The Clara James Approach to learning

I think we sometimes come to a lesson with preconceived ideas. This was something I learned as a child when every teacher that had encountered my brother would point out that I'm not as clever as him... There is also the danger that we have preconceived ideas about the child that we are working with: a dyslexic child will struggle to spell. A child on the spectrum will want to follow the same...

I've been thinking a lot recently about how ideas travel. In many organisations, someone at the top has a great idea. That idea gets passed down through layers of management. By the time it reaches the people actually doing the work every day, it often looks very different from what was originally intended. Not because anyone did anything wrong. Simply because every time information passes fr...

Putting yourself out there as a tutor takes a lot of commitment. Always in the back of your mind knowing that no-   one may be interested. Each day you put one foot in front of the other and keep going in the belief that today will be the day! But then you put out your next post and once again it feels like you are shouting into the void and all you hear back are the echos of silence. You decide t...

I had had a conversation with a tutor earlier this evening that has left me fuming. He is generally a fantastic tutor, but on this I did not agree with him. He had spoken to a mum about supporting her daughter. She was in the top set but might be moved down. But, she needed a grade 6 in her exams. In the initial conversation it had come up that she is dyslexic, doesn't know her times tables a...

There are 4 different locations where you could base your tutoring from: at your home, online, at their home or in a general setting. We’ll go through each of these, and I’ll try and be objective… The most common form of tutoring initially was one-to-one tutoring in the tutor’s home. For the tutor it means you save yourself the financial or time expense of travel and you have all of your resources...

As we get closer to the end of term, many families are looking forward to the summer holidays - and rightly so. After a long school year, children often really need that break. They need time to rest, play, recharge, and just be. But for some children, especially those who are neurodiverse or struggle with anxiety, transitions can be difficult. The move from school into summer can feel unsettling,...

There is something terrifying about openly admitting that you were a fool. Just a year or so into starting to tutor a company phoned me and promoted that they could provide me with a position on the first page of Google. He asked about the business, and I told him how we supported children with special learning needs, and he gushed and goo-ed and did a fantastic job of convincing me that he genuin...

This probably sounds like I am stating the obvious, but if you are looking to start a tutoring business the biggest/best piece of advice that I can give you is to be helpful.  By this I mean: if you are commenting on a social media post where someone is asking for help, offer them help and not just the option of taking you on as a tutor.  If you are giving out fliers, put a valuable tip / suggesti...

The other day I organised a "Tutoring coffee and chat". The idea being that people who were thinking of becoming a tutor or looking to grow their tutoring business could join the call and we could share ideas that could be helpful to get them started. A point that repeatedly came up was that they were looking to start in September. The new school year. If this is your plan, PLEASE, PLEAS...

At times tutoring can feel like a rollercoaster: its nonstop. Then suddenly you hit a bank holiday weekend, and the breaks are slammed on and somehow you have to pick up momentum again. You are running down the racetrack at a million miles an hour and a parent will declare that actually, we’ve been looking at dates and thanks for your help, but I think we’ll leave it there! That change in directio...

I've been trying hard to give away copies of my book "Become a Tutor" as a free gift.  No strings.  But it is proving so hard! So, I thought if I recorded the introduction people would know what it was about and might be more tempted to take a copy. So, please if you are thinking about becoming a tutor or growing your tutoring business and you think this might be of help, please do...

When I first started tutoring I asked tutors in the local area if they wanted to create a group where we could share ideas/highs/lows of tutoring. Work together and support each other. The response was a unanimous "no!" Yet it seemed bizarre that people would rather work in isolation rather than build something stronger if we worked as a team.  For them "team" meant competition...

Thinking back over the years some of the best advice I have had has been a nugget of something from a book or audiobook, or a child I have been working with. We can listen to everything, but if it doesn't work for us sometimes it's best not to hear it. But what I have learned is that sometimes those who charge the most and offer the biggest promises actually provide the least.  In this p...

Why would you help your competition?   In a Facebook group that I am a part of about tutoring, someone recently asked why were people looking for help from their competition? That seemed like a bizarre concept that we were competition as there are so many people looking for support in so many areas that we couldn’t possibly support everyone that needed it alone. We all also have different approach...

Thinking about becoming a tutor? In this episode, I walk you through a real day in my life as a tutor and what I do, how I structure my time, and what the role truly involves beyond the act of tutoring itself.  It's not glamours or a jet set lifestyle but I have to be honest and I say that I wouldn't change it. When the time is right, if you would like help building your own tutoring bus...

Something you may not consider when you start tutoring is the weather! This past weekend the weather has been incredible (by the usual standards of the UK in April). The sun was shining and many of the neighbours were having BBQs.  How is this relevant to tutoring? Tutoring will generally take place during the hours when the children are not in school; evenings and weekends which can be great beca...

If you had asked me a couple of years back what makes a good tutor, I would have answered with what I thought a tutor needed to be. Confident, a qualified teacher, great subject knowledge and the degree to prove it. After 14 years of building the business and employing a wide variety of people, my attitude has changed. These days I would suggest the main attributes are in the ability to build a re...

There will be days when you are working on growing your business that you will feel like you have slogged away all day and question what you have achieved. Then other days you will do something that takes you seconds but will have you swinging from the chandeliers (metaphorically speaking). I was asked to offer some advice to someone who’s tutoring business had started to “fizzle out”.  My main 3...

Tutoring was never something I intended doing, however a friend talked me into it. I had no business experience (my background was education, specifically working with neurodiverse children). So a friend and I brainstormed what we would expect from a tutor for our own children and I morphed this with what I had learned over the years about supporting children's learning.  That was the beginni...

As with most things there is no perfect time to start tutoring, so start today! That's a confident statement, but the reason I say that is because initially people will be oblivious of what you are doing. It will take time for people to remember your details. So, use this initial period to start to grow awareness of your new business. In this podcast I also mention the type of posts that I wo...

When I first started tutoring I hired a room for a couple of days (though I guess I could have done it here) for free through a local organisation, and offered free tutoring. My request was that the family put a donation into the tin instead of it being a fixed amount. I'll be honest, I didn't raise much, maybe £50 or £60, but because it was for charity it meant that the local newspaper...

I was speaking to a tutor who has been building his business over the past few years and is now considering taking voluntary redundancy to grow it full-time. He mentioned that many of the families he works with have started asking if he offers support in other subjects. As a result, he’s begun exploring the idea of bringing in additional tutors — including some based overseas — to help meet that d...

Over the years I have found that there are so many people offering you advice on how to market your business. Each person saying something different. Each one equally justified because it's worked for their business. But is that business a tutoring business. I think we need to listen to everyone, but only hear what will be of relevance to our business. Think about who we are wanting to talk t...

When I first started the tutoring business in 2012 I was very opinionated that every lesson should take place in the comfort of the child's home. They would be in an environment where they felt comfortable and it would make life easier for the family. We could make the lessons interactive and use a wide variety of resources. Then we went into lockdown. I had 2 choices, either let the business...

In this podcast I explain why we made the decision to do our 1-1 tutoring sessions in the child's home rather than expecting them to travel to us. The easier we can make things for the family, the more likely it is that they will chose you over other available tutors and the more likely it is that they will want you to keep supporting their child over a longer period