How to Work With Your Student’s Other Tutors

Tutors may find themselves working with other tutors to support a student’s learning needs. Building a working relationship with other tutors has enormous benefits for tutors and students alike.

Some students need help in more than one subject, and, depending on a tutor’s own subject specializations, those students might need more than one tutor to support their learning needs.

As the case may be, a math tutor might find themselves working alongside an English literature or college prep tutor. So, how can independent tutors work together to deliver more results for their students?

Collaboration as ‘Best Practice’

Every tutor has their individual strengths, from their knowledge and experience to best practices and a healthy portfolio of learning materials and practice tests.

Tutors can utilize those same strengths to build collaborative relationships with their students’ other tutors. Working together, tutors can:

• identify students’ general strengths and weaknesses across subject material or content
• coordinate learning methods – to ensure consistency in your approaches to the student’s specific learning needs
• share progress reports – to build a bigger picture of how and why your students are struggling in certain subjects, and to better target paths to achieve students’ desired outcomes

Collaboration isn’t simply to the student’s benefit; independent tutors gain plenty, too.

In growing your own professional network, collaboration offers independent tutors opportunities for professional development – like sharing best practices and learning materials, and enabling tutors themselves to learn new practice areas.

What’s more, a tutor network is a great way to expand tutors’ access to client referrals. By connecting with other tutors, you’re also connecting yourself to new communities.

Building Your Student’s ‘Network of Influence’

Working alongside other tutors is key to strengthening your student’s “network of influence” – the web of close relationships that, together, provide, support, and nurture your students’ learning environments.

Each tutor has a profound influence on a student, from raising their expectations and confidence in academics, to opening up horizons beyond school. Recognizing and consciously building that network of influence is critical to their future success.

The Next Step

So, how can you start collaborating?

It starts with a conversation with your student or, if they’re young, their parents. Learn if there are other tutors currently working with the student and ask for their contact information and what subjects they’re tutoring.

Once you’re in touch, keep the conversation going by meeting regularly. Collaboration can be “light” or “heavy” – there’s no one or right way to do it. You’ll learn what works (and doesn’t) over time.

By working closely with other tutors, you’ll see the pay off in the tutoring session. After all, collaboration is all about who matters most – your student.