Becoming a private tutor- all questions here

therivierakid

Another thing I do by the way is writing to all the schools from whom I've had students in the past. Just once a year and I address it to the head of department. I introduce myself and send some business cards. I mention having worked with students from their school before and I mention my website and DBS certificate. Parents do ask teachers for recommendations for tutors so the more you get your name out there the better.

I can't stress enough the importance of getting your own website though. I'd imagine it's one of the top three ways that parents are going to look for a tutor, along with asking teachers and asking friends. I only started my website about 2 yrs ago and I wish I'd done it far sooner!

pootlepod

Great to see this thread is moving along a bit, one downside of private tutoring is that you can feel very much on your own.

I would agree with having your own website, mine costs about £10 a year and it now is the main way tutees find me. Plus you can advertise and link through other sites, e.g. mumsnet or local sites.

I have never found tutoring agencies any good! The only student I had from there messed me around so I use word of mouth and my site to gain tutees. I like the idea of sending letters to HoD, I may try that too.

How much does blackboard collaborate cost? I have used it as a student and like it but they don't give prices out on their website. I can't imagine using it for lots of people so it would need to be cost effective.

therivierakid

Blackboard Collaborate that I use is free. I am limited to 2 students per class and I can't record the lesson, but I can save the whiteboard as a PDF and to use again which is all I really need. I'm not sure it's still free though.

Shawn_Dark

Wow!

I must say I'm quite amazed by this thread. Read my story and you'll see why...


In a nutshell: I'm looking to start tutoring privately, with the intention of eventually leaving my full-time permanent job (working in first line IT support, for the worlds worst and most corrupt manager).

IT support is so stressful and because of people like my manager I will never be allowed to progress and get somewhere. Its the same with previous companies I have worked for, they rarely promote the right person and hold people back because they think nothing of them.

So now it's gotten to the point where I am going to have to leave my company (unless my manager suddenly moves or gets promoted). Even then, who's to say the next manager wont be even worse? Or that I can still get a promotion after that point.

No, I really can't take working in a telephone based role any longer. Come new year I am going to try and move on. Problem is I can't get a job in second line because I am not technical enough (or have the unaffordable qualifications). I cant get a team leader role (which I would actually love to do) because I have no experience. All previous attempts to apply for roles externally or internally have failed miserably.

I did actually work abroad for a year teaching children (2009 - 2010) but it was a nightmare. It was a private school and the organisation waa so unprofessional. Due to personal problems I had to return home and then went on to gain a CELTA (with the intention of going back to work in a university - i.e. not teaching children) but due to necessity I had to return to IT work.

I've done 121 tuition with kids and its been fine, even a small group was okay. I do enjoy being around children. Its just the stress of my current employment, living and general financial situation which is making it difficult for me to do anything well right now.

Around a week ago I made the decision to seriously start private tuition. A lot of my family and friends are switching to home schooling (including my wife and I) so I can already see the demand there.

I'm not a genius but I could easily teach English and IT. I could probably manage maths and science also.

I recently contacted my friend in the North West who is a head teacher but he has not got back to me yet.

Hence I decided to post a question for advice on becoming a private tutor...

Low and behold as if by coincidence this thread is there staring me in the face!

Shawn_Dark

Wow!

I must say I'm quite amazed by this thread. Read my story and you'll see why...


In a nutshell: I'm looking to start tutoring privately, with the intention of eventually leaving my full-time permanent job (working in first line IT support, for the worlds worst and most corrupt manager).

IT support is so stressful and because of people like my manager I will never be allowed to progress and get somewhere. Its the same with previous companies I have worked for, they rarely promote the right person and hold people back because they think nothing of them.

So now it's gotten to the point where I am going to have to leave my company (unless my manager suddenly moves or gets promoted). Even then, who's to say the next manager wont be even worse? Or that I can still get a promotion after that point.

No, I really can't take working in a telephone based role any longer. Come new year I am going to try and move on. Problem is I can't get a job in second line because I am not technical enough (or have the unaffordable qualifications). I cant get a team leader role (which I would actually love to do) because I have no experience. All previous attempts to apply for roles externally or internally have failed miserably.

I did actually work abroad for a year teaching children (2009 - 2010) but it was a nightmare. It was a private school and the organisation waa so unprofessional. Due to personal problems I had to return home and then went on to gain a CELTA (with the intention of going back to work in a university - i.e. not teaching children) but due to necessity I had to return to IT work.

I've done 121 tuition with kids and its been fine, even a small group was okay. I do enjoy being around children. Its just the stress of my current employment, living and general financial situation which is making it difficult for me to do anything well right now.

Around a week ago I made the decision to seriously start private tuition. A lot of my family and friends are switching to home schooling (including my wife and I) so I can already see the demand there.

I'm not a genius but I could easily teach English and IT. I could probably manage maths and science also.

I recently contacted my friend in the North West who is a head teacher but he has not got back to me yet.

Hence I decided to post a question for advice on becoming a private tutor...

Low and behold as if by coincidence this thread is there staring me in the face!

Mrs_Money

I am considering returning to doing some private tutoring, but have no DBS (the old CRB check) as my current teaching role does not require it.
I've checked on the gov.uk website and, as with the old CRB, only employers can get for an applicant.
Do people want private tutors to have the DBS? And if so - how do others go about getting it?
I suspect that joining an agency may be the only way? Not really keen to do that as they don't seem to generate much work for tutors from what I've heard.

geek84

Hi folks

I also want to go into private tuition. However, I only teach maths up to GCSE level.

I advertise a few nights a week in my local paper, which I started doing from September. However, I have not got a single student on my books!! I have also joined a few tuition agencies, again with no luck. What could I be doing wrong? Isn't maths tuition in demand any more?

I am thinking of building a website to promote my services - perhaps that might make a difference. I too would like to teach full time (I love it), bur I can't even get one student in my books!! Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I too was thinking of writing to schools to introduce myself. However, before I did that, I went to 2 local schools to ask them if they could put up small A5 size posters (which I had printed) advertising my tuition services. Both turned me down saying that would mean that the school is endorsing my skills, which they cannot do. Following those responses. I am now in 2 minds of whether or not to write to the schools.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Nenen

geek84 wrote: »

Hi folks

I also want to go into private tuition. However, I only teach maths up to GCSE level...

...By the way, I too was thinking of writing to schools to introduce myself. However, before I did that, I went to 2 local schools to ask them if they could put up small A5 size posters (which I had printed) advertising my tuition services. Both turned me down saying that would mean that the school is endorsing my skills, which they cannot do. Following those responses. I am now in 2 minds of whether or not to write to the schools.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

The good news is that, according to several newspaper reports I've read, maths tuition for children aged 7 -16 is in great demand.

I was teaching full time until last term and am now tutoring privately. I love it! Tutoring has all the joys of teaching with none of the pressure of schools and politicians. However, it has been a great deal of hard work building my client base and things are only just starting to take off.

Having talked to senior managers, schools are very reluctant to recommend private tutors because, (a) as you stated above, they cannot endorse your skills (particularly if they don't know you and/or have never seen you teach) and (b) it might be taken as an admission of their own failure to meet the needs of a particular child. Although we all know that the individual help and attention one can give when tutoring 1:1 is, with the best will in the world, very different to teaching a class of 30+, in my opinion, it seems a bit cheeky to ask schools to recommend and/or advertise a private tutor's services.

I started advertising as a private tutor last August by teaching myself to build my own website using Wordpress and starting to blog. This is an ongoing project as I'm trying to get up the SEO rankings so I show up when potential customers do a Google search for private tutors in my area. I've also built a Facebook page and joined Twitter. I hope to launch into Linkedin in the next few weeks. So far, I have got one pupil via my website.

For local advertising, I designed an A5 leaflet (using MS Publisher) and a business card and got these printed at Staples. I think you could probably get them printed more cheaply online but I wanted to go in and see what they would look like before paying out. I think it cost around £10 for 200 business cards, some of which I've given out to friends and some I've put in our local Chinese Take-Away. I paid about £20 for 50 A5 leaflets printed on card, which I then put up on noticeboards in all the local shops, Post Offices etc. Prices for advertising on shop noticeboards varies from free to 60p per week. To date, I've had one enquiry from these local adverts.

Finally, I did as a PP suggested and posted adverts on Gumtree, Vivastreet and http://www.searchtutors.co.uk. I found out by doing this that being on Gumtree and searchtutors brings my details up on Google searches. So far, I have started tutoring one pupil via my Gumtree advert (who then used the information to look at my website before contacting me) and am due to start teaching another one soon.

As you can see, it has been a lot of work to get my first few pupils but I am very much hoping that word of mouth will bring in more work. One thing that the clients have commented on is the professional presentation of my cards and website so I think this is really important.

Good luck!

geek84

Good Morning Folks

Many thanks indeed for your advice, Nenen.

Mrs_Money

Mrs_Money wrote: »

I am considering returning to doing some private tutoring, but have no DBS (the old CRB check) as my current teaching role does not require it.
I've checked on the gov.uk website and, as with the old CRB, only employers can get for an applicant.
Do people want private tutors to have the DBS? And if so - how do others go about getting it?
I suspect that joining an agency may be the only way? Not really keen to do that as they don't seem to generate much work for tutors from what I've heard.

Anybody know anything about this?