When is the right time to hire a tutor?

There is a common misconception that the only time to hire a tutor is when a child is falling behind academically. Understandably, if your child is struggling or feels they can’t cope with the rate at which their school work is progressing, seeking extra educational support is a natural solution. However, there are plenty of scenarios in which your child could flourish as a result of receiving additional support, many of which parents don’t consider when contemplating their child’s academic development. Generally, all children, regardless of age and relative competency levels, could benefit from additional support from a tutor. We’ve outlined some typical scenarios below:

Gifted Children

Children are considered ‘gifted’ when they consistently and significantly operate above grade level. Once you notice your child regularly excelling in school, you should consider hiring a tutor to further advance their capabilities. Introducing extra educational support for a gifted child is often a scenario overlooked by parents, as naturally, it is easy to assume only those falling behind necessitate assistance. However, tutors are able to provide work outside of the boundaries of a child’s schooling, invoking new and interesting academic challenges to support the development of their heightened intelligence.

Gifted children can become bored at school if they consider the work to be too easy and uninspiring. These feelings can hold them back in their development. Recognising and embracing the achievement of a gifted child through the catalyst of a tutor works to further boost their self-belief and desire to hone in on their excellent academic potential. This can lead to them cultivating a true love for learning, which is a valuable lifelong skill.

New Interests

Children are often inquisitive about the world around them. They may find they’ve established a curiosity towards the sciences, such as physics or biology, or perhaps even sparked a joy for reading and creative writing. When your children develop these new and exciting interests, it is always important to give them the opportunity to explore further, and really get a sense of what they feel passionate about. This represents a perfect time to hire a tutor who will allow your child to gain exposure to a wide variety of subjects; including ones they may not typically be able to access in school. Good tutors are able to adapt lessons for the inquisitive mind of a child, nurturing their interests and presenting them with material suited for their age and ability. 

Passionate Towards a Specific Subject

Once your child has experienced different academic subjects, they may start to feel passionate about a certain topic or concept. Naturally, schools can only allocate a set amount of classroom time to teaching specific subjects. This is of course a necessity as classroom teachers need to cover a fixed curriculum over the course of the school year, and the more ‘rigid’ curriculum doesn’t present an opportunity for passion and interest to be developed. Hiring a tutor will allow your child to take their passion to the next level, extending their studies further than would be possible in school. Exploring a multitude of subjects in more depth could spark an interest in future degree selections or interesting career paths for your child. Subjects such as coding, languages, economics, philosophy, organic chemistry, and mechanics are all examples of the vast variety of subjects that could be navigated with the help of a tutor.

Falling Behind in School

One of the most common reasons parents hire a tutor revolves around their child’s ability to maintain the same academic pace as his or her peers. Children often do not want to vocalise whether they are managing to keep up in school, so it is important to be vigilant and realise when they might need some extra help. A drawback of the large classrooms prevalent in most schools is that a teacher’s focus is split amongst 20 or 30 students, and lessons are catered towards a teaching style most suited to the needs of the group, not the individual. Tutors benefit from dedicated time with their students, which allows a tutor to develop deeper insight into your child’s academic progress, and tailor the style of instruction to meet their specific learning needs. As a parent, you are also able to benefit from knowing the specific areas in which your child is falling behind compared with their peers. This information can be discovered by performing an academic checkup, with the results used to determine the focus of future lessons.

General Additional Support

Regardless of whether your child is excelling or falling behind in school, additional educational support can be extremely advantageous when conducted in the right way. Hiring a tutor can give your child a sense of academic security, knowing that when they are presented with a particularly challenging or unfamiliar concept in the classroom, they have access to detailed, comprehensive, and caring advice from someone other than their school teacher or parent. It can take the pressure away from your child, because instead of needing to ask for help or take action themselves, their tutoring sessions present a regular opportunity to discuss what they are working on in a non-competitive and accommodating environment.