First Parental Contact
Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel (c.1508-1512)
The first contact with a tutor is crucial because it establishes the tone for the work that follows. At this very early stage, a great deal depends on whether the initial contact comes from a parent or caregiver, or from the student themselves, and this is invariably dependent on the student’s age and on their financial independence.
I do not charge for any part of my first contact with a family or student. For me, it is really important that initial discussions about tutoring and a young person’s needs take place in an open, unmonetized context so that I understand their hopes, expectations and requirements before suggesting a teaching strategy. These first conversations often begin with email contact and develop into Zoom or telephone calls, and these take time because students come to tutoring for many reasons and families need the opportunity to explain the circumstances in full before deciding whether they want to pursue tutoring.
I am very conscious that students often seek a tutor because they feel bruised or anxious in some way. Parents and caregivers sometimes describe unhappy learning experiences in school or explain a period of educational disruption that has resulted in their young person missing out on a text or topic. And at times the looming prospect of external examinations feels hard to manage without additional support and an individualised approach. It is absolutely essential for me to hear all these details in full before developing a tutoring framework, and this is especially true for students with additional educational needs.
I am also aware, however, that I can commit a significant amount of time to a family without any guarantee that they will book a block of tutoring sessions. And this is an economic risk that I am prepared to take because establishing good will, strong communication and shared expectations provides the best possible foundation for a positive piece of work.
Once we have worked through initial discussions, the next step is an introductory tutoring session so that a student can decide whether they want to work with me. These introductory sessions can be stressful for a young person because meeting someone new in order to assess them introduces all sorts of inter-personal uncertainty. For many students, this will be the first time that they have worked one-to-one with a teacher without the protection of being part of a whole class and this can feel intense and uncomfortable.
In order to make introductory sessions as easy as possible for a student - and depending on their age - I encourage them to design this time to meet their needs. A student can therefore choose how long a session lasts and whether they want to a parent or caregiver present. They can also decide whether they want to talk through their learning experiences or concentrate on a piece of work so that their attention is focused on a text or skill rather than on the tutoring itself. And, whenever possible, I try to keep the work for this first session light-hearted and absorbing so that students do not feel awkward or self-conscious. This might, for example, be an excellent moment to investigate how Wuthering Heights works as a graphic novel or to create a poem from the instructions for setting up a new mobile ‘phone.
Tutoring is a serious financial commitment for any family or student and therefore I take these initial phases of contact very seriously indeed. It is important for me to be explicit about my fees and how I determine the economic value on my professional time, but I also want to give clients plenty of opportunity to discuss all the relevant issues before they make this important decision.