3 Questions To Ask Before You Hire A Private Tutor

If you are looking to hire a private tutor for your child, asking the right questions is essential to ensure that your child achieves success and you get the best value for money.

But what questions should you ask?

What skills, qualifications or experience should you be looking for?

Here are our top 3 questions to help you get started!

1. Does my child’s tutor have a DBS Certificate?

DBS check refers to Disclosure and Barring Service, previously known as a CRB check. It is a government process to ensure that unsuitable people are prevented from working with vulnerable groups and children.

When hiring a private tutor for your child, you must always ask to see the tutor’s DBS Check certificate. They will have a printed version of the certificate that has been issued by their current employer, with the date that it was issued. We highly recommend that you ask to see the certificate!

Everyone at The Science Tutor has DBS clearance. All tutors have been fully vetted and have the clearance to work with children.

2. Should my child’s tutor be a qualified teacher?

Qualified Teacher Status refers to a teacher that has completed teacher training.

A qualified Science teacher will have the proper training to understand how to ensure progress in their students, have high levels of subject knowledge and will have outstanding teaching techniques.

At The Science Tutor, we believe that having a teaching qualification, with experience teaching Science, is essential when hiring a tutor for your child.

A qualified teacher provides up-to-date knowledge of the curriculum, an expert understanding of how to plan lessons and the skills to cater their teaching for students' individual needs. These are specialist academic skills only linked to teacher training and developed whilst being in a real classroom.

This means that your child's tutor will be aware of and implement the latest in educational theory and pedagogical techniques.

The Science Tutor will guarantee that these high teaching standards are delivered to your child!

3. Will my child's tutor use structured lessons of a high standard?

There are two main methods in which a private tutor works and it is important to choose a tutor that is the right fit for your child's needs.

Method 1: The ad hoc tutor

Most private tutors of all subjects provide ongoing support which involves asking your child one lesson prior, "What topic would you like to cover when I see you next?". Some may even ask you child at the start of the lesson, "What topic have you covered in Biology this week? We will go over that today".

These tutors therefore teach your child particular content on an ad hod basis with little forward planning.

Method 1 might be exactly what you require should you just what your child needs to cover a few specific topics of GCSE Biology, Chemistry or Physics.

Method 2: The strategic tutor

The Science Tutor does not use Method 1.

We would not ask your child at the start of a lesson what they would like to cover and simply take it from there.

The Science Tutor consists of:

• Expertly planned lessons to cover the specification (AQA Science)

• Extensive resources

• Past exam questions and expert teaching of exam technique

As a result we are geared towards building expert Science knowledge to gain top marks.

Our structured packages ensure that we fully cover all aspects of fundamental knowledge, implementing regular retrieval of this knowledge whilst also ensuring that we include exam questions and key exam technique

If Method 2 sounds as though it may be suitable for your child, have a look at The Science Tutor's Services on our Services page.