Should a tutor do my child's homework with them?

Using tutoring time to work through school homework together is common and can be genuinely useful, but the most effective tutoring usually goes beyond homework completion to address the underlying gaps that homework alone reveals but doesn't fix.

When working on homework together adds real value:

• The homework itself becomes a diagnostic tool — a tutor watching a child attempt it can see exactly where understanding breaks down, in a way that a completed (or copied) homework sheet handed in the next day cannot show
• Homework is genuinely stuck or confusing, and working through it together resolves both the immediate task and the underlying misunderstanding
• The student needs support with organisation and consistency around independent work generally

The limitation of a homework-only approach:

If every session is spent purely completing that week's homework, the tutor never gets to systematically address broader gaps, build exam technique, or work ahead on topics the student will struggle with later. Sessions that are entirely reactive to whatever homework happens to be due that week tend to produce slower overall progress than sessions with some dedicated diagnostic and targeted practice time.

What works best in practice:

Many effective tutors use homework as one input among several — checking it briefly at the start of a session to see what it reveals, then spending the bulk of the time on the specific gaps or exam technique that homework alone won't fix. This is worth discussing directly with a prospective tutor: ask how they'd balance homework support against broader, more targeted work.