Secondary school is a pivotal time for students considering it takes them closer to their career path. So, it is very understandable why parents of children in secondary might start thinking about hiring an English tutor. English tuition at this stage can help firm up children’s grasp of the foundational skills needed for the rest of schooling.
However, once you’ve made the decision to seek out a secondary English tutor, you might find yourself considering how to ensure you’re getting the right tutor for your child. The last thing you want is to waste your child’s time and energy on tuition that isn’t productive.
Having said that, we’ve compiled some of the important questions to ask your secondary English tutor to help you find tuition that will help your child achieve their learning goals while having fun.
Are you a qualified teacher?
If you’ve been searching online for an English tutor, you might have seen postings from graduate students or even undergraduates advertising their English tutoring services. Needless to say, these options just won’t work. Good teaching is a very complex skill, it requires lots of different capabilities.
However, there are two elements that your absolutely must have in a tutor i.e., subject matter knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. What this means is that the tutor needs to know how to teach it. In other words, they should know about education theory, different ways of teaching a child, and how children’s minds learn.
How would you approach my child’s tutoring goals?
When starting out with English tutoring, a good tutor will advise you to set goals. Otherwise, how would they be in a position to gauge your child’s progress and adopt their tutoring as needed?
Before speaking to your secondary English tutor, we advise you to consider what you aim to get out of tutoring. It might be something as clear-cut as ‘preparation for the main exam, or it could be something more subtle like ‘improve my child’s confidence and ability to share ideas during lessons.
Either way, when you’re looking for a secondary school English tuition, it is a good idea to ask your tutor what approach they might take toward helping your child. Of course, they won’t be able to come up with a full tutoring plan immediately. But it will be helpful to get a clear sense of what they might say and how confident they are in their ability to meet your child’s needs.
