As most children return to school, many rich families are choosing to pull their children out of the mainstream education system altogether in favor of having a tutor at home. “Around 50 percent of the inquiries we’re getting at the moment are for long-term, daily home tutoring,” Steve Spriggs, managing director of London-based private tutoring service. And, he adds, the trend has grown from families asking for personal tutors to copy the classroom environment in their own homes. Many families that were making the inquiries for full-time home tutors, Spriggs said, were either travelling so frequently that sending their children to one school was impractical and others did not want their children to go into boarding school.
Home tutoring is nothing new, and many tuition firms also offer extra tutoring services to families wanting their children to have a little extra help learning ahead of entrance exams at competitive private schools in the U.K., such as Harrow, St. Pauls or Eton.
“We always make it clear to parents that we will only offer full-time home schooling for a year though,” Spriggs explained. “Any more than a year and children start to lose out on what a school environment can give them, such as social skills and that vital interaction they need — although we try to reduce that anyway in our home tutoring with sports clubs or museum trips as part of the teaching program.
Spriggs would not tell the salary region of tutors, but did say that the costs of hiring a full-time tutor would be more than the fees of a top boarding school, which usually charge around $54,400 a year. Some families employ two full-time tutors, one to cover humanities(人文学科) and the other to cover science and maths. Devising an educational plan for youngsters in these situations is not a quick process, however, Spriggs said, with a tutor being matched to the child to ensure they are compatible(和睦相处的). Some parents think that money can be the solution to the problem. “I do believe that anyone can be tutored to pass an entrance exam but once the child is in, they have to compete with others. If they’re not good enough to keep enough they’ll have to leave.”
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