There are two students – a girl, aged 14, and her brother who is 10. They are polite, well-behaved children from a kind, caring and sensible family. After a year of travel and home schooling, the family have now moved to England from Singapore and both children attend a local international school which follows the IB curriculum. This position has arisen because the family and children are unhappy with the school and want to find a more rigorous academic environment.

The girl is the perfect student – she is quite mature for her age and considered in her approach. She has excelled academically, and shows a particular aptitude for and enjoyment of the sciences, particularly biochemistry. She enjoys her studies enormously, and will be very easy to engage with – her teachers need only present a topic in an interesting light and she will be hooked. Although she is performing very well at school in general, there are noticeable gaps in her accuracy where spelling and grammar are concerned, and this needs to be addressed urgently by her Tutor.

The boy is very different to his older sister. While he is also academically capable, he is more introspective, reserved, sensitive and stubborn. He loves learning about and interacting with animals. His emotional intelligence needs a little work, and he admits that he needs a lot of cajoling and encouragement before he will perform tasks or academic exercises that he is not particularly keen on. His favourite teachers are those who are kind, gentle, quiet and easy-going. He is not fond of teachers who are rude or abrupt.

This position consists of two parts: after-school tuition (or possibly full-time home-schooling) tuition for the two children, and acting as a family assistant centred on the needs of the children.

The Tutor will assist where needed with any homework from the school, across the whole curriculum. They will also be responsible for devising and delivering a programme of tuition to improve the children’s maths and reading skills, which has been identified to be below the standard of their classmates, with a view to private school entrance tests and readiness for a smooth integration into their new schools.

The family assistant aspect of the role involves co-ordinating the children’s schedules as well as helping the family more generally with running the household. The Tutor will be responsible for researching, arranging, and booking after school activities for the children, including singing lessons and Indian dance for the girl and conservation work with animals for her brother. The Tutor will be responsible for arranging any additional specialist additional tuition required, for example music or languages. The parents travel frequently and there may occasionally be some overnight or later night care required at times. The family assistant part of this role is difficult to accurately specify and the Tutor should expect that they will be asked to help with, or take responsibility for, tasks of a widely varying nature, from arranging their dental appointments to sourcing their Halloween costumes, to sorting out issues with the telephone supplier.

The successful candidate will be able to offer more than the minimum requirements of this position, will need to have been raised in a socially appropriate background and speak English with Received Pronunciation as a mother tongue. He or she will not only be an excellent educator, but also a good role model: educated and polished, with excellent manners and personal values. The Tutor will also be partly responsible for the children’s character education, teaching manners alongside virtues such as gratitude, community mindedness, resilience and respect for others. Although not mandatory, it would be a bonus to find Tutors who have musical ability, or those who can bring extracurricular activities or skills which can be shared and enjoyed by the whole family.

The Tutor is expected to work with both children up to 40 hours a week with preparation time in addition.

The Tutor is entitled to two consecutive days off per week, but should not expect these to occur at weekends or necessarily to be regular in their timing. As far as possible the Client will try to give the Tutor at least a week’s notice of when their ‘weekend’ break will be, but the Tutor will need to understand this is not always possible. Untaken weekend days that have accrued will also be compensated by a pro-rated payment in lieu.

The Tutor will be entitled to a minimum of 9 weeks paid vacation per annum at times convenient to the Client.

Neither accommodation or transport are provided.

The Tutor will be expected to make their own way to the Client’s home.

The Tutor must be fit and healthy, a non-smoker.