As most children return to school, many affluent families are choosing to pull their children out of the mainstream education system altogether in favor of having a tutor at home – particularly as competition for places at the most prestigious schools heats up.
"Around 50 percent of the inquiries we're getting at the moment are for long-term, daily home tutoring," Steve Spriggs, managing director of London-based private tutoring service William Clarence Education told CNBC. And, he adds, the trend has grown from families asking for personal tutors to replicate the classroom environment in their own homes.
Many families that were making the inquiries for full-time home tutors, Spriggs said, were either travelling so frequently that sending their children to one school was impractical and others did not want their children to go into boarding school.
"We've had one family from the Middle East request a residential teacher to teach at their children within their penthouse in Knightsbridge because even getting to a school with drivers and guards is so much of a hassle," Spriggs said.
Home tutoring is nothing new, and many tuition firms also offer extra tutoring services to families wanting their children to have a little extra help learning ahead of entrance exams at competitive private schools in the U.K., such as Harrow, St. Pauls or Eton.
But Spriggs said his tuition firm was receiving fewer requests for just a few extra hours of tuition here and there and more for full-time tutors that, essentially, become other members of the richest household's retinue of staff.
"We always make it clear to parents that we will only offer full-time home schooling for a year though," he explained to CNBC.
"Any more than a year and children start to lose out on what a school environment can give them, such as social skills and that vital interaction they need – although we try to mitigate that anyway in our home tutoring with sports clubs of museum trips as part of the teaching program."
Spriggs would not reveal the salary region of tutors, who he described as among the best in London, if not Europe, but did say that the costs of hiring a full-time tutor would exceed the fees of a top boarding school, which usually charge around £35,000 ($54,400) a year.
Some families employ two full-time tutors, one to cover humanities and the other to cover science and maths. Devising an educational plan for youngsters in these situations is not a quick process, however, taking up to six weeks to plan, Spriggs said, with a tutor being matched to the child to ensure they are compatible.