As parents, we all want to see our children thrive at school. But when homework becomes a daily argument, grades begin to drop, or your child starts losing confidence in a subject, it’s natural to question “Would a tutor help?”
The truth is, tutoring can be a game changer for many children – not just for improving marks, but for building confidence and reducing stress at home. Hopefully we can guide and help you decide whether getting a tutor is the right step for your child.
Will the subject impact future plans?
You will hopefully agree that education is important and having knowledge in any subject is better than not. However, we also need to be realistic on how much knowledge we can hold and the limitation on a student’s learning capacity within a time frame. We all love to be able to read something once it be locked into our long-term memory, but unfortunately that does not work for most of us.
A good tutor will be able to address misconceptions and work on connecting knowledge to keep it in your child’s long-term memory, but this will take time. Most children do not have the time to be tutored in every subject, so it’s important to prioritise the subjects that are most important. As a society we often prioritise English, Maths and Science as these subjects are often needed for further/higher education pathways. However, if your child has a particular passion for other subjects such as creative subjects and might be looking at a career in that subject area, the idea of getting a tutor for that subject might be very beneficial.
If your child has a good idea of their future pathway such as A-levels or college courses and is not currently on route to achieve the entry requirements, then tutoring might be worth looking into. If your child is unsure what pathway to take right now, it might be still worth looking at tutoring to make sure they achieve a grade 4 or 5 in English, Maths and Science to keep as many opportunities as possible available to them.
Do they need tutoring or will teaching be more beneficial?
Tutoring and teaching have many pros and cons. We have a whole article on the “difference between teaching and tutoring” that highlights these differences. However, your child might need to have more bespoke support and need help in filling in key misconceptions. Others may benefit more from learning with others and build a broader foundation to the subject.
It’s important that your child’s needs are highlighted and addressed in the right way. For most parents, speaking to their child’s class teacher is the best step at identifying these needs, however most tutors will be happy to help identify the needs before putting a tutoring plan together.
Do they want a tutor?
It might seem a silly question, but tutors can often tell when a child wants to engage in the tutoring and when they have been told they have to attend the tutoring. A child will achieve more when they understand how the tutoring can support them, and the child wants to engage in the learning.
It is difficult as a parent as children don’t always say “I need help”, but you might notice some frustration around homework, having headaches or stomach aches before tests, or techniques to avoid working in that subject. These are very common emotional cues that your child may be struggling silently, and a tutor can provide a safe encouraging space where mistakes are part of the learning and not something to fear.
Even if your child is struggling with a subject, it is important that they understand the benefits of tutoring and why they might need it. A child that wants to and is willing to engage in a tutoring plan will achieve more.
Is the right tutor available?
Most will know of a private tutor through social networks and will be local to them, but is this tutor the best tutor for your child? Will they get the best results for your child? Most importantly, does their teaching style match the learning style of your child? Every child learns differently, some need visual aids, others prefer a more step-by-step explanation. Most tutors will adapt lessons to suit your child’s unique way of learning; however, some tutors have a preferred way of tutoring a particular subject.
It’s important to make sure that the teaching styles match between the tutor and your child and in most cases your child will be able to tell if the communication is clear. Tutoring companies are becoming much more popular as they will have a range of tutors to choose from, so if your child is not happy with one tutor, they can easily move over to another tutor until their teaching and learning styles match.
Will it help the family dynamic?
Many parents comment on the struggle they have getting their child to complete their homework and sometimes this can turn into a nightly argument. If this is the case for you – you’re not alone. Many parents find themselves stuck between wanting to help with homework but not wanting to damage the relationship with their child. A tutor can step in and create a positive learning environment to support and lighten the load for both parents and child.
There’s no way of avoiding the concerns around the cost of tutoring. With most tutoring happening on a weekly basis, the monthly/yearly cost can be difficult for parents to find. It is first worth looking at tutoring as an investment in your child’s financial future and overall well-being. This still unfortunately doesn’t bring the cost down; however, it is worth speaking to a tutor or tutoring company as they might be able to provide different levels of tutoring that can be more affordable and sometimes more beneficial to a student. For example, small group intervention is often cheaper than one-to-one tutoring, but students sometimes prefer having peers working with them.
It is important to communicate with your tutor and explain the family dynamic and limitations you might have. A good tutor will work with you to overcome these and still provide the best support they can for your child.
When is the right time to start tutoring?
The most common age for tutoring is when a child is in Year 11, just before their GCSE’s. This is frequently down to students completing mock papers at the end of Year 10 and parents suddenly realising their child might not receive the grades they need. Although some of these students may benefit from tutoring to give the confidence boost before exams, it’s always beneficial to be proactive rather than reactive when looking at tutoring.
Tutoring has a huge benefit during the summer holidays where your child could experience the “Summer slide” where they have a loss of learning but can experience more stress and anxiety about coming back to school in September.
Tutors can also help support your child through big transitions such as moving schools, moving to secondary school or starting new subjects. A good tutor will not only support the subject, but your child’s well-being by reducing the stress during these transitions.
To achieve more, it is important to be proactive; by getting support early, we can prevent small struggles from turning into big gaps later.
Conclusion
Getting a tutor is a big investment for any family and is a big decision to make when it involves your child. Therefore, it’s important to make sure you have all the information to help make the best possible decision.
If your child is showing signs of stress, frustration or falling behind, a tutor can make a real difference – not just in results, but in the attitude towards learning and overall confidence. Make sure you get the right tutor that builds a positive relationship with both you as a parent and your child as a learner to make sure your child learns more, achieves more and reaches the success they deserve.
Get in touch
The whole Mathsplus team are here to help if you have any other questions – even if it’s not about Maths! Feel free to e-mail succeed@mathsplus.co.uk with any questions – we’re more than happy to help!
About the author
Written by Scott Dyer.
Scott is our lead tutor with over 16 years of experience working in the education sector. Being a qualified SENCo, previous Head of Maths and a lead in Teacher Training, Scott continues to work with school to help improve Maths results by promoting a growth mindset to build more confidence around Maths.
