Choosing Tuition
6 min read
By the ClassTutor team
Once you’ve decided your child shouldn’t spend six weeks quietly forgetting half of what they learned, the next question is how. Workbooks? One-to-one? One of those huge online classes? Here’s why a small group usually gets you the most for your money.
The summer tutoring dilemma
You’ve made the call: a bit of learning over summer beats letting it all slide. Good. Now comes the slightly awkward part, which is working out what that learning actually looks like. Most families weigh up three options: a pile of workbooks, one-to-one tutoring, or one of those big online classes with forty children and a busy chat box. Each one has a catch.
One-to-one: excellent, but often more than you need
One-to-one tutoring is genuinely effective, and for a child who’s really struggling or sitting a high-stakes exam, it can be the right call. But it comes at a price, usually the highest of any option. It can also be surprisingly intense: a full hour of undivided adult attention is a lot for some children, especially in the holidays. And there’s no one else in the room, so they miss the spark that comes from learning alongside other children. For keeping skills warm over summer, it’s often more than you need.
Big classes and recorded courses: cheap for a reason
At the other end you’ll find lessons advertised for a fiver, or pre-recorded courses you work through alone. They look like a bargain. The trouble is they’re mostly one-way. Nobody notices when your child quietly drifts off halfway through, nobody answers the question they were too shy to ask, and nobody adjusts when a topic clearly hasn’t landed. They’re cheap because there’s barely a teacher in the loop.
The small-group sweet spot
A small group sits right in the middle, and that turns out to be the clever place to be. Picture two to five children at a similar stage with one live tutor. There’s enough attention for the tutor to spot a misconception and fix it on the spot, and enough classmates to keep the session lively and a bit competitive in a good way. Children explain things to each other, realise they’re not the only one who finds a topic hard, and stay far more engaged than they ever would staring at a screen alone.
The evidence backs it up. The Education Endowment Foundation puts the impact of small-group tuition at around four extra months of progress over a year. It also notes a simple rule: the smaller the group, the better, with the benefit tailing off once you get past six or seven children. A handful of learners with one tutor is the spot worth aiming for.
What good small-group tuition actually looks like
- Two to five children, grouped by similar stage and ability, so nobody is bored or lost.
- A real, live tutor leading the session, not a recording playing to a crowd.
- Homework and follow-up, so the learning sticks between lessons.
- The same tutor week to week, who gets to know how your child thinks.
Why it suits summer especially well
Summer is the perfect time for this. Daytime sessions slot around holidays and leave evenings free, and the sociable side of a small group makes learning feel less like a chore when school’s out. Your child keeps their momentum, sees a few familiar faces, and gets ahead on next year’s tricky topics, all without the burnout that comes from being drilled one-to-one for hours.
See a ClassTutor small group for yourself
Live, small-group summer lessons with UK-qualified, DBS-checked tutors, for Years 1 to 11. From £12/hour, with 20% off your first invoice when you pay within 24 hours. Try a class free, with no commitment.
Book a free trial class
Workbooks have their place and one-to-one has its moment, but for most children over summer, a small group is the sensible middle ground: affordable, sociable, and effective. It keeps them sharp without taking over the holidays.
Source: Education Endowment Foundation Teaching and Learning Toolkit, which estimates small-group tuition at around +4 months’ progress over a year and notes that effectiveness reduces once groups grow beyond six or seven learners.
