How to choose an online tutor: a guide for parents

Choosing a tutor for your child is a decision that deserves more thought than scrolling through a marketplace and picking the person with the most five-star reviews. Online tutoring has made it easier than ever to find someone who matches your child’s subject, level and exam board — but the same openness that makes it convenient also means the quality varies considerably. This guide covers what to look for, what questions to ask, and what a good online lesson actually feels like.

The non-negotiables before anything else

Before you consider a tutor’s qualifications or subject knowledge, there are two questions that aren’t negotiable.

Do they have a current Enhanced DBS check? A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is the standard background check for anyone working with children in the UK. An Enhanced DBS check includes information held by local police forces that a standard check doesn’t cover. Any tutor working with school-age children should be able to show you this, and it should be current — checks don’t expire formally, but a check from more than three years ago is worth querying. If a tutor is reluctant to share this or unclear about what level of check they hold, that’s a significant concern.

Are they insured? Professional tutors generally carry public liability insurance. It’s not always top of mind for parents, but it’s a reasonable indicator that someone treats tutoring as a professional activity rather than an informal arrangement.

Subject fit and exam-board knowledge

A tutor who’s strong in a subject isn’t automatically strong in your child’s version of that subject. GCSE and A-Level specifications vary meaningfully between exam boards. A Chemistry tutor who’s taught OCR for years may need time to adjust to AQA’s style, mark scheme language and required practicals. Before you book, check:

• Which exam board does your child’s school use for this subject?
• Has the tutor taught students on that specification before?
• Are they familiar with recent changes to the specification or assessment style?

For A-Level, this becomes even more important, as the content and depth vary significantly between boards. A tutor who knows the spec they’re teaching saves your child from learning irrelevant material or missing syllabus-specific requirements.

Teaching style and your child’s learning needs

Subject knowledge matters, but so does the ability to explain things clearly to your child specifically. A brilliant mathematician who can’t adapt their explanation when a student doesn’t follow is less useful than a very good mathematician who listens and adjusts.

When you make initial contact with a tutor, pay attention to whether they ask questions about your child’s learning before talking about themselves. A tutor who immediately asks:

• What level is your child at, and what specifically are they finding hard?
• How does your child prefer to learn — step-by-step worked examples, or understanding the concept first?
• What has already been tried at school or at home?

…is someone who’s thinking about your child rather than filling a slot. It’s also worth asking whether they set work between sessions. Tutoring that produces real progress usually involves some practice away from the lesson — the lesson is where concepts are explained and questions are worked through; the practice between sessions is what builds fluency.

The trial lesson

Almost all reputable tutors are willing to offer a trial or first lesson before any longer-term commitment. Take it. A trial lesson tells you things that no CV or profile can:

• Does the tutor explain clearly when something isn’t understood, or do they just repeat themselves faster?
• Does your child look engaged, or slightly dazed?
• Does the tutor respond to your child’s answers — building on what’s right, diagnosing what’s wrong — or are they just delivering a pre-planned session regardless?
• Are they using shared tools effectively — a shared whiteboard, digital worksheets, screen-sharing — or is it essentially a video call with talking?

Ask your child afterwards what they thought. Children are usually honest about whether a lesson was useful.

What good online lessons look like

There’s a persistent assumption that online tutoring is a second-best substitute for sitting at a table with someone. In practice, well-run online lessons have specific advantages: the student is in their own home, which reduces anxiety for many children; everything on the shared whiteboard is saved; and it’s easier for the tutor to share diagrams, past paper questions and mark schemes without physical handouts.

A well-run online lesson typically involves:

• A shared digital whiteboard where the tutor and student can both write, annotate and draw diagrams.
• A clear structure — a brief review of last session’s material, the main topic for today, worked examples, and some independent practice.
• Past exam questions or specimen questions treated as tools rather than tests — used to understand what the mark scheme requires, not just to produce an answer.
• A brief note at the end of what to practise before the next session.

If a “lesson” is just a tutor talking while your child watches, or the tutor doing the work while your child copies it down, that’s not effective tutoring — it’s expensive note-taking.

Red flags to watch for

Most tutors are well-intentioned, but some patterns are worth watching for:

• Guaranteeing specific grades. No honest tutor can promise a specific grade. They can help your child progress, but outcomes depend on many factors outside a tutor’s control.
• Reluctance to share DBS details or qualifications. There’s no reason for a professional tutor to be evasive about this.
• Pressure to commit to a long block of sessions upfront. Particularly if they’re asking for payment in full for a term’s worth of lessons before you’ve had a trial.
• Very low prices significantly below market rate. This isn’t automatically a red flag, but it can indicate inexperience, an absence of checks, or undeclared work. Know what typical rates are in your subject and region.
• No clear cancellation policy. Life happens. A professional tutor has a clear, fair cancellation policy that goes both ways.

Questions worth asking before you commit

When you speak to a tutor or their agency, a few questions quickly separate those who’ve thought carefully about their practice from those who haven’t:

• How do you typically structure a first lesson with a new student?
• What do you do when a student doesn’t understand something after you’ve explained it?
• How do you communicate with parents about progress?
• What happens if we need to cancel or reschedule a session?

The answers won’t necessarily be perfect, but they tell you a lot about how the tutor thinks.

How introduction services like TutorNetwork work

Finding individual tutors through large open marketplaces means reviewing many profiles, checking credentials yourself, and often contacting several people before finding a good match. Introduction services work differently: you describe what you need, and a matched, pre-vetted tutor is put forward for you.

With TutorNetwork, one partner organisation — rather than a large directory — receives your enquiry and matches you with a tutor suited to your child’s subject, level and exam board. The tutors they work with hold Enhanced DBS checks, and there are no placement fees for making the introduction. You pay the same rate as going directly to the tutor. The aim is to reduce the legwork involved in finding someone you can trust, without adding cost.

A trial lesson is still recommended — and expected. A good match on paper should feel like a good match in practice too.