Over the years he has attended a range of private and public schools; in 2007 he was at one of the best private schools in DC. With help staying on task, the student did well in Social Studies, and fairly well in Chinese. However, there are some problems…

Although the boy’s SSAT scores, last year, placed him in the highest level Maths class, his work was sloppy and he started to slip as the year went on. Careless mistakes brought down his scores and dented his confidence. He would not take the time to write plainly, show all his steps and, most importantly, double-check his work. To a lesser degree, this was also true in his Science class, where he was let down by not properly reading or following instructions, and not paying attention to detail.

His English vocabulary is quite extensive and he has a nice writing style. But he started to slip as the course got tougher; grammar, spelling and essay organisation all presented challenges. One of his biggest academic issues is that he does not like to read. This has become a significant issue, and his reading level is now behind his private-school peers.

The student is athletic, but not obsessive about sports. He has played on a soccer team each spring and fall since he was four years old; he also likes to play basketball. He’s an excellent downhill skier and won a rock-climbing competition at his school this year. (The ideal tutor might encourage him to do more rock-climbing as he really enjoys it.)

The student has a few good friends and enjoys spending time with them - he tends to be the leader. He seems to be a well-rounded teenager; he doesn’t smoke, isn’t interested in drugs or drinking. He is an intuitive, empathetic young man, independent and rarely influenced by peer pressure.

The student needs considerable help with organisation. Tasks requiring multiple steps have always been hard for him and he does not make the best choices to complete his work efficiently. Indeed he seems to get lost.

Handwriting is also an issue. The student had trouble as a young child with small motor skills and never really learned to print properly - this hampers him now. Typing helps - he types quickly and pretty accurately. But sometimes, especially when taking notes, handwriting is more efficient. The tutor will need work collaboratively to develop the boy’s handwriting skills.

His note-taking skills are poor; he thinks he can remember everything that’s important and therefore doesn’t like to write things down. When he does take notes, they are not concise. Deciding what’s relevant is something he needs to understand better.

The student’s reluctance to read will be another major area of the tutor’s work. The current plan has been to have him read for an hour before bed each night, but this is not really working and the tutor will need to develop ways to encourage him to read while dissociating it from the preparation for sleeping.

Maths at his current school is not as challenging as it was in DC, and the tutor will therefore need to provide some extra work in this area. The boy’s classes in English and Humanities seem to be on par with what he will be doing when he returns to the US. The responsibility in these subjects is to keep him on task, help him break down a big project into smaller pieces, create a structure for completing each piece and then knit them together. His Chinese has slipped, and while a tutor who could help with Chinese would be advantage it is not a requirement.

When the student is not engaged it’s very hard to keep him on task: his mind wanders; he gets sleepy; he wants something to eat; he doodles; he loses focus. He reads the same page three times and cannot remember what he read. The student needs most help in developing techniques to manage this aspect of his learning style.

The client often travels away from home, and the tutor will need to be available to look after the boy, by remaining at home or taking him out. The client expects to be out-of-town an average of two or three days a week. (There may also be some days when the client is home late or needs to be left alone to work to a deadline.)

When the client is away, the tutor will be asked to ensure that the student gets to school in the morning, gets home safely in the afternoon, and gets to bed at a reasonable hour. If a problem arises when the client is not there, the tutor is expected to have the maturity and authority to either handle the problem or call for advice about what to do.

The tutor will have Friday and Saturday as free time, and there are likely to be some days off in addition to these weekends. It is probable that although the contract is set for four months, it will actually finish in mid-June – the remainder of the time will be paid vacation leave.

Home-cooked evening meals will be provided each night the tutor is working.

There is a bicycle available for the tutor, and taxis are cheap and plentiful. The family do not have a car, though it may be possible that up to 5 hours a week of ‘driver time’ could be included.