EVERY child has special needs - but trying to cater for those in mainstream education is impossible, say the teachers who now offer private tuition.

"Strictly speaking every child should be taught as an individual, in an ideal world there would be a differential in every class but that's very difficult to do," said Catrina McGuffin, who now runs a franchise of the Kip McGrath centres in Cardiff.

"A lot of teachers do it extremely well and can produce three levels of work, but 30 different pieces of work, for 200 children a day is unrealistic."

Private tutors also find a lot of parents have no idea how to best support their child when they show signs of talent.

"Parents tend to say they prefer earlier intervention," said Ms McGuffin.

"The children might be frustrated if the work is too easy and want to do something now rather than waiting for teenage problems."

She said The National Association of Gifted and Talented Children says the emphasis should be on enrichment, and so the children are given more difficult, challenging and intellectually stimulating work.

"We shy away from giving them exams because sometimes a child can be very bright but not emotionally mature enough to cope with GCSEs.

"So they might understand Shakespeare but can't interpret the emotions, or the theme is quite adult.

"I have some children as young as five attending classes, but they are extremely bright, and I normally take them from age six."