Private tutoring for exam prep, don't know how to start

[warmsuncoldwind]

Hello,

NC for obvious reasons but I have been on Mumsnet for years.

It's time to start looking for a tutor for my boy, who goes to a central London private primary school and is doing quite well. I am pretty sure that most parents at the school pay private tutors for their children, and I am told that one has to have a tutor lined up for the September of their child's Year 5. I told my child that without tutoring for the next school he will enter good, academic schools, but if he wants to go to the top ones he will have a better chance of doing so by having some hours of tutoring during the coming year/months. He's chosen option n. 2.

The problem is that I did not grow up in the UK, I did not go to school here, and I do not know where to start from and how to get a good private tutor. I was told about a company providing private tutors but it was by one mother only so not much feedback on it.
If you found a tutor for your child in preparation to sit exams for secondary schools, can you give me some pointers of how you did that?

Thank you

The first thing to find out is whether your DS has the potential to reach the 'top' London day schools. The school admissions officer, CAT scores, mock exams etc are a good way to judge that. I have never seen a child tutored so much that they have gone from a 120s CAT score level to a 137 CAT score level (which is what Westminster, St Pauls etc needs). I don't think tutoring automatically helps with this. You could spend a couple of hours working with your DS on the weekends to give him time management practice and that would be more helpful than a bad tutor.

Finding a good tutor is tricky and I didn't have any luck with that. I decided to tutor DS myself and he still got into the top schools - I think it's peer pressure rather than a real tangible result that drives parents to tutors tbh.

I used Tutor Doctor. They matched us with fantastic tutors who come to your home.

Thank you both.
He is between 125 and 140 in all subjects, so I think that he has a good shot at the most applied for schools. He also likes learning, so (up to a certain point) it's not an imposition.

The problem with doing it myself is that I did not go through this process, so I do not know what it entails and how to help him.

@warmsuncoldwind I was in a similar position and got DD into the best London pvt school. Being not born in the country I was ending up teaching her more than what was required or focusing on things that didn't matter much. It was a difficult period as covid pandemic had started. Luckily found some good support in terms of tutors. I can recommend someone and will DM you the details. Best of luck

We use Maths Concierge, they do a lot of prep for all private schools and have good reviews etc. They've been great so far as DN feels better about the exam soon. Not the cheapest but I'd say the going rate. I would be very careful about cheaper ones, you need a qualified teacher