Affordable private tutors?

(38 Posts)
sallyjones320 Sat 11-Feb-12 20:58:11

Hi all,

I am new to Mumsnet. Just browsing quickly through the forums, I am pleasantly surprised at how active and helpful members are, so I hope someone will be able to help me out.

I am a mum to 2 secondary school kids. I am currently looking for a private tutor in maths and french for my elder son as he has been struggling with his grades recently and I want to make sure that he gets the right help before this gets any worse.

If anyone has any suggestions for a local tutor in the London area (someone preferably who doesn't charge too much £££), it would be most appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Sally

april1st Mon 31-Dec-12 14:01:10

I don’t believe good tutors necessarily charge more than average price. I think it is down to the tutors themselves and how realistic they are with their own ability and professionalism. As my own experience the 1st private tutor I employed for my DC1 charged a quarter more than the current tutor. But the 1st tutor was no good at teaching maths at all. She was sort of ok in teaching English but really rubbish at maths. A few months later fortunately someone recommended to me the current tutor who is far better and we can really see the improvement in dc1’s progress in school. Even dc1 loves going to her. In fact the 2nd tutor charges a lot less than the average market rate. 2nd tutor is an elderly retired lady who was a very good teacher before. I know 2nd tutor truly enjoys teaching young children but I don’t know if that is the reason she charges less.

GenerationZero Sun 30-Dec-12 20:01:46

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Losingmyhair Tue 20-Nov-12 23:44:51

My DS has a tutor and we just recently found out about her. She's a qualified teacher with her own office in Hackney. Cheap too, bad thing is you need to travel to her, which is okay for me as I only live around the corner!

mathsgrouptutoring.com

Nampah Fri 21-Sep-12 15:05:48

Hi Im looking for a maths tutor for my daughter who is in year 5. Please can anyone recommend a tutor within the sw8/sw4 of london area?

breadandbutterfly Sun 16-Sep-12 22:21:11

Some of deletions were mine and IIRC were due to me spam-spotting. Be very wary of posters on threads like this who claim to know an 'amazing' tutor and post their contact details incl mobile numbers...

MyNeighbourIsStrange Sun 16-Sep-12 17:15:09

I am in looking for a Y8 Maths tutor and a Y10 English tutor in London, pm as lots of deletions.

perfectparent1 Sun 16-Sep-12 17:09:02

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stressydad Thu 16-Aug-12 16:09:09

I've seen some great tutor videos on youtube recently, does anybody know how i can book these people?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAJX2nojLT0

Hullygully Thu 03-May-12 11:07:16

What on earth were all the deletions??

RSVPB5 Thu 03-May-12 11:04:59

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mummyof21960 Tue 17-Apr-12 09:10:33

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mummyof21960 Mon 16-Apr-12 14:02:55

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breadandbutterfly Sun 15-Apr-12 22:32:35

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mummyof21960 Sun 15-Apr-12 19:57:20

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mummyof21960 Sun 15-Apr-12 19:38:30

That was to b&b btw

mummyof21960 Sun 15-Apr-12 19:37:03

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BeingFluffy Sun 15-Apr-12 11:26:45

BTW in my experience the only qualified teacher I hired was the weakest one, so I wouldn't necessarily be guided by that. I would look instead for experience in teaching the particular curriculum you are looking for - ie. Spanish GCSE or whatever. The best one we had was the cheapest, £15 for maths and she was quite a recent graduate working in a different field to education but an excellent teacher and communicator. I think mid June after the exams are finished would probably be a good time to start looking as many good tutors are probably booked up until then.

BeingFluffy Sun 15-Apr-12 11:20:14

I have got tutors from the First Tutors website and have been happy with them. Basically the tutors put their cvs online and they are rated by current users, I found that helpful in weeding out the experienced from the Uni students trying to earn a bit extra. You also see their photo which I found helps! You pay a small fee to "buy" the contact details and I haven't been disappointed so far. I have paid from £15 to £25 per hour.

breadandbutterfly Sun 15-Apr-12 10:56:47

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mummyof21960 Sat 14-Apr-12 10:14:27

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Bonsoir Wed 11-Apr-12 08:34:40

If you are in a big city, the language courses provided by national cultural organisations are generally reliable and good value for money, and crucially, are taught by native speakers. Try Alliance Française.

ameliagrey Wed 11-Apr-12 08:26:17

p.s. One way to work out what tutor should charge is to know what their daily and hourly rate would be in the classroom. When I tutored I never charged less than that- which was £25 , years ago- because 1:1 is much more intensive and you actually need to prepare a lot more work than if you simply prepare one task for the class then set them to it.

ameliagrey Wed 11-Apr-12 08:23:26

You also need to be sure that the tutor is qualified- IMO there are lots of people tutoring who are not qualified teachers. This may suit some people, but as a former teacher I do become annoyed that any graduate thinks they can teach- when they may never have taught anyone, ever.

What you need to consider too is that the lesson is a part of what you pay for- there is preparation time for 1:1 tutoring, possible marking outside the lesson, and possible travelling.

I'm sorry but it annoys me no end that people will gladly hand over £50 an hour for a plumber, or haircut, but think that professionals like teachers should work for £15-£20 an hour.

kritur Wed 04-Apr-12 22:10:58

Good tutors are not cheap tutors I'm afraid. I charge £30 an hour for science and maths GCSE and A-level chemistry and a friend of mine who is an AST in maths charges £40.

Reza Wed 04-Apr-12 10:28:38

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