20th June 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A recent article on the Daily Mail’s website tells of how Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have just advertised for a tutor whose salary would be over £60,000 a year, and apparently these positions for ‘super tutors’ are becoming more and more common. Of course Paltrow and Martin’s children, Moses, 5, and Apple, 7, may be considered too young for private tuition, particularly in subjects like Ancient Greek and Latin, but that’s fast becoming the trend.
Interviewed for the article was Ellen Semler, an American writer married to an English banker and living in West London. They have 3 children, and despite sending them to expensive private schools, still find that a home tutor is practically required. Semler says “Schools let you down in a subject and then suggest your child needs some help. They pretend they mean you should do their homework with them, but really they mean a tutor. It ends up that the whole class is being tutored by the same guy. It starts when the child is two and goes on through Common Entrance, GCSEs and A levels”. She estimates that the family have spent thousands on private tuition over the years, as well as hundreds of thousands on private school fees.
Will Petty, a current tutor, was interviewed and said that parents get carried away, and end up unnecessarily hiring a tutor as an honour badge. He tells of situations where he tutored students and was flown around the world on a private jet, and received presents from families such as expensive champagne and luxury chocolates.