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How do you allocate school opportunities to tutors?
When schools request tuition, they let us know the subject and time frames for their desired programme. We create a school opportunity in the system, and offer it to tutors whose subject and availability match the school’s request.
But we don't offer a new opportunity to all our tutors at the same time, to avoid creating a massive rush for each new opportunity.
Instead, we offer an opportunity to a few tutors at a time. We look at availability, reliability, and boost status to decide who to offer slots to first.
How can I be offered slots before other tutors?
Every tutor has a priority status, ranging from Priority 1 to Priority 3. Tutors with Priority 1 are offered the first pick of school opportunities.
To get higher priority status, you need to
Let us know you’re looking for work by boosting your profile and confirming your availability (remember, boost expires after 7 days!)
Show you’re a reliable tutor by attending all your lessons on time or letting us know well in advance if you can’t make it
If you do both of these, you’ll have Priority 1 status. If you’re late to lessons, miss lessons without telling us, or if you’re not boosting, you’ll be lower down the priority order - you can learn more about how we handle missed lessons and lateness in our Attendance and Lateness Policy.
We’ll send you an email at the beginning of every month to let you know your current priority status.
How does my reliability as a tutor affect my chances to get work?
We look at the number of lessons you’re late to, or miss. If you always let us know you’re going to miss a lesson with plenty of notice (24 hours or more before), and otherwise attend all your lessons on time, that makes you a reliable tutor.
You’ll have a higher priority status and will be offered school opportunities before tutors who don’t attend all their lessons on time.
To assess your reliability, we look at your total lessons from the past 30 days, or if you haven't delivered many lessons in the last 30 days, we look at your most recent 10 lessons.
The best thing you can do if you know you’ll be late to or absent from a lesson is to let us know in advance - you can learn more about cancellations in our Cancellation Policy.
How does it work for new tutors?
It’s important to help new tutors hit the ground running - but as they have no prior statistics we give them Priority 2 status. Once they pick up some lessons, we prioritise them based on their reliability, availability, and boost status.
How does it work if I haven’t delivered any lessons recently?
We look at your total lessons from the past 30 days, or if you haven't delivered many lessons in the last 30 days, we look at your most recent 10 lessons. So we always consider at least 10 of your lessons to assess your reliability.
If you haven’t delivered 10 lessons yet, you’ll have Priority 2 status like our new tutors.
If you haven’t delivered lessons in the past 12 months, you’ll have Priority 2 status.
What if I have valid reasons for missing lessons or being late?
As a tutor, you’re responsible for attending your lessons on time. That means:
Make sure you have a stable internet connection and a working computer ready for your lesson.
Planning your schedule so you have enough time between your lessons and other commitments (including accounting for bad traffic!).
Take time off if you’re struggling with health or other commitments.
Let us know in advance of the lesson if you’re unable to make it (for example you’re ill).
However, we understand there can be exceptional circumstances that you do not have control over. If this is the case, please do get in touch with us so we can take your reasons into account.
What’s the difference between my rank, and my slot allowance?
By improving the way we share school opportunities, we no longer feel the need to restrict the number of regular pupils tutors can work with - meaning we are removing slot allowances in line with this update!
As of May 3rd 2022, you do not have a "recurring slot allowance" and there are no limits on the number of recurring slots you can take on.
Do only Priority 1 tutors get work?
Regardless of the priority status, you still have access to school opportunities.
Whilst tutors with Priority 1 get the first pick of the slots, there are more school opportunities than Priority 1 tutors - so those in Priority 2 and Priority 3 will still be offered a fair share of slots.
Note: the number of slots available depends on the time of year. Schools are mostly looking for tutors between November and May.
Will tutors lower in the rank get a chance to improve their ranking?
Yes! To determine a tutor's priority status, we only look at your total lessons from the past 30 days, or if you haven't delivered many lessons in the last 30 days, your most recent 10 lessons. So all tutors have the opportunity to move up the rank.
And, tutors across all priority statuses receive school opportunities and have the chance to accept work.
I’ve been reliable. Why are other tutors seeing more opportunities than me?
As well as reliability, other factors can impact how many school opportunities you see.
Boosting your profile: This tells us that you’re looking for work, so we share more opportunities with tutors that are boosting. Remember, boost expires after 7 days!
Your availability: Most school lessons happen between 2 pm and 5 pm from Monday to Thursday. If your current bookings or the availability you share when you boost suggest you’re not free, you won’t see as many opportunities as tutors who are available at those times.
Subject offering: 95% of school opportunities are either for Maths, English, or the Sciences, and most of those are at GCSE level. If you don’t teach one of those subjects, you’ll be less likely to see school opportunities
What if lots of tutors are always attending on time?
If lots of tutors are attending all their lessons on time then that’s great for everyone!
Then, the best way to differentiate yourself and get the first pick of school opportunities will be to boost your profile.
Since boosting expires after 7 days, not that many tutors are ever boosting at any one time.