Online v in-person for GCSE

[newyorkbreakfast]

Which format is better for a low-performing Y10 boy either EHCP and processing difficulties? I can’t see why anyone would want to shout through a screen instead of in person but DS says online or nothing. But when he realises he’s not going to pass at this rate without help, he might have to go with my suggestion.
And how does the online tutor know the kid is doing the work?
thank you

An online tutor knows if a child is doing the work because I see them writing on a shared screen and because I ask questions and they answer verbally

No shouting needed, just conversation. Online tutoring worked well for my kiddos. Sharing screen / doing work live and together was the way.

So, I was a tutor before retirement and had to do online work during COVID. It was not too bad for the motivated student who just needed some extra support. It was really hard to teach others, especially thoughts with processing difficulties as I couldn't watch what they were writing down. They told me they'd understood, but when I'd talk to a mum after a session and said we'd done x, y, z, she would say " well that's not what he has written here". The processing difficulties had kicked in and he'd not actually written down accurately.

It is much easier ( but not easy) to address processing difficulties face to face when you can see what they are doing as they are doing it.

Homework was actually the easy bit. I could email what I wanted them to do. They could print out worksheets or past papers and then I asked them to email me photos of the work in time for me to mark them before the next tutorial. As long as the photos were high resolution enough I could print them out and then work out what they'd done, where they had problems etc

So, I was a tutor before retirement and had to do online work during COVID. It was not too bad for the motivated student who just needed some extra support. It was really hard to teach others, especially thoughts with processing difficulties as I couldn't watch what they were writing down. They told me they'd understood, but when I'd talk to a mum after a session and said we'd done x, y, z, she would say " well that's not what he has written here". The processing difficulties had kicked in and he'd not actually written down accurately.

It is much easier ( but not easy) to address processing difficulties face to face when you can see what they are doing as they are doing it.

Homework was actually the easy bit. I could email what I wanted them to do. They could print out worksheets or past papers and then I asked them to email me photos of the work in time for me to mark them before the next tutorial. As long as the photos were high resolution enough I could print them out and then work out what they'd done, where they had problems etc

I am a teacher and taught online through Covid. As a team we thought we’d done our best to teach the kids the way we did, but when we got back into school face to face they knew absolutely nothing of what we had taught them. Maybe not all students but I definitely felt it was far less effective.
and when you have someone with SEN who’s resistant to learning it might be better in person. But maybe the screen is a safe barrier for him- not too intrusive or intimidating. That’s why I’m interested in hearing views.

@EducatingArtithat would be my worry, with SEN who hide it and pretend they’ve got it as don’t want to look stupid.

My son is neurodivergent and I was dubious about online tutoring but it was great. The lack of expected eye contact made it better for him to concentrate and the assessment methods (verbal, screen sharing etc) worked really well.
Is it one to one or group sessions? I’d be wary of the latter but with one to one there’s not any room to hide or embarrass yourself.

I’m going to say no to online.

I am currently tutoring my own child and he really needs one on one for similar issues to your son.

During Covid online became a thing and there were a few it suited really well but it was rare and they were always the self motivated, high achieving, looking to get the top grade students.

I am an English teacher who has tutored may students across the ability range and have found (to my initial surprise as I was dubious) that one-to-one online works well. Lots and lots of talking about the work. I ask them to hold up their work for me to see so I can give them immediate feedback. They know I am going to do this. I even teach one student who is unable to speak to me who writes all the answers in our discussion in the chat box and honestly this works ok and we get through a lot I feel. It is handy to be able to quickly access and screen share useful resources spontaneously. From my point of view, it is incredibly convenient and means that I am able to offer more hours than I would if it was in person. I actually don’t really need the work and probably wouldn’t bother with in person tutoring but have a lot of friends and acquaintances with GCSE aged children and the extra money is nice. I also find working one to one with GCSE students helps inform my in school teaching and vice versa. Smaller, finer details come up and sometimes I ask my tutees if they mind me showing off something they have done to my classes and they usually quite like this. I am sure there are many excellent tutors who offer in person but I personally know of several excellent, highly experienced teachers who just would not have the time for in person tutoring but do offer online like me. So I suppose what I am saying is that if you want in person you will have a smaller pool of expert teachers to choose from.

@Lavender1974that is very helpful to know thanks. It might be do dependent on the personalities involved on both sides of the screen. Sounds like you do a fabulous job.
@Frazzledinmyfortiesthank you

@DuskOPorter this was my thinking too but I am looking at other posts on here. Quite a split in opinion!

Online tuition can work very well if the tutor is skilled at it and if the family want it to work.

I tutor fully online and my results are actually better than when I used to do a mix of in person and online.

I do get a lot of requests from parents who feel that only in person tuition will work for their child but those willing to do a trial session almost always go on to book further sessions with me. I'm primary, and work with children from yr 3 up with a variety of abilities and special educational needs.

There is some excellent software available and if you know how to use it and how to teach well, online is really effective.

The main reasons I find that online does not work include:

-The child does not want tuition. In person won't work either but if parents don't sit in on sessions they won't see this immediately.
-The child doesn't have an appropriate device/tech, or a quiet place to work.
-The child can't/won't listen to or follow instructions.
-The parents have already decided online doesn't work and are unwilling/don't have the time to ensure their child is well set up.

We have used both in-person and online (with our 3 dc over the years). We have moved to entirely online, as the tutor uses zoom and bitpaper, and we have a drawing tablet with stylus, so the tutor loads up pages of examples and questions, and both my dc and the tutor can write on the work on-screen in real-time using their stylus on the drawing tablet. (You can get really cheap drawing tablets for around £50 - £100). It works really well. And it means that tuition can easily fit into any part of the day (as there is no travel time there and back).

If there is particular work or homework that we want the tutor to work on with them, then I send it to her before the lesson by email or more usually WhatsApp. Often there is a digital version of the work available, and if there isn’t, then I will use Dropbox on my phone to ‘scan’ a pdf of the paper version so it can be easily sent to the tutor.

Agree with PPs about online being better. We had a couple of people come to the house to tutor and my kids found it really unsettling (as did I - I felt like I couldn't make any noise or be downstairs when they were there!) whereas online, they just sit at my work desk and most background noise is muted out anyway.
I also didn't feel comfortable dropping them off at someone's house to be tutored. An office or classroom would have been great (unfortunately not one like that near me!) but dropping at someones house didn't work for me (that's just a "me" thing though!). Also no travel time/logistics which was a big bonus for us personally.
If you'd like a recommendation of who we use let me know via DM