What Good Tutoring Actually Does
The Sydney Morning Herald recently profiled Sydney Boys High in The question smart parents ask at Sydney Boys High open day, and it put a long-running tension back in the spotlight: principal Dr Kim Jaggar's scepticism of coaching that teaches the curriculum in advance — warning that pre-knowledge can breed arrogance and leave bright students switching off in class. It's a view shared by other elite schools; Sydney Grammar, famously, would rather its students did no tutoring at all than some.
We think that concern is fair. So rather than argue with it, we want to be honest about what good tutoring actually does — and what it doesn't.
In short: elite schools like Sydney Boys and Sydney Grammar are sceptical of tutoring — some would rather students did none at all. That concern is fair when tutoring is just cramming content ahead to chase a mark. But it's an argument for doing it well, not banning it. Honestly, our role is practice, confidence and skills — not "learn this to get a mark". The balance matters both ways: racing a student a year ahead breeds coasting, but under-challenging a capable student is just as damaging. After more than 20 years we've learned that getting it right means managing parents' expectations as much as students' — and that's an evolving job, because parents are changing too.
🏫 A fair concern from the schools
When the Herald profiled Sydney Boys High, its principal Dr Kim Jaggar was blunt about coaching colleges that teach the curriculum in advance: pre-knowledge, he warned, can breed arrogance and leave bright students switching off in class. He isn't alone — Sydney Grammar takes a similar line, and would rather its students did no tutoring at all than some.
We think that concern is fair. So rather than argue with it, we want to be honest about what good tutoring actually does — and what it doesn't.
🎯 Being honest about our role
Let's be clear about what we're for. Our job is not to make a student "learn this to get a mark". If that's all tutoring is, the schools are right to be wary of it — that's exactly the cram-for-an-edge approach that breeds coasting.
What we actually do is narrower, and more useful:
- Practice — the repetition and feedback that turn understanding into something reliable under exam pressure.
- Confidence — the quiet belief that comes from genuinely understanding something, not from having seen it early.
- Skills — how to study, how to structure an argument, how to approach a problem they've never seen before. These outlast any single topic.
None of that is about gaming a mark. It's the groundwork that makes good marks a by-product rather than the point.
⚖️ Two ways to get it wrong
Get this wrong in one direction and you race a student a term — or a year — ahead. That's the thing Dr Jaggar rightly warns about: pre-knowledge breeds a quiet arrogance, "I've seen this before" becomes a reason to switch off, and the fragile head start fades while the habit of coasting sticks.
But it's just as easy to get it wrong the other way — to under-push a capable student, leave them unchallenged and disengaged, and call that "not pressuring them". A bright student who is bored is a student going backwards, however relaxed it looks.
The healthy place is in between: a student kept a bit ahead — having previewed and consolidated the next step — so they walk into class ready to engage, ask sharper questions and go deeper. That's what builds real confidence. Our job is to find that line for each student and hold it.
👨👩👧 Managing parents as much as students
After more than 20 years, here's something we've learned that doesn't get said often enough: a lot of the job is managing parents, not just students.
The urge to get a child a head start, the anxiety about a single mark, the comparison with the kid down the street — those are real, and they're ours to manage as much as anything we do with the student. Part of our role is giving parents an honest, calm read on what their child actually needs, even when it isn't what they walked in asking for.
And it's a moving target. Expectations have shifted; today's parents are more informed, more anxious and more involved than they were a decade ago. Helping a student well increasingly means helping their family hold a sensible, supportive line — and that's a skill in itself.
🤝 The right student, at the right time
This is also why a blanket "no tutoring" rule doesn't quite work. A class of thirty, however good the teacher, can't give every student the individual feedback, pacing and encouragement they need.
Good tutoring fills that gap: catching a student who's slipping before they fall behind, stretching one who's ready for more, and giving each the attention a busy classroom simply can't. It isn't for every student, and it isn't always the answer — but for the right student, at the right time, it's the difference between treading water and moving forward with purpose.
We sometimes tell families their child doesn't need more tutoring, or shouldn't be pushed further ahead. We'd rather be honest than keep a student we can't genuinely help.
That has always been our approach — mastery over memorisation, high expectations matched with genuine care, and every student supported to reach their own goal. We'd rather build a learner than rush one.
💬 Talk to us
If you're weighing up whether your child needs tutoring at all — or more of it, or less — we're happy to give you an honest view, not a sales pitch.
- Wondering how marks really work? Read our plain-English guide to HSC and ATAR scaling.
- Choosing subjects? Our free Subject Selector shows how each subject scales as an honest range — never a single predicted ATAR.
- Want to talk it through? Get in touch and we'll give you our genuine read on what serves your child.
Frequently asked questions
Some elite schools — Sydney Boys and Sydney Grammar among them — would rather students did no tutoring at all, and we understand why: tutoring that just crams content ahead to chase a mark really can backfire. But a blanket 'no' misses the point. Done well, tutoring is practice, confidence and skills, plus the individual attention a class of thirty can't give. It's about the right student getting the right help at the right time.
Honestly, our job isn't to make a student 'learn this to get a mark'. It's to give them practice that makes their understanding reliable under pressure, the confidence that comes from genuinely understanding something, and skills — how to study, structure an argument and approach an unfamiliar problem — that outlast any single topic. Good marks follow from that; they aren't the point of it.
Being a bit ahead is healthy — a student who has previewed and consolidated the next step walks into class ready to engage and go deeper, which builds confidence. Being raced a term or a year ahead is the opposite: that's where pre-knowledge breeds arrogance and coasting, exactly as Sydney Boys' principal warns. We aim to keep students a healthy step ahead, never launched so far forward they switch off.
It can, if it's done badly — but the opposite mistake is just as real. Under-challenge a capable student and they get bored and disengage, which sets them back as surely as too much pressure does. The skill is holding the balance, and after more than 20 years we've found a lot of that work is managing expectations — parents' as much as students'. Our job is to keep the challenge healthy, not to crank up the pressure or let a bright student coast.