Having a private tutor to support your DC at home?

[Rufus27]

I am a secondary teacher with substantial experience of teaching and mentoring students with additional needs within a mainstream setting (mainly aged 11-16 years, including GCSE and ELC English/literacy). Due to my own DC's needs, I think I may have to give up work and am wondering about becoming a private tutor. Although I have experience of teaching the more able students with and without additional needs, my real passion is teaching less able students, especially those with additional needs. My concern is whether there is a demand for such specialised tutoring? (Searching ads in my local area, the emphasis is all on 'helping your DC to pass the 11+' and 'getting that Grade 9/uni place' - but this type of tutoring really wouldnt appeal to me!).

If you are a parent of a child (KS2 upwards) with additional needs and have the time, would it be OK to give me some feedback? These are the questions floating around in my head, but please dont feel obliged to answer them all. Anything is appreciated!

What are the key qualities/attributes you would look for in a private tutor?

Would you only go through an agency or would you be happy to respond to private advertising (plus references, of course)? Where would you look for a private tutor?

Would you prefer to come to the tutor's house or would you and your DC rather it was in your own familiar surroundings?

Would you look for SEN specific qualifications in a tutor, or would enthusiasm and substantial (20 years' +) experience of teaching students with additional needs within a mainstream setting be acceptable?

Would you want subject specific tutoring (ie English/literacy), or a more general approach, perhaps focusing on key skills, communication, confidence building, inter personal skills etc?

Would you prefer term time only tutoring, or holiday time as well?

Would you be interested in having a tutor who also knows the SEND system well who would be prepared to (for example) attend school meetings and reviews etc with you and advocate on your DC's behalf?

Thanks in advance. (Sorry this is so long!).

Ignore that somehow typed in wrong place !!

Have a look on the home Ed board, lot of people home schooling there with children with SEN.

Thanks Tainbri - Hadn't thought of that. Appreciated!

Hi - I have a child in mainstream setting with SEN. We have an EHCP for him and at the moment we are seeing how he gets on or whether we will need specialist setting. We have a Sen tutor and I found mine through word and mouth and a second one on a link from a local authority site. We only moved as the first one was a bit too far away from us.

I wanted someone who had relevant qualifications in Sen and who had been a practising teacher. At the moment we just do term time and we go to tutors home which is working out ok. My DS gets more out of one to one but at school the consensus is that he does not like to be seen to be different so hates having separate. 1:1 support so tend to have small group sessions. We use the sessions to go over things he finds hard at school and to give him confidence. He will get very anxious and has difficulty expressing his needs. Happy to answer any other queries.

Thanks Fizzy. That's really useful and reassuring. I think I will start putting the feelers out locally and see how it goes while still teaching part time. A few of my own parents have asked me to support their children, but I think I would prefer to tutor students from different schools until I have left. Thanks again for replying.

Realise I am late to this thread but really interested in your post. DS is 12, in Year 7 at a mainstream secondary school. He's had a music tutor for a couple of years - she's fully qualified and experienced with children with ASD. When I first got in touch with her, we didn't have a diagnosis but a strong suspicion and I was really reassured by her background knowledge. Music is something that DS gets a lot of validation from - he struggles in other areas - and the tutor has been utterly fantastic. I just googled instrument and area to find her in the first place and just fell really lucky but if she'd mentioned her expertise with SN kids that would have been even better. We're now getting him a maths tutor as he's struggling at secondary school. We went for an assessment at a Kip McGrath place but although we both liked the lead person very much, I wasn't convinced he'd get the help he needs from that system. Looked online but the adverts didn't give enough info - I was really looking for experience in secondary school AND with SN kids. In the end I asked a friend who's a teacher in a different subject if she could recommend anyone and she asked around at her school. We've just had a 'get to know you' meeting so far but again I've been really reassured that she works in a school with some problems/not a particularly academic reputation. We much prefer tutoring at home so I can give him the stink eye if he's distracting himself and our music tuition is all year round (we love the tutor so much I bake a cake for her every week as well as paying her!). Not sure about maths as yet. DS loves 1:1 attention - he enjoys school for the social scene but is really easily distracted so it's a big help for him to focus. General advice from our tutors is really helpful too - eg music tutor has said don't bother doing grades, it's just a waste of money at this stage and only necessary if doing GCSEs.

We have SN child who attends a special school but is at higher end of ability range in his school. We find the lessons are not always very challenging for him. We have a tutor twice each week. We found her on Tutors First website and she teachers exclusively SN children. We looked at information about many tutors and picked one who is experienced and had 5/5 feedback from many other parents. She works at local mainstream school in SN department.

She is patient, but firm, has a fantastic sense of humor and praises a lot. She is knowledgeable and able to break down complex processes into several simple steps which she reinforces regularly. She always spends the last 10 minutes of each 1 hour lesson playing a word or number game with ds. She is reliable and lives locally to us. She comes twice a week and more often in school hols when we are not going away. She is flexible and we all like and respect her. We explained what we wanted and now leave her to get on with it. She comes to our house with excellent resources some she makes herself and listens to ds read for 10-15 mins and then 35-40 mins Maths then 10 mins game. She often gives ds an extra 5-10 mins of her own time. She only charges £20 per hour which we think is a bargain but we would still hire her if she charged more. Most charge £25 in area we live but some are low as £15. She has knowledge of SEND but as our dc is already in special school this is less important to us. She has diploma qualifications in dyslexia, and autism and also offers Art Therapy as she has fine art degree. I think there is a shortage of good reliable SN tutors who can connect with children. I know the tutor we have is busy four night of the week and also does some weekend lessons. She also has a waiting list. We are in west Midlands.

I have also used tutors from Tutor Hunt with older son for A level Maths and got an excellent tutor for him too. He charged £30 per hour and was a student doing a Masters degree in Maths at Birmingham Uni and my elder son related to him because he was younger than most tutors.