A thank-you for your child's tutor after the exam results: a photo from the year as a jigsaw, with your note at the end

Written by the team behind Puzzlify. Puzzlify is our product, so weigh what follows with that in mind. We've tried to make this useful even if you never use it.

Results day has a sound of its own: the envelope tearing, or the refresh button on an exam board website, then a shout from the next room. Behind a lot of those results there's a tutor nobody at the school ever meets. Someone who sat at your kitchen table or on a video call every Tuesday evening, explained quadratic equations for the fourth time without sighing, marked practice essays at midnight, and told a teenager who was sure they were "just bad at maths" that they weren't.

Tutors are easy to forget once the exams are over. The sessions simply stop, a final invoice is paid, and everyone moves on to sixth form, college, university or the next school. If you'd like to mark the moment properly, this post walks through a few ways to do it, including one small option of ours: a private digital jigsaw made from a photo connected to the year of tutoring, with a short note from your child that appears when the last piece clicks in. It's sent as a link the tutor opens on a phone or laptop. Further down there are plenty of ideas that have nothing to do with us.

When a thank-you makes sense

Tutoring is a paid service, so nobody owes anyone a gift. But a lot of tutors care far more than the hourly rate suggests, and these are the moments when saying so feels natural:

• Results day, for GCSEs, A-levels, Highers, the Leaving Cert, the SAT or ACT, the 11+, IB, or a university entrance exam. Good result or not, if the tutor helped, say so.
• An offer or a place: a university offer, a grammar school place, a scholarship, an apprenticeship.
• A turning point: the first time a child who dreaded a subject came out of a test smiling, or moved up a set.
• The last session, when tutoring ends because the exams are done or the child no longer needs it.
• A tutor stopping work: retiring, moving away, or going back to full-time teaching.
• The end of a long relationship: some tutors work with a family for years, sometimes with several siblings in turn.

A note on results that weren't what everyone hoped for: a thank-you can still be the right thing. "You kept her going when she wanted to give up" is true whatever the grade, and tutors remember those messages too.

Why a photo jigsaw can work for a tutor

Most tutors are self-employed and see many students a week. They get some chocolates and the occasional bottle of wine, but rarely anything that shows them the result of the work. A small digital jigsaw works for a few reasons:

• It shows the moment, not just the grade. A photo of your teenager holding the results slip, or the university offer on a screen, says "you were part of this" more clearly than a text message.
• No clutter. It arrives as a link. Many tutors work from home or travel between families, and there's nothing to store.
• Your child does the thanking. Teenagers often find it awkward to say thank you out loud. Choosing a photo and typing a few lines for the reveal at the end is easier, and it means more coming from them than from a parent.
• It's quick to solve. A 24 or 48 piece puzzle takes a few minutes between sessions with other students. The note only appears when the last piece goes in, which makes it feel like a small reveal rather than another message in a busy inbox.
• It fits online tutoring. If the tutor lives in another city or another country and you've only ever met on video calls, a link is the most natural way to send something.

Photo ideas

• Results day itself: your child holding the results slip or envelope, or the exam board screen showing the grades. Crop out the candidate number and anything else identifying (more on that below).
• The offer: a photo of the university offer, school place letter or scholarship email on a laptop screen, ideally with your child's reaction in the frame.
• The workspace: the kitchen table piled with past papers, highlighters and a cold cup of tea. Surprisingly good as a puzzle, and no people in it at all.
• The worn-out revision guide: the dog-eared, sticky-note-covered textbook laid flat on a table.
• Before and after: a photo from the first session next to one from results day. Arrange them side by side as one image before you upload.
• What comes next: your child on the first day at college, in front of the university halls, or at the start of the apprenticeship. Tutors love seeing where students end up.
• A screenshot of a video lesson, only if the tutor is happy to appear in it. If in doubt, leave them out.

Getting a good puzzle from the photo

• Use the original JPG from your phone, not a screenshot or a compressed copy from a messaging app. Detail matters when the picture is cut into pieces.
• Bright, varied photos make better puzzles than ones that are mostly white paper. A colourful pile of revision notes, a face, or a bit of background gives the pieces something to grip on.
• Landscape photos tend to work best on laptops; portrait ones on phones. Either is fine.

Privacy and the optional PIN

Exam paperwork carries more personal information than people realise. Before you upload:

• Crop or cover candidate numbers, centre numbers, dates of birth and student ID numbers on results slips and letters.
• Crop out your address on letters and envelopes, and your child's school name if it appears on a blazer or a letterhead.
• Leave other students out, for example in a group results-day photo from school.
• Ask before including the tutor's face or name, and don't include the tutor's personal details in the note.

Puzzles on Puzzlify are private: they're only reachable by the link you send. You can also add an optional PIN (your child's first name, or the subject, works well) so that only the tutor can open it.

How many pieces?

For most tutors, 24 or 48 is right. There's an optional leaderboard, which can be fun if a tutor shares the puzzle with other students or with their own family.

What to write in the note

Short and specific beats long and general. A few examples:

• "I got a 7 in maths. Last September I thought I'd fail. Thank you for every Tuesday. — Sam"
• "Thank you for not giving up on my essays even when I nearly did. I got my place at Leeds!"
• "From the student who always said 'I don't get it': I get it now. Thank you."
• "Thank you for helping all three of ours through the 11+ and beyond. Our kitchen table will miss you. — The whole family"
• "It wasn't the grade we wanted, but you kept her believing she could do it, and she's going to resit with confidence. Thank you."

If your child is old enough, let them write it in their own words. A clumsy, honest sentence from a sixteen-year-old is worth more than a polished one from a parent.

Timing

Send it on results day or the day after, while the moment is fresh, or after the last session if tutoring ended earlier. If the tutor works through an agency or a tutoring platform, check the platform's rules and use the contact details it provides, rather than a personal account you happen to know. Don't send it the night before the exam; that's a time for encouragement, not thank-yous.

What it costs (honestly)

You can make the puzzle on Puzzlify and preview it in your browser for free, with no account, to check the photo works. You only pay when you publish the link to send it: €3.99 for one credit, €8.99 for three, or Plus at €14.99 a year for ten. The recipient doesn't need an account or an app. Photos aren't used to train AI and aren't shared with third parties.

To be clear about what it isn't: Puzzlify is digital only. It doesn't print or post a cardboard puzzle. If you'd rather give something physical, a local photo printer or puzzle shop can make a printed jigsaw from the same photo. And we're not puzzlify.io (that's chess), Puzzlit, Puzzly or Puzzify, which are different products.

Other ways to say thank you (nothing to do with us)

For many tutors, these matter more than any gift:

• A written reference or public review. Most tutors depend on word of mouth. A short, specific review on their website, tutoring platform or local listing, saying what changed for your child, can bring them their next students.
• Recommend them to other families, and tell the tutor you did. It's the most useful thank-you a self-employed tutor can get.
• A handwritten card from your child, handed over at the last session or posted.
• Let them know how it turned out. A message a year later saying your child passed the first university maths module, or chose to study the subject they once hated, is something tutors keep.
• Pay on time and give notice when tutoring ends. Unglamorous, but tutors notice.
• A small donation to a literacy or education charity in the tutor's name, if they have one they care about.

The point of it all

Exams are stressful for everyone in the house, and a good tutor is often the calmest person in the room: the one who breaks the syllabus into small pieces and keeps putting them back together until it makes sense. Results day, an offer or the last session is a good moment to let them know it mattered. A photo from the year, cut into pieces and put back together, with a few words from your child at the end, is one small way to do it. If that sounds right, you can try it free on the Puzzlify puzzle maker and only pay if you decide to send it.

This post was written by the Puzzlify team. Puzzlify is our own product; we've tried to keep the advice useful whatever you decide to send. We're not affiliated with any tutoring agency, tutoring platform, school or exam board.