Private tutoring can transform a child's relationship with a subject. It can also become an expensive weekly appointment that changes very little.
The difference usually comes down to matching: the right tutor, addressing the right problem, using the right approach for that particular child. This guide covers how to assess that before you commit.
First, Identify the Actual Problem
Parents often approach tutoring with a symptom rather than a diagnosis. She is struggling with maths could mean any of several quite different things:
A knowledge gap. Something foundational was missed, often years earlier, and everything built on top of it is unstable. Fractions and negative numbers are frequent culprits.
A confidence problem. The child can do the work but has decided they cannot, and now avoids trying.
A pace problem. The class moves faster than they process, and they are permanently three steps behind.
An exam technique problem. They understand the material and lose marks on structure, timing, or misreading questions.
A motivation problem. They see no reason to care about the subject.
Each requires a different response. A tutor who drills past papers will help enormously with the fourth and barely at all with the second. Before you search for a tutor, spend a week working out which of these you are dealing with. Their teacher is usually the fastest route to an answer.
What Qualifications Actually Matter
A teaching qualification is valuable but not essential, and its absence should not rule out a strong candidate. What matters more:
Subject depth well beyond the level taught. A tutor teaching GCSE maths should be comfortable well past A-Level. Depth creates flexibility when a child asks an unexpected question.
Experience with the specific exam board. Specifications differ meaningfully. A tutor who knows your child's board saves weeks.
Safeguarding clearance. In the UK this means an enhanced DBS check. Ask to see it. A professional tutor will expect the question.
Evidence of progress with other students. Not testimonials about how lovely they are, but concrete accounts of where students started and finished.
Assessing a Tutor Before You Commit
Most tutors offer a trial session. Use it deliberately.
Do they assess before they teach? A tutor who arrives with a plan before meeting your child is teaching a curriculum, not a person. The first session should involve substantial diagnostic work.
Do they explain more than one way? If a child did not understand the classroom explanation, repeating it more slowly rarely helps. Watch for a tutor who reaches for a second and third approach.
Does your child talk during the session? Effective tutoring is not a lecture. If the tutor spoke for fifty minutes of an hour, the child was not doing the thinking.
Do they set specific work between sessions? Progress happens between appointments.
Can they tell you what they are working on and why? After two or three sessions, a good tutor should be able to describe the plan in plain language.
Online or In Person
Online tutoring has matured considerably, and for most subjects it now performs comparably to in-person work. It expands your choice of tutor enormously, which matters more than the format itself — a well-matched online tutor beats a mediocre local one.
In-person retains an advantage for younger children, for students who struggle to focus without physical presence, and for practical subjects.
Online works well when the child is old enough to sustain attention on a screen, the tutor uses a shared whiteboard rather than talking at a camera, and the sessions are recorded or summarised so the child can revisit them.
STEM Subjects Have Particular Requirements
Maths and the sciences build cumulatively in a way that other subjects do not. A gap in Year 8 algebra will still be causing damage in Year 11.
For STEM tutoring specifically, look for a tutor who diagnoses backwards. When a student cannot solve simultaneous equations, the useful question is not how do we practise simultaneous equations but what earlier concept is missing that makes this impossible. Tutors who work forward from the current topic often produce short-term improvement that does not hold.
Ask directly: If my child cannot do this topic, how do you find out why? The answer tells you a great deal.
What Progress Should Look Like
Set expectations early and review honestly.
Weeks one to three: diagnosis, relationship building, and early gap-filling. Do not expect grade movement yet.
Weeks four to eight: visible improvement in confidence and in the quality of attempts, even where marks have not moved. The child stops saying they cannot do it.
Weeks eight to twelve: measurable improvement in assessments.
If you are three months in with no movement on any of these, something is wrong with the match, the diagnosis, or the frequency. Raise it directly. A professional tutor will welcome the conversation.
Practical Questions to Ask
- How will you identify what my child is actually struggling with?
- What is your experience with this exam board?
- How do you keep sessions engaging for a child who dislikes this subject?
- What will you expect my child to do between sessions?
- How will you report progress to me, and how often?
- What is your cancellation policy?
- Do you hold current safeguarding clearance?
The tutor's willingness to answer these clearly is itself informative.
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