AIBU to think our online maths tutor is not helping DS15?

[Clearsunnysky]

DS15 has been with an online maths tutor for at least 2 years. Current predictive grades of 3. I don’t see any progress. Last MOCK was a 2. Do you think we are wasting our money? Maybe it is because is online? Or the tutor hasn’t passed DS the love of learning and enjoying Maths.

Does the tutor report to you on progress, next steps, gaps and how you can support his learning? What progress is he making at school?

I'm an 'in person' maths tutor and I do find it is really helpful that foundation students have that physical human presence and bond and can use manipulatives, do physical puzzles, write on paper etc.

What are your child's weaknesses?
What are your tutor's qualifications ? Are they teacher trained?
What is your cbild working on with them?
What kind of methods do they use?

Also, what does your child's teacher say about what next steps should be, weaknesses etc and is the tutor agreeing/utilising this information?

I’d 100% switch to an in-person tutor.

How engaged is your son in the lessons? How many hours a week is it? Does he do extra practice afterwards? Does he see it as ‘maths revision is now done for the week’, so he actually does less independent maths studying than he might otherwise do? E.g. if you think a one hour extra maths lesson a week, that your son sits passively in, is going to make an enormous difference then you’re being unrealistic. On the other hand, if your son is trying really hard in the sessions and asking for clarification, doing extra practice afterwards to consolidate, then it’s more likely it’s the tutor that is the issue.

As others have said, regardless of the above, I think in-person tutoring is always better and particularly for students who are genuinely struggling with concepts (as opposed to those who want to turn their B into an A, for example).

I would only want to teach maths in person. I think that you need a pencil and paper to try things out and explore links between topics. Online is very dry and more like a lecture.

You should definitely be seeing some changes, I've written a few different parent guides on tuition, it's not necessarily because it's online but it does sound like that tutor isn't working for your child. Here's a bit from the guide:

Concrete signals: these matter. The student can do questions they couldn't before: quadratic equations, organic mechanism diagrams, structured essay paragraphs. Watchable, observable, repeatable. Past-paper marks on tutored topics are improving: track this; if the student was scoring 4/10 on quadratics questions and is now scoring 7-8/10, the tutoring is working on that topic. The student can explain the topic back without prompting: "How would you approach this question?" and they articulate the method. This is the strongest retention signal: real understanding survives the gap between sessions.

Soft signals: encouraging but not sufficientThe student talks about the subject at home unprompted. The student engages more confidently in school class. The student says they "feel more confident". The tutor says they're "making good progress".These are all positive but easily misleading.

• make sure confidence increases with competence as one alone isn't enough

For the online Vs In-person advice I've also written some guides on that but the summary is:

Online strength: Wider tutor pool, lower cost, no travel, and screen-share for written work
In-person strength : Stronger engagement for younger and restless students, easier exam-prep timing, and paper-based work that feels closer to exam

Common compromise : Younger and KS2 students in person; GCSE and A-level online; in-person final mocks before exams

Equipment for online : Laptop or desktop, headset and good audio, webcam, stable internet, quiet room, and ideally a graphics tablet for Maths

Cost difference : Online typically 10-20% cheaper than in-person at equivalent rates

Common online tools : Zoom, Google Meet, shared whiteboard (BitPaper, Lessonspace, Bramble), and screen-shared past papers

Have you observed the lessons? That should be your biggest guide.