We have visited Minerva Tutors’ offices. In addition, 50 tutors and 327 clients were sent links to an on-line survey, which was completed by 25 clients and 25 tutors. For an explanation of the different tutor sections in the Good Schools Guide see which tutor agency?
The Good Schools Guide review of Minerva Tutors
Ever paused to question the normal boasts of tutor agencies? It was precisely this that led Hugh Viney (himself a tutor, after graduating from UCL in Classics) to found Minerva in August 2014. ‘Many agencies, for example, pride themselves on having hundreds of tutors, but parents know that just means they’re essentially a job-board because you can’t match well if you don’t know your tutors well,’ he says. Then there’s the claim by some agencies that their tutors are of such high quality that they don’t need training. ‘But surely we all need continual professional development (CPD),’ exclaims Hugh. And so Minerva – with its 30 full-time tutors and a further 25 working on a part time basis, all of whom get training, plus a lot more – was born.
Review snapshot: We’ve been very pleased,’ says a parent. ‘My child needed very specific help, Lynne had the right person, put us together and it made a big difference.’
Review snapshot: ‘It’s on the more expensive side, particularly for more experienced tutors, but it’s absolutely my favourite. They’re honest, on the ball and have the best quality tutors,’ concluded another parent. read more
Review snapshot: ‘We have families that stay with us throughout their children’s upbringing – then we look after their own children. This really does happen, with generations of the same family having worked with us.’ ‘Having a small register, we know our tutors personally. Some have been with us for many years which helps greatly in matching clients and tutors appropriately.’
Review snapshot: "Founded in 2006 by Kate Shand who is committed, passionate, energetic and hugely likeable. Clearly on a mission to deliver a top quality service to her clients – and her tutors – Kate is eloquent on the personal nature of the tutor-client-agency relationship and has a positively moral take on what she sees as her job." read more
Most tutoring is by trained teachers for GCSEs and A levels, with a little (but growing) amount at university level (‘but we hold our hands up if we can’t help, for instance we recently had to turn down a tutoring request from a property development student,’ says Matthew). Specialist subjects currently span biology, chemistry, physics, maths, further maths, English language, English lit, geography, history, RE, philosophy and ethics, psychology, French, Spanish, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, PE, business studies and economics. Small amount of 11+ and 13+ also on offer from non-teacher trained tutors.
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The Good Schools Guide review of Minerva Tutors
The Good Schools Guide review of Minerva Tutors
