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How does online tuition work?

As some of you will know, we’ve been teaching online since the beginning of lockdown. Well technically, we’ve actually been teaching online for two years, but we mean we’ve been teaching online for every lesson since lockdown began!

I personally love online tuition – I think it has so many more benefits than face to face, including the added benefit of not having to leave the house!

So, as more people think about it, I thought I’d share my thoughts! Below are the top 3 questions I get asked – regularly! The answers below are specific to us – some companies work differently with online tuition, so this is just how we work!

Q1 – Is it a real person teaching?

One word – YES!

I love this question – because I think it shows how much potential there is with tutoring online. The answer is always a big loud yes to which most people seem slightly surprised. A lot of people tend to think we offer pre-recorded videos online (like lots of the big companies do…).

Don’t get me wrong, we also offer that – but we offer that IN ADDITION to the live classes.

When you sign up for the live classes, they are exactly that – live. There is a real person (even better, an experienced maths tutor!) the other side of the screen to answer your questions and engage your child in real time.

They run exactly like a normal lesson would. We start on time, students have questions to work through, they get feedback on their work and we end on time! They can see the screen, and see a virtual whiteboard too!

Q2 – Is it just you talking?

This is the opposite of the above question – a flat out no! This is any kid’s worst nightmare – and ours too! Although we like to talk, we don’t talk at them, but rather to them and then make them do the work! We explain things, and then give them questions to work through.

We have a Q&A button, a raise hand button and of course the ‘chat’ function button where they can tell us their answer. We can let them know immediately if it’s right or wrong and then go through the answer.

The idea of our sessions is that they are interactive – just like they would be in class! Children don’t want to be bored to death with talking, so we make sure our lessons involve polls, games and quizzes to keep them engaged.

Q3 – Is there homework?

Well, this is a much trickier question to answer! The truth is … it depends!

In our daily classes for the younger students, we tend not to see homework. As students are participating each and every day midweek, they are practicing lots and doing quite a bit of maths anyway, so we tend to be nicer on these students and provide optional tasks if they wish!

However, for 1-1 lessons that are once a week or for our year 9/10 classes, we do indeed set homework. The older they get, and the closer to exams, the more important the homework becomes (especially for GCSE students) and with our 1-1 students, we may only see students once a week. This means, we need to ensure they stay on track and are practicing work outside of the lesson!

Want to see for yourself?

If you’re wondering what a lesson with us is like, why not see for yourself? We’ve got a pre-recorded video on YouTube which should give you a feel for how we work! Just remember our normal classes are not recorded – they’re always live!