The pros and cons of hiring a tutor for your child

Hiring a tutor isn’t always necessary. If possible, speak to your child’s teachers first. Ask about how your child is progressing compared to their peers and any concerns you have about barriers to their learning. There may be a solution you haven't tried yet! But should issues with your child’s education persist, hiring a tutor can be a great next step.

There are lots of reasons why you might want to hire a tutor for your child, too, from helping them to master the basics in a key subject area to preparing for an exam.

If your child falls behind with part of the curriculum (whether due to absences from school or simply struggling with a specific subject), it can be difficult to catch up. Gaps in the basics for a subject area can pose further problems down the road (e.g. trying to learn algebra will be much more difficult if you haven’t already mastered basic arithmetic).

Hiring a tutor can be a good way to help your child catch up with their classmates.

Class sizes are getting bigger, with the average in primary schools increasing to almost 27 pupils per class in 2022. As a result, teacher-to-pupil ratios are getting lower.

Assuming that a teacher pays equal attention to all learners, they can still only spend so much time with each individual. This means some children may not receive the support they need in class, whereas this isn’t a problem for one-to-one tutoring.

Simply put, some children don’t thrive in the classroom. There are too many distractions. And if they get bored with the lesson content, they might struggle to focus.

With one-to-one tutoring – where children can’t chat with their friends or play with their pens while the teacher isn’t looking – it’s much easier to maintain focus. And by keeping the focus on the lesson content, thereby helping learners to keep up with their peers, you may find your child becomes more confident and enthusiastic about their education.

Perhaps your child is thriving in the classroom. Maybe there’s a subject they love so much they’re ahead of their peers. That’s great! But it might mean they start to find lessons dull since they’re forced to go through the syllabus at the same pace as their classmates.

Tutoring allows your child to pursue their interests outside of class and can give them a head start in their future studies. For instance, if your child is well ahead of their classmates in GCSE history and planning to study it at A level, hiring a history tutor will allow them to learn at their own pace and prepare for college.

Hiring a tutor can be a great way to prepare for exams. This can be helpful for younger learners completing their KS2 SATs or transitioning to a selective school (e.g. the Common Entrance exams), but it can also help older students revising for a tricky GCSE exam or who want to be sure their A-level grades meet the target for their dream university.

If this is a concern, you can look for a tutor who specialises in the exams in question.

So, what are the benefits of hiring a tutor? Some prominent examples include:

• It gives your child a better chance of doing well at school and beyond. The Education Endowment Foundation, for example, has conducted research that shows that “one-to-one tuition is very effective at improving pupil outcomes.”
• With private tuition, your child may feel more able to ask questions or discuss areas where they’re less confident. This kind of communication between learner and educator makes it easier to provide the support children need.
• One-to-one tutoring provides a personalised learning experience. This means learners can focus on the topics where they need more support or that interest them most. They can learn at their own pace and receive tailored feedback.
• Tutors can share study skills and revision techniques not taught in class.
• Tutors offer great flexibility with their teaching. With a little luck, you should be able to find someone who can work around your schedule and your child’s needs. You can also choose between in-person and online tutoring services.
• Tutoring can give your child a confidence boost by helping them to catch up with their peers - this can spark a true love of learning.
• Working with a tutor can encourage self-directed study, supporting your child to take initiative in their education and setting them up for lifelong learning.

It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve! But if any of the above sound relevant to your child, then it’s worth discussing tutoring with them and their teachers.

While hiring a tutor can offer benefits, it can also have disadvantages. These may include:

• Tutoring can be costly, especially as an ongoing weekly or monthly expense. Parents need to be sure that hiring a suitable tutor is within their budget - and that there isn't a more cost-effective alternative, such as a digital literacy curriculum.
• It may be difficult to find the right tutor, demanding a lot of time and research to find someone with suitable qualifications, skills and experience.
• The tutor you find may not be a good match for your child, even if you do your research first. Successful tutoring depends on a strong connection between the tutor and learner, so finding someone your child likes can be a challenge!
• Tutoring takes time, which may mean children are less able to pursue hobbies, extracurricular activities, exercise, etc. And unless you can balance the demands of tutoring against other commitments, it could become a source of stress.
• Even if you’ve done all your research and your chosen tutor has a great connection with your child, their grades won’t necessarily improve - this isn’t something a tutor can guarantee - nor will you be offered a refund should your child fail to see an improvement in their educational attainment, so keep this in mind!

There are risks and challenges inherent to hiring a tutor, but as long as you weigh the potential pros and cons before making a decision, this shouldn’t be a significant issue.

To make sure you hire the right tutor for your child, make sure to ask the following:

• What is the goal of hiring a tutor? – The best tutor to hire will depend on what you’re trying to help your child to achieve (e.g. catching up on a specific topic or preparing for an exam). Thinking about your goals will help you to narrow your search and find a tutor with the right specialisations.
• Do I want an in-person or online tutor? – Both options have strengths and weaknesses. Some say that in-person tutoring is more effective, but online tutoring is typically more flexible and convenient (and often cheaper).
• What are the tutor’s credentials? – A good tutor will set out their qualifications and experience clearly. Ideally, you should also be able to ask for references. And if they come with a recommendation from someone you trust, even better.
• How does my child learn? – Children have different learning styles, so it makes sense to find a tutor whose approach will suit your child.
• What is our budget? – Tutoring can be expensive, so make sure to consider your budget before you start looking for a tutor.

Finally, it can take time for a tutor to form a connection with your child, so you’ll want to discuss your child’s progress with the tutor. If you find things aren’t working even after four or five lessons, don’t be afraid to make a change! You might not find the right tutor on the first attempt, but there should be someone out there who can help you achieve your goals.

Literacy plays a significant role in learners’ successes, both in KS2 SATs and GCSEs beyond. Before deciding whether to hire a tutor for your child, consider the following factors - it might just be that a digital literacy curriculum, such as Bedrock Learning, is the support your child needs:

• Is your child struggling with the content of their lessons, or struggling to understand the vocabulary of their lessons?
• In many cases, it is the Tier 2 wording around exam questions that stumps learners, not the content itself. In this case, explicit vocabulary instruction would be a better (and cheaper) option.
• Is it their overall subject knowledge or their exam responses which are lacking?
• Strong knowledge of the subject matter but difficulty transferring this knowledge onto paper suggests a deficit in literacy, not in knowledge, and may be better addressed through explicit vocabulary instruction
• Can they explain overall concepts but not the specific keywords?
• In this situation, your child may benefit from targeted vocabulary pre-teaching, which helps them enter the classroom already confident in the language they need to know.

If issues in your child’s learning run deeper or are more concept-focused than the above, a tutor to provide personalised instruction may be beneficial, but many young people see great results in every subject when vocabulary and literacy skills are targeted. To facilitate home learners to harness these benefits for their own children, Bedrock’s literacy curricula are available as home learning subscriptions - start now.