22nd February 2019 9:00
By Blue Tutors
We had an interesting situation recently where we put a client in touch with a tutor, and the client responded to say that she wanted a tutor with a PGCE. This isn’t a new request, ever since Blue Tutors began we’ve had parents expressing their value for a ‘qualified’ tutor, which, when pushed, they realise they don’t really know what they mean, and react by asking for a school teacher.
Obviously we are respectful of all of our clients; they need to be happy with the tuition they receive and in many cases a client’s preference for a certain type of tutor carries a lot of weight. However, a client who wants a school teacher to tutor their child, in general, means that the client hasn’t considered exactly what they’re looking for.
The argument for a school teacher being a good tutor is a very compelling one; teachers know school syllabuses inside out. They spend their working life trying to ensure that students are prepared for GCSE and A Level exams, and that’s exactly what most clients want our tutors to do.
Anyone who has been in or around the tuition industry will have a very different view of tutoring teachers. Most teachers don’t get the chance to tutor one to one at work. Classes of 25+ students just leave teachers struggling to get through the group lesson plans they create, let alone spend time walking around the class and helping individuals. As a result, we find that some school teachers tutor like they’re speaking to a class, and this is a very ineffective way of tutoring, and it’s no different from what students get at school.
Another thing to bear in mind is that the government’s requirement for someone to become a teacher is a 2:2 from any UK university. This means that many teachers currently working in schools will not have achieved the top grade in the subject they teach. Compare this to an Oxbridge graduate who standardly got straight As at school.
We are always very respectful of the teaching profession and many teachers are excellent tutors. However, we know many more amazing tutors who chose not to school teach because they want to tutor individuals. In addition they are in the top 1% of graduates in the country and tutor according to our pedagogy; something that every qualified teacher tells us perfectly highlights why teaching a tutoring is different.
Our advice to every client is to judge their tutor by their tutoring. Never assume that a qualification designed to teach the vocation of school teaching will necessarily make someone a better tutor.