Mark’s School Oxford:
Information for new teachers
Bespoke one-to-one online tuition | English, maths and all other subjects
11+, GCSE, A-level | Children aged 5-18
Information for Teachers
Thank you so much for considering working with us, and for taking the time to watch this video.
In this clip, I lay out some of the practicalities involved in being a teacher with Mark’s School Oxford. I hope the video also gives a feel for what working with us is like.
The information in the video is given in written form below.
If you have any questions about any of the content, please do get in touch with me and I will be more than happy to discuss.
Some details about how we work:
1. I would need to see some evidence of a DBS check, and also have a picture and copy of your CV so I can create a Chinese language profile of you to send to the student (The vast majority of our students are Chinese). Of course, I would run the profile by you before sending it to a prospective student.
2. Whenever we have a new student, the tutor sends them a pre-lesson task to try. This helps the tutor quickly evaluate the student’s level so that they can provide a lesson better tailored to their abilities. It also helps build trust with the parents because we show we are taking our work seriously.
3. In an ideal world, the student would send the completed pre-lesson task back to me, and I would send it to you in plenty of time before the lesson. Of course, sometimes the student does not complete the task, or completes it, but only just in time for the lesson and not in advance, so we need to be flexible and ready to adjust to this. For example, some tutors help the student complete the pre-lesson task with them in the lesson when this happens.
4. I will help you and the parent arrange a mutually agreeable time for a trial class. We should choose a time that could work weekly long-term for everyone if the family wanted to move forward.
5. We use WeChat to communicate with Chinese students, and I would ask you to download this app and set up an account. WeChat is the Chinese equivalent of WhatsApp, and people in China do 95% of their communication via this app (and not email).
6. Once the trial class time is agreed, I would set up a WeChat group for me, the parent and yourself, and then you are responsible for setting up a lesson meeting room and sending it to the parent. The vast majority of our classes are online, and you can choose if you teach on zoom or teams. Google is not available in China. The trial lesson is paid as normal (and not free).
7. After the trial lesson has been completed, you would write one or two lines about your impression of the student/current strengths/weaknesses, and a few thoughts about how you would plan to teach them going forward. I will format this into a bilingual report and send it to the parents. Again, this helps to build trust in our professionalism.
8. I will let you know as soon as possible if the family would like to proceed with the lessons.
9. From this point on, you are responsible for communication between the family and yourself, but I am always available to answer any queries or step in if you would like.
10. You would submit an invoice to me and our accountant every month by the last day of the month, and you would be paid by the 10th of the following month.
11. For student cancellations, we do not charge if they give us 24 hours notice or more. However, for last minute cancellations we charge as normal.
12. I will send you more students whenever someone I feel would be a good fit for you comes along. Unfortunately inquiries tend to come in bunches and I wouldn’t be able to guarantee a steady flow of students, but I would do everything I could to get you the students you wanted.
If having read all this, you are still interested in working with us, please send me a copy of your CV, AND a pre-lesson task that would be suitable for the student I have been in touch with you about.