Do you use a private tutor? How did you find them?

[NinkyNonker]

Hello,

I'm a qualified teacher on maternity leave and amooking go start tutoring to keep my subject knowledge fresh and my brain ticking over!

How did you find your tutor? Did you have a couple to choose from, and if so what were the important factors for you?

Thanks very much!

I used a personal recommendation. Actually the tutor had just retired so had never had a tutee before, but he is throwing himself into it!

I was looking for someone enthusiastic about their subject, who could pass this on to ds. That was what clinched it for me.

We had a private tutor for a term for maths but I found it very expensive. We now use Whizz for maths which is an online tutorial package and I have found this has worked extremely well. DC can work at their own pace when they are motivated vs going to a tutor at a set time when they could be tired.

To go to a private tutor, I would expect them to initially assess where the DC are at, and then focus on their weaker spots. I would expect true feedback, not generalisations.
I would expect them to spend the time talking about the topic I am paying for, not general discussions about their life, their holidays, their past, etc (tutor talking).

All the tutors locally get work by recommendation only. Many advertise but they dont do as well. It is deemed that if they are good they wont need to advertise. (sorry that wont help you as a newcomer).

May be speak to local schools and ask them to promote you in their newsletters. Word of mouth is the most important I believe.

I would also hope for flexibility. If my DC are sick and cant attend the lesson that the teacher will be flexible and offer an alternative time. This is hard for the tutor but flexibility interests more people. However, this has to be controlled so that its not abused.

Good luck

are you near me, would love to get ds(8) a maths tutor, i can't teach him myself it's so hard!

oh you're not shame

Sorry, that sounds so negative.

I think its a great idea that you are hoping to continue to teach so I would push word of mouth to everyone. If people keep hearing a name, seeing names on supermarket walls, then they become familiar with the name and then people become interested.

I wish you every success with your tutoring, please dont let my negative comments put you off.

We just had a bad experience with a tutor, but that was one person, there are lots of good ones out there.

I would want someone who is punctual, reliable (i.e. never cancels except for the odd emergency once in a blue moon), knowledgeable about the subject, patient with my child, and yes, like RoadArt says, sticks to the subject he/she's meant to be teaching rather than starting to chat about things that are not relevant to the subject taught. And also, most importantly, I would want to see an improvement in my child's grades after a few months, if I was hiring a private tutor because my child is getting behind in his school work. (Speaking as an ex-tutor myself, and as one who had private tutors as a child). Good luck :)

Thank you all, I appreciate your responses. (And no, you weren't negative RoadArt!) I've put together a small website (DH is a maths teacher, so he is offering his services too), got us into Yell.co.uk and will put up cards locally. I've also contacted my old school and DH's to try to put the word around too.

I guess bar that I'll just have to bide my time, perhaps kill some hours teaching myself search engine optimisation for the website!

Googled the subject and tutor and town name.

And then asked around to see if anyone had heard of them.

And then interviewed them over the phone.

The 2 I have used (for French and Economics) were both very good; both had professional websites as well as appearing on some of the online directories and interviewed well.

Oh good, so maybe setting the website was a good idea then. I have registered on a few of the bigger directories too so fingers crossed.