A tutoring session isn't a lecture and it isn't an answer-vending machine. It starts with Mentor, who greets your child, works out what they need, and hands off to the right subject professor. The professor then teaches the way a good human tutor does โ€” with hints and questions that lead your child to the answer, not the answer served up. It ends with a short reflection and a logged note. That's the whole shape of it, and once you've seen it, the tutor stops being a mystery. Here is a session, start to finish.

Rooms: where a session takes place

Your child works in rooms โ€” one per tutor. Mentor has a room; each subject professor has a room of their own. A room holds its own conversation, so a maths session and an English session stay separate and your child can hop between them without the threads getting tangled. Switching rooms is always safe: the previous conversation is still there when they return.

If your child is on the web tutor, these rooms sit in a tidy rail down the side; on the Claude connector the same tutors are reached inside the Claude app. Either way, the flow below is identical.

Step one: Mentor welcomes them in

Every session begins with Mentor, the friendly first point of contact. Mentor's job is orientation, not teaching the subject: What are we working on today? How are you feeling? Where did we get to last time? Mentor carries a short memory of recent sessions, so your child rarely starts from a blank page. When it's clear what's needed, Mentor hands off โ€” routing your child into the right professor's room. You can meet Mentor properly in Meet the Mentor.

Step two: a professor teaches โ€” Socratically

Now the real work. Say it's maths: your child lands in Professor Pi's room with a problem they're stuck on. What happens next is the heart of the whole product, and it is deliberately not "here's the answer".

Instead, the professor works up a ladder of hints โ€” a nudge, then a bigger nudge, then a worked-through step alongside your child โ€” always aiming to have your child reach the answer themselves. This is the Socratic method, and it's why the understanding sticks. We explain the reasoning in The Socratic Method in AI Tutoring, and you can meet the maths professor in Meet Professor Pi.

A big part of it is showing the working โ€” the professor wants to see your child's reasoning, not just their final line, because that's where the learning (and the misconceptions) actually live. More on that in Show Your Working.

What a lesser tutor does What our professors do
Gives the final answer Leads with a hint, then a bigger one
Marks right or wrong Asks to see the working and reasons through it
Moves on fast Checks the idea landed before advancing
Rewards correct answers only Notices effort and good habits too

Step three: interests and detours, handled well

Children wander. Yours might open with "can we just talk about football?" A good tutor neither caves into open-ended chat nor coldly refuses โ€” it bridges the interest into a bit of learning, and if your child genuinely isn't up for it, it winds down warmly rather than grinding on. We wrote about exactly this in My Child Wants to Chat, Not Study. It's the same instinct a great human tutor has, written down.

Step four: winding down and logging it

Sessions don't just stop dead. Near the end, the tutor runs a brief, gentle reflection โ€” a couple of light questions about how confident your child feels and how it went. Then it writes a short note of what was covered.

That note matters more than it looks. It's what feeds your child's progress record on the dashboard, and it's the memory the next session picks up from. It also feeds the termly progress report you'll read at the end of term. Small, honest notes, session after session, add up to a real picture.

Where effort gets noticed

Somewhere across all this, the tutor is quietly noticing the good stuff โ€” sticking with a hard problem, showing working, an honest "I'm not sure". Those earn Heddy Points, which reward effort and habits rather than just right answers. It's a light touch, mentioned in-session, never the point of the session. If you're curious how that works, see How Heddy Points Work.

FAQ

Does the tutor just give my child the answers?

No. The subject professors teach with hints and questions that lead your child to the answer themselves โ€” a Socratic style โ€” rather than handing it over. The aim is understanding your child keeps, not a completed worksheet they can't explain.

How does the tutor know where to start?

Mentor greets your child first and works out what they need โ€” which subject, how they're feeling, what they were doing last time โ€” then hands off to the right professor. The tutors also carry a short summary of recent sessions, so your child rarely has to start from scratch.

What happens at the end of a session?

The session winds down with a brief reflection โ€” a couple of light questions about confidence and how it went โ€” and the tutor logs a short note of what was covered. That note is what feeds your child's progress record and the next session's memory.

Duke Harewood built aitutors.me for his own KS3-aged daughter. Once you've watched one session, the "black box" feeling goes โ€” it's just good teaching, patiently done. Updated 09 July 2026.