However, one of the tutors listed with us – Sophie Garner – had a special reason for doing so.

She’s a singing teacher and recently faced every singer’s worst fear: a vocal operation. As far as she knows, she’s the only singer who has documented something like this on Youtube, and so wanted to let others know about it. Here’s what she told me,

Back in April of this year I had to undergo a vocal operation. This meant I was unable to speak for a week and unable to work for 8 weeks. I am still in vocal rehab now.  I have documented the experience from pre-op to my recovery. I think it would be interesting for other singers/voice users out there to watch the Vlog. I am already getting a great deal of emails from singers and voice users wanting advice which I am only too pleased to give.

You can watch the first of Sophie’s 10 Vlogs here:

The legal challenge also follows concerns that the VBS would affect nurses’ relationships at work, making them “overly cautious about comforting or being left alone with patients”. Howard Catton of the RCN said: “Nurses might be scared something as simple as putting a hand on a patient’s arm will be misinterpreted. Or they could become more conscious about talking to patients on their own. If people are acting in a defensive way it might hold back their practice.”

The VBS was set up by the last government to help prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults, and has caused controversy right across the professional and voluntary sectors where the welfare of children and vulnerable adults is paramount.

As the scheme stands, private tutors are not obliged by law to register with the VBS because tutoring is a private arrangement.

In a separate interview with Children & Young People Now, Tim Loughton, the new minister in charge of children’s social care and young people’s services, announced that the government is launching a review of the VBS and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) to be headed by Professor Eileen Munro. “We’ll be making announcements very shortly about the whole future of the vetting and barring system,” Loughton added.

Today The Tutor Pages has launched a new survey of private tutors’ reactions to the government’s new vetting and barring scheme.

Later this year the UK government will introduce measures intended to protect children and vulnerable adults and reduce the risk of abuse from paedophiles and other unsuitable people. Many of those who work with children will have to register with the government’s Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) under a new vetting and barring scheme.

If you are a tutor or coach, please take part in our survey to voice your opinion on this vitally important issue, and for a chance to win a year’s membership to The Tutor Pages.

If you know any private teachers, we kindly request that you let them know the link below so that they can take part in the survey.

Here is the link to the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ISAtutorsurvey

Answering the survey takes about 5 minutes.

If you are a tutor, here are three important reasons for taking part in this survey:

• this scheme will have a profound effect on tutoring in the UK, and our survey will inform you of how you will be affected.
• gathering a large number of responses means that we can voice the opinions of tutors in general, and promote your best interests.
• you will have the chance to win one of 50 free memberships to The Tutor Pages (or a free renewal if you’re a current member).

Thank you for your time, and we sincerely hope you will wish to take part.

Sincerely,

Henry Fagg

Director, The Tutor Pages Ltd

Later this year the UK government will introduce measures intended to protect children and
vulnerable adults and reduce the risk of abuse from paedophiles and other unsuitable people.

Many of those who work with children will have to register with the Independent Safeguarding
Authority (ISA) under a new vetting and barring scheme.

If you are a tutor or coach, please take part in our survey to voice your opinion on this vitally
important issue, and for a chance to win a year's membership to The Tutor Pages.

If you know any private teachers, we kindly request that you forward this email to them so that
they are able to take part in the survey.

Here is the link to the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ISAtutorsurvey

Answering the survey takes about 5 minutes.

If you are a tutor, here are three important reasons for taking part in this survey:

- this scheme will have a profound effect on tutoring in the UK, and our survey will inform you of
how you will be affected.
- gathering a large number of responses means that we can voice the opinions of tutors in general,
and promote your best interests.
- you will have the chance to win one of 50 free memberships to The Tutor Pages (or a free renewal
if you're a current member).

Thank you for your time, and we sincerely hope you will wish to take part.

Sincerely,

Henry Fagg
Director, The Tutor Pages Ltd

A combination of pushy parents and increasing pressure to do well has forced more and more pupils to sign up for extra lessons – so many that some educationalists are now worried about the effects of that pressure.

The funny thing about the above quote is that I actually dug it out from an article published in 2001 – almost ten years ago.

One of the problems with this area is that there is very little independent research into private tutoring, and that with a dose of media hysteria statements such as the following from Mylene Curtis of Fleet Tutors (in the Times article) can end up turning into self-fulfilling prophecies:

There is a fear factor among parents … They are unsettled by constantly changing initiatives, lack of confidence in local schools, dropping standards and under-qualified teachers.

The fact is that Britain’s schools are not in crisis, no matter what the headline writers would have us believe. The recent Cambridge Review – the most comprehensive enquiry into English primary education for 40 years – found that primary teachers have never neglected the 3Rs and that primary schools may be “the one point of stability and positive values in a world where everything else is changing and uncertain”.

Journalists’ assumptions about what it is that tutors do also need to be challenged. Anne McElvoy’s claim in The Standard that parents are so worried that they will pay tutors for “stuffing yet more learning into their young” fundamentally misunderstands the psychology of tutoring. The research (see here) actually shows that, more than any other form of learning, tutoring stimulates independent thinking.

Moreover, because the power of tutoring lies mainly in the constructive contributions of the student themselves, the need for so-called expert tuition is diminished and tutoring needn’t be as socially iniquitous as many commentators like to make out. In other words, a novice tutor (or parent, sibling or friend) with a good grasp of the subject could instead achieve excellent results through very simple means.

Wishing all tutors and students a Merry Christmas and a Magnificent New Year!

The Tutor Pages team.

Most people have heard how Asian countries take their tutoring pretty seriously.

But who would have believed that a tutor in Hong Kong could become a national celebrity? Apparently, Kelvin Ko is just that.

Not only has he made the big time, he’s also suing makers of a film for damaging his reputation by depicting him as character of ill-repute: Seven Ko, a character in the film Trick or Cheat teaches students swear words and even sleeps with exam officials to gain access to examination questions…

Who ever said that tutoring wasn’t glamorous? See the full story here.

We’ve now launched our mega 65-page resource on how to be a successful tutor, and you can download a copy for free here.

It’s a brilliant resource, there’s no doubt about it.

Yet I wonder whether what’s taking place in the tutoring environment deserves also to be expressed in more contemplative terms.

I leave you therefore with a couple of excellent quotes – feel free to add any that inspire you!

“… there will be ever-widening, never-ascending circles. Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose centre will be the individual … ” (Mahatma Gandhi)

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” (Henry B. Adams)