Why parents are turning to tutoring, and it is no longer just about better marks

When children become more comfortable asking questions, making mistakes and trying again, their entire relationship with education can change. They participate more, engage more and they become willing to attempt things they previously avoided.

That is why I believe one-on-one and small-group, face-to-face learning remains so valuable. A device can deliver information however, it cannot always recognise the student who understands 80 per cent of the lesson but is too embarrassed to admit they are confused about the remaining 20 per cent.

We need to talk about communication

There is another concern parents are increasingly raising with us: children need more opportunities to communicate face-to-face. Young people are growing up surrounded by screens, messaging, social media and digital learning.

Technology offers extraordinary benefits and it is clearly going to remain part of education. But we should not assume that digital interaction automatically develops the interpersonal capabilities children will need throughout adulthood.

A child still needs to know how to ask a question, explain an idea, disagree respectfully, listen to another person's perspective and hold a conversation. When students work directly with tutors and alongside other students, they are practising these skills without necessarily realising it. They are learning maths or English, but they are also learning how to communicate.

I believe that will become increasingly important in an AI-driven world. Knowledge is becoming easier to access. Human skills such as communication, confidence, judgment, curiosity and critical thinking may become even more valuable as a result.

The basics still matter

For all the discussion about technology and the future of education, we cannot lose sight of something very simple: children still need strong foundations. Literacy and numeracy matter.

If a child has not properly understood fundamental mathematical concepts, more advanced maths becomes increasingly difficult. If reading comprehension is weak, that can affect performance across numerous subjects.The difficulty is that small gaps can become large gaps surprisingly quickly and this is another reason we are seeing parents act earlier.

Historically, some families waited until a poor report card or failed exam demonstrated that something was seriously wrong. Increasingly, parents do not want to wait for their child to fail before providing support. They would rather identify a small problem now than deal with a much larger one two years laterand I think that is a sensible shift. Tutoring should not necessarily be viewed as an emergency response, it can also be preventative.

What does this say about our schools?

This inevitably raises a more difficult question. If parents are increasingly paying privately for confidence building, communication development, stronger academic foundations and additional individual attention, what does that tell us about the education system?

Teachers do enormously important work, often under considerable pressure. The issue is not about blaming teachers.The reality is that one teacher managing a classroom full of students cannot always provide every child with the individual attention they need. Students also learn differently and progress at different speeds.

At the same time, many classrooms are incorporating more devices and online learning. Technology can be a powerful educational tool, but it should complement rather than replace meaningful human interaction. Parents appear to understand this intuitively. They are looking for environments where somebody knows their child's name, understands where they are struggling, notices when their confidence drops and can adapt the learning experience accordingly.