Barcelona (BAR-1117)

The student is a charming young man, unswervingly polite, socially comfortable, sporty and gregarious. His family lives in Barcelona, where he attends an elite tennis academy. In order to facilitate his training, they have taken him out of school and are home schooling him around his schedule. The family is of Hungarian descent, but the student has grown up mainly in England and is fluent in English. He has learned Hungarian at home, good Spanish and intermediate French.

The student is used to working with a Tutor, as Tutors International have been involved for the last three years, and the family is looking to continue this very positive previous experience. In this student, the Tutor will find a boy who works hard and is keen to succeed. His competitive nature and desire to excel spills over from his tennis playing, and the right Tutor will be able to capitalise on this enthusiasm.

The student’s aspiration is to get a tennis scholarship to a good US university, hopefully an Ivy. In order to achieve this, he has changed from the British KS3 curriculum to a US high school curriculum and has enrolled in a virtual high school to ensure that his credits and GPA are recorded in a proper transcript. In addition to this, it is likely that the student will take some GCSEs, potentially in Spanish, politics, and PE. He has no serious academic issues. He is a voracious reader of all types of writing. He reads the newspaper and loves politics, and he enjoys fiction too. As with many boys of his age, his writing could be improved.

Home schooling and the flexible NUVHS curriculum will allow the student to achieve high school graduation with a high GPA, whilst still following his demanding tennis training and completion schedules. The Tutor’s main role will be to ensure that the student has a full and thorough understanding of the work that he needs to submit for assessment to ensure that he has fully mastered the required areas before submitting assignments for grading and before taking any of the timed assessments. The Tutor will also be responsible for ensuring that all deadlines are met and that the student is keeping on schedule with his studies.

It is essential that the successful candidate be either an American with experience of preparing children for GCSEs, or a Briton who has extensive US High School and College prep experience. This must be actual firsthand experience and not something just researched online!

The Tutor should have a wide knowledge base and a range of interests that they can share with the family. It is essential that the Tutor is passionate about either tennis or football, but preferably both. The student plays bass guitar, although he has not played as much recently as he would like, and it would be ideal if the Tutor could teach the student or at least join with a complementary musical instrument. A passion for literature or the sciences, for example, would help to inspire the student in an academic field as well. It would be particularly advantageous if the Tutor is interested in history, economics and politics. The Tutor should be a natural communicator with a kind and caring disposition, and a firm-but-fair approach to their work. He or she should be eloquent, able to explain concepts simply and able to inspire with his or her enthusiasm for any given subject.

The Tutor should be an exceptional educator in a role that will require them to be all things to all people (part driver, part tutor, part friend) and diplomatic, polite and amiable at all times. He or she should be prepared to work closely with the other educators involved through the online courses, and be highly organised in their own work. It would be advantageous if the Tutor had a good level of Spanish.

The Tutor should not create a high-pressure environment, but equally should not be afraid to push his charge when needed. He should create a productive atmosphere, one rich with discourse and dialogue that nurtures the development of an inquiring and curious young person.

This role is based in Spain, so it is essential that any candidates for the position have full rights to employment and residency in a European country. Tutors International cannot get Spanish work permits for applicants.

This is a full-time position with teaching fitting in around the student’s training and competition schedule. The Tutor should expect that the planned timings will need to be adjusted from time to time, for example if a tournament lasts longer than anticipated. For this reason, the Tutor should also expect that sometimes they will teach fewer hours per day or week than contracted, and sometimes more. Efforts will be made to ensure that this will balance out over time.

Standard contractual vacation allowance of a minimum of 9 weeks per annum applies to this contract. As per the Terms, the timing of breaks will be at the Client’s convenience, but is likely to follow the general pattern of the normal school holidays in England.

Furnished accommodation will be arranged for the Tutor in Barcelona. This will be in an apartment separate from the family’s home. If the Tutor is married or wishes to relocate with a partner, he will be responsible for paying the difference between the accommodation provided by the Client and that preferred by the Tutor.

If the Tutor is asked to accompany the Client on any travel, the Client will be responsible for all the Tutor’s travel expenses and accommodation arrangements, but not his or her food or personal telephone usage except insofar as they are needed for tutoring purposes or take place during tutoring times.

If needed, the Client will provide a small car. If the Tutor is relocating from within Europe they are welcome to bring his or her own car and will be able to ask for a contribution towards the expenses involved in this drive up to the value of an economy return flight from London to Barcelona.