4th November 2010 9:00
By Blue Tutors
One of the more difficult decisions we have to make at Blue Tutors is when a student requests more than one subject. What’s difficult is deciding whether to send one or more than one tutor to cover the subjects the student requires.
Obviously in some cases it’s very easy. For example, if a student wants tuition in GCSE Maths and GCSE Physics then we’re always going to find a tutor who can teach both of those subjects. There may be tutors who say that they can only teach one of Maths and Physics, but then we are likely to simply assign the student to a tutor who can tutor both subjects.
The situation becomes difficult when the subjects are less closely related, and assigning one tutor to do the tuition, rather than two tutors, might mean that the individual tutor is not as competent at either subject as each of the other two tutors are at their specialised subject.
Our goal is always to provide the best tutor(s) for a student, and this tends to be something which we can look at objectively by assessing the tutors’ competency to tutor a subject, and their compatibility with the student. However, it would be remiss to overlook the other benefits to the student that a situation may create.
Some students want only one tutor for all of their subjects because they want a tutor with whom they get on well, and don’t want to create relationships with a number of tutors. Another factor is the organisation for a student; they may want to only have to arrange lesson times and dates with one tutor, rather than two or more. Of course, multiple tutors are often seen as beneficial too, because a different personality can keep the lessons fresher for the student.
Ultimately we have to make a decision, and we do so based on the student’s feelings, and our own judgement. The outcome is often that we try to find one tutor for younger students, and multiple tutors as the level of study increases (and so tutors’ specialisms are more important).