Hunting down the best tutors

Word-of-mouth is the most effective and popular way to source good tutors especially as generally, the best tutors do not work for an agency – they don’t need to.

A good tutor, especially in English, maths or science, is a local treasure. Their name is guarded jealously by parents who, are often less than keen for other people’s children to have the advantages they are buying for their own.

 So how and where do you find top-notch tutors?

Tutor companies

As individual as your child?

Some tutor companies are trying not to expand, they relish long-term, close relationships with clients and tutors and acquire both solely by personal recommendation. Others are busily trying to meet a voracious demand and are wildly recruiting in all directions.

Everyone's credit is crunching but, tellingly, tutor companies are reporting no downturn in numbers of clients. It is interesting to reflect on what that says about people's priorities in tough times.;

Tutorial colleges and 'Crammers'

Tutorial Colleges are educational establishments with a difference. 

Their appeal depends on offering a tailor-made, (mostly) fifth and sixth form education in a similar atmosphere to that found at university, with the onus being on limited supervision and personal independence.

And on high fees.

The Good Schools Guide recommends?

We have quizzed and/or visited a number of tutor agencies about whom we have received considerable feedback and talked to their clients and their tutors.  The reviews are available online to logged in subscribers and in The Good Schools Guide book.

We have divided the tutorial companies into three sections plus a postscript detailing newcomers. Please see below for an explanation of the divisions.

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Safety first

There are well-established checks that all reputable tutor agencies will make on anyone they take on as a tutor. The most thorough and mostly widely used check is ‘enhanced CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) disclosure’. What distinguishes the ‘enhanced’ CRB disclosure from the ‘standard’ one is that it records any allegations made against a tutor whether or not he/she has been charged or has any convictions.