Louise writes:
Before my experience with Sam from TutorFair, I had never been convinced of the need for a pupil who was doing well at school to have a tutor. At best I thought it was a waste of money, at worst it just screamed ‘pushy parent’ to me. My kids go to a good school, they have great teachers and are both doing really well, so it always felt to me that getting a tutor would be saying this wasn’t good enough. It also always seemed kind of unfair – why should my children be able to get a better education just because we could afford to buy it? I would never judge someone who chose to hire a tutor, it just didn’t sit well with me.
TutorFair has shown me it doesn’t always have to be that way. They are based on a simple idea and a promise: to offer an easy way to find the best tutors, while giving free tutoring to students who need it most. Not only do they help thousands of parents find tutors for their children in a transparent and reliable way, they offer free tuition to students who can’t afford it. Every lesson purchased through TutorFair includes a small donation to the TutorFair foundation which then supplies teachers and creates programmes for students who need it the most.
As for the quality of the tutoring, I was completely blown away by how well it went. We were visited by Sam, a physics graduate with teaching experience as well as tutoring. Felix thought he was brilliant. The two of them looked at some maths work together to assess what sort of level Felix is working at, which was interesting to hear. Maths is one of Felix’s favourite subjects, and one he does very well it, so it was nice to get some feedback on this, and interesting to see how he responded to the lesson. Now, Felix is not much of a fan of extra-curricular activities. He does a few clubs but these are begrudgingly so I was rather dreading how he would react to extra maths, on a friday evening! It turned out he loved it. He totally thrived with the one-on-one attention, loved being told he was doing really well and showing off what he knew, and seized the opportunity to learn something new. When the hour was up, Felix actually asked me if he could come back the next week – a massive ‘win’ as far as I am concerned.
The session with Sam really changed my view on the value of tutoring. Of course it could be really helpful for a pupil who is struggling with a particular subject but I can now see how it could also be useful for any child. This is by no means a criticism of the school as I really do think my kids’ school is great, but it has to help to have them doing some extra work, enjoying it and wanting more!
Find out more about TutorFair on their website www.tutorfair.com
