and teaches from there. Top performers with one weak area and children who need an idea rebuilt in small steps both belong in the studio.
When is it, and what does it cost?
Choose your afternoons
Each session lasts two hours and can start any time between 3pm and 5pm.
Week 1: 2 to 6 November 2026
Monday to Friday
Week 2: 9 to 13 November 2026
Monday to Friday
Week 3: 16 to 20 November 2026
Monday to Friday
December 2026
We can arrange December dates if November does not work for your family.
Once we have read the papers, we advise you on how to space the sessions, and we fix all the dates with you before your child starts.
- Fee
- $90 a sessionMost children start with three sessions, which comes to $270, and that covers the lesson plan, the sessions and all materials. There is no registration fee and no materials fee. If we think your child needs more than three sessions, each one is the same $90, and the choice is yours.
- Places
- We keep the studio small so that every child gets Teacher Elaine’s attention, which means only a few children each afternoon.
- Where
- 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. Getting here.
- In person or online
- We recommend in person. At the table Teacher Elaine sees each line of working as your child writes it, which is faster and more direct, and it matters most for a child who is finding maths hard. Online is possible, case by case.
Fees and times for weekly classes are on the schedule and fees page.
What parents say about learning with Teacher Elaine
These parents wrote about our 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, case by case. We recommend in person where you can manage it, because guidance at the table is faster and more direct.
Is it one-to-one?
Your child has their own plan and works on it with Teacher Elaine. A few other children may be in the studio, each on their own plan.
Will the other children see what my child is working on?
No. Every child has their own work, and the levels are mixed.
My child is tired after the exams. Is this more drilling?
No, we do not put children through practice papers here. We work on a few ideas at a time, with questions small enough for your child to get right.
Which papers should we send?
The marked end-of-year paper, every page, so that we can see the working and the marking. The mid-year paper and class tests help too.
The school has not returned the paper yet.
Message us anyway and send it over when it comes home. Any other marked work helps in the meantime, because we plan from what your child has actually done.
Is three sessions too much for one topic?
The first session is usually where we find the gap and start on it. The second and third are what make the idea stick.
Is there work to do at home?
Sometimes. If an idea needs more practice, we will give your child a little work they can do on their own.
Does my child need to be a MathArchery student?
No. Any Primary 3, 4 or 5 student is welcome.
What happens after November?
Your choice. Some children are done. Some carry on in our weekly Primary 3, Primary 4 or Primary 5 classes. In December we also run Math Headstart, on the key topics of next year’s level. See Math Headstart
What else runs this year end?
Math Recovery in November and Math Headstart in December are our two year-end holiday programmes. Our holiday programmes page compares them side by side. Compare the two programmes
How do we sign up?
Message us on WhatsApp with your child’s level, and send the papers over when you have them. We will go through them, tell you what we found and what we suggest, and then you decide.
Tell us about your child
Message us with your child’s level and what worries you about the paper, and send the photos over when you have them. Whether it is one topic or several, we will go through it and tell you honestly what we see and how we would help.