Becoming a private tutor- all questions here 17 October 2007 at 12:32PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Boost Your Income 659 replies 455.2K views

therivierakid

Another question: do you tend to go through homework and the related material or do you focus more on exam papers?

twistedeagle

I have been thinking about this for a while now as a way of earning a bit extra - things seem so tight at the moment!!! I am currently Head of ICT in a Secondary school and can also teach Business Studies.

I don't work in the area I live so I would be able to offer a fresh perspective on things. I have also recently "babysat" my cousin while she was looking at some past papers for her 11 plus. I couldn't believe how easy this was, so will be offering this too!!

Advice - The best thing to do is to send an email to schools in your area. I receive a couple of month from people offering their services and I am only too happy to pass these on to the students.

Now would be a great time of offer services as Mock Exams are coming for GCSE/A-Level with of course the main event in May/June.

For English, Maths and Science don't forget SATS come up around April/May.

Back to my situation, I was thinking of charging £10 per hour to start with so that I can get some people signed up and some word of mouth going. I live in quite an affluent area (doesn't mean I am!!!) so huge market in terms of parents willing to throw money at me!!

Will post back here with any updates... Good luck to everyone else.

suzie_wong

therivierakid wrote: »

Another question: do you tend to go through homework and the related material or do you focus more on exam papers?

Both! It depends very much on what the parents want. Sometimes the tuition will be short term how help a pupil prepare for a specific exam. Others will be long term, where you need to really build up the confidence of the child, maybe by reinforcing what they are doing at school, helping with homework, and working on any particular areas of weakness.

azoklats

Am a trained junior school teacher with 4 years experience and currently without a job. Are the rates mentioned for GCSE & A-level tutoring and would it be different for juniors?

Am in serious need of work and money to help clear my debts as supply isn't regular. Am fully CRB checked but wondering about insurance and the like!

suzie_wong

azoklats wrote: »

Am a trained junior school teacher with 4 years experience and currently without a job. Are the rates mentioned for GCSE & A-level tutoring and would it be different for juniors?

Am fully CRB checked but wondering about insurance and the like!

Hi azoklats,

I charge £20/h for juniors, and noone has ever complained that my fees are too high. To some extent it might depend on where you live, but you should be able to get around that amount. I think my sister charges a little more.

I have never had any insurance, nor has anyone ever suggested that I should.

niknakb

I currently teach acouple of classes for adults in psychology and counselling. I do it through the local council at an adult ed centre for £18.60 an hour. I never thought about advertising my services as a personal tutor. Do you think I could make more than I currently make?

Other than a CRB check, is there anything else you need to have to set yourself up?

rsdiscos

Hi

Thanks for all the previous posts - i've enjoyed reading them and found them really informative.

I am interested in becoming a tutor - I am a primary school teacher, working on supply at the moment, but most recently was an assistant headteacher until the stress got to me! :huh:

I currently own my own business - a mobile discos so I am registered for income tax etc...but don't know which route to take - ie franchise, agency or as an independednt - I'm quite interested in becoming an independent tutor and placing cards in local shops etc, but also like the idea of owning a franchise.

Any advice would be really useful.

Thanks

Rsdiscos

crawley_girl

What about TEFL and ESOL?

I quite like the idea of private tutoring but like others, wouldn't know where to start with 'obtaining' new pupils - be it children or adults.

Could it work do you think?

:heartpuls CG :heartpuls

tucbiscuit

Hi to all, i am reading this thread with interest as my dad owns one of, if not the biggest private tutoring agency in the UK, I honestly don't know the details, but he covers all of the UK and has thousands of tutors and appears at the top of all keyword searches on tutors or related searches on google.

Anyway his website with all contact details is;


http://www.personal-tutors.co.uk/



He gets loads of Christmas cards from tutors if that is anything to go by

And I don't think he charges too much of-a commision.

Anyway that's the site, he's always looking for new tutors.

thebuff1

Just wanted to say that you are a QUALIFIED TEACHER, do not undersell yourself.
I bet tutors charge at least £20 in your area. I began at £10 an hour as I was not confident tutoring and the 2 familes messed me about something rotten, short notice cancelling, however they were felxible about dates and times as I had to move things around short notice INSET and over run staff meetings. I did it for a year and gave up using the excuse that as the kids consistently did not do their homework, I did not wish to continue. The other child lasted about 2 months and I got rid of her when payment became erratic.

No one has mentioned that although the teaching is not taxing, it can be tiring fitting it in to an already busy day. As a full time teacher, it was hard thinking that I had tutoring for a further 2 hours before preparing for next day(us primary teachers have to be jack of all remember) Interesting I never moaned about spending the money!

I was annoyed with myself that I never accounted for the money that I earned either, it would have been nice to say I bought a particular object with the funds.

Although I was happy to earn £10ph cash, I felt that it was an experience and I will learn from my mistakes. Choose your students carefully as you do not want to have to face them if it goes pearshaped, for that reason I would not teach students in my class. I was very diligent, keeping a strict record of what I taught each session and assessing progress weekly as well as setting homework. I know all the other teachers charge £20ph, I could not have done that. What I would like to offer is a reduced rate to a child that would really appreciate it and do the work and I have asked a friend to find someone in her school. A colleague charges £30ph for language teaching and she is not a teacher.
Good luck with your choice.