Tutors - how long for?

[Mayday19]

For those of you using tutors, how did you decide when to have one/when to stop?
My dc has been seeing a tutor for a few months, he is moving up to secondary next year (no selection) and I wanted support with some learning needs (dyslexia). But we can’t really afford this to be a weekly expense for ever.
So I’m wondering if there are any particular years that would be best for us to try to budget for.
He will have two years, then course choice, exams at end of fourth year and hopefully fifth year too.

[TeenTimesTwo]

My DD2 has an English tutor. Started mid y8, I envisage it continuing to GCSEs. She struggles with all aspects of English, and I want to give her the best chance of passing her GCSE first time. Acquiring basic English skills are in my opinion a slow and steady, not something you can cram for.

(DD2 also has me helping her regularly with her maths.)

I would be tempted to stop in y7, let him adjust to secondary, see where the land lies, get an idea of what kind of help you want him to have.
Alternatively, maybe try to find fortnightly tutoring to halve the cost?

(Are you in Scotland? Only asking as in England main exams are at the end of y11 which is 5th year in secondary.)

English GCSEs all have some questions where marks are given for SPaG so being poor at this can hit across a number of exams.

[Mayday19]

Thanks for your reply.
Yes, Scotland, and no SPAG here thank goodness! There’s a lot I feel I could do at home with him (if he’d let me) but he seems so reluctant. I did ask about fortnightly but the tutor we’ve gone to so far (who is lovely) can’t do that. So y8 is second year of secondary school? That is our S2. I could always try to save the cost for this year and see how easily we can do without the money!

[stucknoue]

We did dyslexia support until 9, it was on a Saturday and dd wanted to play football instead so we relented - she awaiting a level results predicted A's!

[TeenTimesTwo]

I think you also need to consider what type of tutor you want.

So DD's English tutor is an English specialist teacher who as well as helping with basics is covering the specific techniques needed to pass the English Language GCSE.
A primary level English specialist wouldn't be nearly as good at that aspect as they wouldn't be living it day to day.

[Mayday19]

Good point, it is a specialist dyslexia tutor we have used so far.
Stuck that’s a lovely outcome, I’d love to think mine could achieve that - he thinks he is stupid so far!

[OKBobble]

Have you looked at which secondary schools have specialist learning support available? If he attends one with one then he may not need the tutor anymore.

[Mayday19]

Well all our state schools have a learning support department, but education is naturally affected by cuts so I’m not sure how much one-to-one or small group support he would get. He didn’t get much at primary, but there was some.
He seems more willing to work with the tutor than to sit and work with me - I get the brunt of the bad behaviour. But it’s a lot to pay just to get some cooperation!