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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Tutor in year 10

10 replies

frenchie12 · 30/04/2017 21:57

Hi. DD is going into year 10 and we were thinking of getting a tutor for maths and Englis I was wondering if other people have experience of this and whether year 10 is too early to start. How often would people advise you get a tutor? DD is very motivated and is keen on having a tutor but behaviour problems of other kids in school are holding her back.

OP posts:
noblegiraffe · 01/05/2017 11:21

Lots of kids get tutors in Y10 and keep them right up to their GCSEs. Starting early means that you've got time to find the right tutor that your DC gets on with and works well with. Now would be a good time to start thinking about looking because although tutors will currently be booked solid with exam prep, once all the exams are over mid-June, lots of spaces will become available and you should be able to get a good selection. Tutors are usually hired for an hour a week.

Tutoring is, however, usually very expensive (sometimes insanely so). Can you afford to hire both maths and English tutors? Can you afford it for both Y10 and Y11? If not, then what are your priorities? Does she need to build her confidence in maths (good to start early with that, as it will make her school maths lessons more effective). Is she aiming for particular A-levels which will require top grades in one of the subjects? Is she going to struggle to pass one but not the other? If you can afford both, but for 1 year only, then Y11 would be the year to go for.

The best way to find a good tutor is word-of-mouth. Any recommendations from students currently in Y11? Friends or family? Another option is to ask the teacher if they know of anyone good, for example I know an excellent tutor who used to be a teacher in my department but left to set up a business. If that doesn't help, then look online but check out reviews. Do make sure that any tutor has the appropriate background checks, and preferably are someone teaching or very familiar with the current syllabus.

Trifleorbust · 01/05/2017 12:56

Too early? No. I would have started in Year 9 so that skills were strong in Year 10, and my DC could focus on content and revision as early as possible. I would do it now.

Scabetty · 01/05/2017 13:00

Maths, I would say go for it now. English, wait and see how it goes.

farangatang · 01/05/2017 13:00

We are using a tutor from mytutor.co.uk . Reasonable prices, no travel time and lots of choice of tutors in a whole range of subjects.
Started as a 'trial' but we are continuing.

Trifleorbust · 01/05/2017 13:06

Don't wait for English. The course is huge - two full GCSEs, three full length texts, fifteen poems, two Language exams, 19th century literature, greater emphasis on accuracy and the structure of texts (which I expect your child won't know a lot about as this is the first year it is explicitly examined). If your DC is weak in English it will be too late by Y11.

Scabetty · 01/05/2017 14:46

Dd is yr 11. She has had a tutor since september for maths and we considered one for english around mocks. Her school have pushed them hard since January and she decided she was ok. Found it nigh on impossible to find an english edexcel tutor anyway. She is predicted 7s and on a good day perhaps 8.

frenchie12 · 02/05/2017 07:51

Thank you for the replies. Very helpful. She is strong in both English and maths so it is a case of consolidating what she knows.

OP posts:
NoBetterName · 02/05/2017 11:55

I run a full-time tuition business (me plus two other tutors employed by me at present). I've been doing this full time for over 4 years and part-time for over 7 years. I'm also an examiner in my subject.

As noblegiraffe has stated, year 10 is definitely not too early. Tuition is not about intensely drilling students with the "right" answers (I certainly don't do that) and nor is it about teaching "tricks for ticks" in exams. It is about supporting their learning and therefore helping to ensure their lessons at school are as effective as possible. Often it can be about increasing a child's confidence in the subject because they feel "safe" to ask questions that they don't dare ask in front of their classmates. It's also just giving that one-to-one attention and personalised feedback which teachers simply don't have time to do due to the (many) other pressures of their jobs. When tuition works at its best, the parent facilitates communication between the teacher and the tutor so that the tutor knows exactly what a student is working on at any time and the teacher in turn receives info back from the tutor. Not all parents like to admit to school that they are using a tutor though.

Ensure the tutor has had relevant background checks (enhanced DBS and/or national police record checks), has experience in the subject area and with the exam board specification and that the relationship between the student and the tutor is positive - they will be working closely together, so their needs to be trust there but this trust takes time to build up.

Whilst some tutors can be insanely expensive (£100 p/h +), also bare in mind that you often get what you pay for. Experience and knowledge takes a long time to acquire and should not be undervalued. A £15 p/h student may seem like a bargain, but how much experience do they actually have? Do they have the necessary checks/paperwork/insurances? Will they put in time outside of the contact hour to ensure their lesson is adequately prepared and they have suitable resources to hand (you don't want a tutor who just blindly works through the textbook), or to feed back to you? If they are travelling to you, would you be comfortable paying essentially less than minimum wage for someone's expertise? Remember, many students are still in the stages of exploring the subject themselves and their thinking within a subject may be at times naive or not fully developed and they are more likely to pass misconceptions on to their tutees.

Are you willing to travel to a tutor? (which will likely decrease the lesson fee), if not, consider online tuition in order to increase your pool of potential tutors, especially in shortage subjects like maths.

Good luck finding someone suitable and I do hope that my rambling helped somewhere along the line.

NoBetterName · 02/05/2017 11:57

*their = there (in my defence, I'm on my phone and the auto-correct kicked in. Good job I don't cover English!)

NoBetterName · 02/05/2017 12:08

Oh and if you can't find someone by word of mouth, look up the Facebook group called "Find a Tutor" and send a join request. It is free for both parents and tutors to use and gives access to lots of tutors across the UK.

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