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121 Home Tutors: Teachers & Tutors

2010-08-09T13:11:00.000+01:00

How to choose a tutor?

2010-08-06T12:00:00.002+01:00

We get several telephone enquiries per day asking about tuition that don't get beyond the question 'how much does it cost?'

Granted, cost is a consideration, but cheapest is rarely the best and often, a more expensive tutor can actually provide better value. Should cost be the main decider when choosing a tutor?

To be fair, for some the financial cost of helping their children improve their confidence, grades, knowledge and future prospects is a huge burden. But, tutoring is a worthwhile investment - if a child receives more qualifications and/or at higher grades through working with a tutor than would have been likely without a tutor, then they are likely to enjoy higher earnings since their employment prospects have been enhanced. To choose a tutor simply on the basis of cost must be flawed? While using the right tutor can help enormously and be a fantastic investment - having the wrong tutor may well turn out to be a false economy!

Thats not to say that the 'cheap' tutors are necessarily bad - but it begs the question as to why some tutors offer tuition at such low rates? Are they inexperienced? desperate for work? undervalueing themselves, or simply tutoring for the greater good/out of the 'kindness of their hearts'? I could go on here about teachers/educators at all levels being undervalued/underpaid, but I'll stick to tutors! Although, I suspect the reason for some tutors offering such low fees is that they are less experienced and don't appreciate themselves - or rather their skills - fully (yet!) and that they perhaps don't look at the fee in real terms.

To clarify, I've managed to find a tutor site where a tutor was offering A level maths tuition for £10ph [way underpriced]. Even if no preparation time was required or travel expenses incurred, this amounts to a net fee of £7-8 max. But, for even an experienced tutor with years of experience/notes/lesson plans and material, most tutorials require at least 10 mins prep and are a minimum of 5-10mins drive away. This makes the actual work time taken to deliver an hours session approx. 75-80 mins which makes a £10 fee equivalent to £7.50-8/hr; net of expenses and tax, this could equal an hourly rate of £5-5.60 at best estimate [The national minimum wage is currently £5.52 for over 22's]

For those of us in the profession, why should we allow ourselves to be undervalued? Do some tutors not realise?

For those choosing tutors on the basis of cost alone - just a warning to consider why the tutor's fee is so low. They could be a gem, or they could be unreliable, inexperienced or unqualifed.

So, how should you choose a tutor? Important is the tutor-tutee relationship. Since tutoring is mostly on a 1-2-1 basis, its very important that the tutee feels comfortable with the tutor and at ease enough to ask questions and enjoy the sessions. Other considerations are experience in the subject/level required, knowledge of subject and curriculum/level requirements, track record/past results, qualifications, availability, reliability and finally cost!

Entrance tests

2010-06-30T13:52:00.000+01:00

The annual round of private school entrance tests, at least around Stockport, are very nearly upon us and for year 6's this mean keeping the studies going over Christmas. Those who don't are very likely to be putting themselves at a disadvantage and its probably not a risk worth taking.

Competition to get into the favoured senior school, especially the grammar schools is very intense and fierce... some must be driven by parents but we find the children too are keen to get into their chosen/'the best' school - though whether this comes from years of indoctrination from schools, peers, parents, siblings etc isn't certain. Preparation is key.

According to many of these schools websites, no preparation for the tests is necessary. But without preparation you are entering a competition with a handicap... the majority of entrants appear to be having help with preparation; especially those from private/prep schools. Those at state primary schools appear to be at further disadvantage as they generally work towards the SATs, which aren't until May, and even then the work/standard required for SATs seems to be a 'piece of cake' compared with the common entrance. [The pressure/preparation for SATs starts to intensify around now, though that's another story!]

Many of our own year 6 students have been left with a timetable to record how long and how much work they do over the Christmas break [though I believe they have been 'allowed' to take Christmas Day and Boxing Day off!] - and to make sure they have something to fill this time, a set of 'holiday homework' that would keep anyone busy: at least 6 maths general tests, along with reasoning, English and more maths questions. The idea of this is to keep the brain 'ticking over'. Of course, its a good idea if the child is to be on par... but then why are the tests set mid January? As an adult, take a few weeks holiday and all pre-holiday tasks are very often rusty when you return to work and it takes a while to 'get back into things'. Imagine at 11!

For those about to sit the tests - good luck :) If you get into your chosen school then congratulations - if you don't then it wasn't meant to be. You tried your best and the school mustn't have been right for you and you probably wouldn't have liked it anyway!.

For those wanting last minute preparation Bond Assessment books/papers are good and obtainable online - check out amazon.co.uk - or via many high street bookshops eg WHSmiths

Of course, if you are wanting extra help/tuition, we can help you there: visit our website, email us at info@121hometutors.co.uk or call on 07914 568 259

Summer holidays...

2008-09-08T10:28:00.002+01:00

- well another academic years upon us, and for most in full swing.
Over the summer we've made loads of progress on our website: www.121hometutors.co.uk
and the efforts seem to be paying off. Hopefully its a more user friendly site and easy to navigate to find a tutor or our contact details!? [if not then comments are greatly appreciated]

And for those looking for a little more information - hopefully thats there too. We aim to provide info on the tutoring process, links to useful education sites, and to show people there's more help available to learners than perhaps they realise. Don't struggle alone...there's help.

Its a huge battle, a website - first it has to be found by people. Thats a challenge in itself. Making a site findable by search engines doesn't necessarily make a site good for the visitor: once hurdle 1 is done and the sites a little further up the ranking, then hurdle 2 - it has to look ok on the eyes and has to provide the information the visitor wants.

We did try employing companies to do some of this - the SEO experts, the keyword experts etc all to find it takes more work chasing them to do the work its quicker to learn how to do the things yourself - the old adage, want something done, do it yourself is so true!