Overview
Introduces a read-only screen of the school's enquiry, which tuition partners will view before they can respond to each requirement. This is accessed via the magic link in the automated email they will receive once the enquiry was created.
When the tuition partners open the schools enquiries, this new page (or new view) is the they will visit first from their e-mail notification about the enquiry.
After viewing the enquiry, tuition partners can choose to reply to or decline the enquiry.
We give reassurance to the tuition partners that we will still notify them of any future enquiries from other schools so don’t feel they have to reply to the enquiry (even if they don’t feel it will be a great fit) When the schools view their manage enquiry screen, they will be able to see how many TPs have chosen not to respond.
Why we did this
Schools receives many responses to their enquiries (average of 30), they need to not use time considering enquiries that don’t meet their needs to that the amount of replies is less daunting or don’t use time on responses which don’t meet their needs TPs need to consider the whole enquiry before drafting a response so they don’t start a response, only to realise they don’t meet the final criteria, leading to a big waste of time.
A few quick examples
An example of the read-only screen
Evidence that some tuition partners will decline enquiries, which can benefit schools by reducing number of responses they have to read:
"I would decline this. As this is not my area. I’m completely ethical - I can’t and I won’t teach SEND. I’m not interested in tutoring science. Tutoring online would not appeal."
"I would probably accept on the basis of the location. In this example we would decline because it is too far for us"
"cachflow, capacity and timing, there are lots of reasons why we cannot take on work - not really to do with the pupils, more of a business decision don’t want to spread yourself too thin because want a good reputation as we are a growing business"
Evidence that suggests that tuition partner that chose to respond to enquiries would cooperate to acknowledge how they would support the school's tuition requirements:
"I would respond because we would try to find the resouces to meet this requirement, but the finance manager sat her down and explained that they should play to their strengths."
"I would try really hard to find a tutor to speak those needs"
Responding to the school's tuition requirements
In user testing a tuition partner stated that they liked the service as it didn't ask too many questions and seemed really intrigued by this service
A few participants questioned if schools have time to read detailed responses
This was dead easy. The more you do, the easier it will become. We’d know we’d be in competition with the big guys. We have the advantage because most of the local tutors in this area and have good F2F advantage because most of our freelance tutors like working with us because of our ethics and our pay rates - we’re in a rural area"
"This works as I could provide advice on the settings depending on the subjects taught (tuition setting question)"
"This is hard to respond because SEND is really nuanced eg high preforming autism. Maybe should be more of a tick box with a list of conditions could be and with all of them there will be a spectrum of behaviour" (SEND question)
A participant liked ‘honestly and accurately’ as possible. because from her experience not all TPs are ‘honest’ on what they can provide. This form was 'all straightforward'
Confirmation page
Confirmation email after responding to the enquiry
