Our Story and Mission:
Owl Tutors was founded in 2011 by Lawrence Drew, a former teacher and finance professional. After leaving his full-time role in finance to build his own business, Lawrence began tutoring to support himself financially. Through this experience, he quickly realised that many tutors lacked formal teaching qualifications and classroom experience.
Believing that qualified teachers make the most effective tutors, Lawrence established Owl Tutors with a clear mission: to provide students with expert academic support delivered by experienced education professionals.
Today, Owl Tutors focuses on recruiting exceptional teachers to deliver high-quality one-to-one and group tuition, both in person where available and online across the UK.
How Does Owl Tutors Work?
We recommend: Tell us your requirements and we match you with a qualified, DBS-checked specialist. We have several humans on hand to assist you at the start of the process. We will begin by understanding exactly what you are looking for to then confirm whether we have a solution that is acceptable to you.
Free consultation: Speak to your matched tutor on a free 20-minute call before any fees are payable. If we are able to recommend tutoring or group tuition options for you, you can connect and speak with a tutor before any fees become payable. Although you do not have to pay anything to meet a tutor, you will be expected to activate your account by adding a valid payment method. The tutors time and the placement fee will only become payable once you engage a tutor for tuition sessions.
Start Learning: Schedule sessions to suit you – your tutor sets goals and logs monthly progress reports. Once you have a tutor that you are happy with you can put in place the plan to achieve your goals. If at any point you feel that the tutor is not right please do get back in touch so that we can investigate a replacement if required.
Our Tutor Recruitment Process:
We beleive that qualified teachers will make some of the most effective tutors. We do however appreciate that not all teachers can operate to the same standards and so we employ a rigorous assessment process to ensure that we only represent the very best teachers there are.
The Interview/Assessment: All of our tutors have been successful at the Owl Tutors recruitment centre. They have been successful in a one to one interview and an assessed teaching exercise.
Qualification Check: We verify that our tutors hold our approved teaching qualifications (typically Qualified Teacher Status “QTS” and/or Post Graduate Certificate of Education “PGCE”) in addition to verifying degree certificates and rights to work within the jurisdication they are based.
Criminal Records Checks: In order for us to represent a tutor they must be able to provide to us that they do not have any criminal convictions relating to child safety within any jurisdictions that they have been based in for more than 6 months. For the overwhelming majority* of our tutors this means being on the UK Disclosure and Barring System “DBS” Update service.
References: Tutors must be able to provide two verified referees, one of which who must be a line manager at a school were they have worked.
We only recruit tutors who we feel confident will deliver high quality, valuable tuition and build excellent rapport with our students.
We ask for at least 2 references and an up-to-date DBS certificate.
Find out more about our tutor recruitment process.
*Tutors that are not based in the United Kingdom may not be eligible for the DBS update service and therefore we use comparable international equivalents where necessary.
How do Payments Work?
Our clients pay for tuition monthly in arrears. All of our clients are required to have an active payment method set up with Owl Tutors so that monthly invoices from tutors can be processed automatically and ensure that tutors are paid promptly.
What will I be charged? The tutor’s hourly rate will be confirmed to you during the recommendation process. Your tutor will bill you per hour of their time spent tutoring and for any additional time that is spent in preparation and marking if you have requested for a tutor to do more than would be typically expected. You will also be charged a one of placement fee of £95 (inclusive of VAT) for each tutor that is introduced to you.
When will I receive the invoice? Tutors complete timesheets for tutoring at the end of the month for all tuition that took place within that month. You are likely to receive your invoice for a particular month at the start of the following month.
How long do I have to pay in invoice? Invoices will be settled automatically using the payment method that you have set up 8 days after the invoice has been sent to you via the email on your account.
Do I have to pay anything to meet a tutor? No. We do however expect our clients to set up a payment method before we will introduce them to a tutor. Once you are introduced to a tutor you can have a free of charge 20 minute consultation in order to check whether the tutor is the right match. If you decide not to proceed with that tutor, the placement fee and any time will not be payable.
Do you offer free trails? No. You can be introduced and have a free consultation with a tutor but we do not offer free trials. If you decide to go ahead and book a tutor for tutoring after having met them or decide to book the tutor for tutoring straight away without having met them, their time will be payable at the hourly rate advertised for that tutor.
An Honest Approach
We pride ourselves on our honest approach, providing monthly feedback on each student’s progress, and likelihood of achieving their goals.
Free Resources
Owl Tutors provides free resources via our website. These include practice papers for 7, 8, 11 and 13 Plus school entrance exams and public exams.
Our team of expert tutors also provides tips and advice via our blog.