FAQs
Answers to the most commonly asked questions
Our FAQs and help centre should cover the answers you’re looking for, but if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our team is always happy to be of support!
General FAQs
If you’re unsure of the appropriate level, please talk to our Learning Advisor (contact us here), or to a teacher at your school.
Whatever lesson you choose, if you’re on the wrong level then our teachers will tell you, and you’ll get a call to advise what to book instead.
Tute specialises in small group teaching and the benefits this delivers for individuals who may otherwise be isolated by their circumstances. If our shared timetables are not convenient then we are happy to discuss 1:1 lessons on a case by case basis.
Safeguarding of students is important to us, so all of our lessons are recorded to protect the teacher and their pupils, and teachers are fully qualified and DBS-checked. A pupil’s camera is also not used, but they can see the teacher. The platform includes profanity filters and prevents email/phone numbers being exchanged.
96% of pupils feel safe in Tute lessons according to feedback.
You can read more about our Safeguarding policy here.
Students learn in small groups at school, and love interacting with peers. Research from a small-scale trial at Durham University found a positive effect for Tute lessons compared to students not taking Tute lessons.
Research undertaken by Doctoral candidates at the University of Chester showed that 90% of students would recommend Tute to others, and that 88% feel that they learn new things.
Find out more about the research behind Tute here.
No. Our teachers use webcams and are visible to our students, but we ask that students keep their webcam switch off. Students cannot be seen by our teacher, or by one another.
All Tute students should be supervised by an appropriate adult at the location they are joining our lessons from. Whilst we uphold rigorous safeguarding standards in our online environment, we cannot be responsible for the physical safety of students and responsibility for this lies with the commissioner.
The length of time it takes to process a booking will depend on the type of provision you are booking.
Shared provision: Students can be enrolled into Shared lessons within 24-48 hours of us receiving your completed booking form.
Private provision: we work on a 2 to 3-week timescale to process bookings for private provision but bookings can be processed quicker or slower depending on the size of the booking that you make, whether the times you select are popular or not and whether we have tutors available at those times.
You will receive confirmation of lessons starting shortly before they begin. At this time, you will receive log in details for your students as well as a guide about how to access lessons on our learning platform. These logins can then be distributed to students in preparation for their sessions getting under way. Students will keep their login details throughout their time with us at Tute.
Our IT team will be in contact with your named IT contact once the booking forms have been submitted for your school. Once the Network Manager / 3rd Party company / LA have configured their firewalls as per our technical requirements, the test itself just involves somebody mimicking the student journey school side. They need to access their school network as one of their students would (student network / PC log in) and ideally be in the exact location Tute lessons will be accessed from, ideally using the same equipment (device & headset) that a student would for Tute.
Teachers will update the progress tracker for their groups within 24 hours of the lesson having taken place. You will be given access to a One Drive folder that will allow you to look at the progress and attendance information that each of your groups booked has. Any queries relating to this, then you can contact your account manager and they will address any questions that you might have relating to this. There is an option to take up some training allowing you to access further attendance and finance information relating to your booking upon request.
Accessing Tute lessons
Navigate to www.tute.com and click “Students“. Enter your username and password. Your user name will always be: firstname.lastnameinitial@SchoolName.
In the first instance you should call 0330 330 9751 and select Option 4 for the IT Team. If these are not available, the send an email to admin.support@tute.com stating the name of your school, the student’s name and the group/subject they are involved with in the body of the email. Please ensure that the email is titled Password Reset Required so that it can be dealt with more readily.
After normal business hours (08:30-04:30), our lines may not be monitored. Please email support@tute.zendesk.com and someone will get back to you as quickly as possible
All you need is:
- Internet access
- Laptop, desktop, Chromebook or tablet (Tute can run on Android 6.0 or above via Chrome, or on an iPad 12.2 or above via safari)
- Google Chrome
- Headset
Check your volume is up and not muted in your PC sound settings. If using a headset, make sure it is properly connected and that any physical volume controls are turned up and not muted.
To hear your teacher you need to be connected to the lesson audio. You can check this by looking at your username in the Users list where you should see a green icon of a headset or microphone next to your user name.
Whatever lesson you choose, if you’re on the wrong level then our teachers will tell you, and you’ll get a call to advise what to book instead.
If you do not have either icon showing next to your username, click the Audio button at the bottom of the bottom of the lesson.
Choose your preferred option of Mic or Listen only and you will be connected to the audio. Your audio icon at the bottom of the screen will now show either Mic or Headphones.
If you select Mic and can’t get it to work, see section ‘My teacher can’t hear me – how to use your microphone’
When you chose Mic as your lesson audio option, you need to grant permission by selecting ‘Allow’ when prompted by your browser.
Now follow the on screen instructions to test your microphone out. Speak a few words and you should hear them played back to you on the echo test. If you click Yes, you will be connected to the lesson audio and can now use your microphone to talk on the lesson.
If you do not hear anything on the echo test check your volume is working and click ‘No’. You will now be able to change your audio settings. Under ‘Microphone source’ select your working mic. You can also change your speaker source. Test your speaker source by clicking the ‘Play Sound’ link.
Now you have selected your working Mic, click the retry button to return to the echo test. If you still can’t hear yourself back on the echo test double check your mic is not muted and is working in your PC audio and device settings. Finally, check that your browser isn’t blocking access to the microphone – see the next section.
If your mic doesn’t work on the echo test, or you see an error saying ‘There was an issue with your media devices’ then your browser could be blocking access to your microphone. This is normally indicated by an icon in your browser’s address bar. See the following examples for the three main browsers supported by Tute.
Google Chrome
Look for the Camera icon with a red ‘x’ on the right side of the address bar. Click it, and select ‘Always allow…’ and select ‘Done’. Now refresh your lesson page and make sure to click allow if prompted.
Mozilla Firefox
Look for the Microphone icon with a red dot on the left side of the address bar and click it. Click the ‘X’ o remove the ‘Blocked Temporarily’ message and refresh your lesson page. Make sure to click ‘Allow’ when prompted.
Microsoft Edge
Look for the Microphone icon with a red dot on the right side of the address bar. Click it, and select ‘Always allow…’ and select ‘Done’. Now refresh your lesson page and make sure to click allow if prompted.
Help centre
Our help centre has a bank of articles and how-to videos designed to assist you if should you need further guidance.