Signs your child needs a tutor: the nine signs that mean yes, the four that mean wait, and how to tell the difference in one conversation

Most parents who ask whether their child needs a tutor already suspect the answer and want to be told. The honest answer is that a tutor is the right tool for some problems and the wrong tool for others, and the difference is visible in one conversation with the child and one with the teacher. This post lists the nine signs that mean yes, the four situations where a tutor makes things worse, the questions to ask the teacher first, and what a good first term looks like.

The nine signs that mean yes

1. Marks falling in one subject while the others hold. A child who drops in maths and stays steady in English has a maths gap, not a motivation problem. Gaps are what tutors fix.
2. Homework in one subject taking twice as long as it used to. The child is working hard and getting less for it, which means a method or a foundation is missing.
3. A topic the child avoids or calls boring. "Fractions are boring" almost always means "I do not understand fractions". Children rarely find things boring that they are good at.
4. The teacher mentions gaps, or a report says "developing" or "working towards". The school has told you; it is not able to give an hour a week to one child.
5. A move between school systems. A child arriving from India into a Dutch, Australian, British or American school, or the other way, is fine in ability and lost in order and vocabulary. A tutor who knows both systems saves a year.
6. A test with a date and a gap to close. NAPLAN, SATs, the 11-plus, GCSE, STAAR, EQAO, a board exam. A fixed date makes tutoring efficient, because the work is defined.
7. The child asks for help you cannot give. Grade 8 algebra, Year 9 science, GCSE chemistry: the point where parental help runs out is a normal point to bring in a tutor, and children feel the relief.
8. A bright child switching off. Working above the class, finishing early, starting to disrupt or daydream. Teaching a year ahead, one to one, is the cheapest way to keep such a child engaged.
9. Confidence in one subject has gone. "I am bad at maths" said at 9 becomes a life sentence if nobody proves it wrong; a term of 1-on-1 success in the subject proves it wrong.

Any two of these together, in the same subject, is a yes.

The four situations that mean wait

1. The child will not do homework in any subject. That is a routine and a relationship problem, and a tutor adds an hour of the thing the child is avoiding. Fix the routine first: same time, same place, phone elsewhere, twenty minutes, done.
2. The child is anxious about school, not about a subject. Sleep, appetite, friends, refusing to go in. Talk to the child and the school; a tutor comes later, if at all.
3. The child is under 7 and the worry is reading. A parent with a book every evening for a term does more than any tutor, and costs nothing.
4. Everyone else has one. The neighbours' children have tutors; yours has good marks and is happy. That is not a sign of anything.

The one conversation with the child

Ask, in this order: which subject is hardest right now; what part of it; show me one question you got wrong last week. A child who can point to the part ("I get the fractions with different bottoms wrong") has a gap and a tutor will fix it in weeks. A child who says "all of it" or "I don't know" needs the teacher's view before a tutor is chosen, because the answer might be reading, attention, or something at school.

The one conversation with the teacher

Three questions. Which specific topics is my child behind on? Is it understanding or effort? What would you do with an hour a week? The first answer is the tutor's brief; write it down and give it to the tutor. The second decides whether a tutor is the right tool. The third often surprises parents: teachers usually name one or two things, not ten.

What a good first term looks like

Week one to two: the tutor finds the gap with a short diagnostic, not by starting at chapter one. Week three to six: the gap topics, in the school's order, two classes a week, with the school's current work kept up alongside. Week seven onwards: the child is ahead of the class on the current topic, and the class is the easy hour of the week. Marks move in the second term; confidence moves in the first. If nothing has moved by week eight, change the tutor or the plan, not the child.

Online or in person

For a child from about 7, in maths, science and English, a 1-on-1 online class on a shared whiteboard with the camera on is as effective as in person, easier to keep to a weekly slot, and the recording is a textbook the child can re-watch. In person is better under 7, for a child who will not sit at a screen, and for handwriting. The prices and what the money buys are in is online tutoring worth it, and what works at each age in online tutor by age.

What we do

The free 30-minute class is the diagnostic: bring the teacher's answer to the first question and one piece of wrong homework, and the tutor tells you which topics are missing and how many weeks they take. One tutor, one child, the same tutor every week, on the child's own school curriculum, in English, Hindi or Punjabi. If the honest answer after the demo is that a tutor is not what your child needs, we say so.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →