How do you tell an excellent 11+ tutor from a mediocre one?? (Alleyn's/St Dunstan's)

[SkateDaughter]

DD is in Y5 and we're aiming at Alleyn's and St Dunstan's for 2028 entry. She's at a state primary and we don't know anyone else going down this road, so I'm working out the process from scratch — but I do know what I want from a tutor, and I'd rather wait and pay properly for the right person than settle for whoever's free.

My bar is: a qualified teacher (although if someone's really talented it doesn't matter who they are). Ideally someone who's actually taken kids through these two specific processes in the last couple of years: Alleyn's creative writing and interview, St Dunstan's GL stage then the written paper and taught lesson. And I want someone honest enough to tell me if DD isn't on track rather than take my money for a year. And someone who's a genuinely inspiring teacher who's fun to be with who will keep her engaged.. so however it goes at least she will have spent a year getting more excited about learning.

Where should I look?

And how can I spot a good tutor from the outside? What did you ask at the trial lesson? What separated the tutor who transformed things from the one who was nice but achieved nothing? Any red flags I should be looking out for?

Happy to receive PMs if you've someone in SE London you'd genuinely recommend. Thank you!

Will pm you

In my experience, Alleyns entry at 11+ seems to be weighted heavily on the verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests (which basically amount to an IQ test). We know many families who tutored for ages with apparently really good tutors (ex-Alleyns teachers etc) - the tutors often said said they were extremely confident the kids would get an interview because their maths/English was strong enough and then they didn’t.

Our kid massively screwed up the maths exam last year (didn’t notice/answer the last two pages of questions) but got an offer - we were told by the school this was on the basis of his reasoning scores. I suspect this is why you often hear bewildered parents muttering about the ‘dark arts’ of getting an Alleyn’s place when it’s simply down to something for which it’s basically impossible to tutor. Obviously maths and English need to be a decent standard but in our experience it isn’t the decisive factor.

You can buy non verbal reasoning workbooks for kids to work through

I don’t know the area you live in, but in my gs area, personal recommendations is the best indicator of a good tutor.

Definitely properly qualified, and someone who has worked for years at different schools. There are a lot of young people who have just got degrees offering tutoring. I don't blame them with how hard finding a job is, and maybe some of them are natural born teachers, but most won't be, so be suspicious of anyone too cheap.
You could look at good agencies, check reputations and talk to the managers before deciding.