Most parents choose an online class the way they choose a restaurant — by the pictures and the reviews. Then three months in, the child is bored, the money is spent, and nobody can say exactly what went wrong. The fix is unglamorous: ask a short list of specific questions before you pay, and watch what happens when you do.

Good providers answer these plainly and quickly. Weak ones deflect, change the subject, or pivot to a discount. That reaction is often more informative than the answer itself.

1The one question underneath all the others

Ask: what happens in the lesson when my child does not understand something? That question is difficult to answer with marketing language. A real teacher will describe what they do — back up, try a different example, ask the child to explain their thinking. A weak provider will say something about being patient and supportive, which is a description of a personality rather than a method.

Everything else in this guide is a way of getting at the same thing. Does the class bend around your child, or does your child have to keep up with the class? For a child who is behind, ahead, shy, or simply particular about how they learn, this is the whole ballgame.

2Questions about the teacher

The teacher matters more than the platform, the curriculum and the app combined. Four things are worth knowing before you book.

Will my child have the same teacher each week? Rotating teachers means nobody accumulates knowledge of your child. Consistency is worth more than a marginally better-qualified stranger every session.

What is their experience with children this age? Being excellent at a subject and being able to teach it to an eight-year-old are unrelated skills. Ask specifically about the age, not the subject.

Can I meet them before committing? A trial with the actual teacher your child would get is meaningful. A trial with a demo specialist you never see again is theatre.

What happens if my child and the teacher do not click? Any honest provider has a straightforward answer to this, because it happens regularly and is nobody’s fault.

3Questions about the class itself

Ask whether the class is genuinely live, and how many children are in it. These two answers determine most of what your child will actually experience, and both are occasionally blurred in marketing.

Is it live, or recorded with support? Some providers sell recorded lessons with a chat channel attached. That can be reasonable value, but it is a different product at a different price, and your child cannot ask it a question.

How many children per class? “Small group” means anything from two to fifteen depending on who is saying it. Ask for a number, and ask what the maximum is rather than the average.

How long is a session, and how often? For most primary-age children, two or three shorter sessions a week beat one long one. Be wary of anyone selling ninety-minute lessons to a seven-year-old.

How will I know if my child is progressing? The answer should involve something you can see — work produced, a level, a game played, a conversation held. If the only measure is attendance, there is no measure.

Can I sit in? The answer should be yes, at least occasionally. A provider who discourages parents from watching is telling you something important.

4Questions about safety and checks

Ask what background checks the teacher has been through, and expect a specific answer. The NSPCC advises parents looking for a tutor to confirm that appropriate vetting is in place, including criminal records and reference checks as a minimum, and to expect an agency to be able to verify this before lessons begin.

Three more worth asking. Is the session recorded, and who can see the recording? Can a parent be present or nearby? How does the provider handle a concern if one is raised? None of these should cause hesitation. A provider that treats safety questions as an insult is not one to hand your child to.

It is also worth knowing that private tutoring is lightly regulated in most countries. There is usually no licence to lose, which places more weight on what the provider chooses to do voluntarily — and on your willingness to ask.

5Questions about money

Ask what happens if you want to stop, before you ask what it costs. Price is easy to compare; exit terms are where the unpleasant surprises live.

Is there a free trial, and is it a real lesson? A trial that is mostly a sales conversation with the parent tells you nothing about the teaching.

What is the smallest package I can buy? Being pushed straight to a year is a signal. Reputable providers are happy to start small because they expect you to continue.

What is the refund or cancellation policy, in writing? Verbal reassurance is worth nothing three months later.

What happens to missed classes? Illness and holidays are certain. Find out now whether they are lost, credited or rescheduled.

Does the price change after the first term? Ask directly. Introductory pricing that quietly steps up is common enough to be worth checking.

6What the evidence says about 1 on 1

One to one teaching works, and the reason is not mysterious: nobody can drift. The Education Endowment Foundation rates it as high impact, with an average of about five additional months of progress compared with children who did not receive it.

The honest footnote is worth reading too. The same review found that studies comparing one to one with small groups produce mixed results, and that groups of two or three sometimes did just as well. Their interpretation is that the benefit comes from the kind of teaching very small numbers allow — constant feedback, immediate correction, nowhere to hide — rather than from the number one itself.

Which is useful when you are comparing providers. A skilled teacher with three children may serve your child better than a mediocre one alone with them. Do not buy the format; buy the teaching.

7Red flags worth walking away from

The clearest warning sign is pressure to decide quickly. Education is not a product that expires tonight, and any discount that vanishes if you think about it overnight is designed to prevent you from thinking about it overnight.

No trial, or a trial that is really a sales call. If you cannot see the teaching before paying, you are buying blind.

Vagueness about who teaches. “One of our expert tutors” is not an answer. You are entitled to know who will be in the room with your child.

Guaranteed results. Nobody can guarantee what a child will achieve. Confident providers describe their method; unreliable ones promise outcomes.

Discomfort about parents watching. There is no legitimate reason to discourage a parent from occasionally observing a child’s lesson.

Refund terms that only exist verbally. If it is not written down, assume it does not exist.

8How to judge the trial class

Watch your child, not the teacher. The lesson can look impressive and still be wrong for your particular child, and the signals that matter are all on your side of the screen.

Three questions afterwards. Did your child speak more towards the end than at the beginning? Did they get something wrong and have another go, rather than going quiet? Did they bring it up later without prompting? Any one of those is worth more than a polished presentation.

And one question for yourself: did the teacher change anything based on your child? If the lesson would have run identically with any other child, you have watched a performance rather than a lesson.

Where to start this week

Pick two providers, send both the same short list of questions, and book a trial with whichever answers better. The whole process costs you an evening and can save you a term of fees and a child who has decided they dislike the subject.

If you would like one of those trials to be with us, it is free and it is a real lesson — and you are welcome to sit in.