10 Tips to Selecting the Right Tutor
Introduction
Selecting the best tutoring service for your child can seem like a daunting task. There are no shortage of individuals and companies offering the service, but where to begin? We’ve all lived through a pandemic, and with that came two years of disrupted studies for children of all ages. So, children more than ever don’t just need support but they need the right support.
As of June 2021, it was estimated that as many as 200,000 students could have been leaving primary school without basic reading and writing skills. As well as this, many children have not developed academically and socially during this time, and some have even regressed. The value of tutoring has therefore been brought to the forefront of the minds of parents and carers alike.
If you are planning on hiring a tutor in preparation for the next academic year, here are 10 tips mums can use to make the process easier. The main objective of this is to help you make an informed decision about how to get the best academic support for your child.
1. Do you need a tutor?
Just because tutors are very popular at the moment this doesn’t necessarily mean that your child needs one. Often a good dialogue between home and school can remedy many issues that may arise, and some students already work very well independently, so a good place to start would be to assess your child’s particular needs.
Alternatively, you may need a tutor but not in the immediate future, you can use the time you have to do some research into the field and when you are ready to make a decision you’ll be better placed to make an informed decision. Understanding if this is something you’re ready to commit to will save you and any potential tutors a lot of time and effort. You can learn alot by having discovery calls with potential tutors.
So, before you even start the process, work out; Do you actually want/need a tutor?
2. Recommendations
Word of mouth is the lifeblood of marketing in the tutoring industry. A company can spend millions on adverts of different types but there is no more powerful way to market than a recommendation from someone that you know and trust. A good place to start your enquires is with fellow mums that currently use tutoring services, a platform like Kensington mums is a great resource for this also because the curate and work with a lot of different organisations.
Use other members of your network to find out which services have worked well for them. Your child’s school teacher can also be a very good place to start or even just a simple google search. Very good tutors will often have a waiting list, you’ll need to know if they have the capacity long term to teach your child so bear this in mind also.
3. Cost
Tutoring is largely unregulated, so tutors can charge as they see fit, this means you could theoretically be paying anywhere from £15.00-£100.00 an hour for one to one sessions (and even more depending on the tutor or company). You would expect to pay towards the higher end of the scale for a tutor with a proven track record, or a professional teacher. Despite this a tutor or agency should be able to justify why their fees are what they are if asked, so feel free to ask about their pricing model.
4. Company Vs individual
Tutors can work as individuals or as part of a tutoring organisation. Within a company it is reasonable to expect that tutors will be vetted properly both for character and expertise. Having said this, you can find very good independent tutors but it does tend to be more hit and miss. Using a tutoring company will most of the time cost more, If you’re looking to save on costs you may want to hire a student tutor with recent experience of taking the exams you are currently hiring them for.
For example a student taking A Levels will have recent experience on what it is like to take Gcses. The danger of this is that they can sometimes lack the teaching expertise to effectively teach the content to your child.
An advantage of using a tutoring company is that they are likely to have a larger pool of tutors, this means that you can select a different tutor if things are not working out and there will be another tutor to teach a different area of expertise if this is needed.
5 Finding the right fit
The ideal tutor will have the personality, discipline and relatability to bond well with your child. This also extends to finding the right fit for your child’s learning style, if your child has special educational needs (SEN) bear this in mind also, does the tutor have experience working with SEN students? Good tutoring is not just the exchange of information but forming a good working relationship between student and tutor.
6. Safety
As mentioned before tutoring in the UK is largely unregulated, however it is common practice to at least have a recent DBS check and a working knowledge of basic safeguarding practices when working with children, does your tutor have this?
7. Location
Where will tutoring take place? If tutoring takes place in your home you can expect to pay more for this, tutoring can also take place at a centre, another public location like a library or online. Along with location, you’ll need to decide if you want to have one to one sessions or group sessions. Although most families will probably opt for individual one to one sessions, small group sessions can work very well in many cases, they are usually cheaper and cultivate confidence and comradery between other students.
8. Feedback
How does the tutor communicate progress, setbacks or any other issues that may arise? Some tutors/agencies provide regular reports, even if your tutor doesn’t provide this there should at least be regular verbal communication. Feedback works both ways, check in with the student and see how they are finding the sessions and communicate this to the tutor.
9. Don’t be afraid to change things up if it’s not working
Tutoring for the most part doesn’t yield overnight results. It takes an investment of time, therefore any tutor that is hired will need time to be able to do their job effectively. If you are finding that after a while that things are not working, it’s worth having a conversation to see if things can be changed or another strategy used. If not you will need to change things up. If you’re working with an agency this may mean using a different tutor within the company, if you are using an individual tutor, it may mean starting your search again.
10. Why Sam Tutoring?
The aim of this article is to help mums find the right academic support in the form of tutoring and consultation services. It would therefore only be right for me to explain why the company that I run may be the right fit for you.
I started Sam Tutoring over a decade ago and have the pleasure of working with families not only all over London but internationally also. We work with students of all abilities including students with special educational needs. The strapline of my company is ‘more than tutoring’, this is because education and learning is more than what happens in those 6 school hours Monday to Friday, it requires a targeted holistic approach that takes into account the whole person, not just their academic ability. Our consultancy service supports our tutoring helping parents make informed decisions about every aspect of academic life. We combine academic excellence with a targeted and compassionate pastoral approach to learning. If you’re interested in how we can best support the learning of your child, please do get in touch, you can also find more information on the Sam Tutoring Youtube Channel.
You can also find more information about how to find the right tutor on such platforms such as The Tutor’s association, The Good Schools Guide, Childcare.co.uk, Tutor hunt and many more. Tutoring overall when done properly should be a positive experience on all sides, hopefully this article gives you a good starting point on how and where to begin your tutoring journey.
Happy tutoring!
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