The student is a delightful 6-year-old girl with an abundance of energy, charm and enthusiasm. Far from being shy, she has an innate sense of confidence. She is a natural performer who loves to sing, dance, swim and ride horses. Her outgoing and gregarious personality is contagious and enables her to engage with strangers of all ages in an open and endearing manner in a wide variety of settings. Although the girl is in a position of great privilege, she doesn’t recognise the differences between herself and other people and talks to everyone as equals. She is naturally curious about the world and as happy to talk to experts in their field as she is talking to street performers and shopkeepers. Her mother has worked hard to ensure that her daughter is culturally aware but never critical; a curious child and not a consumer. The family make their own meals, prefer the creek over the mall, and deliberately incorporate experiential learning into all parental and educational actions. With so many experiential opportunities and with so much to learn from people and environment, there has never been any need for screen time; this is something the Client is determined to maintain for the foreseeable future.

Adopted from birth, the student is of mixed heritage. She is a strong, balanced and independent girl who is very able to make her own decisions regarding things under her control (for example, the clothes she wants to wear, how she wants to do her hair etc.) She is self-directed and relatively mature and independent for her age. She is thoughtful, kind, focussed and has excellent manners for one so young.

Her parents have been separated for a while, and she lives with her mother and nanny, who is Montessori trained and has been an excellent influence on the girl in all aspects of personal development. The nanny is the main driving force behind her extracurricular studies to date and has often used project-based learning as a springboard for the week’s activities. The pattern has been that the Client and the nanny discuss the topic of the week on a Monday and use the rest of the week to explore that topic in more detail. For example, on a recent family trip to London one such activity was centred on fashion. This subject led to an investigation into different fabrics and the manufacture of clothes. They went to Camden Market where the girl's natural curiosity and gregarious manner meant she could chat with clothes makers, watching them and talking about design, planning, pattern-cutting, pinning and stitching garments. She learned that clothing manufacture is a complex business involving mathematics, engineering and precision as well as creativity and an understanding of fabric and the human form.

Although clearly very bright, the girl is far from fluent with her reading or writing. Her numeracy skills are currently below grade level too. That said, she has already developed a love of books, and it should be easy to develop her literacy skills using her passion for stories and her vivid imagination. She is intellectually highly curious and keen to learn to read. This emancipatory skill will provide for so much more for student and Tutor to explore, and it is expected that by August of 2019 she is reading and writing smoothly and proficiently above her grade level.

She currently attends a good school in Washington DC and is hoping to be accepted at a more flexible institution in due course. Her mother’s business interests mean that she has to travel a great deal at the moment, but the goal is to reduce this over time and to make her base in Europe. Until the need for travel subsides, everyone will travel with the student's mother.

The Client has a series of projects planned for the fall term which will involve significant travel to Europe and beyond. Her plan is to take her daughter with her, selecting a local city as a base while she travels independently to her meetings. During these periods, the nanny and the Tutor will act in loco parentis, with the nanny taking the majority of night shifts and the Tutor working with the girl – and the nanny if she chooses to be involved – during the daytimes. A degree of flexibility will be required with this arrangement.

The Tutor must develop a rich and immersive curriculum, with experiential learning at its core and as the main learning modality. This curriculum should take advantage of each location they visit while ensuring that the girl remain on par with her peers in DC. The main aim of this assignment is to put the girl in a very strong position for her eventual reintegration into mainstream school. The Tutor must therefore find the right balance – the girl should aim to be among the top of the class, but not so advanced that she ends up repeating work in school and becoming bored. Given the efficacy of one-to-one private tutoring, there will be plenty of opportunity for the Tutor to broaden the curriculum rather than advancing beyond grade level in the core subjects. The curriculum should encompass mathematics, science, language arts, and physical education, underpinned by secure literacy and numeracy. The mother has expressed an interest in the Tutor offering French or Spanish, as well as being able to teach how to read music, play an instrument and develop dramatic skills. The element of discipline involved in learning a martial art also appeals to the mother, though this element of her tuition could be outsourced if need be.

Private tutoring opens all sorts of doors to exciting and educational adventures, and it is expected that much of the tutoring will be of the hands-on, kinaesthetic, exploration and experiential variety. However fun or light the teaching may seem, this is a serious educational assignment, and some formal classroom learning is to be expected such as for the introduction of new topics, or for subjects such as music which require the acquisition of a new skill and practice. It is essential that the girl’s own interests are incorporated into the subjects in order to maintain her interest.

The Tutor should be eloquent, able to explain concepts simply, and to inspire with his enthusiasm for any given subject. He should be a natural communicator with a kind and caring disposition, and a firm-but- fair approach to their work. The Tutor should have an enquiring mind and a good sense of humour. He or she will be a qualified teacher with experience in planning a curriculum that is centred around experiential, project-based learning that incorporates an educationally rich program of study; he should be flexible enough in lesson plans to allow tangential lines of enquiry to be followed as the student’s interests come forward but structured enough to ensure that lessons are not hijacked by these diversions. The teacher should be open to different education methods and techniques, introducing them as appropriate into his lessons and projects. He or she must be able to balance excellent teaching with accurate record-keeping, research and administrative skills.

At this stage, the family have no particular academic aspirations for the girl. For them it is of more importance that she is happy, healthy and remains eager to learn. For this assignment it is of the utmost importance that the Tutor has the right personality to fit seamlessly with the family. They view this role initially as one of transition where the Tutor will slowly start taking responsibility for the student’s academic performance allowing the nanny to step down. It is envisaged that the right Tutor will potentially stay with the family for several years, moving between the role of full time home school educator while travelling, and after school support when based in DC. The family also have a home in Kentucky and a network of long-serving domestic staff, but the long term planned ‘base’ is expected to be in Europe rather than the US. It is important that the successful Tutor build strong working relationships with all existing staff, as well as with the teachers and administration at whichever schools the girl attends.

The successful Tutor will have the ability to travel internationally (dual European/US nationality would be ideal, though Tutors International can arrange for a US work visa for most British passport holders) and will have already travelled extensively themselves. He or she will have at least one additional language to a high level (French or Spanish would be preferable) plus a range of other skills and interests they can bring to the role. He or she will be self-sufficient, highly self-motivated and organised (while remaining flexible), socially and emotionally mature, capable and not fazed by last-minute changes to the family’s plans or instances where technology does not necessarily work as planned. These personal qualities are as important to the role as they are as a role model. The Tutor should be comfortable with outdoors activities such as camping and hiking and should have an adventurous spirit. They should be warm, friendly and ready to laugh with the family, while never forgetting the formalities of a full time private service position.

The Tutor will be available to the family for up to an average of 40 hours contact time per week. It is not known at this stage how these hours will be distributed. When full time home schooling, tutoring will likely be over five days, usually Monday-Friday, but there may be occasions when the mother is away and the Tutor is required to work weekends. If this occurs then the Tutor will be given longer ‘weekends’ to counterbalance. When in DC, the working week may shift to Wednesday-Friday after school and full days over the weekends, with the Tutor taking their breaks on Mondays and Tuesdays. Regardless of the eventual timetable, flexibility from the Tutor is essential as the assignment unfurls. Preparation time is not part of the contact hours above. The timetable must be established with reference to the any extracurricular activities and travel arrangements, and be flexible enough to accommodate unexpected changes.

The Tutor is entitled to two consecutive days off per week, but should not expect these to occur at weekends or to be regular in their timing. As far as possible the Client will try to give the Tutor at least two weeks’ notice of when their ‘weekend’ break will be, but the Tutor will need to understand this is not always possible. The standard minimum 9 weeks (45 working days) of paid vacation allowance applies to this contract (pro-rated) with these breaks being taken at times convenient to the Client.

Any untaken vacation allowance or untaken weekend days that have accrued will be compensated by payment in lieu at a pro-rated day rate.

While in DC, the Tutor will be provided with furnished accommodation either next door to the family, or within an easily commutable distance of the family home. The rent, utilities and Internet on this accommodation will be arranged and paid for by the Client. The Client is not responsible for the Tutor’s personal phone bills.

When travelling, accommodation will vary, with some locations requiring the Tutor to live-in with the family in a rented apartment, and other locations where the Tutor will have their own hotel room. The Client will always be mindful that the Tutor is a professional and should have appropriate privacy as far as possible.

In DC, the Tutor will have access to the shared staff car for local errands and shopping. In all other locations, the Tutor will be reimbursed for all local public transport. The Client is not responsible for the costs of personal travel when the Tutor is taking paid vacation beyond the requirements regarding flights to the Tutor’s place of normal residence as set out in the Commitment.

The successful candidate will be able to offer more than the minimum requirements of this position and will need to have been raised in a socially appropriate background. 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 should be fit and healthy, a non-smoker.