Finding tutors who are accountable to results?

[Jwrkt66]

Am trying to find a 11+ tutor for my younger yr 5 DD to focus on English comprehension and Maths. I went through 3 tutors (2 were from agencies/websites recommended on other threads here) for my elder DS 2 yrs ago but stopped because although I could see improved knowledge, ISEB scores were not improving much. I concluded its hard to hold tutors accountable to results. But my DD really needs tutoring. Does anyone have recommendations?.

Oh dear.

What next?
Only pay sports coaches if my child gets selected for England?
Only pay my driving instructor if I pass my test?
Only pay my dr if he cures me?

This child is five for the love of God. I must live in a different world. So much pressure on both child and tutor. I would refuse point blank to work as a tutor for this family, as would all of my colleagues who are paid tutors.

I have a tutor for my son ( she also tutored my daughter) I chose her on recommendation and because she will be honest. She has a good pass rate because she will be honest if a child will not pass the 11+ (my son is borderline at the moment so we are reviewing it regularly).

I would happily be accountable for my tutees results for significantly higher pay. But I tutor A levels so I could use their GCSE grades as a bench mark for what grades are to be expected. A tutor of a kid your age has no idea what marks to expect and presumably neither do you - you may want them to be top of the class but that's just not realistic for most!

Ultimately a lot of the preparation goes on at home, tutor or no tutor, tutors are useful for exam techniques and filling in the gaps in knowledge. Even with adequate preparation a child might have a bad day, not be as super quick/accurate as some of the others or just refuse to cooperate. One test was delayed in starting because a child absolutely refused to sit it even though their parents had put them in for it. You can't guarantee for that.

I would urge you very strongly OP not to go in with that as your opening gambit. A reputable, experienced tutor will run a mile. Anyone who does offer this is likely either extremely picky over who they tutor (I'd basically need to be pretty confidential the student was a child genius before I started teaching them), or a very ill qualified inexperienced tutor who is desperate or business. If your child isn't clearly demonstrating traits of child genius, by stating this as a want at the outset, you'll be excluding all the half decent tutors, and you'll be wasting your money on whoever you do employ. Is that really what you want?

If the tutor you have found is guaranteeing results then don't be surprised if you daughter ends up being encouraged to leave early if she isn't making sufficient progress, so she doesn't distort the tutor's success rate.

Wow, entitled much? Your response to comments is amazing. You take nothing onboard from those who have answered your question, and instead imply that you have somehow "touched a nerve".

I hope your child has better reasoning capacity. I also hope you have reasonable expectations of the poor thing.

If your DD isn't getting higher scores after tutoring then you need to accept that a grammar school probably isn't the best school for her.
Stop trying to hold tutors accountable and start planning the right education for your child.
I used to say to mine the 11+ isn't about pass and fail, it's about finding the right school for you as an individual.
I had one DC who passed for grammar - with NO tutoring other than doing practice papers at home. This is the kind of child your child would be in a class with..

Other DC didn't pass and went to the local high school, achieving very decent GCSE grades, higher than several of their heavily tutored grammar school pals.

Echoing all the others on here. I tutor my subject rather than 11+, and in fact more often private candidates than those in school; but no way would I guarantee anything. If a student does as I ask and completes the work theh should improve. That's as far as I'll go. I am happy to predict grades as we get close to exams and I am usually accurate but even that can be upset on the day and is certainly no guarantee.

You're getting a hard time OP.

My DC had a maths tutor who had a range of different payment options depending on the number of sessions you had. One of the options was performance based, where you paid a lower rate per hour then gave a bonus dependant on (agreed in advance) outcome. So there are ways for the tutor to have a stake in the outcome, even though you can't really held them actually accountable.

No tutor worth their wage would guarantee test results. If the tutor was comfortable being held responsible for the outcome of a test with dozens of variables over which they had no control - or had the necessary psychic skills - they'd teach Year 6 in an actual school. (That bit did touch a nerve, actually!)

Academic performance is largely down to motivation and ability.

In the absence of those, there's not much a tutor can do. They can reinforce the material and suggest strategies, but ultimately they have to work with what they've got.

You're getting a hard time OP.

For a very good reason!

Poor child, just poor child. This is so so sad.

I know of a Tiffin tutor who gives potential tutees her own exam before she will take them on for the 11+. It works very well for her as her success rate is impressive and this attracts more parents. However she doesn’t even start tutoring any candidates who are on the weaker side, so I think we can all work out why she is successful.

It’s possible she might offer some sort of guarantee!

As my old Nan would say - You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

If your child isn't clever enough no amount of tutors will help.

@iklboo

Accountable? Yeah, right. Not the tutor's fault if your child fails the exams, no more than it would be a teacher's.

Here's a bridge. Get over yourself.

@iklboo 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I once had a parent ask for a refund after a pupil had a panic attack in her exam (a level) and tanked. What can you do? You can only prepare them well. You can get them confident about the material and boost their exam technique but you can’t totally replicate exam conditions. Needless to say, they did not get a refund. I felt really sorry for the girl.

A very high achieving friend had great expectations for her only DS. Tutored like mad to get him into the local Grammar. Got very mediocre results and took three attempts to pass GCSE maths and spent some very unhappy years struggling there.

I thing you’re expecting a lot. How can any tutor guarantee results? You can never foresee how anyone will perform in an exam. It’s a highly stressful situation and even though you may know the answers minds can go blank in these situations.

Tutor Here I think. Here is a list of things I can control:
-everything that happens in the one hour lesson a week I have with a student.

Here are things I cannot control
-students motivation
-ability
-how they use their time the rest of the week
-nerves on the day of the exam

No tutor would ever give a guarantee because you can't do that with human beings, anyone who, as you claim, HAS given you some sort of guarantee I would be very suspicious of. They must have very little experience or be desperate for the work. Also if you've got your "guarantee" from some sort of tutoring agency or company then its absolutely worthless anyway as they are just trying to sell you a service regardless of outcome. I have dealt with many parents like you in my years of teaching, and the pressure you put on the child and the tutor will not in anyway improve the situation, you are just causing stress all round. The point of the exams, as pp have said, is to find the right school for the child, not to force the children of status driven parents into schools that they will struggle in.
I am not going to pressure my son one way or the other about going to the local exam entry school. It will be entirely his choice. The school is good for some but not for others. Try thinking about what your motivation really is for needing this service.

The 11 plus is undpredictible.

My twins had the same tutor (individual sessions), they were similar ability.

One 'passed' one didn't.
One is better at taking exams than the other.

The tutor can't account for this or anything else that might happen on the day such as nerves/pressure or unforeseen circumstances like children being moved seats last minute in chaos (this happened to us).

It's not reasonable to expect what you're expecting.

but HOW does that tutor " offer a guarantee"

if your child does no work, isn't bright etc. how can the tutor possibly guarantee anything??

that's like me saying I can GUARANTEE you'll be able to pass your driving test with me. Even though you don't practice outside of lessons, don't really try in lessons, don't revise or even practice the tests,...

how can anyone guarantee a pass????

@itsraininghere

You're getting a hard time OP.

My DC had a maths tutor who had a range of different payment options depending on the number of sessions you had. One of the options was performance based, where you paid a lower rate per hour then gave a bonus dependant on (agreed in advance) outcome. So there are ways for the tutor to have a stake in the outcome, even though you can't really held them actually accountable.

but... that still isn't what the OP is looking for ,she wants a guarantee of a pass. which everyone is saying is impossible...