Tuition company listening in on one to one lessons

[MGMidget]

I am a bit concerned about this and wondered what others thought. I have found out that a tuition company I booked private tuition through for my child are listening into or recording lessons and listening into/watching them. They let this slip after a lesson by their comments on email to me. Whilst, I could understand their might be a need to record lessons in case an allegation was made against a tutor of inappropriate behaviour this didnt happen. Does this sound inappropriate to you for the company staff to be watching/listening to a lesson? I am thinking its a bit of a safeguarding issue, there were others watching/listening to my child without my knowledge. Does this sound right/normal to you?

Are they listening for tutor appraisal/training purposes?

DS2 (15) had some online mentoring during lockdown. The Diocese arranged for someone else to be on the call. They had their screen and microphone on. This was for safeguarding purposes. It was made completely clear to us beforehand and they said hi to the observer etc. I wouldn’t like them not being totally clear about it up front.

I tutored online for Pearson in the summer. All our sessions were recorded and both myself, the pupil’s school and Pearson could access the sessions if there was an issue.
Its safeguarding 101

Nothing was said about the reason. Personally I dont much like the idea of being secretly watched. I was with my daughter too as she is only six.

I would say it is to prevent safeguarding issues and to make sure the tutor is doing their job properly. If you don't like it you could choose a different tuition service.

It doesn't sound even slightly innappropriate. Indeed, it sounds less inappropriate than a one to one with a tutor 🤷‍♀️ you make it sound as though they were doing it secretly though and "let slip", that would be concerning! Was it definitely not in the information you were given?

I teach online through a platform called Outschool for 3-18 year olds. All lessons are recorded and can be shared with parents afterwards. Outschool staff can also watch recordings and would do so if a complaint was made against the teacher, or they do watch them randomly sometimes for new teachers or new classes to check everything is okay. It's something teachers and parents agree to when they sign up. Parents aren't told if a lesson recording is watched and a teacher only finds out when they're given feedback on their lesson. It's the only way they can check the standard of teachers and lessons.

Could it be in the small print when you signed up for the lessons, OP?

Op, since you didn't know maybe email them and ask the purpose?

I can see why they would to safeguard but it should have been made obvious and also nor recording anyone else in the background

I have searched back through emails and cant find anything warning of this. Nor is there anything on their website. I wont be using them again but I’m somewhat disturbed about it!

This is probably for safe guarding purposes I imagine. Maybe send them a email or drop them a message on Facebook to ask about this. I cannot fathom why they would not tell you either however that they were doing this.

I am used to companies being quite explicit about call recording “for training and monitoring purposes”. In this case it isnt clear if they listen in by joining zoom calls (without the tutee/parent being made aware of their presence and no camera or even a blank camera screen box visible) or record the calls for monitoring purposes but either way it seems wrong to not pre-warn in some way! Normally on Zoom calls new paricipants joining are announced for example and participants show on screen even with a black box with their name underneath if their camera is turned off.

And PS this company hasnt said they record calls “for training and monitoring purposes”. They give no clue anywhere they record or listen in!

Dd tutored online for one of the franchise tuition companies and several times her manager would listen in to a few minutes of the session and give her feedback afterwards. If they had been having f2f sessions, as previously, they would walk around the room stopping between groups.

All video conferencing platforms I'm aware of clearly indicate on screen if it's being recorded.

Were you not in the lesson with your daughter? Are you sure you didn't get a pop up saying "recording starting"?