How to Choose the Right Tutor for Your Child
Hello from Robin Gibbons at Latimer Tuition!
One of the main questions I'm asked is how to find the right tutor for your child.
Of course, in running my agency, there are differences in how you and I would go about this. In my position, I use a few online tools to post and advertise tutoring roles, collect applications, consider responses in detail, interview, and vet the tutors. In your case, the approach will likely be less structured, but hopefully, with this brief article, I'll be able to give you some pointers on how to go about finding a tutor as a parent/client looking to find a tutor directly.
Initially, there are a few knee-jerk ideas I have:
Word of Mouth (Other Parents/Customers): Are you involved in any parent groups, online forums such as Mumsnet, or social groups with parents/guardians in a similar position to you? Ask around! Tutoring is fairly common, and likely someone within your circle has already done the hard work in finding a trustworthy tutor. Approaching a tutor through a referral may also allow you to secure favourable terms (pay rate as an example). Find out what your contact pays per hour/per month, and any additional terms of their engagement with the tutor. After contacting the tutor, you can ask more about how they work, and with the background info from your contact, you should be able to make a more informed decision on whether or not that tutor is the right fit.
Do You Get Out Much?: I often see flyers, leaflets, and business cards of self-employed tutors advertising their services within my local areas. Have a look around your workplace, gym, cafe, and if you're living in a slightly more "oldy-worldly" village, perhaps there is a village notice board with individuals offering their services.
Search Around Online: I often use detailed Google searches with strict search terms; punctuation marks such as quotation marks ("") allow you to be very specific with the search engine about what results you're interested in. Say you're based in Manchester (specifically Cadshaw as a very random example), and you're looking for a GCSE Maths tutor. I'd search: "Cadshaw" + "Manchester" + "tutoring" + "GCSE" + "Maths". This should give you website results where the websites all contain those keywords. If no results come up, maybe lose one of the words, or try some variations, such as KS4 rather than GCSE, or Mathematics rather than Maths.
Online Agencies: If you're finding no results from the above efforts, an agency might be the ideal choice for you; let the agency do the work for you! Of course, the immediate criticism of agencies (Latimer Tuition included) is that we take a fee (commission) from the lessons our tutors conduct with you, hence pushing the price up for you as the end customer. This criticism is somewhat valid, and can be the case, but in Latimer's case, usually not... When I make a decision on tutor applications, we evaluate the tutor's price and consider if they've simply increased their price such that they earn the same as they do with their private clients where no agency is taking a cut. I try my hardest to steer away from these types of applications. My thought process here with these types of applications is explained below, please take a look!
Market-Pricing of Tutors vs Tutors Adding Our Commission to Your Price
As I mentioned above, some tutors apply to work with us and propose a reasonable market rate for their tutoring services, say £25/hour with decent experience. Often these tutors will also charge their own private clients £25/hour, so regardless of where you meet them (privately or through us), your price is the same.
To take on clients privately, these tutors understand there is a time and financial cost to marketing their private tutoring agencies, and if they take this into account, their overall earnings per hour on a given day is lower than £25/hour. These tutors often appreciate the marketing efforts Latimer Tuition makes on their behalf in promoting their profile, and see the commissions we impose on the tutors as their "bill" to pay to effectively purchase clients from us. It's another cost of business alongside other costs such as online meeting tool subscriptions (Zoom being an example). I like these sorts of applications; it reinforces the dynamic where Latimer Tuition and the tutor are working together behind the scenes to find clients. Ultimately, they're applying to work with us as an agency, so they've already accepted in some sense that they value the marketing and exposure efforts of a tutoring agency.
On the other hand, some applications come through, and the price they'd like to charge with us will be (usually) exactly what they'd charge their private clients plus the commissions we charge on lessons. As mentioned, I'm very quick to steer away from these sorts of applications as I don't think it's fair for the end-client to pay a premium to use Latimer plus the tutor versus the tutor privately when the option of working with the agency is a result of the tutor's marketing decisions... I.E. The tutor's own marketing approach (I feel) shouldn't cause a two-tiered market for that tutor where the client pays more in one circumstance due to the "luck" (so-to-speak) of the client finding the same tutor through an agency or privately.
After all, finding clients is a cost of business (time or financially, but often a mixture of both) for the tutor, and consider how they're pricing their services. Is it based upon a fair market rate, or based on a figure the tutor would like to have land in their bank account (per hour of work) regardless of what it cost them to acquire your business?
Things to Look Out For
Qualifications: Consider the qualifications of the tutor you're speaking to. If they mention they have X, Y, or Z qualification, ask them for proof of this (usually certificates). If the tutor is being genuine, they'll likely be happy to provide this.
DBS Checks: This in itself is a bit of a mind field, but in general, you can be more confident with the conduct of a tutor if they have a clean (no records or comments) DBS check. Be sure they have an Enhanced DBS rather than a Basic (a Basic check does not go as deep into relevant authorities' records as an Enhanced check), and make sure that it includes the Children's Barred List. There is no expiry date for a DBS per se, but remember it's a record of the individual at the date reflected at the top of the DBS check. As a rule of thumb, look for tutors with DBS checks completed within the last 4 years.
A tutor may be on the DBS Update Service, this means they have an initial certificate, and a further check is carried out every 12 months automatically, in this case you'll need to request the tutor's certificate number, and date of birth to check the record yourself online.
Side note: all tutors at Latimer Tuition hold a clean Enhanced DBS check with the Children's Barred List
Questions to Ask Your Tutor
When you first meet a tutor (either via a phone call, video call, messaging, or in person), make sure you have some questions to ask! Likely it's your first time evaluating a tutor, so here are some questions you could ask:
What's your teaching style and approach?
When are you available?
Do you have any cancellation policies? If so, how much notice do you need to amend or cancel a lesson?
Long term, are you looking to tutor? I'm looking for a tutor my child can build a good rapport with long-term. Switching tutors might impact my child's confidence.
Do you have any references you can share? Another side note: Latimer Tuition collects multiple references on a tutor following an application from non-relatives, we share these references (par contact details) with our clients upon request.
Do you have any reviews you can share?
What are your qualifications and teaching experience?
In Closing
In closing, I hope you found this article helpful! If you have any questions about tutoring or finding a tutor, please do let me know. You can contact me at RobinGibbons@LatimerTuition.com.
Of course, I will champion Latimer Tuition, but regardless, I'm happy to help whether you're a client or not!
Robin Gibbons
Founder & CEO