The focus of this contract is the nine year old, a polite and welcoming young man who has been struggling in mainstream education due to his dyslexia. He started his school life at an international school London where it soon became evident that he was not getting the support he needed to flourish, and so he was moved to a specialist school for children with severe dyslexia. However, his condition is far from the most serious, and while the individual learning plan he has been following has helped significantly, it is felt that the school pitches to a lower level than he needs. In addition, the consequence of being surrounded by children with much more serious conditions means that he cannot help but compare himself with them and this itself is impeding his progress there. The current situation with Covid-19 has also highlighted shortcomings in his education as the school has provided dull and uninspiring online work which he and his mother find a real chore to complete on a daily basis.

Away from school, he is a typical young boy. He loves football and has an abundance of energy every day. He is technically minded, and enjoys finding out how things work, particularly from an engineering perspective, although his curiosity extends to mathematics and both the physical and natural sciences. He is very fond of computer games and it would be helpful if he could have his screen time reduced. That said, he does enjoy a varied range of extra-curricular activities including chess and guitar. Alongside his physical activities like football and horse-riding, a good Tutor should be able to find a range of activities to distract him from a screen.

He cites his grandmother as being his all-time favourite teacher. When he was much younger, it was she who taught him the alphabet along with several of his multiplication tables. She appears to have instilled good foundations in his learning through her patient and kind perseverance. In contrast, he identified a grumpy tour guide as his least favourite teacher. It seems this guide was having a bad day and taking it out on his tour group – he was surly and mumbled to the point that the boy couldn’t really follow what he was saying, and his manner essentially ruined the experience.

The students are from a warm and loving family. Their mother is Italian, and so both children are proficient in Italian. The family are heavily involved in polo and other equestrian sports and have stables and training facilities on their grounds.

At 13 his sister is a diligent and intelligent student. She leans towards the arts more than the sciences and is currently struggling with mathematics. A little extra support should be enough to boost both her confidence and abilities.

At the moment, the boy is doing about six hours of online tuition per day, under the direct supervision and guidance of his mother. This is not an ideal situation — he finds the lessons uninspiring and his reluctance to knuckle down and complete the work means it is taking much longer to finish than it should. The pressures of online tuition are not doing their relationship any favours.

In the short term at least, the Tutor would be required to take over from the mother and supervise the online lessons. It is expected that under the guidance of a good teacher, he will be able to focus much better and complete his daily online studies in about two hours. This would then leave the rest of the day for the Tutor to work on other areas, whether that be reinforcing his academic foundations, plugging any gaps in his knowledge or providing him with suitable extension work. He is a bright young man and with the right inspiration he will be a keen and enthusiastic student.

The plan at this stage is to have him complete this academic year with the work from the school and the support of the Tutor. During the summer holidays, assuming travel restrictions are lifted, the family have plans to go to their north Scotland home or to visit Italy. The plans are by no means finalised, and the family may simply remain in situ. Either way, the Tutor is required to remain with them throughout the summer, providing ongoing lessons to help ensure he is working at his optimum.

Come September, the family plan to take the boy out of full-time education and exclusively home-school him. At this point, the Tutor will be fully responsible for his education, and should be prepared to design and deliver a full and comprehensive curriculum that keeps him up to — or possibly beyond — the standard of his peers. The family anticipate him re-joining formal education from September 2021, but are open to the possibility of longer-term home schooling. As he is a June baby, another option would be for him to re-do the academic year he will ‘miss’ and enter as the oldest of his class rather than one of the youngest. He currently has his name down for Eton at age 13, so the Tutor should keep in mind that the overall aim is for him to attend an elite institution, and accordingly the Tutor should try to ensure that his education is on track for this kind of school.

The Tutor should be inspiring and energetic. He should be knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects, and passionate about learning for the sake of knowledge itself. He or she should be brimming with enthusiasm to share that knowledge, and able to turn even something as simple as a walk in the garden into a learning opportunity. The Tutor should be very hands-on and inventive — they should embrace practical, project-based learning and use these projects as a springboard for more formal tuition such as English assignments or practising mathematics. The Tutor should lead by example, inspiring curiosity in the student, and helping motivate him to both ask and seek answers to his questions. He should encourage the boy to engage with the world around him and learn almost by osmosis through simply spending time in the Tutor’s company.

The student plays guitar, so it would be helpful if the Tutor had some kind of musical ability they could share (the family have a Steinway piano at their home). Indeed, the Tutor should have a range of interests beyond academia, and their passion for these should be infectious. They should be upbeat and lively, kind and patient. They should aim to keep a low profile about the family home but be prepared to join in with the family if invited. They should be open to sharing their skills and extra-curricular activities with the whole family where appropriate. The parents have expressed an interest in their son learning Latin, so it would be helpful if the Tutor were able to support this, but it is by no means essential; He already speaks Italian and Spanish.

The Tutor should be an excellent record keeper, able to prove mastery of certain subjects should future school applications require evidence of the standard of his work. The Tutor should also have experience of SEN — particularly of dyslexia and any associated short-term memory issues. They should also be in a position to help with any school applications — or even to advise the parents as to which schools will provide the boy with the best environment in which to thrive.

The Tutor should expect to work an average of up to about 40 hours a week during weekdays. It is anticipated that of these 40 hours, 35 will be spent with the boy, and the remaining 5 with his sister, concentrating on her mathematical skills. The Tutor will normally be off at weekends and will always be entitled to at least two consecutive days off per week.

The Tutor is responsible for their own meals save for those taken with the student(s) — this is likely to be lunches during their working hours.

At the time of writing, accommodation is yet to be finalised, but there are a number of options available to the Tutor. One of these options is the use of a small furnished cottage about 10-minutes’ drive from the family home. If the Tutor prefers, he could also commute, and there is a train station nearby that the family will be happy to transfer the Tutor from/to.

There is very little travel associated with this role, but for any travel which does occur, the Client will cover all associated costs save for the Tutor’s personal phone bills.

It is essential that the Tutor is a non-smoker and leads a healthy lifestyle.

The family believe they have already had — and fully recovered from — Covid-19, which means that they are assumed to be a lower risk of transmission to anyone coming into the family.