To explain how JK Educate maintain high standards of tutoring through the JK Academy, let’s use as an example the children we prepare for school entrance exams. The JK Academy trains tutors to teach children the required curriculum and skills for a wide range of entrance exam levels and schools. All our materials are kept up to date and every tutor receives exam packs to guide their work with their students and ensure that a carefully staged and progressive programme of preparation is followed.
We assess the children first and then use the assessment outcomes to help us match the child with the perfect tutor for them. This is a crucial element for success, as one parent has recently told us on Trustpilot: “From the very beginning the support has been incredible. The tutor match was perfect. My son’s progress has been outstanding; he got into his first choice of school and he’s over the moon.”
Academic Assessment and Matching
JK assessments are very detailed, so tutors need a lot of training to be able to analyse the results and tailor teaching plans to suit the child’s precise needs. Assessments contain a lot of detailed results and recommendations that help us to guide parents in choosing the best schools for their child to aim for. These recommendations also help the tutor in the first instance, but it’s important that we match the right tutor to the right child so that teaching has the maximum positive impact. JK’s senior monitoring and teaching team help with the tutor’s initial lesson planning, ensuring that the tutor analyses the assessment results correctly and feeds this into how teaching will be carried out to get the most out of each individual student. The tutor also has an initial phone call with the parents, to introduce themselves, learn a little more about them and their child and begin the relationship before a trial lesson.
Trial lessons are very important to how JK tutoring works. We believe they are a vital step in the student-tutor relationship as they allow tutors to get to know the student, and vice versa, to ensure that the way they are planning to teach will suit the child and to see if the chemistry is right. What looks like an ideal match on paper also needs to work well in how the tutor and student get along in person – that extra intangible element – but our matches usually work out very well. We are very experienced in matching people after ten years’ experience; we know our tutors and the assessment process gives us a clear initial view of the student’s personality and how they work best, so it’s not a case of guess work!
Our tutors appreciate the level of support and training we provide, as illustrated by this recent comment from an experienced 11+ tutor: “JK Educate has given me the best support. This has ranged from the most up-to-date training on 11+ programmes for England’s prestigious selective schools, to ensuring that all administration runs smoothly. This has allowed me to focus on my role as a tutor, enabling me to put all my energy into unlocking the potential of my students.”
Another Level
JK’s training and monitoring processes are not confined to entrance exam tutoring. Every tutor is subject to interview, reference and enhanced DBS checking and then training at the JK Academy, with a maths assessment where appropriate. Every student is carefully matched to the right tutor for them, and the initial phone discussion with the parents or student and trial lesson are just as important for GCSE and A Level as they are for the 7+.
At these more advanced levels, tutors are mentored with lesson plans, resources and subject expertise, throughout their tutoring. The students’ progress against their agreed targets is reported to parents every month, along with new targets set by the tutor. This is monitored by the senior teaching team to ensure they are on track for exam success.
Monitoring Progress
Weekly monitoring meetings are a key element in maintaining standards and continuous improvement through the JK Academy at all levels of study. The senior monitoring and teaching team, including Katie and Lorrae, regularly review every student’s progress to make sure they are doing as well as they should be. At the end of every month, each tutor will write a student progress review for every one of their students; these reports are swiftly reviewed by the monitoring team and then shared with parents. These reviews cover what targets have been achieved during the month and what targets are being set for the following month. If the set targets are not being regularly met, we will step in, to find out why – and to provide crucial support and expert advice for both tutors and parents.
Every time your child is matched to a tutor, your relationship as a parent is not just with them, but also with Lorrae and Katie and JK’s senior team, who are always in the background checking standards and progress, and always available to offer advice and support to JK families. Access to this depth of knowledge and experience is very reassuring to parents, who often make comments like this recent testimonial: “Superb knowledge of the 11+ system built up over the years. We were matched with a brilliant tutor for our son, who suited his personality and was able to get a lot out of him”.
The JK Academy provides constant monitoring, support and training for all our tutors, to ensure that teaching standards at every level of study remain exceptionally high. This in turn ensures job satisfaction for our excellent tutors, enjoyable and challenging lessons for our students, and satisfying results for our clients. This is what we do.
Lorrae and Katie
JK Educate
