Before You Choose a Tutor… Ask the Questions That Matter…

Because who teaches your child matters.

Social media is rather full of tutors at the moment. Scroll for a few minutes and you are likely to see adverts promising improved grades, greater confidence, exam success and personalised support. There are some excellent tutors out there, from many different backgrounds, offering valuable support to children and young people.

Choice is a good thing, however, at 'OakWell Education', we also believe that parents should feel confident about asking a few important questions before deciding who they invite into their child's educational world and perhaps the first is a very simple one:

Are you DBS checked?

A Disclosure and Barring Service check is an important part of safer recruitment and safeguarding practice. Of course, a DBS certificate cannot tell you everything about a person, nor should it ever be presented as a guarantee of suitability. Safeguarding is much bigger than a certificate but when someone is working regularly with children or young people, parents are perfectly entitled to ask about safeguarding arrangements, appropriate DBS checking and professional accountability.

At 'OakWell Education', safeguarding isn't an optional extra. It is part of professional practice.

There are other questions worth asking too:

Are you a qualified teacher?

Being knowledgeable about a subject and knowing how to teach it are not quite the same thing. Teaching involves pedagogy: understanding how children learn, how to explain something in different ways, how to recognise misconceptions, how to scaffold learning without creating dependence, how to assess progress and when to change approach because something simply isn't working.

A good teacher isn't merely delivering information. They are constantly observing, assessing, adapting and responding to the learner in front of them. For children with additional learning needs, anxiety, gaps in education or previous negative experiences of school, that professional understanding can become even more important.

Then there is another question, particularly when choosing someone to support GCSE or A Level students:

Have you actually been an examiner?

Being an examiner is not essential to being a good tutor, and we would never suggest otherwise. There are excellent teachers and tutors who have never examined, but if someone advertises themselves as having examiner experience, it is reasonable to ask what that means. Which examination board? Which qualification? Which subject? How recent is that experience?

There is a difference between teaching an examination specification and having experience of the examining process itself. Genuine examining experience can bring an additional understanding of assessment objectives, mark schemes, common errors and what examiners are actually looking for when applying those criteria. Again, it is about parents being able to make an informed choice.

Professional accountability matters too. Teachers may be registered with, or accountable to, the appropriate professional or regulatory body depending upon where and how they work. Parents should never feel uncomfortable asking about qualifications, professional registration, experience or safeguarding procedures.

None of this is about saying there is only one type of person who can help a child. There isn't. Nor is it about criticising people who have entered tutoring through different routes. Some bring considerable expertise and experience to their work. It is simply about transparency.

If you are choosing someone to work one-to-one with your child, you have every right to understand who they are, what their qualifications are, what experience they actually have and what safeguarding measures are in place.

So perhaps before asking, "How much do you charge?", there are a few questions worth asking first.

Are you appropriately DBS checked?

What are your teaching qualifications and experience?

Are you professionally registered where appropriate?

What safeguarding procedures do you follow?

If you describe yourself as an examiner, what examining experience do you actually have?

And, most importantly, how will you adapt your teaching to my child?

At OakWell Education, we believe parents should ask us those questions too.

With 35 years of experience in education across the state and independent sectors, qualified teaching and specialist experience in safeguarding, ALN and neurodiversity, alongside examining experience with AQA, Edexcel, WJEC and Cambridge, our approach is built on more than subject knowledge; it is built on professional practice, pedagogy, safeguarding and understanding the individual learner.

Tutoring isn't simply about knowing the answers. It is about knowing how to teach, knowing how to support, knowing how to safeguard and recognising the responsibility that comes with being trusted to work with someone else's child. Parents have a choice, we simply believe it should be an informed one.