Education is as big of an investment as any. Extra tuition can give your child the best shot at acing their exams and help them to secure a place at a prestigious independent school. Now, with the availability of online tuition, there are fewer barriers to receiving high quality teaching. You don’t have to worry about getting your child to and from a tuition centre. You have a solution that fits around your busy schedule and their extracurriculars too. Best of all, you can virtually contact some of the greatest tutors in the country! But how do you spot a rookie from an experienced coach?
To help you find the best online tuition for your child, in preparation for their 11+, we have teamed up with a private school in Surrey to share some of our top tips.
Qualifications
Tutors don’t necessarily need a PGCE so long as they have a passion in their area and are knowledgeable enough to teach others. To find the very best, take a look at the subjects that they’ve studied and where. All of our tutors, or “super tutors” as we call them, are highly educated individuals that come from top universities and carry best-in-class teaching expertise.
Child Protection
Although online, child protection is just as important and an utmost priority of ours. To ensure your child’s safety, be sure to look for someone that is DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) registered. A DBS is a background check that highlights any concerns that you should be aware of and is something that you can check for yourself by requesting one online. Alternatively, you can look for tutors that are a part of The Tutors’ Association, which is the professional body for tutors in the UK. As a part of the membership, tutoring bodies like ourselves must maintain up-to-date, enhanced DBS checks, uphold child protection policies and implement best practices for teaching children.
Testimonials
The results speak for themselves. To understand the capabilities of a tutor, refer to their testimonials and reviews. Many platforms have rating systems in place to allow parents and students to make informed decisions. If they don’t however, social media, website reviews and google reviews are good alternatives. The only downside to Google and social media is that anyone can leave feedback without being a verified customer.
Take a look at some of our customer reviews below.
Preparation and Experience
A lot of tutors make their resources up as they go along, which means that they’re not designed and optimised for independent study outside of those hours. This restricts students from getting the most out of their tutoring. It also means wasting time to find out what works as children have varying learning needs. The experience we have had at Exam Coach has meant that we have been able to curate resources that are classroom-tested and ready to be delivered. There are no awkward stages to find what works. Everything your child needs are prepared and perfected beforehand.
Feedback
Feedback is just as important as the teaching itself, especially when it comes to exam preparation, as it’s the most effective method. Good, constructive feedback helps to identify areas for improvement and allows tutors to create unique plans for their students.
This is something we do in our workshops and courses to give our students the opportunity to address any doubts and confirm what they know. We provide marking and feedback on all homework submitted, creating progress plans as well as praising all excellent work. To assess a tutoring service, learn about how this is done and how often students can receive feedback.
Look for Any Freebies
Online learning is a big commitment, and any taster sessions will help you and your child to find what works best for them. We run at least one weekly workshop a week to help 11+ students in a style that is similar to our paid courses. There are a few differences as the students of our weekly workshops walk away with a summary of the notes made, whereas those enrolled on to the paid courses benefit from detailed notes for each session. Weekly workshops are just £15 for 45 minutes of tuition.
Our free taster class sizes are larger (up to 100 attendees) while our courses typically have far less students. You can learn more about these differences by heading clicking the link below.
Well Versed in The Examiner’s Mark Scheme
Exams are kind of like games. You know exactly what can come up and it’s just a matter of revising the answers (content). Examiners' reports give you a heads-up on how to score points and what exactly they're looking for. A good tutor will know this like the back of their hand and will be able to provide their students with exemplar answers to teach them the best practices to secure top grades. This is something that we help our students with through regular testing to ensure that they know exactly what they need to do in their 11+ exams.
Likeability
You certainly don’t need to like your teacher to do well but having a friendly and personable teacher helps to make the process easier. It makes learning more interesting, it is easier to engage and talk about your concerns. Meeting prior or having a free session can help your child to get to know their tutor better.
Want to discuss your child’s tuition further?
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