'We strongly recommend against tutoring!'
/'We strongly recommend against tutoring!'
What this sentence means to me V what it might mean to you.
The Oxford dictionary defines 1:1 tutoring as the process of providing private, personalised academic instruction to an individual. Unlike traditional classroom teaching, it focuses on tailoring lessons to a learner's unique needs to reinforce concepts, fill learning gaps, and build confidence.
So a private tutor is a private teacher. Just like the teacher who teaches your child at school. Or if you home school - I assume yourself or your partner would be the main teacher.
So why do top schools ‘strongly recommend against tutoring?’.
I strongly believe that it is because they believe that a private tutoring will undermine their business.
You have to remember that the people telling you that they 'We strongly recommend against tutoring!' are not the people teaching your child!
Typically it will be the head, a member of the SLT or someone in admin.
Laughable really.
Those people are not teaching your child day in and day out.
So here’s what this sentence means to me V what it might mean to you.
Me: If you don’t tutor your child you are missing out on personalised, tailored and bespoke learning support for your child.
You: If we tutor, our child will have less of a chance of passing their assessment (whichever one that may be)
Me: If you don’t tutor your child they will have far less of a chance of passing their assessments.
You: We should listen to the school - they are the authority.
Me: You are the authority. The school is an establishment.
You: If the school tells us to do something, we should do it.
Me: You should do what your parental intuition guides you to do.
The bottom line is this. I see schools as my partners and my allies. They teach my students every single day . I teach them once a week and I support them every day too.
Schools (not your child’s class teachers!) see tutors as their enemies. They want their results to be only there. Well, guess what? Their results will NEVER be only theirs because regardless of if you pay a private teacher to support your child or not, guess what? You are your child’s most important private tutor - whether you choose to admit that out loud or not.
If you sit with your child and teach them - you are a tutor.
If you prepare learning to do with your child - you are a tutor.
If you support your child with their learning - you are a tutor.
