Five signs parents can look for
| What to look at | What parents can see | A question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | What to build today is specific | What was today's lesson for? |
| Child's participation | Answering, explaining and redoing it themselves | What did you do by yourself today? |
| Feedback | What went well and what to fix are specific | What do you fix next? |
| Adjustment | Explanations and problems change with understanding | Did the tutor change how they went about it? |
| Next step | The focus of the next lesson is clear | What will you do in the next 2-3 lessons? |
1.You can tell what today's lesson was for
In good one-to-one tutoring, the 60 minutes are not just "speaking English"; what to build in that time has been decided.
For example: being able to write two or more reasons in a school English essay, starting to answer in an EIKEN interview without freezing on the question, or being able to decide what to turn into an equation in a fraction word problem.
When the purpose of a lesson is specific like this, parents can check "what was today's lesson for?" even without understanding the English.
On the other hand, if every time it is only "we studied English" or "we had a conversation", it is hard to see what is changing.
Before or after the lesson, try asking just one thing: "What was today's lesson for?" If your child can answer briefly, the focus of the learning is easier to see.
2.Your child is not just passive
In one-to-one lessons, clear explanations from the tutor matter.
But if the tutor is talking all the time, it is hard to tell whether your child really understood.
Look for moments during the lesson when your child answers in their own words, explains a reason, solves a problem alone, or tries again after a mistake.
The OECD is an organisation that carries out international research and analysis on education policy and learning. Formative assessment here means checking understanding during a lesson and reflecting the result in how you teach next. The OECD's guide to formative assessment also sets out the idea of drawing out the child's thinking and adjusting feedback and next teaching to their understanding.
Even if parents cannot follow the English, they can see how much their child is speaking and thinking for themselves.
After the lesson, ask not only whether the tutor's explanation made sense, but "What did you manage to do by yourself today?"
3.Feedback is specific, and you know what to fix next
Encouragement such as "Good job" or "Let's try harder" does not tell you what to fix next. Quality feedback connects the goal and where your child is now. Specifics such as "the content is there, so next add one concrete example after 'because'", "the calculation is right, so in word problems mark the units first" or "you answered the question, so next add one sentence of reasoning" make the next task easier for parents to understand too.
The Education Endowment Foundation's feedback summary, which collects research on teaching practice in the UK, and the OECD's guide to formative assessment both stress showing a specific next action tied to the learning goal rather than vague evaluation.
In reports after lessons, check whether what your child achieved, the current challenge and what to do next are written specifically.
4.The way the lesson goes changes with your child's understanding
A big strength of a private tutor is being able to change the pace to one child's understanding.
If the planned problems are too easy, a tutor can move on to harder ones; if an explanation causes a stumble, they can use another example or a diagram; and if a school assignment reveals a new problem, they can adjust the day's priorities. Look at whether changes like these actually happen.
The Education Endowment Foundation's summary on one-to-one tuition, which collects research on teaching practice in the UK, also stresses that in tutoring you identify gaps in learning, target the content that is needed, and adjust as you see progress.
Using exactly the same material at the same pace every time is not in itself a problem.
But if your child does not understand and the lesson keeps going on schedule, it is worth checking once.
As a parent, you can ask your child, "Has your tutor changed how they do things lately?" to see the adjustments more easily. If specific examples come up, the tutor may be changing their approach while watching your child's understanding.
5.After the lesson, the "next" is visible
Whether a single lesson was fun is not enough to judge long-term quality.
What matters is whether it connects from last time to this time, and from this time to next time.
Last time's task is checked this time, what could not be done this time is covered again next time, and if there is an exam, the next practice is set by working back from the date. When you can see this flow, lessons are no longer one-off.
In Petra Tutors' monthly progress updates too, we focus not on a mere list of lesson content but on telling you specifically what the tutor saw, what changed and what comes next.
Even if parents cannot understand all the English, knowing where your child is now, what has changed since last time and what comes next makes the direction of the lessons easier to see.
Do not judge only by how things look right after the lesson
One caution: do not decide lesson quality by your child's expression alone. A fun lesson is not always a good one. And on a day when your child worked on hard problems, they may be a little tired afterwards.
What to look at is the flow over several lessons rather than one impression. Following these points is easier than judging by one lively lesson.
- Your child is not stuck in the same place again and again
- The tutor's explanations change when needed
- What your child can do alone is gradually growing
- The next task is clear
Lots of homework alone does not make a "good tutor"
When a lot of homework is set, it can feel as if your child is getting thorough teaching.
But quantity alone does not show quality.
Homework is more meaningful when your child knows why they are doing it, it fits their current challenge, and it connects to being checked in the next lesson.
Even with little homework, the tutor may have narrowed it to the one practice your child needs.
Conversely, even a lot of homework breaks the flow of learning if it is not touched on at all next time.
Five questions parents can ask the tutor
You do not need to ask about the fine details of English.
These five can be checked in Japanese.
- What is the main skill you most want to build right now?
- What has my child recently become able to do?
- What is still hard for them to do alone?
- Have you changed how you run the lessons?
- What will you prioritise in the next 2-3 lessons?
A good tutor does not have to answer everything perfectly. But being able to explain specifically what they have seen and why they are doing the practice they are doing matters.
How Petra Tutors checks
When Petra Tutors checks how lessons are going, what we look at is not how much the tutor talked.
We connect whether the current challenge is clear against the learning goal, whether the tutor's observations and feedback are specific, and whether it has been decided what to change next time.
In monthly progress updates too, we organise what went well, the challenges and the next direction, based on real lesson information confirmed with the tutor.
Even if parents cannot understand all the lesson content, it matters to create a situation where the flow of learning can be seen.
A lesson quality checklist for parents
Summary: look at the flow of learning, not English ability
Parents can judge the quality of lessons even if they do not speak English.
Parents do not need to judge detailed grammar explanations or pronunciation. What to look at is whether the goal of the lesson is clear, whether your child has time to think for themselves, whether feedback is specific, whether the pace changes with their understanding, and whether the next step is visible.
We chose this theme because some parents feel they have no choice but to trust the tutor because they cannot follow the content.
Leaving things to the tutor is not the same as being left not knowing anything.
If it is hard to see how lessons are going, Petra Tutors can also organise where your child is now and the next direction from the tutor's lesson information. To start, after the next lesson, try asking your child: "What was today's lesson for?"
