11+ preparations - is online the way forward?

[11+novice]

It’s proving quite difficult to find a private tutor in North London..
One option is to go through an agency but having started the process the fees are pretty high… my child is in year 4.
It seems many tutors are offering online rather than face-to-face.. is this now the norm and how effective is the engagement with a 9 year old? I’ve always preferred, and feel face to face connection works best. Would welcome thoughts and parents’ experiences with the 11+ using the online route. Thank you,

[MARC1]

I went through agencies and in the end i found a tutor through one of the parents at my DS school who had used this tutor before. Since Covid she has been online only. To be honest I was very apprehensive about doing it online. It worked out in the end and my tutor for my DS was very good. However I really do feel it would have been better face to face, especially if there were problems. We started with her in the month of March for year 4. My son is pretty able and I was also able to help him as covid meant we were at home more often. Im not sure how great online would be if children are less able as you cant beat in person explanations and a teacher can respond to children's expressions whether good or bad. If online you would probably need assurance of the teachers capabilities especially for the type of exams you child is going to do. I dont envisage further lock downs but at the time we did it the possibility was a real one so online was the best option for us. If only to avoid one minute online the next minute being in person. There were 3 other children on the online call so it did mean that my DS wasn't alone so it did give a little sense of 'we are in this together'. I think in the end it will probably depend on how you think your child would cope with the online compared to in person.