Is it cheeky to ask to be paid over the holidays?

unless it was in an original contract you can’t expect them to pay. explain you will use their slot for someone else over the holidays so cannot guarantee a space for them.

Also everyone is bring up exams because you called it end of exams in your original post!

Do you have contracts? If not don't expect any pay. If you are looking to be paid you probably need some form of contract including notice periods, payment for cancelled lessons or holidays. That's the only way to guarantee pay

Im not sure why you'd be expecting to tutor her after her exams?

You should have agreed a notice period. Have you not talked about that?

I think you need to have a think and decide what your system is going forward and tell them exactly this. You need to refine your terms and conditions and stick to it, you cant have a child deciding when you are going to be paid for the lessons.

You're a CF. I'm self-employed myself and would never expect people to pay me for not actually providing them with a service. Do what other self-employed tutors or even teachers do - get second jobs for the summer holidays. Hospitality, catering, events, extra work, there's lots of short-term work available in the summer holidays.

I also pay other self-employed people for their services and there's no way would I expect to have to pay when I am not receiving the service. In fact one of their colleagues expected their client to keep paying them for the year that they were unable to work due to covid, the client told them to catch themselves on! It wasn't up to the client to keep paying them £1500 per month for a service they weren't receiving!! Honestly some people are total CFers!

This is the risk we take being self-employed. It's up to you to get a proper contract in place with terms you are happy with or be responsible for yourself by getting additional income from elsewhere.

Or they could have made that clear in the OP.

My childminder has never billed me for her holidays! She hasn't provided me with her services then so why would I pay her? I pay her when I go on holiday/skip a day of course. She's available and providing her services, I'm choosing not to take them. We have a contract which makes her terms clear.

Haven't trawled through the thread, but in my experience with childminders who are self employed educators like yourself, they charge from the week you take your place until the week you give up your place, and they neither work bank holidays nor any of their weeks of, which they take 4-6 weeks over the year. So you end up paying them and also for backup childcare for the weeks they are off. And of course we pay for weeks that we skip as normal.
None of it's cheap either, it's literally hundreds of pounds a week commitment.
I assume all that is to keep a consistent income rather than be at the whims of parents.
If you're worried about people not wanting holidays you can always offer a term time only contract at higher rates, and a year round one at lower rates. Then save some money from the term time to "pay" yourself in the holidays.

Well when you speak to the parents, lead with this.

You were expecting another 7ish weeks?

Maybe it's time to write in something in your contract about retainer fees and notice periods for extended breaks in tuition.

Sounds like they aren't short of cash if they can spend several months of summer in multiple locations?

Unless you teach a subject that is also of interest to adults you are going to struggle filling that space over the summer.
I teach languages and I teach adults and children. The adults carry on over the summer. I'm not reliant on the children. With the children some do some don't and it's usually agreed in advance what will happen. If they don't want lessons in the summer I ask for a deposit for September as payment in advance. But you can't force people to pay for work you're not doing. This is why the rate needs to be calculated properly. You need to work out realistically how many weeks you will be able to earn.
The reality is new students don't start tuition in September. They often start after the first parents evening etc when any weaknesses are highlighted. I can always tell when it's parent eve as the phone never stops!
It's all very well saying have a contract but how enforceable is this?
My after school places have a waiting list. I have 3 year 11 students who are in the last few weeks and 2 of those are filled already. I have a y6 who is stopping due to moving to secondary and that space is already filled.
You need to tell your family that you cannot guarantee their slot in September. If that means you lose them you start again with someone else and you make it clear from the start whether or not you work in the holidays. But you can't expect someone not to be away because you need to earn.

As someone who is self employed you don’t get paid for non work. Thoroughly review your contracts for future if you want to adjust this but many won’t pay for sessions they aren’t having. As someone self employed I save to have sufficient to cover when we are away or clients need less work.

Can you advertise for tutoring over the summer eg perhaps offer a summer camp so support kids that need help? You may get little demand depending where you are, but just an idea. If you’re DBS checked etc maybe there is holiday work at kids clubs etc.

Moving forwards you need to be really clear with notice periods/how many lessons they can miss and with what cancellation period… I used to be really flexible until I realised that some people were taking the p completely (eg cancelling the lesson with an hour to go but still expecting me to catch it up!)
I give my terms and conditions at the beginning of each year and get everyone to sign it.I am also looking at asking people to set up standing orders to pay monthly (eg 35 weeks x my lesson fee divided between ten months) so that I know what to expect each month

2023 thread, very similar, theme, might be worth having a look at

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4826811-whats-the-protocol-for-paying-tutors-over-the-holiday-periods

Every childminder in the world does, so why not a tutor ?

Some tutors run a sort of summer school or do pre 11+ prep in summer holidays, as some tests are taken first week back in September. I think asking to be paid for nothing would go down like a ton of bricks.

No tutors near me need to charge retainers or for lessons they don't provide and most expect to run lessons alongside school terms, and holiday sessions are extras. They are all pretty full and make a good living as far as I know.

You’ve been asked a few times what your contract says / what was agreed upfront and you’ve not answered

RTFT.
They do know when exam season is, but since the exams are just internal school tests not course ending qualifications, and the child will continue with the subject after the exams until the end of term they anticipated being engaged through the end of term, as they were last year, not being dropped after the exams.

It seems the child, though, sees the post exam lessons as less important, is burnt out with studying and wants to coast for the rest of the term after the exams. And the parents are happy for the child to decide this.

You need better terms and conditions in place to cover things like this.
They've stopped lessons twice now without notice which is not ok.

You can't expect people to pay for lessons over the summer holidays and I don't know why you expect people to want lessons then. I tutor and most of mine have most of the summer off. That means I have to set my rates and working hours accordingly to make sure I have enough money coming in over the summer. I also do a couple of other different things during the summer to bring in money.

That said, if you want people to pay a retainer over the summer to ensure their slot in September that's fine but then you need to have that clearly outlined in your terms and conditions.

Also it's not good if most of your income comes from one family because it makes you too reliant on their whims. They can quit at any time with little or no notice, or start cancelling lessons for random reasons (hopefully you have terms and conditions in place for cancellations), or say they'll be back in September and then don't restart and then you've turned other people down to keep the slot for the first family and in the meantime the people you've turned down have found another tutor so you end up with empty slots until you find someone.

I think you need to have a think about this family. Certainly you'll need to have a conversation with them. It's not ok for the girl to tell you when the last lesson will be. That's something for the parents to discuss with you and it should be in lines with your terms and conditions.

If you don't have terms and conditions you should write them over the summer holiday and send them to all families so that from September it's much clearer.
This family have got away with this and you're losing out on money because you weren't clear enough.

I tutor as well - I charge a higher rate for families that have irregular sessions and provide discounts to families that have sessions year round. It's all in the contract when they sign up to the services. I don't do rolling weekly contracts.

I then budget effectively to ensure my income remains regular throughout the year (dividends/draw downs through ltd company).

Unfortunately I learnt the hard way being self employed that you need a water tight contract regarding cancellation etc or you don’t really have any come back. If you get them to sign that you expect to fulfil x number of sessions at x price and they holiday in that period fair enough they pay. But if up until now it’s just been pay as you go type where you don’t have a stipulated charge for missed summer periods I’m not sure you can suddenly ask. Perhaps a retainer for keeping this slot for September might be best you can hope for? But self employed can often be feast and famine and you have to account for that in fee planning

If you’re qualified, how do you not know when exam season is?

OP, if you rely on this money you really need to start thinking of what you do as a business and developing your business skills. At the moment you seem to be treating it as a bit of a hobby where you are blowing in the winds at the whims of your clients. You need to decide how you are going to structure your business, tell your clients what your terms are and write them into a contract so they are binding. There are various common strategies for tutoring but the most common seems to be as suggested here - they keep their slot by continuing to pay for it. If they don’t pay for it you look for other clients to fill it.

You could also try charging for a term (or half term) at a time, up front, and factor the holiday time into the fee you charge. I.e. work out what you’d want to earn from a session for a year (check it’s competitive), divide by 3 (or 6) and charge that each term(half). Cancelations do not result in a refund, but you might agree to rescheduling at mutual convenience. Parents like not having to pay over the holidays, but tend to be less keen on upfront payment (you could offer monthly payments) and the higher cost.

And a third approach is to develop other offerings over the summer - intense tutoring/group work/extension for those who really love the subject - while offering regular tutoring for term time only. Parents love this approach as don’t have to pay over the summer and it’s not as expensive. But I don’t see it that much, I assume because it’s hard to fill the alternative holiday offerings.

Also, work on marketing so that you have a waitlist of people who want you as a tutor to ensure you have stability and aren’t at a loss when a family quits on you..

You should have a contract or agree this stuff in advance. Do you usually charge for school holidays? If not you maybe need to start thinking about what you agree with new clients and what their notice period should be as it sounds like you haven't covered any of this and I don't agree you should just ask them to pay over the summer because of your poor planning. Sorry to sound harsh!

I use a lot of tutors and music teachers and this family sounds very thoughtless. As a minimum they need to be giving you a month’s notice if they’re not using your services over summer.

as you don’t get holiday pay etc that is what’s reflected in the fee. I hope you’re charging the maket rate : top tutors in London are £80 / hr. I pay £50 for qualified teachers (music and specific subjects)

Im really hoping you’re not going to come back and say you charge £20 an hour …that’s simply not enough for such a precarious arrangement

when you pick up new families make sure you have a contract with notice periods, minimum sessions etc

You need to have another look at your contract/t&c's with your clients.

There needs to be a set price for weekly sessions for a set period - if they miss due to holidays etc, thats on them.

Or, you do it by number of sessions - but theres a time limit on using them (this works for me but I am not tutoring and I work remotely) - so if they had say 20 sessions to be used from jan to august and they haven't used them all, they lose them.

If they want a 'as and when they fancy it' then they pay a higher price for that sort of service and they run the risk of you not having availability when it suits them.