|
|
BY JENNIFER 12 Apr 2010 03:04
|
With exam season only weeks away, last-minute nerves are setting in for schoolchildren and, often, concerned parents. This makes it boom time for private tutors, a sought-after group who charge anything from £15 to £80-plus an hour.
Tutors are not only helping the elite. A survey by research company Ipsos MORI indicates that 43 per cent of 11 to 16-year-olds in London state schools have received tuition. Nationwide it is 22 per cent.
Education experts say that parents should — but often don’t — go to their child’s school with concerns before hiring a tutor, as schools may offer free help. But they add that one-to-one tutoring out of the classroom can be a fast-track way to iron out difficulties and boost confidence.
Sue Fieldman, of The Good Schools Guide, says: “All too often, the school is defensive and feels you are being critical, or it is a teacher who is the problem and your child needs support to overcome deficiencies of school provision.”
She says that word of mouth is generally the preferred way to find a tutor. This cuts agency fees, which can double a tutor’s rate, and she adds: “The best tutors don’t work for an agency. They don’t need to.”
While recommendations are ideal, parents can also browse tutors’ ads in local papers and websites, such as Schoolstrader.com. Then the onus is on parents to make thorough reference checks.
Madeleine Cardozo used Schoolstrader to find a science tutor for her son Jack, who is sitting his GCSEs this summer. She says: “We found a fantastic tutor in their listings. He is a fun guy who can really relate to a 16-year-old and engage him. He has a background as a research scientist in biology.
“Overall, he has been a godsend and Jack may well decide to take biology on to A level.”
Mrs Cardozo and her husband Damian, of Mere, Wiltshire, have six children. The couple have also asked Jack’s tutor to give occasional help to their daughter Lali, 14. They say that they pay £20 to £30 an hour, which is “enough”.
Established agencies tend to charge £40 to £60, but can offer added peace of mind in an unregulated industry.
Charles Bonas, of Bonas MacFarlane, says that his London-based company vets and trains its tutors, most of whom have Oxbridge firsts, using methods developed over 17 years, while some competitors are run by “kids with a parent’s address book”.
He adds that most of his clients (who pay £50 an hour) are keen to get their children into top prep and public schools.
“The idea is you get into the right school at 7, 11 or 13 and you’re OK — you shouldn’t need help at GCSE or A level. When it comes to it, some students do need help later, because universities want all As and A*s. One B in an arts GCSE can spoil an Oxbridge application for a BSc course.”
He says that a good tutor can achieve a lot even in the brief window between Easter and exam season, with a close focus on the exam syllabus. He adds: “If lessons are not based on a knowledge of what will be asked, you can have a great learning experience, but it won’t help to boost grades. In many cases the student only needs help on one or two difficult points.”
Malachy Guinness, founder of Bright Young Things Tuition, agrees that sometimes a few lessons are enough to make a significant difference. He says: “If things are properly explained once, students actually understand them rather than cramming material that they will inevitably forget.”
Most of Mr Guinness’s tutors are Oxbridge graduates in their twenties. He believes some agencies take themselves too seriously and parents want “bright young tutors their children will really like” to make lessons interesting and enjoyable.
One of his clients, who agrees, hired a tutor to stay with her family for two weeks at Easter before her son’s GCSEs. She says: “The cost was much the same as for an Easter revision course at a college, but for a much more personal service.
“He was a delightful Oxford graduate and the children idolised him. Our son was predicted Cs and Ds, but got that up to As and Bs. Having someone listen and take a real interest in his ideas has made him enthusiastic about work for the first time.”
Bright Young Things offers Easter revision ski trips and online tutorials. The lattter cost £40 an hour, as opposed to £45 an hour for face to face.
Online tutoring is a new and fast-growing area. Tutors can speak to children remotely, using a Skype headset, and work together on a virtual “whiteboard”. The technology is popular with families living in remote areas or overseas. Providers include several mainstream agencies, as well as specialists, such as Home Tutoring Online, which charges £15 an hour for tuition from current university students and £25 an hour for a professional tutor.
One advantage of online tutoring is that it makes shorter sessions viable. Home Tutoring Online offers 15-minute slots for only £3.75 or £6.25.
The Good Schools Guide praises Bonas MacFarlane as “the Savile Row” of agencies, but does not cover Bright Young Things. Ms Fieldman explains: “We don’t actually recommend tutors until they have a long enough track record, but the company may well feature in the future.”
Meanwhile, for good nationwide coverage, the guide recommends Fleet Tutors, an organisation with 5,000 tutors across the UK, most of them qualified teachers. The agency’s average fee is £30 an hour.
No matter how a tutor is found, Sue Fieldman says that parents should treat the first couple of sessions as trials and not feel under pressure to sign a contract. Tutors may offer a cheaper rate for signing up for a “package”, but they should be happy to work on a session-by-session basis.
Delicious 
Digg 
reddit Facebook 
StumbleUpon