How to choose an online tutor for your child

Choosing an online tutor means letting an adult you have never met spend time alone with your child every week. That deserves more scrutiny than a free trial and a nice-looking website, and most of what matters can be settled before the first lesson.

1. Who exactly will teach your child?

Ask for the teacher's name, what they are qualified in, and how long they have taught children of your child's age. A site that describes its teachers only as expert or qualified is describing nobody.

• Will the same teacher take every lesson, or is it whoever is free?
• Can you change teachers if the match is wrong, and does it cost anything?
• Do they teach children specifically? Teaching adults is a different job.
• If you need a female teacher for your daughter, can that be guaranteed before you pay?

2. What is checked before someone teaches a child?

Ask directly and expect a specific answer. Identity verification, references and a trial lesson observed by someone senior are all reasonable; a criminal record check — DBS in the UK, state checks in the US — is not available in every country a teacher may live in, and a provider should tell you plainly which checks they do and which they do not.

• Can you join a lesson?. The answer should be yes, at any time, without arranging it first.
• Can a lesson be recorded?. If you ask for one, you should be able to have it.
• Is the room private?. A link only your child and the teacher can use, not an open room.

3. Is it really 1-on-1?

1-on-1 and small group are sold with similar words and are not similar things. In a group of four, your child speaks for a quarter of the lesson at best, and the pace is set by the group. Ask how many children are in the room, and get the number rather than a description.

4. What will you be told afterwards?

This is the thing most parents forget to ask and most regret. Without reporting, you are paying weekly and finding out how it went at the next school report.

• Do you get a note after each lesson, and what is in it?
• Is there a longer written report, and how often?
• Can you speak to the teacher directly, or only to an office?
• Will they tell you when something is not working?

5. What does it actually cost?

Ask for the monthly figure, the lesson length, how many lessons that buys, and what happens if you miss one. Then ask what else is charged: registration, materials, assessment, or a notice period for leaving.

• Per lesson, not per month. Divide it yourself. A cheap month with short lessons can cost more per hour than an expensive one.
• Rescheduling. Illness and school events happen. Find out the notice required and whether a missed lesson is simply lost.
• Leaving. Ask how you cancel and how much notice you must give, before you start rather than after.

Warning signs

• A card before the trial. A free trial that needs payment details is not free; it is a subscription with a grace period.
• Pressure on the call. A discount that expires today is a sales tactic, not an offer. Good teaching does not need one.
• No price anywhere. A provider who will not publish a price before you give your number has decided the number depends on you.
• Guaranteed grades. Nobody can guarantee a mark. A free trial you watch, and a teacher changed at no cost if the match is wrong, are real commitments; a promised grade is not.
• Reviews only on their own site. Look for the business by name somewhere it does not control.

Questions worth asking in the trial lesson

• Where exactly does my child's understanding stop?
• What would you work on first, and why that?
• How many lessons a week do you actually recommend, and for how long?
• What would tell us in six weeks that this is working?
• Is there anything that would make you say my child does not need this?