The first thing you should be asking for your child’s tutor is if they are a Qualified Teacher or at least hold a degree in the relevant subject? Primary Qualified teachers should be able to offer Maths, Science and English Tutoring up to year 6 and 11 plus. For secondary level- Maths, Science and English tutors should have a degree in their own subject and these are called subject specialists. The qualification required to teach in a secondary school is PGCE Secondary and they should also hold QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). At MDX Tutors we require our tutors to hold the qualification at least to a degree level in the relevant subject. That means your child would always be taught by a subject specialist. A Maths specialist would not be teaching biology as an example. All our teaching material is developed by experienced teachers and the Examiners who have experience of marking GCSE and A level papers. As a school teacher myself I came across many scenarios where the student couldn’t make the progress as they were just provided with the worksheets or revision books and helped by A-level students. A typical case was when a year 11 student told me that at the start of year 10 she did went for tutoring but then gave up as it was not working. I asked the student what happened, and she told me that it was a group tutoring of 10 students at a time. They were given a set of worksheets and were told to put the hand up if they need help and as she didn’t have the good subject knowledge; she was not able to continue as you can only put your hand up limited number of times and if you don’t know the topic well it is impossible to learn it by doing one or two questions. There was one A Level student for a group of 10 students. I have done thorough research in this field and even the tutoring companies with big names appears to be using A level students for teaching. They got over three hundreds branches and apparently, they are following a programme. What that means- they give you the worksheets and the A-Level students helps your child by using the answers provided. That is not teaching, and I am afraid that doesn’t extend the knowledge. I even asked about the Qualification of their centre manager and even found that they were not a qualified teacher and apparently, they have been doing this for so many years and don’t need a qualification -What about the subject Pedagogy or teaching techniques? I was told initially told they are fully trained but when I asked what their QTS or the teacher number is then everything changed. They should learn that in the school but then why you are paying for the tutors? Although I agree to some extent that children spend 4 hours per subject in school and should be able to learn in the school but the tutor should be a specialist who can develop deep understanding of the subject and clarify any misconceptions a student has. Funny enough one of them told me they use A Level student as the teachers don’t have the energy and A level students are more energetic. I would have preferred an honest answer that A Level student doesn’t cost much and as a business they want to keep maximum money. That prompted me to open a tutoring service where teaching and developing a child’s potential is at the heart of everything we do. To put it simple we will teach the National curriculum based on the initial assessment of your child