Do I need to get a home tutor?

One of the most frequent questions asked at parents' evenings these days is should I get her a tutor? 

Although I believe that suitably qualified tutors can be helpful for children with specific learning differences and difficulties, usually within the school or guided by the class teacher rather than externally, I have become concerned about the prevalence of engaging ‘academic’ tutors as a matter of course. I have known some teachers who I'm sure would be wonderful tutors, but others who have not been high achieving or successful in the classroom and would not be offering your child excellence or giving you value for money. 

One to one tuition at home, according to recent reports in the media, is as common as attending school. There are now more people offering private tuition than there are teachers in schools. None of these need to be qualified or to conform to reasonable standards. Having a Mrs Doubtfire demeanour, or a track record as a tutor for many years is not necessarily good enough. Companies exist to offer tuition at particular stages in the school career, to assist with 11+ entry, to prepare for public examinations, or just to top up what is being done at school. Many of these cannot guarantee results and an analysis of their success rates, for example in grammar school entry, correlate to the child's natural ability and the amount of rigorous rehearsal (which they can do with you or by themselves using resources bought from WHSmiths) rather than something magical these tutors have added in the many hours of paid extra. I have been frustrated by parents wondering why their children are making poor progress towards independent learning, when most of their child’s ‘individual’ learning is coached by someone sitting beside them. Whilst tuition can work for some, it is certainly not a panacea for academic improvement. 

It is worth remembering that tuition may actually be counterproductive: 

• Children who regularly work alongside a tutor soon learn that there is no expectation that they can, or should, manage independently. 
• Children used to tuition have a fear of getting things wrong and become reliant on instant praise, feedback, correction and support – failing to develop the resilience that is essential for effective learning. 
• Children who have intensive coaching for examinations often feel de-skilled and deeply demoralised if the tuition has simply raised them to an academic environment, set or school where they cannot really manage by themselves. 
• Tutors have no regulation: they may be wonderful, but there is no control over what they teach, how current their knowledge might be, or how effectively they work with children. 
• Ex-teachers may not be up to date with ever changing methods and syllabuses and can confuse their tutees, or give them conflicting methods or information to worry about. 
• Tutors are unlikely to have the same view of progression and continuity that the class or subject teachers have, because at school the teaching team will be working together to create something coherent in terms of learning strategies, linked knowledge and experience across the curriculum. 
• Home tutors will not be working from the plans for the year at school, and may worry you or your child about gaps and aspects of the syllabus that have simply not been covered yet for very sound reasons. 
• Tutors offering individual lessons often overstate or at least overestimate the ability of your child, who may cope extremely well in one to one sessions, but not necessarily in a classroom, or when later expected to work independently or under exam conditions. The confidence that a child shows the tutor due to close questioning, lots of praise, strong educational scaffolding and a coaching relationship is very different from the expectations of the school or during assessment. 
• Most worryingly, there are no safeguarding guarantees about an unregulated and unchecked person in your home. 

My advice as a Head Teacher is to use tuition only when advised to by the school: for supporting strategies for learning, for managing learning difficulties or in the short term for keeping the brain awake over long holidays. Make sure you have up to date references for anyone you invite into your home, and check on the qualifications and experience of the tutor. Grand results regarding other children are not helpful – that child may have a completely different set of abilities, skills and needs from your own. Tell the school if you have engaged a tutor, the most fruitful experiences will be those that mirror and complement the school curriculum. Visit the session each time to see what is happening, and if your child is overwhelmed, confused, tired or becoming reliant on too much ‘tuition’, support, praise or encouragement, then stop the lessons, they are simply not helping. 

Children who are doing perfectly well at school do not need to be discouraged by having extra work in their free time, nor another adult questioning their ability, impeding their ability to develop independent strategies and pressuring them over their results. 

A parent I have known for many years spoke to me last week about her reason for stopping tuition after eighteen months with a very nice tutor. She said that she popped in on a session to discover, not for the first time, that the tutor was simply helping with the homework the class teacher had set and already prepared, no more, and no less - for £45. She said she felt pressured into organising tuition because all her friends had a tutor for their children. I asked if she had booked the lessons so that her child could have different work, more help or just more practice, but she said she had left it all in the hands of the tutor who was well qualified and came highly recommended. She said had not informed the school because she didn’t want us to think her daughter was getting help. She said that she had just come to the realisation that her child was actually doing fine, and that she was no longer going to worry about the extra mark or two the tutor could wring from the piece of work. I applaud, and I hope that the saved money is used for a really enjoyable family activity. 

Education is a holistic thing. Would your child benefit from a tutor? Probably not as much as she would benefit from you reading to her each evening if she is young, or taking her on a weekly trip to the library, or for older pupils taking the time to discuss coursework, promoting rational argument at the dinner table and engendering an interest in current affairs.