Hi,

As most of you know we have a teacher who comes in and does and hour and a half for both science and math with ds, I didn't really interview him because he came highly recommended from a trusted friend.  Now we are looking for an English teacher who will work in a similar way (Paul plans our lessons, leaves homework and for science takes the work home to mark it for me#.  

DS has always been really opposed to any English work, I've managed to get bits and pieces worked in with other subjects but really he needs more than that.  He has had a mental breakthrough because he has realised that his lack of English skills are causing him problems in other areas so now we're looking for someone to help us with these skills.

The question is, what questions would you ask?  The range of prices I've come across is £17 - £40 an hour and I've read that price doesn't necessarily relate to a good tutor.  I'm phoning one lady back tonight after getting in touch by e-mail through an agency #free introductions).   The e-mail I've sent basically outlines what we want and how ds is with English and I've asked for an actual price, an estimation of how many hours a week and whether they can see themselves working in a similar way to the science teacher.  What else?

Thanks

I thik that the key issue must be the flexibility to a) realise that home e is dfiferent to school and b) that your ds may be hard work in some ways to stimulate since English in not his greatest love.

If the tutor is i na traditional school mode then they may just expect to go through a particular topic in a lesson and then set a bit of work, whereras I think you are asking for him/her to organise what you are going to do with your son each day too? - so if I have understood that correctly then you need to make that abundantly clear!

I suppose ask about experince too - if they have ever taught anything other than mainstream, they may be better at thinking "outside the box" than others...( and ask them about teaching boys - I think teaching girls English often is easier!) and also you could ask them their view on home ed....if they are really anti, you may have endless conflict.

Good luck

Julie

Well, I think we have found the perfect guy!  Here's some of his resume

First class honours in English Language and Literature from Oxford University also Maths, Philosophy and French.  I offer Maths and English to degree level French to A level and the entire GCSE range.

The best bit is that he has worked with home educators for the last ten years - I think this is the biggest plus although I don't think he is a qualified teacher so we'll just have to wait and see obviously I'll take references.  I've had a couple of responses and some are just too expensive (£35 per hour) and others can only offer us weekends which with our Scouting wouldn't really fit.  He's coming to see us on Tuesday so I'll keep you informed.

I do have some others to contact but will wait until after then.

Hi Julie,

Well,  last week we experienced the two opposite ends of the pole!   We went to visit a lady who lived about twenty minutes away and it was awful!   Ds totally closed down and although she worked really hard she just couldn't connect with him.  We had gone there and the house was freezing cold, I ended up sat on a horse hair settee whilst she kept us there for two hours, the result -  Eight lines of writing from ds. We came home really dispondent and I was wondering whether I should put him in for a GCSE in English at all.

On Thursday the guy I told you about came to us and wow what a difference, he didn't try to get Ds to write anything just sat and discussed the poetry Ds likes, Shakespeare and the history of language.  Ds sat there opened mouthed whilst the tutor spoke to him in Viking!  He left ds with a couple of sentances to write using full stops,  colons and semi-colons and made his point by putting on the voices which matched the punctuation (if that makes sense?).   He asked Ds to fill a sheet of A4 with writing which could be of anything at all because it was just to prove that you can write that much in ten to fifteen minutes. 

I've never seen my son react to anybody in such an instantly positive way, he laughed and grinned the whole way through the meeting and grew visibly when the tutor said that he didn't feel put off by the fact that Ds hadn't done any formal English for five years.   We are both feeling much more positive which has to be a good thing in itself.

The tutor has worked with home ed children for the last ten years and said that these are his favourite children to work with, one of the reasons being that they think for themselves and have their own opinions rather than the opinion given in class by the teacher.  

Altogether we're feeling very positive although the fact that I'm now paying out £300 pcm is a little scary! LOL