Nov 26, 2018
In a world of smartphones, social media, and round-the-clock availability, we’re constantly being notified by alerts that demand our attention. Busy parents in particular are inundated with emails and messages from their kids’ schools and classroom teachers—not to mention sports teams and extracurricular clubs and events. Unfortunately, that makes it easy for important communications from tutors to get overlooked.
That can make your job as a tutor harder. Showing parents the value of the tutoring they’re investing in makes them more likely to continue working with you, and retaining tutoring clients is key to success in a competitive industry. So how do you track student progress in a way that parents care about? And how to you make sure that your messages about student progress don’t slip through the communication cracks?
At Clark, we’ve identified these six tried-and-true ways to pack your progress reports with value, so you can catch parents’ attention and effectively communicate everything they need to know.
1. Report on every session in real-time
Consistency is key. Make sure to provide parents with a report after every single session. Reports should be sent as soon as possible, while the session is still fresh in their (and their students’) minds. Parents expect these reports on time—and definitely notice when they don’t arrive.
2. Be professional
Be mindful of the presentation of your session reports. They should be well-written, grammatically correct, and use good punctuation. These types of regular communication are an opportunity for you to showcase and strengthen your brand and parents’ impression of your company.
3. Recap the session
Tell parents what happened in the session, explaining what subjects or topics were covered as well as what exercises or activities were completed. Note any areas of difficulty, and celebrate things that went well. Include photos! This helps illustrate how students did the work, and images can make a report more appealing to open and read.
4. Describe homework assignments
Clarify what expectations are for the student before their next session, and what work needs to be done at home between now and then.
5. Make it a conversation
Education is a team effort. Your session reports are primarily for keeping parents in the loop, and should give them instructions and suggestions on what they can do to encourage their students’ progress. Be sure to leave room for parents to ask questions, and write reports in a way that they could be shared with classroom teachers if needed, as well.
6. Manage expectations
The benefit of sending regular, thorough session reports is that there are no surprises. Be sure to use your reports to help set parents’ expectations about how well their student is going to perform on any upcoming tests, projects, papers, or assignments based on how well they’ve been doing in tutoring sessions. That way, it’s not seen as your fault if the student doesn’t perform perfectly.
Are you tracking progress today in a way that sets you, your students, and their parents up for success? At Clark, we develop software to help you do just that. From mobile-friendly web tools that let tutors log sessions on the go to branded session reports that give all your communications professional polish, our streamlined systems make tracking progress—and sharing it!—a breeze.
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