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

Not all curriculums follow GCSEs. They aren't monolithic. There are other qualifications.

I am a self-employed tutor and I don’t work for families on my terms: I work for them on mine. Going forwards, you need to let them know your terms & conditions, and then stick firmly to them. If you are only working for three families, you are quite a precarious position regardless. I’d suggest taking on at least one other family. If the family who have disappeared for the summer want you back later then it will need to be on your terms and you probably need to alert them to the change.

I know that you say you are worried about losing them, but their child is going to leave your tutelage eventually, and this is business, not a friendship. The problem is that the boundaries can get very blurred especially with long term students and their parents, but you need to be the one to set the terms, not them!

There are plenty of Facebook tutoring groups that can give you support with this.

Not a tutor but our childminder charged half price over the school holidays and wasn’t available for childcare during that time. Her other families were teachers so didn’t need childcare anyway but I had to pay half price to her along with full price for a “holiday” childminder. That was what was stated in her contract so it was pay it or find another childminder. I think you need to sort out a contract with a retainer fee stipulated and they either pay it or you find new clients.

They’re not dropping me, we will continue in September

Well no you don't have to accept this. Just politely explain if they stop, their space will be offered to someone else, and its unlikely they'll get it back in september.

It feels like you wanted to be paid, but don't want the effort of finding a replacement pupil if they aren't willing to pay to keep their space.

But you've said they dropped you last summer with no notice and that the child has told you she's stopping soon when you expected to finish the end of term. So that is dropping you without notice if you are expecting to get paid all year round regardless of the fact they will pick you up again in September.

They go to school, but have help after school, I don’t think that’s unusual?

Does the child have additional needs/learning disabilities? A child shouldn't need constant private tuition throughout secondary school. Its not usual to have this. Its actually not great for their independent learning skills to have so much scaffolding with homework, it tends to lead to a collapse at university when they can't study for themselves.

If it was not part of your contract you need to tell them you are changing your contract and require payments whenever you are available, and perhaps they get X weeks non-payment holidays a year. Or tell them you need a retention payment over summer.

There is a risk you will lose them if they don't want to pay, but there is no other way to make it happen.

It's not 'cheeky' to set out your terms. You can just say that from now on you want X amount every term, or a retainer over the holidays, or whatever works for you. Then it's up to them if they want to carry on. I used to run an evening class and charged per session. But sometimes lots of people were absent and I hardly earned anything then so I changed to one fee per term. Not only was my pay guaranteed, but also people turned up more often because they'd paid for all the classes.

I'm also a tutor. Of course you cannot ask a family to pay you for work you aren't doing!

Your contractual terms need to build in your expectations. Eg either;

• you charge a rate that earns you enough to cover holiday/low work periods
• you ask for notice periods that help you replace clients without gaps
• you warn parents you won't hold spaces for people who don't pay through the summer
• you sign people up for 12 month contract commitments

You need to expect that demand for your business will fall in school holidays so thats when you are best planning to take your own holidays, and its poor business to take them in term time.

Its also to be expected that exam students won't want your services after the end of May or so when they've sat the exam. As a pp said you need to diversify - start summer revision sessions for the year below from June to fill out your schedule.

Most tutors I know charge a very high hourly rate to cover that the work is often term time only.

I understand if they don’t want to pay over summer, but the abrupt announcement from the student that lessons would be done v shortly and not the end of term is not very fair, imo.

But they did it last year and you said nothing! This is really something you should have discussed after they did it the first time.

As you keep avoiding the question, it's very obvious to everyone that you don't have a contract with them. You need to put one in place BEFORE you tutor them again next year and you need to discuss summer plans with them this week.

Do you use contracts OP? Because if you don't, your clients can drop you anytime they like with no notice. Which is what it seems like this family is doing.

What do you teach? The 11+ is in September so a lot of families in grammar areas will likely be looking for a summer tutor

Having tutored for 20 years, I can safely say that the summer period is always a challenging one. Sometimes, you are lucky and have work over the summer and sometimes you do not. You cannot just ask for holiday pay, as a self employed person, that’s not going to work, unless, you have a contract that stipulates that pay will be expected 52 weeks of the year. If that is what you need to occur then, moving forwards, you need to include it in a contract. I think if you raise this issue now, you will
lose them as it sounds cheeky. Equally, I suspect that whilst the child might like to stop classes now, the parents are likely to want it to continue until
the end of term. If they stop that abruptly, without warning then I would suggest that they are not reliable clients and you would be advised to look elsewhere and I would also raise the fact they had not given warning. A retainer is an option but it’s unlikely they will go for that option. Another option would be to increase your hourly rate for September, giving them warning and incorporate an amount that will, in effect, pay you over the summer. If you want to keep these clients, asking for holiday pay would not be the way I would go.

Dd has two tutors. One for literacy and the other learning an instrument. Both one lesson per week.

I can't remember the exact details in the contract for the literacy tutor but the sessions are term time only. They are sometimes offered for a few weeks in the summer, but that is an extra. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. Towards the end of term (so anytime soon) I will be asked if we are carrying on next term and we will sort out lesson times.

The music lesson has a new contract for the start of each half term. It specifies the start and end dates and number of lessons. If the tutor has to cancel we are either refunded that lesson or offered a different time. Again lessons are sometimes offered in the holidays, but as an extra. Sometimes we do them, other times we don't. In a few weeks we will get the contract for September and will sort out lesson times.

Neither of then expect to pay for lessons on the summer because the contact is term time only. If it us our fault that we miss lessons the no refund or extra lessons are offered. If I know in advance I let them know in advance because they may be able to offer the time to someone else. If they do, and get paid twice for that time, then bonus. Not their fault if we cancel so still expect to pay, because that is the terms of the contract.

I think you need to either check what you put in the contract, or if you didn't have one, or one with much detail, then get a new one drafted for next term.

YANBU, you should add this to your contract.

The evidence is you CAN get clients who are happy to pay for the summer holidays so you should push for this.

Lots of kids need to catch up or will just forget stuff if they stop. Kids revising for 11+ or 13+ will often be flat out in the summer.

You never answered the question about what kind if contract you’ve sign with them. I assume it’s a per session thing right? With little or no warning of stopping session? I get it’s worrying when people talk about stopping and it’s your main income. But fear is never a good advisor when it comes to business.

1- you need to clarify what’s going on with the parents, not the child
2- you need to review T&C. It could be asking to for agreeing for a month tuition each time.
3- have more variety in your client base!
4- please do not put lressure on those people to carry on using you. That’s the best way to make them run away!

Another former tutor here who agrees with this - you get paid for the hours you do. I don't know why you'd expect to carry on over the holidays if your primary role with this family is homework support?

Also I wouldn't have thought that it was too late to find new clients for the summer - it was always my most lucrative time as a tutor anyway. So many families want intensive tuition or tutors to go away on holiday with them. And then I'd pick up with my regular term time clients in September.

Why would you assume they’d want to continue once exams are over??