I’ve never seen the word ‘tutoring’ on the front of BBC News.
This felt like a seismic moment for our industry, as the Government reached out to tutors asking them to donate their time and services once again to aid schools and teachers in sharing some of the burden of supporting children in their learning.
While many in the online education spheres (quite rightly) ranted about the lack of attention being paid to schools themselves and the frankly bizarre suggestion that school days themselves could be lengthened, the money has been committed and the show must go on.
Tutoring has come a long way since the days when only wealthy parents who wanted to assure themselves their child would make it into the top private school made use of a tutor.
Through initiatives like the National Tutoring Programme and through the fantastic work of many tutoring organisations, including Manning’s Tutors, Action Tutoring and Conexus Tuition, tutors and teachers work together with greater freedom and teamwork than they ever have before.
Allied to this is the concept that tutoring can provide something a teacher simply doesn’t have the time to provide: a truly extra-curricular learning experience. The time to dive into areas around the subject that help students access a more worldly view of their place and what their learning really means to their development.
And this is not solely the realm of affluent students anymore.
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If you are sceptical of what tutors can achieve, what their ulterior motives are, what their level of commitment to training and CPD is and what their outlook on professionalism is, then I can recommend an event that will go some way to changing this perspective.
The Love Tutoring Festival will bring together one of the largest collections of independent tutors, agency tutors, tutoring agencies and organisations and tutor-support services that the tutoring industry has ever experienced.
Over 5 days of varied, interactive and highly engaging events, from mental health and wellbeing in tutoring to small business leadership to relationship-building with students to international tutoring, a number of key aspects will be explored in detail.
Led by experts, made by you.
I spoke about the (often undervalued) power of tutors and of a community-led tutoring event in a recent interview with Anna King from BBC Radio Gloucestershire. You can find the 15-minute interview here (listen in to my segment from [11:15]).
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