Any private tutors around?

[DitaVonCheese]

I'm just starting out as a private tutor, slightly by mistake

I have just got my first student (I think). I was just wondering whether it is appropriate/usual for me to contact her teacher for a quick chat, as it seems that they will have a good idea of which areas she needs help with. Can anyone advise? Many thanks :)

I used to be a teacher and have done some private tutoring in the past. IMHO I would not contact the teacher. Some teachers do not take kindly to their pupils being tutored privately. Some see it as an insult, as if the parents don't feel they are doing their job well enough. It is also not part of their remit to do this and they, frankly, have enough, and more to do.
I would ask the student to bring you a broad range of their work, especially marked pieces, to have a look at. You should see from comments what the teacher is asking them to work on.
If these pieces are not available then I would set the student a few pieces of work to do which would cover the main areas of the course and let you see where their weaknesses may lie.
Most students know themselves what they need to work on but now and again they don't have a clue.
I would also not tinker with any homework or course work the pupil is doing. Show and teach them how to do these things but don't actually mess with the piece itself. I have had coursework that is inadmissable because a well meaning tutor has tinkered so much it bears no resemblance to the original piece and I can no longer sign to say it is the pupil's own work.
I tended to do very similar bits of work with the pupils and to discuss them in detail - it was then up to the pupil to transfer that learning to their own course work.
What subject are you tutoring? That can make some difference to how you approach it.

It might be more tactful to get the parent to ask the question or the student themselves, if old enough, and to report back, although I have no experience of your field of work.

It may be that if this is something you will be doing a lot of you can find/devise standard assessments to ascertain the student's weak areas.

As a parent, if I was hiring a tutor I'd probably know what I wanted to get out of it in terms of the parts of the syllabus that my dc needed extra help with.

I'm a private tutor and been a tutor in schools too. I do contact teachers if I already work with other children in the school and am a 'known' person - I still ask the parent first, and then ask the teacher if they're happy to suggest a few areas, which they have been so far. I made sure the head was happy with me doing that for privately tutored children first though, seemed a bit cheeky otherwise (same aims for educating child but still could be a bit of a conflict of interests).

I suppose if I'd not been in the school and the teacher didn't know me at all, even if parents tell the teacher I'm the tutor, a school might possibly be uncomfortable with sharing info from the data protection side of things. Not sure. I did once send a letter to a teacher (via the child) introducing myself and asking about tutoring areas, and got a very helpful reply, so maybe it's worth trying that first via the head - they can only say no!

Good luck!

Many thanks for the replies - I don't want to be doing anything that isn't the norm but also thought I should check what I should be doing iyswim. Am beyond tired after 4.45 am start this morning (thanks DD!) so not doing well at stringing sentences together this evening

I just thought that a teacher might be more objective about areas where a student might need help than the student herself. Anyway, first session on Tuesday, eep.

Thanks also for post about not interfering too much, good point taken on board :)

Hi dita, just seen this, I think you're on the July babies board too? I have been private tutoring for four years and I tend to wait at least half a term before contacting the class teacher, so I know the kid a bit first. I also let it come from the parents - ask them whether they want me to. I also tend to email first as, being a teacher myself, I know how hard we are to get hold of! With one of my students tho, I wish I had contacted the school earlier,as after 3 years of tutoring her, the school put her on the foundation paper as that's their dept policy, and it completely knocked her confidence and was a bit of a nightmare to be honest! I'M now in regular contact with her teachers.

How did your first session go by the way?