Tuition centres - staffed by A-level students?

[fabsmum]

Notice a rash of these places opening up around the place. Like this: here

I know a young lady who has just got a job at one. As a 'tutor'. Not only has she not got a degree, but she's just failed (I mean properly failed, not just got low grades) all of her AS levels and is retaking her entire A level course. Hasn't put the tutorial agency off though, and they've been happy to take her on at about £7 an hour.

And I've just seen an ad on Gumtree advertising for tutors for a tutoring agency, with top rate of pay (depending on qualifications and experience) of £10 an hour. Applicants must have A-levels and GCSE's.

AIBU in thinking that most parents would prefer their children to be taught by teachers?

Or is there a market for 'MacTutoring' in the UK now for people who can't afford to pay the going rate for qualified tutors?

So what fabs? Many graduates and professionals have learning disabilities - they're not unique to people who failed GCSE, you know.

And yes, it is a good job.

kim - most of the children I know personally who are having tutoring (ie, traditional tutoring by qualified teachers one to one, or in small groups) are from professional families. However, the tutorial centers I'm talking about on this thread are attempting to bring tutoring to a wider group through giving it a high street presence and through their business model.

"So what fabs? Many graduates and professionals have learning disabilities - they're not unique to people who failed GCSE, you know.

I didn't imply that and I don't know why you're being sniffy with me. My own child has learning difficulties - I hope he'll one day have a professional job.

Doesn't change the fact though that dyslexia and poor literacy and numeracy are massively more prevalent among the poorest people in the UK, and are often the reason why they're economically disadvantaged.

And LRD - by saying 'so what' are you saying it doesn't matter if people who are being paid to tutor children don't have any training in identifying or supporting special needs?

Sorry, we cross posted.

I meant, so what the majority of people who get tutoring for their children are graduates and professionals? My point was, this doesn't mean they won't have learning disabilities. I'm sorry if I got it wrong, but you did take issue with me pointing out reasons why children might need tutoring, so I read it that you thought I was incorrect saying many people get tutoring for their children because they can't do the support themselves.

Of course it matters if people doing the tutoring are trained - as I said, it's a good job my mum is.

I'm not a huge fan of the quality of some of these places, but much depends on individual staff.

But, you seem to be saying that people who can't afford cake, should not be allowed to purchase good to medium quality bread instead, and should stick with the free economy loaf the state gives them as good enough for them, as the good to medium quality bread is overpriced for what it is, not as good as the cake they can't have, and they might mistake it for cake?

How does that help the educationally disadvantaged? Are you hoping they'll rise up demanding the economy loaf is replaced with cake because that's what the educationally advantaged get? It's not going to happen, and if it did it would soon be quashed.

You seem to assume a teenager has no concept of skills and how to learn. Some of course don?t, but many do, and many have bitterly fresh experience of how not to equip a child with skills, how not to learn, and how it could be better.

If you're an educationally disadvantaged child, anything that encourages study as a life skill and normalises it as something positive and worth spending time and investing in, is a step up.

If you come from the sort of levels and places that can offer something better, then most of those parents are soon going to get that this is about convenience babysitting, and the child doing a bit of subject practise rather than demanding it?s way round the supermarket, if that isn?t their reason for doing it the first place.

Many children go through school with SEN?s undiagnosed, wrongly diagnosed, or simply not provided for regardless, so the fact that a commercial organisation offering add on?s isn't visibly doing any better, is not the greatest issue.

Any level educational help, however low, that normalises education as a positive, praiseworthy thing that's within a child's grasp, that can be accessed by parents who can?t afford more, is better than none.

This worries me, as a tutor with an excellent degree and PGCE I charge £30 per hour for a quality service. These tuition centres offer a substandard service that parents could do themselves. How can they work to the exam criteria (even at primary - children need to be prepared properly for the SATs exams?

Don'tcallmehon can I ask how many hours a month tutoring do you recommend for SAT's and NVR please?

I would usually advise an hour a week, with homework set so that students can practice between sessions. I only tutor English though, I know some of my students have an additional hour a week for maths too.

Well according to this, all they require are "strong GCSEs or equivalent" for a tutor. So, erm, nothing that I couldn't do myself, for free

careers.explorelearning.co.uk/vebo/part_time_tutor_requirements

JustGettingOnWithit - if a child has weaknesses in their maths or literacy that's stopping them accessing the curriculum, then they deserve a qualified teacher to help them catch up.

If they aren't actually behind and just need practice, then the likelihood is that their parents can provide support with this which is equal to what they'll get from a teenager in a McStudy center.

IMO parents who can afford to pay 100 quid a month for this type of support would be better off spending their money on widening out their children's cultural experience - going to the theatre, subscribing to a children's newspaper, museum trips, books. Given that children in these centres are not getting proper teaching from qualified professionals, there is nothing they get there that they could not get at home, with a caring parent by their side and with access to all the wonderful learning materials you can now access free online.

"Many children go through school with SEN?s undiagnosed, wrongly diagnosed, or simply not provided for regardless, so the fact that a commercial organisation offering add on?s isn't visibly doing any better, is not the greatest issue."

I totally disagree. Extra study which is not accompanied by extra skilled support is actually often going to be a demoralising and frustrating experience for a child who is experiencing barriers to learning that aren't being recognised by the person who's supposed to be 'teaching' them.

Dontcallmehon thanks, I didn't want to presume it would be the same everywhere, but that sounds to be about what's quoted up the road from here, an hour each subject.
To get what you're offering (which I don't doubt is great quality and well worth the money) and the equivalent in maths, matching their fees, I'd need to be able to find £300 a month, which is more than half our total monthly income.
We stand no chance of your or other quality help, but scraping around, we might be able to buy the lower quality stuff. I wouldn't because I've looked into it and seen how I can spend that amount better. You won't lose students, low income families trying to buy education is generally a new market.

Boomting the average mumsnetter seems to be quite educated, and to take it for granted. Very few people I know in r/l have any exams. The whole point is these sorts of places aren't aimed at people who can easily do it themselves.

I would say that even alternating maths and English on different weeks is better than what these centres offer - but I do see that one on one tuition is unaffordable to many.

Dd does kumon. It's almost self teaching. I wouldn't pay for kids with failed a-levels to teach my dd.

Fabsmum, they may deserve one, but round here they simply aren't going to get one!
So what should we do, accept our powerlessness and agree with the system writing of our children, or give all and every possible chances at helping them a go?
Sorry but your 'McStudy' teen may actually stand a chance of reaching the parts some schools fail to bother trying to, and they're no worse than weak Saturday school's.

In your world a caring parent has the availability and resources to enrich and provide, side by side. not quite the world of a stressed lone parent working as a night cleaner and getting them dropped off for a bit of extra help, while she tries to care for a dependant adult and get other things done.

I feel you're a bit unaware of who these places are for, and quick to think them useless when you don't seem to understand the people they're catering for.

It's a system that for many of my friends is all they can manage to do. They have neither the time, education or money to do better, but their children are gaining more from being there, and the regular praise and confidence raising than not, and some of those teens are more able at explaining concepts than you're giving credit for. The same's true of Kumon, often sneered at on here but a very valuable but overpriced resource for some families.

For what it's worth my son My D/S was written of as having potentially "reached the limits of his learning abilities" years ago, despite being bright, and I had to either accept him labelled uneducateable or try and learn how to educate him myself, there is no 'extra skilled support' on offer here, they're just pronounced non exam material.

I've thrown up everything to go for the later and learnt a lot from when I started, but very few of my friends feel they could, or cope with social attitudes, and it's easy to be an educated parent with resources saying it's all so easy, but it really isn't for everyone.

I'm not defending these places as brilliant, and I know I'll be in a minority to defend them at all, but I am saying don't please don't sneer and write them of as 'McStudy' so quickly, when they are a better resource than nothing, and an advance on what many have been using, for some.

I have to vanish (to try and 'teach' unpaid, an SEN child that there's no 'extra skilled support' for) but maybe those who feel strongly against these places, could campaign for higher quality educational resources to be available for those of us who want more for our kids than we can afford, or the state can or will allocate us?