How long is your waiting list?

Do you have a waiting list?

tutoring
October 29, 2024•3 min read

Do you have a long waiting list?

Generally no as there is now a team of us working at Clara James. However, when the tutors have reached their capacity I take care over who I employ to help represent the business.

It has taken 12 years to build up an amazing reputation and we have achieved that because those who work with me are amazing. I can recommend each and every one of them with confidence.

Back in 2014, just a couple of years after I started the business, I asked a chap I had been recommending to others if he could spend an hour going over something with my lad that he had missed in class but would need for an Economics test for his A' levels.

At that time if I knew person A was able to support a specific subject, and person B needed help, I would just give person B, person A's details without knowing much about them other than the fact they were DBS checked.

Anyway, this chap turned up. He was charging £50/hour (back in 2014)+ travel. He had a pen in his hand and his shirt was open to his stomach with a solid chain hanging over his abundance of chest hair.

He asked Jamie what he would like to focus on. J told him. The tutor asked what he knew on the subject. J explained nothing as he had missed that lesson. The tutor counter argued that he must know something. No, J had missed the lesson and missed the information. This conversation conversation continued for the next hour when the tutor left.

J was still none the wiser. As a parent I was annoyed. I was £50+ worst of yet I couldn't see what I had achieved by spending it. As someone trying to grow a business I was devastated that I had been recommending him to others and this was the type of support he was offering.

I plucked up the courage and spoke to him about it. His response was that no one had ever complained about it before. He didn't seem to get that I was now.

I stopped recommending him and all the other tutors bar 1 and decided to retain the reputation I had worked so hard to build, I would do all the tutoring myself.

Then at the end of his A' levels, J took a one-way ticket to Australia. Suddenly I realised how quickly my kids were growing up. Clara had left home, J had left, and soon Hay would be leaving as well. I wanted to spend time with her before she left, so I needed to cut back my hours.

That was when I started to employ tutors. That way I felt I could say, look this is how we do things, if you don't want to do it this way, that's fine but this probably isn't the right job for you.

Since then the business has thrived and the tutors that work with me at Clara James are phenomenal. I can recommend everyone of them with confidence.

So, sometimes there may be a delay whilst I find a new suitable tutor, and I apologize about that, but I would rather recommend the right person than just anyone and damage our reputation because of a quick impulsive decision.

If you have any questions or you would like to have your first free lesson, get in touch and we can have a chat: [email protected]

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For the past 20+ years I have been a firm believer that learning should be an enjoyable experience. I appreciate that traditionally education has revolved around worksheets, textbooks, listening to teachers. But a grounding in early years and working with children who had a variety of learning styles from I learned that it is an individual activity that is personal to all of us. We don’t all learn in the same way. Our influences, our experiences, our capabilities all influence how we retain information. But through it all, I believe that if we can make it enjoyable and engaging, they will want to participate. With participation comes practice which in turn boosts skill and confidence. With an increase in skill and confidence comes a willingness to have a go. This in turn leads to more practice which leads to a positive spiral of success. The moral, we need to make learning fun, engaging, use a range of techniques.

Dawn Strachan

For the past 20+ years I have been a firm believer that learning should be an enjoyable experience. I appreciate that traditionally education has revolved around worksheets, textbooks, listening to teachers. But a grounding in early years and working with children who had a variety of learning styles from I learned that it is an individual activity that is personal to all of us. We don’t all learn in the same way. Our influences, our experiences, our capabilities all influence how we retain information. But through it all, I believe that if we can make it enjoyable and engaging, they will want to participate. With participation comes practice which in turn boosts skill and confidence. With an increase in skill and confidence comes a willingness to have a go. This in turn leads to more practice which leads to a positive spiral of success. The moral, we need to make learning fun, engaging, use a range of techniques.

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