There are two students, a 15-year-old boy (16 in April) and in grade 10, and a 14-year-old in grade 8. The boys are enrolled at an American school in Riyadh where they are not progressing as well as their parents would like, and in some subjects grades are starting to slip. Given their parent’s educational standards and their father’s business success, aspirations are to the very best educational establishments — Oxbridge or the Ivies — and it is imperative at this crucial stage in the boys’ schooling that any slippage in their grades is arrested before it damages their GPA or ability to do well in exams.

The school’s science resources mean that they offer staggered courses for their students at this age. The older brother is taking an advanced Physics course at the moment and will be resuming Chemistry next year after receiving half a year of Chemistry last year. The quality of labs provided at the school leaves much to be desired and it is hoped that a creative and able Tutor will be able to make up for this to a large extent. In Mathematics, he is taking the Algebra II course and is currently an A student. He is planning on taking pre-Calculus next year.

He does not enjoy school, even when he gets good grades. He is shy and enjoys his own company, often playing computer games alone, and this can make him seem both a little lazy and a bit cold. He will blossom in the support of a knowledgeable, worldly, interesting Tutor, someone who can show him the relevance of what he is studying in a mature and non-patronising manner.

In the first quarter of this school year, his younger brother was a B student, and in the second quarter he has done less well. He has done least well in his Algebra I class and does not pay attention. He is also doing badly in Science and is particularly weak in English. He doesn’t like to read, and reads very little as a consequence, except perhaps when it comes to popular music culture and especially hip-hop. In creative writing he has excellent ideas, but his grammar and punctuation are so weak that he has trouble conveying his ideas. Unsurprisingly, dictation and the ability to record notes in class is also affected poorly by this deficit. He has a short attention span and shows some symptoms of hyperactivity, but not enough to merit formal assessment. It is more likely that he is either bored at school in some subjects, or finds others too hard, or that he is struggling with the social issues that often affect students in Middle School.

He has many friends and enjoys sports. He plays tennis, soccer, basketball and karate. He loves being outdoors and active. He is tall for his age and cares a great deal about his physical appearance. He will benefit from the close academic supervision of a broadly educated teacher, someone able to help him across all his subjects, and someone impervious to his attempts to manipulate his elders. His favourite teachers are serious, firm and fair without being too strict.

The two boys are like fire and water together. They are jealous of one another — the younger boy wants to be the older brother, while the elder wants the social acceptance that his younger brother enjoys. This means that the Tutor will need to be able to develop independent relationships, valuing them separately and planning activities to ignite their interests for who they are as individuals.

The children both attend school full time, so this is an after-school role. This means that the Tutor will work with the boys after school Saturday to Wednesday, every day that they have school the next day. In addition, the Tutor will need to visit the school at regular intervals to gain more information about their curriculum and procedures.

The boys are usually home by 3.30 pm. The Tutor will start at 4.30 pm and should expect to be working until around 9 pm daily. There will be occasional breaks during this period when the boys need to go for sports coaching or when their Arabic Tutor visits.

It will be the Tutor’s responsibility to help the boys with their homework, ensuring it is completed correctly, and making certain that both boys are fully prepared for any quizzes, tests, labs, projects as required. The school makes the homework details available online, so there is no way that the boys can mislead the Tutor regarding what is to be done, and the parents are open to the school knowing that the boys have a full time Tutor. This means that it is possible for the Tutor to discuss each boy’s individual strengths and weaknesses with his teachers directly, and therefore to be able to prepare the boys in advance for what will soon be taught in school, empowering them both to contribute more in the classroom and develop their self esteem and confidence. This will be very important for both boys.

The Tutor will typically work with the students from 4.30 — 9 pm, 5 days a week, with Wednesday and Thursday as their ‘weekend’ off. In addition to these hours with the boys, the Tutor will need to prepare materials required for filling in gaps in knowledge, to practice skills as required, or to develop practical examples of areas of study to show to the boys.

No firm plans have been made yet, but there was some discussion of the Tutor planning some educational travel for the boys, something that will broaden their horizons in academically relevant ways. Non-teaching time is an opportunity for the Tutor to work on suggested itineraries, either for the family together, or with the Tutor accompanying. Once it is clear that the relationships have built as is hoped, it is also possible that the Tutor may arrange appropriate travel with one or both boys.

The Tutor will be entitled to a minimum of nine weeks paid vacation per annum as per the Terms.

For the first three months of the assignment the Client will provide a driver for the Tutor. Once this initial period has elapsed, if the Tutor requests it, the Client will provide a small car for the Tutor’s use.

Travel, and all expenses this incurs, will be met by the family on all journeys where tutoring takes place.

Furnished accommodation with Internet will be provided for the Tutor.

The family will provide, or reimburse the Tutor, for all meals that occur during tutoring time. All others are the Tutor’s personal responsibility.