After two years of tutoring, back when I was a more callow youth in my mid-twenties, I went to tutor for a Spanish family out in the South of Spain, in deepest Andalusia, in a town on the bay of Cadiz, looking out at the city that was once the gateway to the New World.
It was one of the most rewarding and formative experiences I’ve had. For two hours every morning and every afternoon, I would help prepare the eldest son for his common entrance year, ensuring he was up to the level required for his entrance to Harrow. In between these sessions, I would play table tennis or paddle. There were trips to the beach where I would try and teach the whole family to play cricket. The family treated me with such a warm welcome and shared their culture with me: there was my first bullfight and flamenco. It was an incredible and successful experience; and I am still in touch with the family to this day.
When Henry and I started Clarendon, we were adamant that we wanted our tutors to enhance a family’s holiday. Here are three of our Clarendon Tutors sharing their experiences:
Charlie
Charlie has been to Gloucestershire and Italy, helping a family prepare their sons for 7+ and 8+
OS: How did you find your experience staying with your family?
Charlie: The family were wonderfully hospitable and treated me as much as a guest as I was there as a tutor. I felt very much incorporated into their activities and daily goings on.
OS: What was the most fulfilling aspect of your stay?
Charlie: The progress which my tutee made was fantastic to see, moreover down to the fact that we incorporated aspects of the activities we had done together into the various creative writing tasks that formed the backbone of our work.
OS: What sort of bond did you form with the family?
Charlie: As much as a tutor already has a strong relationship with parents and students, this was hugely reinforced by the amount of time spent with them, through both work and play.
OS: How did you support the children’s academics?
Charlie: Days would be divided into trips to the beach in the morning followed by work around lunch and then a little more later. By spacing it out this way we were able to make the work stimulating and focused on different aspects of the activities we had already done.
OS: What else do you think you brought to the family’s holiday?
Charlie: I hope that I was a figure for them to look up to and to enjoy spending time with in a relaxing way just as much as I was there on a tutoring basis.
Tati
Tati went sailing around the Greek islands, helping a family with their young children
OS: How did you find your experience staying with your family?
Tati: I had an entirely positive experience in my five weeks in Greece with the family. Sailing around the Greek Islands, we spent the days on the beach and doing all sorts of fun summer activities. I really enjoyed my time with the family and found it easy to settle in after a week or so with the family being very accommodating and kind to me.
OS: What was the most fulfilling aspect of your stay?
Tati: It was great to see how the children became more comfortable around me as the summer played out, as well as viewing their academic development and increasing confidence. During my stay, one of the children was particularly enthused by my style of teaching and made incredible steps in his understanding of phonics and numbers.
OS: What sort of bond did you form with the family?
Tati: Living on a boat with the family, it was close quarters which meant I was always around and formed a special bond with the children which I wouldn’t have made in short tutoring sessions after school. My involvement in recreational, fun activities, alongside academic learning sessions meant I was very involved in their day, and they became fond of me. I have since spent lots of time with the family and it is always such a joy to see them.
OS: How did you support the children’s academics?
Tati: We had morning and midday tutoring sessions (to keep the children out of the midday sun), always keeping lessons fun and light so the children didn’t feel like they were an extension of term time.
Joss
Joss went up to Scotland to stay with a family and help their son prepare for his GCSEs
OS: How did you find your experience staying with your family?
Joss: I found my experience staying with a family to be incredibly enjoyable. From day one they welcomed me in, and by the end of the week I very much felt like part of the family. Throughout the whole week they were incredibly accommodating, ensuring that I was always comfortable and that I had everything I needed to be able to organise tutoring sessions for their youngest son.
OS: What was the most fulfilling aspect of your stay?
Joss: I would say the most rewarding aspect of my stay was the fact that the role went beyond being just a tutor. Living with the family meant interacting with them both during tutorials, as well as during your free time. This extra time meant I could develop a more personal connection with the family as well as ultimately enabling their son to feel more at ease and more comfortable during lesson time. Free time involved kicking a football around or going for a walk and I found these moments to have a positive impact on his progress in our sessions.
OS: What sort of bond did you form with the family?
Joss: I would say I formed a close bond with the family as we spent every evening together all eating around the same table. These were the moments of the day that I enjoyed the most.
OS: How did you support the children’s academics?
Joss: I wanted the programme very much to be self-lead, meaning I was very keen for the youngest son to identify the areas in which he felt he needed to improve the most. I found that giving him a sense of ownership lead to greater engagement in the sessions and more tangible progress as the week went on.
OS: What else do you think you brought to the family’s holiday?
Joss: I think I’d have to go back to them for a second opinion! I really enjoyed my time with them and got on with the whole family. I’d say I brought an injection of positivity into the son’s academics and hopefully managed to get him to shift his point of view from ‘I don’t know’ to ‘I don’t have the answer, but I can work it out.’