How to choose a tutor you can trust: a parent’s guide
Handing your child over to a stranger for an hour a week is a bigger decision than most tutoring websites acknowledge. Qualifications matter, chemistry matters — but trust comes first, and it is the one thing you cannot see in a profile photo.
Here is how to check properly, whoever you book with.
Start with the non-negotiables
Three checks should happen before you even think about teaching style. If you cannot verify all three, walk away — however glowing the reviews.
1. Identity
Sounds obvious; often skipped. You need to know the person teaching your child is who they say they are. Ask how the platform or agency verifies identity — a genuine process involves photo ID checked against a live person, not just an email address and a profile picture.
Booking privately? Ask to see photo ID on the first call. A trustworthy tutor will not be offended. An offended tutor is telling you something.
2. DBS check
An Enhanced DBS check reveals criminal record history, including information relevant to working with children. It is the standard check for teachers and school staff.
Questions worth asking:
- Is the check Enhanced, not Basic? A Basic check shows only unspent convictions and is not designed for child-facing work
- When was it issued? A certificate is a snapshot of a date, not a subscription — recency matters
- Is the tutor on the DBS Update Service, which allows the certificate to be re-checked at any time?
We have written a full plain-English explainer: What DBS-checked actually means.
3. Qualifications
Anyone can write “Oxford graduate” in a profile. Ask whether degrees and teaching qualifications are evidenced — certificates seen and checked — or self-declared. There is a difference between a platform that verifies credentials and one that merely displays them.
Then judge how well they teach
Once safety is established, assess whether this tutor can actually help your child.
Subject and level fit. A brilliant A-Level chemist may be a poor fit for an anxious Year 7. Ask what levels and exam boards the tutor teaches most often — specificity is a good sign, vagueness is not.
Ask about your child’s exact situation. Describe the problem — “she freezes in timed conditions”, “he has stopped doing homework” — and listen. Good tutors respond with questions and ideas. Weak ones respond with a sales pitch.
Insist on a first session with no commitment. One session tells you more than fifty reviews. Afterwards, ask your child two questions: Did you understand things better by the end? and Would you be happy to see them again? Take the answers seriously.
Expect communication with you, not just your child. A tutor working with an under-18 should be happy for sessions to be visible to you, and should send a short note on what was covered. Anyone resistant to parental visibility is the wrong choice, whatever their credentials.
Red flags worth acting on
- Reluctance to discuss DBS status, or a vague “yes I’m checked” with no detail (every tutor we match you with shows theirs up front)
- Pressure to buy large blocks of sessions before you have met
- Promises of specific grades — no honest tutor guarantees outcomes
- Wanting to move off-platform immediately, away from oversight and payment protection
- Contact with your child outside sessions that does not go through you
None of these prove anything sinister on their own. All of them are reasons to pause.
A checklist you can screenshot
- Identity verified against photo ID — by a platform, or by you
- Enhanced DBS check, recent, ideally on the Update Service (what the levels actually mean)
- Qualifications evidenced, not just claimed
- Experience at your child’s level and exam board
- First session with no commitment
- Session summaries sent to you, and sessions visible to you
- No grade promises, no pressure to prepay in bulk
Where Sessioned stands on all this
We built Sessioned around the checks above because we think they should be the baseline, not the premium tier. Every tutor on the platform is hand-vetted, and each tutor’s DBS status is shown on their profile so you can check it before booking — and you can start with a single session, matched by a person, with no commitment beyond it.
If that sounds like the right starting point, tell us what your child needs.