Cluey Learning Online Tutoring Review
The internet, when used responsibly and judiciously, is a wonderful resource for kids and can be both educational and fun. Now, it can also be used for one-on-one and small group tutoring through Cluey Learning, an online tutoring company that supports students between the grades of two to twelve.
If your child didn’t get the report card they were wanting or expecting, Cluey Learning offers tutoring sessions during the school term and right throughout the holidays to help your child catch up on work they may have missed this year, or to give them a head start on next year’s curriculum.
The daughter of one of our Brisbane Kids’ writers was invited to trial this online tutoring service, completing two online sessions with a tutor in the area of grade 8/9 English. Here’s what she found…
How does the Cluey Learning tutoring system work?
1/ Phone call to discuss your needs/aims
The first step to setting up your child’s online tutoring is to phone Cluey Learning to discuss your child’s tutoring needs (or register your interest via their website and they’ll phone you), as well as discuss your child’s disposition so that they can best match a tutor to your student’s personality and subject area/s.
2/ Matching a tutor to your child
My daughter wanted to specifically work on spelling, grammar, and punctuation; something she had always found challenging at school, despite otherwise achieving well in English. After going through these details over the phone with Cluey Learning, we were matched with a tutor named Joanne; a teacher with considerable experience in the classroom and private tutoring.
3/ Login details & scheduling
An email was sent to us before the session with our online account details – this is where you can schedule and review sessions, as well as access progress reports and invoices, by using a username and password to log in.
I was relieved to find that we didn’t need any special software or downloads for the Cluey Learning tutoring sessions – just a laptop or computer with an internet connection, audio, and a webcam (which is usually in-built these days). Cluey provide an email with a link to each online session, which is always in real-time and 100% interactive.
4/ Online tutoring session
At our allocated time, we clicked on the link and found Joanne ready and waiting for us. At first, I hovered around the computer, unsure whether I was needed, but it really wasn’t necessary – my daughter and the tutor dived straight in and were hard at work for the next 60 minutes. They began by setting goals for the session. My daughter wanted to work on commonly misspelt words, like stationery vs stationary or desert vs dessert. Joanne was able to immediately bring up a spelling diagnosis to assess where my daughter was going wrong, and then show her strategies and techniques to help her get it right next time.
Both my daughter and her tutor could see and hear one another (similar to Skyping), and they could both use an interactive whiteboard for the spelling tests and other activities. I noticed that Joanne was very encouraging and amiable, and chatted to my daughter about her favourite books and authors, as well as getting into the nitty-gritty of English tutelage.
What we liked about the Cluey Learning tutoring sessions
The online tutoring format is incredibly convenient – you can schedule sessions anytime between 7 am and 10 pm, seven days per week. That means you can fit it in before or after school, or around other activities in the holidays. I loved that I didn’t lose time driving to and from a session, and I didn’t have to drag my younger children along! While my daughter was having her session, I was able to do some jobs around the house, which was a much better use of my time, compared to sitting in a waiting room or carpark.
We also liked the fact that there was no formal assessment required before beginning with Cluey Learning. Instead, the tutor uses a continuous assessment approach by asking questions and conducting a few exercises to determine where my child was at in each area and then personalised the learning plan and tutoring sessions specifically to her needs.
As a parent, I really appreciated that I was emailed feedback from the tutor afterwards so that I was kept up-to-date on what they had been working on in that particular session. My daughter was also given the opportunity at the end of the session to share her feedback, which I’ve included below.
Tutor feedback
The student read a passage fluently and answered comprehension questions well. We looked at new vocabulary from the passage and discussed meanings. She identified words in the passage that would be spelling challenges for her. I explained a relevant spelling rule and she successfully put it into practice. I also demonstrated some spelling pattern/colour strategies that she found helpful. The student plans to try them out with a list of words with double middle consonants and report back to me. We looked at commonly confused words and she learned some tips for remembering the differences. She then correctly completed a practice exercise and wrote some sentences using the words. In coming sessions, she would like me to cover spelling rules with her. We will also work on sentence variety. She demonstrates a motivated and diligent attitude towards her learning.
Student feedback
I chose this emoji because the session really helped me to learn about spelling rules and helped me identify the areas of spelling that I need the most help in.
Challenges with Cluey Learning online tutoring
You really need a reliable WiFi connection for the session to run effectively. For the first session, we had to move from my daughter’s bedroom to our home office, as there was a bit of a delay in the sound. However, once she was seated closer to the modem, the connection was much better, which made for a more seamless session.
Brisbane Kids thanks Cluey Learning for providing our writer and her daughter with online tutoring sessions for the purpose of a review. Costs were covered. All the opinions stated in this review are true, honest, and genuine, with the sole aim of providing enough information for parents to make an informed decision about utilising this online service with their children.