Choosing the Right Tutor
Choose the right tutor for you
Five questions to ask prospective tutors to help find the right fit for your child.
How do I choose the right tutor for my child?
Choosing a tutor is easy – there are so many tutors available across Perth – you can choose by location, availability and price. However, choosing the right tutor is a great deal harder. How do you choose someone who will be a great fit for the student?
Read on for some great questions to ask prospective tutors.
1. What are your levels of qualifications and experience?
There are many types of tutors and each has their place to meet a range of students’ needs.
If your child is quite capable but has trouble organising themselves with their homework, then you might be comfortable choosing a high achieving high school graduate. They should not be claiming to ‘teach’ your child, but rather ‘help’ and ‘assist’ with their work. This tutor might well be a great student, but they will not be a good fit for students with learning difficulties because they will not be able to relate to students who find reading, writing, maths and comprehension difficult. A reasonable rate per hour is $20-$40 tops.
The next step up is university student or graduate. A university student is a good choice for a high school student who is wanting help in an ATAR subject that the student is studying – for example Physics or Chemistry. Again, choosing a university student is a good choice if your student doesn’t have any learning difficulties and just needs some help with a particular subject. A reasonable rate is $40-$60 an hour tops.
Then there are Education Assistants. This is a great choice for parents looking for a tutor who understands children with diverse needs: ie. diagnosed and undiagnosed learning difficulties and sensory difficulties. Education Assistants have had training in schools and are an affordable choice for many parents. A reasonable rate is $40-$60 tops.
Next we have Teachers. Teachers are the best choice for tutoring, as they have the qualifications and experience needed to produce the results that students need to succeed. Teachers have constant professional development in areas such as Science of Reading, curriculum, marking and assessment, child development, current best practice pedagogies and Neurodiversity (such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and many more). Teachers range in experience too, so you need to enquire about their specialist areas. For example, I am a Literacy Specialist and work with a range of ages from 5 to adult, but I am not an Early Learning Specialist. I am not a Numeracy Specialist. I am also an English as a Second Language and Dialect Teacher and an English as a Second Language Teacher. I can teach early learners and I can teach primary maths to mid primary, but would refer you to another specialist in these areas if that’s what you needed. Other teachers specialise in Literature or Physics and would not be the best fit to teach primary school children literacy skills. For a general classroom teacher a reasonable rate is $60-$80. For a specialist teacher a reasonable rate is $80-$120.
The next category is Specialist Skills Tutors. These tutors teach a skill like singing, piano, languages, carpentry, the arts and other specialist skills. They may be qualified teachers or they may be highly skilled practitioners in their skillset. A reasonable rate depends on the skills and the availability of people who can teach those skills.
2. What programs do you use? What is your methodology?
This is a good question to ask if you are unsure if your tutor has a plan that they work to, or if they are just working it out on the day. If all you need is homework help, then it is acceptable for your tutor to work as they go each week, with the material that the student provides. If you need something more involved than homework help, then your tutor should be able to detail the programs and methods that they plan to use.
3. What experience do you have with specific learning requirements?
For example, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, GATE preparation, NAPLAN preparation, OLNA preparation, ATAR preparation, mental health, trauma informed practice, WA Curriculum, child development etc
You want the best tutor for your child. The right tutor will have the right amount of experience and knowledge to help your child with the challenges that they face.
4. What do you recommend I do at home to support my child’s learning?
Your tutor should be able to offer ideas to help your child practice and grow at home. This does not always mean that you are given copious amounts of homework or activities to do with your child. This just means that your tutor should be able to offer you some guidance on how to support your child’s learning alongside their school and home life. Teacher tutors often work with your child’s teacher to provide feedback and results that the teacher may not have been able to secure (with thirty students in their busy classroom).
5. How do you measure progress and success in your students?
Progress and success look different for every student. In some students you will see an “aha!” moment and progress for this student will be rapid and sudden. For others, the pace will be slow but ever forward. For others, it will show in terms of confidence and willingness to participate in activities that used to cause tears and avoidance. Sometimes students will make progress and then seem to halt or go backwards – this too is a normal part of learning. We are not robots and we all learn differently. Sometimes things are happening in our lives that affect our learning and retention. Consistent, kind and inquisitive tutors who understand how learners learn (and particularly how children learn and develop) will be able to help with learning blocks and setbacks.
I hope this helps you when you are choosing your child’s tutor.
Danielle Calleja – Ms Calleja’s Classroom