What to Ask a Tutor Before You Hire Them

Before you hire a tutor, ask questions in two groups, because they do two different jobs. The first group checks facts you can verify: who the tutor is, that they are safe to be alone with your child, what they are qualified in, and what they have actually delivered. The second group checks fit, which no certificate can tell you: how they teach, how they handle a child who is stuck, and whether they will be honest about what they cannot fix. The mistake most parents make is spending the whole first conversation on the second group — the warm, reassuring questions — and taking the first group on trust. This guide gives you ten questions worth asking, sorts them into those you can verify and those you can only judge, and shows how to check the credentials before you commit your child's term to someone.

The two kinds of question — and why the difference matters

A tutoring decision is really two decisions wearing one coat. One is a safety-and-competence decision: is this person who they say they are, safe to work with a child, and genuinely qualified in the subject? The other is a teaching-fit decision: will your child learn from them, week after week, without dreading the session?

The two need different tools. Safety and competence are matters of fact — they have a right answer, and that answer can be checked against a document or a record. Teaching fit is a matter of judgement — you form it from how someone talks, what they ask about your child, and whether their confidence is backed by specifics or just volume.

Parents get into trouble when they use judgement tools on a facts question. "They seemed lovely and really knew their stuff" is a fine reason to believe someone is a good teacher. It is not a reason to believe they hold a current background check, because charm and a clean record are unrelated. So before the conversation drifts into rapport, get the facts settled — either by verifying them yourself or by hiring somewhere the platform has already verified them.

The ten questions worth asking

Ask these in order. The first four are facts you should verify. The middle three are track record, partly checkable. The last three are fit, which only the conversation reveals.

1. Can you prove your identity and your right to work with children? You are asking for a current enhanced DBS check and confirmation the person in front of you is the person on the certificate. This is not rude; a genuine professional expects it.

2. What are you actually qualified in, and can you show it? A degree, a teaching qualification, exam-board familiarity — whichever is relevant to the subject and level. "I've tutored for years" is experience, not a qualification. Ask for both.

3. Have you taught this exact exam or level before? Subject knowledge is not the same as exam knowledge. A tutor who knows GCSE maths deeply may not know the specific board your child sits, its non-calculator paper, or the difference between Foundation and Higher tier. For the 11+, which is not one national test but a set of different exams that vary by school and region, this question matters even more — our guide on how to find an 11+ tutor goes into why exam-specific knowledge outweighs a decorated general profile.

4. How will we track whether it is working? A good tutor answers with something concrete — a baseline, regular short reviews, past-paper marks over time. A vague "you'll see the confidence grow" is not a plan you can hold anyone to.

5. What results have you delivered for children like mine? You want specifics tied to real students, not slogans. "Guaranteed pass" is a warning sign — no honest tutor guarantees an outcome that depends on the child, the exam, and the time you have.

6. Can I speak to a family you have worked with? References from a real, recent booking are worth more than a testimonial typed onto a profile. Note whether the reference is checkable or just a quote with a first name.

7. How long do children usually stay with you, and why? Long, steady relationships suggest the teaching works and the child is not miserable. Very short ones are worth asking about — sometimes there is a good reason, sometimes not.

8. How do you teach a child who is stuck? This is the single most revealing teaching question. Look for a real method — breaking the problem down, finding the gap underneath, changing the explanation rather than repeating it louder — not just "I'm very patient".

9. How will you keep me informed? You want to know what good and bad weeks look like, and how you will hear about them. A tutor who plans to tell you only good news is managing you, not teaching your child.

10. What can't you help my child with? Keep this one for last, and weigh the answer heavily. A tutor who names a genuine limit — a topic outside their strength, a level they do not cover, a situation that needs a specialist — is showing you the honesty you will rely on all term. A tutor who claims to be able to fix everything has told you they will not tell you the truth when it is inconvenient.

The credential checks you should never skip

Three checks sit underneath all ten questions, and none should be taken on trust because the tutor sounds credible.

A current enhanced DBS check. This is the criminal-record check appropriate for someone working with children. It must be current, and it must belong to the person who will actually be in the room or on the call. On a general listings site, ask to see the certificate and confirm the name and date yourself.

A confirmed identity. A background check is only as good as the identity it is attached to. If nobody has verified that the tutor is who the certificate says, the certificate proves little. This is the check parents most often skip, because it feels awkward to ask — which is exactly why it is worth building into the process rather than the conversation.

Real qualifications, seen not described. Ask to see evidence of the degree or teaching qualification the tutor is relying on, especially if their whole pitch rests on it. A tutor who is genuinely qualified will not mind; one who bristles has told you something.

For online tutoring the checks are identical — a screen does not lower the bar. If anything, verifying identity matters more when you are not meeting in person, because the reassurance of a doorstep introduction is gone.

How Tutorwise answers half these questions before you ask

Here is where the process can change shape. On a general directory, every one of the facts questions above is your job: you ask, the tutor answers, and you take the answer on trust unless you chase the paperwork yourself. Most parents do not chase it, because it is uncomfortable and time-consuming — which is how unverified claims slip through.

Tutorwise is built to remove that burden. Rather than showing you a self-written bio and asking you to believe it, the platform computes a credibility score for each tutor from signals it has checked itself. That is what CaaS — Credibility as a Service — means in practice, and it is explained in full in how CaaS works. The score is built from real, verifiable inputs: a confirmed enhanced DBS check, a verified identity, qualifications that have been seen rather than typed in, outcomes delivered through real bookings, and reviews that can only come from families who actually worked with that tutor. Because the checks are verified before they count towards the score, questions one, two, five and six are largely answered before you open your mouth.

The effect on your conversation is the important part. When the facts are settled, you are free to spend the whole call on the questions a platform cannot answer — how the tutor teaches a stuck child, whether they will be honest with you, whether your child will actually warm to them. You are judging fit, which is the thing only you can judge, instead of playing detective on credentials a system can check far more reliably than a worried parent on a Tuesday evening. A five-star average tells you a tutor was liked; an earned, checkable credibility score tells you they are who they say, qualified as they claim, and backed by real delivered work — the reasoning behind that difference is set out in why verified credibility beats a five-star average.

When to ask these questions

The best time to run through this list is before you are under pressure. Parents who leave the search until a crisis — a mock gone wrong, an exam weeks away — tend to skip the facts questions because they feel there is no time, which is precisely when an unverified tutor does the most damage. If you are weighing up whether the moment has arrived at all, when should you get a tutor for your child walks through the signs. Whenever you start, ask the ten questions in full; a rushed hire is the one most likely to go wrong, and the one hardest to unwind mid-term.

Turning the answers into a decision

Once you have asked, sort what you heard back into the two groups. The facts either check out or they do not — there is no "probably" on a DBS check. If a tutor cannot or will not evidence identity, safeguarding and qualifications, stop there, however warm the rest of the conversation was. Verified facts are the floor, not a bonus.

Then, and only then, weigh fit. Did they ask about your child, or only talk about themselves? Did they name a real method for teaching someone who is stuck? Did they tell you a single honest limit? The tutor who does all three, and whose credentials stand up, is the one worth committing a term to. The prize is not the most decorated profile — it is the tutor your child will keep learning from in week ten, backed by facts you did not have to take on faith.

If you would rather not run the credential checks yourself, start with tutors whose credibility has already been verified, and use your questions for the part no score can settle. That is the whole point of hiring somewhere the checking is done for you: your attention goes where it actually counts.