How do we select a tutor?
Your child's education is important, and for a student to exist they must have a direct link to a teacher. This teacher can be an actual human, a book, a course or even life itself. We will talk about the first one here. I am going to explain to you (our parents), how we select the tutors who teach your child.
As an owner of multiple businesses and countless side projects, it is important for me to be able to hire effective people. Guy Kawasaki, who learnt from Steve Jobs, famously talks about the fact that A players hire A players, B players hire C players, C players hire D players etc. This is commonly termed the Bozo explosion. The moment we begin lowering our standards of hire, the new hires will hire people who are not as good as them, and so on and so forth.
Here are some of our processes which we run:
Initial Screening
Record of achievement: We typically hire from the top universities, yet we have had some excellent tutors from lesser known academic institutions.
Recent and relevant tutor experience.
Exam board experience.
Extensive background checks.
Relevant online assessment.
Inform them about our culture.
Phone interview:
Commitments outside of Ucademy.
Subject based questions.
Previous student feedback.
If they are successful at this then we throw them into the cauldron with myself in a face to face interview (or a Google Meets interview these days). This is a casual conversation and I am trying to infer their human side and not just see them as numbers on a page. I am constantly thinking - will my students like working with this teacher? Can this tutor build a rapport with the students?
I further test their metal with strenuous curriculum based questions. I even throw in seemingly innocuous questions such as "My friend is coming over to London this weekend, where should I take them?". Go ahead, take a moment and think about how you would answer this question.
Most would reply to this along the following lines: What place they themselves like to visit or popular tourist destinations. These are reasonable, however what I am looking for are those who listen and ask before responding: What does your friend like? What is he/she into? Listening and understanding are perhaps one of the most important parts of the education world.
Should the teacher survive the grilling from me, they will then be requested to join for a probationary period subject to documentation checks, important policies including child safety and teacher training. This initially used to be weird and strange as I sometimes had to teach people older than myself and in very senior school roles, such as deputy head of school. My first ever hire, was my own teacher from sixth form - very surreal. I advise them on how to alter their style to the Ucademy methodology, so no student is left behind and their initial grade isn't a limitation which the student has to accept.
Incidentally, we let go of the deputy head and other senior ranking members from various schools, because whilst they were experienced, they didn't necessarily have the zeal to make a change in a tutoring environment. Being a tutor requires infinite enthusiasm and belief in the student, regardless of what their KS2 Sats predictions say. We will never tell a student they can't get the best grades possible. It is as Henry Ford said: "He who says he can and he who says he can't are both usually right"
During the course of the probationary period, senior members of the team, including myself, assess the tutorials and provide constant feedback to the tutor on what they can improve on. Students are also asked for feedback at this stage on the tutor.
By this stage we have been constantly probing and prodding the teacher to highlight their weaknesses and strengths through interviews and formative assessments. I carefully make the final call myself, whether the tutor is fit for purpose to help develop students so they can impact the world around them. If they are selected, we pay them top dollar to ensure your child gets the very best tutor out there.
Phew, that was tough. Your child's tutor made the cut, that is it right? Nay, the tutors are constantly required to have the latest knowledge on the current educational research and complete regular training to stay up to date. This is something that doctors are required to do. If a doctor saves one life, a good teacher may save thousand lives from the doldrums of ignorance.
Our Tutor Training Methodology

Coming back to Guy Kawasaki from earlier in our passage, he claims to have an improvement on what Steve Jobs says. Guy says instead of A players hiring A players. A players should hire A+ players. I like to think we live by this process.
What do you think of our vetting process for your child's tutor? Do you have any further suggestions on what else we can do to improve the recruitment process, ensuring we have the best quality tutors available.
P.S - If I am your child's tutor, you are unfortunately stuck with me ;)
Get to know your Education Consultants

Name: Lucien
Education: Currently studying English Language and Literature at Pembroke college, The University of Oxford.
Experience: International experience working in Hong Kong (non-tutoring capacity). Previously worked with Oxford Educational partnership. His knowledge of the Boarding school system, Oxford admissions and experience in tutoring GCSEs is valuable to Ucademy.
How would you describe yourself? I would like to think that my friends see me as a hard-working and driven individual. I love playing cricket outside of my work and am a keen art photographer, which is a passion I hope to take forwards into a career.
What is your advice to students? I think it’s always important to stick at things, even if you are finding them tough. I believe that things are causal - if you persevere with something, it will lead to enjoyment.
Virtual Open day

For our students who have just finished Year 11 or 12 please check out the Virtual open day being held on the 1st and 2nd of July. Click below for more information.
Grammar (11+) deadline this week!
Finally a quick reminder that the application deadline for Walsall Grammar schools for our 11+ Year 5 students is 3rd JULY.
As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome on the topic.
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