When to get a tutor, and when to keep going it alone

The decision to bring in a tutor often gets framed as a verdict on whether a parent is capable of teaching a subject themselves, which is the wrong frame. It's much more often about exam-specific knowledge, time, or simply having a second adult in the picture for a subject that's become a source of friction.

A tutor tends to add the most value in three situations: exam years, where current, specific knowledge of how Qualifications Scotland marks a paper genuinely matters; subjects that have become a flashpoint between parent and learner, where an outside adult resets the dynamic; and subjects where a parent's own knowledge has a real gap, which is completely normal and nothing to feel behind about.

It's rarely all-or-nothing. Many families use a tutor for one specific subject at one specific stage (an exam-year Maths tutor, say) while continuing everything else themselves exactly as before.

If you're not sure whether now's the moment, a single low-stakes intro session is usually the fastest way to find out, rather than deciding in the abstract.