The student is an intelligent, polite and well-travelled 18 year old young man with a warm and cultured demeanour. His family are Italian and have lived in Barcelona for the last six years. He is socially gregarious and conversational, with a keen sense of humour. He enjoys several sports, including shooting, boxing, and most water sports. His favourite teacher was a Math Tutor. This Tutor was calm and engaging, willing to go off topic in order to illustrate how the subject is applied to real-life situations. He clearly knew the material well and allowed the student room to explore the subject and chat about it while not losing track of what needed to be mastered. His least favourite teachers are inflexible and do not seem to know their subject terribly well.

The student’s academic path has been a bit uneven recently. He attended the American School in Milan until age 12 and then moved to the American School in Barcelona. The school in Milan thought he was an excellent student who enjoyed school and was doing well. The school in Barcelona, however, felt that he had some kind of learning difference and after a period of observation, unknown to his parents, they advised that an Educational Psychologist test him. This report shows that he has a very high ability when it comes to conversation, but suggested that there may be an issue with Math — hence the reason he had some after-school Math tutoring. This weekly support turned Math from a failing grade to a B in just a short space of time; it is therefore much more likely that any observed Math deficiency more likely stems from poor teaching than any lack of ability with the subject.

For reasons which are not clear, but which unquestionably arise from weak school leadership, the student’s self-confidence was eroded to the point where he became disenchanted completely and he failed Junior year. He then moved from the American School to an Italian school in Barcelona — this was a completely different system than he was used to and has not worked out. He is currently out of school, but looking forward to getting back on track with the support of an able and engaging Tutor.

The general decline at school has obviously had a hugely deleterious impact on the student’s GPA, further lowering his self-esteem and widening the gap between where the boy is now and where he should be. At the moment this gap seems too large to even attempt to bridge, and while he is upbeat in person, he is clearly concerned about the situation. It is essential that this negative downward spiral be reversed before it is too late, and that he starts to experience the success that comes with mastery of his work while developing the tools to avoid falling into the same pattern again.

To the student’s great credit, he wants to finish his schooling on a strong note and open the door of opportunity to a range of further education at a university or college. His interests currently lie in the fields of finance and accounting. He that the next two years will mean making an immense effort, albeit with a gentle start while he gets back into right frame of mind and he is keen to get started. All in all, he will make a pleasant and productive student for an able educator to work with every day.

For the next two years or so, the student will be home-schooled through National University Virtual High School (NUVHS) with the full time support of a dedicated private Tutor to help him manage the workload, master the course content, and improve his overall school performance.

The NUVHS program will be taking him as a transfer student, which means that his current transcript and GPA will be carried forward. In order to qualify for graduation from NUVHS, he will need to complete a minimum of thirteen courses there. This should be no problem. In addition to the normal courses taken as a Junior, he may have some grade 10 classes that he failed or which he may be allowed to repeat. If this is the case, then the opportunity exists for these classes to be repeated at a much higher grade with NUVHS.

The Tutor will need to be highly organised, and able to work both as a teacher and as mentor-coach, helping the student to choose classes from NUVHS at rate that he can manage while structuring the home-school day and the rate of progress through the online materials so that everything is done on time and to the required standard. This will necessarily involve some periods where the Tutor is a teacher, explaining how to solve certain problems or discussing the meaning of texts, and other periods where the Tutor ensures that the student is getting on with assignments by himself. Although it is essential that he complete the work himself, the purpose of a full time support Tutor in this role is to ensure that nothing sent for assessment to the online high school is incomplete or incorrect. This will mean that all material should be checked by the Tutor and, if need be, corrected before submission. This opportunity to find and eradicate all gaps in knowledge, and the application of that knowledge, is one of the most beneficial aspects of this approach to education.

It is envisaged that the Tutor will create a timetable that follows the general structure of a normal school day. This will need to have the flexibility to accommodate one of the many advantages of this style of schooling — the flexibility to work longer on a particular subject if desired. The student also needs to learn how to structure his own time and schedule work accordingly by getting ahead to earn breaks for non-school activities.

This is a full time job, working one on one with the student for up to six hours per day Monday to Friday. The Tutor’s preparation time and the student’s periods of private study are in addition to these hours.

The Tutor will be entitled to a minimum of nine weeks paid vacation per annum as per the Terms. These will normally be taken at times convenient to the Client, and will likely follow a similar pattern to standard school vacations.

The Client will give the Tutor access to a car as required for their work and for general use by the Tutor. This vehicle should not be used by the Tutor’s spouse or partner.

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

Accommodation suitable for a couple will be provided in Barcelona.

The family will provide, or reimburse the Tutor, for all meals that occur during tutoring time.

The Tutor should be a non-smoker and hold a clean driving license. He should lead a healthy lifestyle and be in good physical shape.

It is possible that the Tutor will be invited to accompany the family when they travel. If this is the case then this will cover the Tutor only and the Client will not normally be responsible for the accommodation of the Tutor’s partner or spouse, nor for her travel.