Tutoring

[Yas247]

Hey everyone good day to you all.

I know how hard it can be to find the right tutor for your child and sometimes it can be a lot money wasted before you realise the tutor isn't the ONE for your child. I have been a tutor myself for many years and have heard bad experiences from cutting sessions short to tutoring subjects they are not qualified in.

This got me thinking about setting up a platform where you could find only fully qualified tutors that have a minimum level of experience in tutoring/teaching school subjects. I'v come up with the idea of personally interviewing and vetting the tutors(DBS checks, Degree certificates, References etc..) and only then have them added to this platform. Parents can browse tutors, view feedback from previous students and book slots according to schedules/availability/Location.

My question to everyone is what are the factors to consider when you are looking to book a tutor?
I am researching as to what parents generally look for when hiring a tutor? Are there any points to look out for that may be the deal breaker/red flags?

With us all adapting to the pandemic would you say you are comfortable having your child tutored 1 to 1 online or would you rather pay for someone to come to your location?

I would appreciate any feedback

Thank you

Think it all depends on the child and the tutor. We have used both qualified and unqualified teachers. The qualified ones were good for their expert knowledge, but those who were only a few years ahead were less intimidating and more awarenesss of recent resoures/ study skills and were useful when trying to build confidence. I guess for me what was more important was that the pupil had a good rapport with the tutor whether qualified or not, online or in person.

I'm not convinced.
What would make you qualified to determine if a tutor would be good at Chemistry or History or Music?
people look for different things in tutors

• pushing for grade 9 v scraping a pass


• coaxing an anxious child v pushing a lazy one


• costly fully qualified v cheaper competent less qualified


• teaching content v exam skills v plugging gaps

What would be the difference between you and say Tutor Hunt?

Hi Thanks for the feedback

I'm thinking one can only know the tutors once they are interviewed and looking at factors such as;

*Subject Specialism
*Experience in Subjects Taught
*Years Experience
*Major/Degree related to what they are teaching - This might apply more for secondary schools rather than primary.

Also by going through questions linking to scenarios e.g. How would you tutor a child who was struggling to grasp a certain concept or How would you mentor someone who is anxious, not confident etc..

I don't know the recruitment process over at Tutor hunt but any suggestions what else could be done to provide a more personalized service for the users.

I’m a tutor on tutorhunt and they took up references about my experience and wanted copies of degree certs etc. I’m also on other sites where I’ve also been interviewed by them. Student feedback is a big part of the process on most of the sites already.

I’m not entirely sure what you are proposing in terms of individuality? My first meeting with parents they are able to ask me specific points they want to know. There’s some big players in the tutoring market at the moment you’d have to think carefully about what your USP is.

Thank you so much for the feedback really appreciate your input. Will have to think carefully of a USP if what I have down is already being done by big companies.

All the sites I looked at when looking for a tutor had some information about the tutors' qualifications and experience. Those we considered were quite happy to offer a taster session, which enabled DD to see who she thought she might get on best with.

Some people will go for the unqualified tutor just because they are usually much cheaper. Sometimes that might not be a bad strategy, for instance if a youngster just needs more confidence, or knows that they need someone to go over particular topics with them because they didn't fully understand them in school. But where some diagnosis of the difficulties is needed, or where markschemes are vaguer and so you need someone who has some experience of their application, then qualifications/experience are more important.

My experience with GCSE tutoring:
Everyone who had tutors for kids in both my kids' years got them through word of mouth. We had an English tutor for my son (to get him to pass) and my daughter (a confidence thing - she got a 9). The tutor was well able to cope and modify for their different abilities.
Other parents used tutors for math and sciences. All word of mouth, all able to deal with students of different levels.
Neither wanted to do it online, though my daughter did as there were lockdowns and restrictions at the time. I think it would be harder with math and sciences where they would need to see workings, but I may be wrong. I know my son liked the face to face in real life communication.