The student is 16 years old. He has been diagnosed with a complex range of learning differences and special educational needs, but these are not obviously apparent when he meets new people. An Educational Psychologist’s assessment from February 2010 indicates a boy who is generally below average ability, has some autistic and Tourette’s qualities, accompanied by some ADHD, dyslexia, and OCD. In person, he does not come across as anything other than a normal, if perhaps a little quiet, 16 year old boy; he is conversational, polite, and engaging. There are obviously times when he gets upset, but with the reduction in the stress caused by schooling and homework, these occurrences should become infrequent and short-lived.

The student was at school in North Carolina until September 2012, when the family moved to Kobe, Japan. Their intention is to remain in Japan for the next four years. There was a paucity of choice of suitable schools in Kobe, and he is currently at a local private school on a trial basis. It is evident to his parents that this arrangement is not working — even with in-school classroom support with a local tutor the school is not managing to address his learning needs and this, in turn, has a deleterious effect on his self esteem and confidence, as well as on the family dynamic.

It is has therefore been decided that a full time private tutor who can educate the student through the remainder of his high school years, but at a pace and style that fits him and the family as a whole, will offer all concerned the best option.

The student is 16 and currently working at grade level. If he were able to maintain this progress he would graduate as normal with his peers, but not only is it unlikely that he can continue to keep up as the work gets more demanding at school, but there are obvious ‘holes’ in his current understanding of the schoolwork which are having a greater and greater impact on his ability to move forward at the required rate. Since there is no pressure on him to graduate with his age cohort, it seems pointless to continue to drive him to try to maintain a work rate that he increasingly is unable to sustain. Instead, the plan is to take a much more leisurely approach, taking some four years to complete the remainder of his high school requirements, leaving evenings and weekends largely free from homework.

The student will be home-schooled through National University Virtual High School (NUVHS). 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. Although the family would like him to graduate high school, there currently does not exist the expectation that the young man will go to College, but this should not be seen as a reason not to try to graduate with the highest possible GPA.

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 a rate that he can manage while structuring the working school day and the rate of progress through the online materials so that everything is done on time and with the goal of complete mastery of material. Although it is essential that the student complete the work himself, the purpose of a full time support Tutor in this kind of 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, filling the holes, is one of the most beneficial aspects of this approach to education. This will require much more repetition than normal, and so will require the Tutor to be immensely patient and positive.

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. This timetable should rarely include any evening or weekend homework, and certainly never any ‘busy’ work. Where homework is set it should be something that requires very little in the way of parental support, and should only be set when there is a need to practice a specific skill beyond the tutoring time.

With a substantially reduced course load and individual instruction, there should be ample time in the day for education to extend well beyond the classroom, to museums and art galleries for example. The Tutor will be responsible for researching suitable venues and for preparing relevant educational materials to accompany these excursions.

At present the student has not yet found a passion, an activity he really wants to do more than anything else, and it is one of the key responsibilities of this role that the Tutor expose him to as many aspects of life as possible with a view to helping find something that really excites the young man. This will mean that the Tutor will have to source and arrange for him to try out a huge range of activities; anything that the Tutor can think of, or which comes up in conversation with the young man or his family, should be tried, and for long enough such that he develops sufficient skill to be able to decide whether it’s something he really enjoys.

The student’s younger sister, age 12, is doing very well at school, but does have the tendency to rush, and she would certainly benefit from some of the Tutor’s attention from time to time.

This is a full time job, working one on one with the student for an average of approximately 40 hours per week Monday to Friday.

From time to time the Tutor may be asked to stay in during the evening with the children. If this is requested then it will only be with plenty of advance notice and will be compensated with additional time off.

The Tutor will be entitled to 45 days vacation per annum, to be taken at times convenient to the Client, likely following a similar pattern to standard school vacations

The public transport system in Kobe is excellent, so there is no requirement for the Tutor to have access to a car. If occasional access to car is needed to take one or other child somewhere then the family will make their car available to the Tutor.

If the Tutor is asked to accompany the family on any travel away from Kobe the family will meet all expenses incurred.

A furnished apartment with Internet, separate from the family’s home will be provided near to the family home. This accommodation will be suitable for a couple.

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/she should lead a healthy lifestyle and be in good physical shape.

Although by no means essential, it would be helpful if the Tutor had some capability with Japanese.