What questions should you be asking to find the right tutor?

Before we begin, I will preface this blog post with a reminder; everyone is different. There are always exceptions which prove the rule and there is no way of guaranteeing that you will find a great tutor until you try one. These questions are simply a guide to help parents who may overwhelmed find a starting point.

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So you are looking for a tutor; you have thought long and hard and you are ready to take the first step. You take a deep breath, log on to Facebook, search 'tutoring' and join some of the biggest pages you can find. You tentatively type, "I need a tutor for my daughter who is in Year 6. Can anyone help?" and it begins. 100 comments later, 63 unsolicited direct messages and 24 friend requests, you are utterly overwhelmed and have no idea where to even begin finding the right person on that list.

Unless you know someone who is working with an amazing tutor, it's incredibly hard to even know where to begin in a sea of people who are all claiming to be exactly what you need. However, this is the moment to stop, take a breath and think about what questions you should be asking to help narrow this list down and make it much more likely you will find the right person. Some of the things in this blog may be controversial, as always, it's just my opinion based on a lot of years in education.

So here are my top questions you should be asking to help find the right tutor!

You might be surprised to learn that you do not have to be a qualified teacher to be a tutor. There are a lot of online courses which promise to equip you for life as a tutor and, don't get me wrong, some require a lot of hours of teaching practice to achieve. However, this is entirely up to the tutor whether they wish to go down the route of qualifications or not. Similarly, there are students who have just graduated from school with good (sometimes excellent) grades who decide to tutor. Whilst I am not denying there will be some people with a natural talent for teaching, I firmly believe that just because you are good at something, does not mean you can teach it. That is a hill I will die on. Teaching/tutoring requires a lot of skill and understanding to get the best from your students; therefore, you are well within your rights to ask a tutor what their qualifications are. If they are minimal, don't write them off yet, perhaps try question 2...

2. What experience do you have?

There are many tutors out there who are not qualified teachers but, through years of practise, have become incredibly skilled at tutoring. They have done the hard yards and worked everything out for themselves. You will find these people know a lot about their subject and can talk about a lot of previous students. Give your tutor the opportunity to talk about their career and what subjects/levels they have taught. If you are looking for an 11+ tutor, consider asking what schools they have prepared for. However, if they have no experience and no qualifications, I ask you to really consider what makes them a tutor? Again, this is not a hard and fast rule. If you meet someone and you feel an instant connection despite them being very new to the job, it could be worth taking that risk.

3. Are you DBS checked?

Looking for a tutor for a child? This is one of the most important questions. Every tutor is able to get a DBS check online which basically proves they have no criminal record and have never been banned from working with children. Ask. To. See. It. As time goes by and you trust your tutor more, you may leave them unattended in the room with your child. If they are online, you may not always be there to listen to the conversation. Keep yourself and your child safe. Ask. This may seem like a big demand but it really isn't. It costs next to nothing to have one done and, if a tutor is serious about working with children and safeguarding them, they should have a valid DBS check.

4. What is your availability?

If you are looking for 6 lessons per week at 5pm, you may want to mention this very early on in the conversation to make sure that the tutor has the availability you need. There is little point in discussing the finer points of a plan to then find out that they have one slot left per week which is on a Friday at 1pm. Tutors get booked very quickly for after-school slots to make sure you are clear on your requirements early on.

5. Do you have terms and conditions?

This may seem like a controversial point to bring up but hear me out. I have noticed a surge in odd terms and conditions recently which I find a bit unnerving. Hidden deep within reems of text, here are some genuine conditions I have come across:

• If you wish to cancel, I require 6 months notice in writing.

• If you wish to cancel for medical reasons, I require proof of illness.

• Parents must not be in the room under any circumstances during lessons, otherwise lessons will be terminated

• 3 months prepayment is required before lessons will commence

Now, these might be terms you are more than happy with and there's zero judgement here. I am merely pointing out that T&Cs can contain little red flags that you might want to know about and clarify before you start. Therefore, you can happily provide 6 months notice in writing, you can discuss what constitutes "medical reasons" and what proof is required and you an challenge exactly why parents are banned from the room during lessons. This last one, I think, is simply badly worded. Often, parents milling around in the background can cause distractions and make it difficult for children to concentrate. However, if a tutor is threatening to cease all lessons if a parent is in the room, I would question why they feel so strongly about that.

Remember, these are purely guide questions and when you meet your potential tutor for the first time, you should feel free to ask them anything you like! But, I know some parents feel very pressured in these situations and don't know what to say. So if you are in that situation and you want to make sure you are getting the full picture, try some of these as a starting point. You never know, they may throw up some information that either makes it or breaks it before you even start.