Opting for private tutoring

[SkyMoonStars]

Hi all - For those who decided to use private tutors and/or eLearning platforms for their 10-14 year olds, I was wondering what drove your decision to look for outside help? Was it, perhaps, a poor quality teacher at school or your child not being stretched enough? Or were there other reasons like entry into a top school?

Would be really grateful if you could share your stories!

How do you guys usually find your tutors? through an agency? online? word of mouth?

We got a tutor for DS1 to prepare and stretch him for 11+ entry. We got a recommendation from a friend and used him for a bit but he then left to go into actual teaching. We then found another through an agency. She completed DS1 and he was successful. Now we are prepping DS2 for 11+ and using the same woman again.

Word of mouth/ open secret here. They do have an online presence but for my first DC I went with one with a national name but was local. Big mistake, knowing what I know now. Not all tutors are equal.

Moved to the UK when my DC was 6 years old. Wanted him to continue with his Mandarin after school studies.

Where I live there are very few mandarin tutors, they charge a lot of money, they want you to go to their house to study, we holiday a lot so many lessons would be missed, they have limited time slots available mainly at inconvenient times and the supplier is king!

Because of the above I went through an online school in China. Because of time differences available times are limited, but still suitable. It is about 60% cheaper than a local teacher. Can still have lessons while on holiday. Can schedule extra lessons relatively easily. After 6 years of this I am not sure if the teacher has ever taken a holiday, but they did cancel a couple of lessons last Chinese New Year (I guess they are getting lazy). The customer is king!

I doubt the teacher would be able to prep DC for GCSE, but no problem as he will fly through that anyway.

what have your experiences with agencies been like? the good, the bad and the ugly.

has anyone used elearning platforms like hegarty maths etc? what do u guys think of platforms of the sort? Why/when would you consider using something of the sort?

My daughter is 15 so maybe outside of your interest. She just started with an English tutor and one for math and chemistry. She is academically competitive and is predicted 7s and 8s, but is not confident in math and feels a bit let down by chemistry teacher (the majority of her top set class did poorly in chemistry last test under exam conditions). English i believe there is a lot of exam technique to ensure consistency in marking. So yes she is having tutors to get the best grades possible in her iGCSEs (which may still go ahead). Also, she is moving schools for sixth form and her offer is conditional on her achieving certain grades.
Both online (would normally be face to face) and found through word of mouth.