Private tuition

[Roseflower27]

Dear Parents
I'm a primary school teacher and am on the doctorate course training to become an educational psychologist. I tutor in family homes and was just wondering about some Mums experiences of private tuition and the ways in which they have found tutors.
Many thanks :)

[morethanpotatoprints]

Hello Roseflower

Many H.ed parents tend not to use tutors as they can be expensive
we have a language tutor but lessons are swapped for music so we don't end up paying for them, other than time.
Our dd has music lessons privately, but these tutors she has always had, even when attending school.
For us, we couldn't justify spending money on a tutor other than music.
My dd struggles quite a lot with academic work so we find strategies that work for her which I feel a tutor may not be able to do.

[mummytime]

I know quite a few HErs who do use Tutors, but usually for GCSE stage and language. They often band together to get group lessons. They find their tutors via the usual route eg. Word of Mouth.

[maggi]

We have used private tuition for swimming and bike level 3, as there is not really another way to get these qualifications. These have been 1 to 1 lessons and ds has excelled at these. The bike tutor even drove to our house to deliver ds certificate just so that he could tell me face to face how brilliant my son was. How he was the best student in years and how he was no wuss when it came to bad weather. So I have found all the tutors value for money and very helpful as well as useful.

[Roseflower27]

Thank you so much for your feedback :) I am tutoring for a few families at present. Many thanks again :)

[streakybacon]

I use university students. They are cheaper and I've found them far more willing to work to my requirements than qualified teachers who (IME) have been generally quite set in their teaching ways and very NC-focused. I didn't use tutors until we started doing IGCSE work though as there was no need.

[SlightlyNerdyPianist]

Streaky, I've often found university lecturers to be great for the same reasons (apart from cost); they seem to have a healthy mix of teaching how to pass the exams with teaching the actual subject in an informative, enjoyable, and non NC-prescriptive way.
They are often free during the day too, as many lecturers don't lecture full time, or are more flexible with hours because of research-based roles.

(I posted before on these boards under a different nickname but got bored with it so changed... I was Mumofteen123. Even my daughter said that was boring!)

[streakybacon]

Yes Nerdy, we've used lecturers for HE group lessons before and I agree that they have a different approach to 'school' teachers. There's often a genuine passion for the subject that can be missing elsewhere. I think it's always worth thinking outside the box when looking for tutors - like many things in HE, you don't have to go a usual route to find a solution that fits .