What’s the hourly rate for private secondary tuition?

[TaRaLa]

Looking at secondary school age in maths and science up to A level, what is the going hourly rate you pay/get paid or would be willing to pay for your child’s private tuition?

Like lots of other services it varies depending on experience. What you pay for a trainee hairdresser will be very different to what you pay to a senior stylist. Tutoring is a growing market, and you have University students offering it as well as people who have been doing it for years. I'm a tutor who has a teaching qualification, over 10 years’ experience, I'm a senior examiner, I review resources for publications, I have my own set of notes to give to students & I have a track record of improving grades and getting students into university. What I charge will be higher than a university student who is doing some tutoring on the side.

@MrsKeats

Using something like Google documents means you can watch what they are writing and help them as they work.

only if they are typing.

try teaching long mutliplication on google docs.
Itis really hard to write maths on a type written doc.
It is a nightmare.

we used the white board feature a lot.

@NumberNineTwo

I assume you are being ironic? Everyone has completed secondary school and done the stuff their kids are learning. Half of people have some sort of post-secondary education. A quarter of people have a bachelors degree. Most kids should have at least one parent or close relative who’s educated to degree level? It therefore puzzles me why most parents can’t teach their own kids.

I am a tutor.

I am really good at what I do.
I teach primary.

I do not, and could not, tutor my own kids for GCSE English and maths.

Of course I can help them with homework, I can give support in many ways, but I do not have a good working knowledge of the GCSE curriculum, let alone the A level one.

just as an example, can you do a really good PEEE paragraph?

I am not sure I can even remember what the last E stand for!

(hmm or is it PEEES? Or maybe PEEEC? I can't remember.)

My 16 year old is better placed to help my 13 year old with these specific skills, as she has just done it for GCSE.

Oh ok steepe
I give up now

I am in South East. Most GCSE charge £30- 35 per hour. Some charge up to £80 an hour.
A level tutors charge between £40 and £80
My ds maths tutor charges £30 an hour and she is absolutely fantastic.
She has a long waiting list and can basically pick and choose her clients
Some of the prices quoted are ridiculous and those charging high prices are not necessarily the best

I used to charge £45 an hour, but then families started wanting solid days during holidays. At my height of tutoring I charged £500 a day, and they could have as many hours with as many kids as they wanted. It worked really well.

www.headmasters.com/price-list/
Someone refers to senior stylists . I tutor English and would, having read this price list say I am consultant level in hairdresser terms. PPl can choose. I am in the £40-70 charge (maybe thinking now that I should up this to hairdresser rates!) depending on what the student and parents need and how long the lessons are. Mind you, I don't get to chat about holidays or watch daytime telly or read OK magazine over the students' shoulders, but I also don't have to rent a premises and manage staff. Tutors I know, as the person upthread has said, only tutor HNWs and they are minimum of £100. They may be employed by concierge style people or guardians or agencies so the actual parents are probably paying another £50 on top. Bear in mind that kids in boarding pay £35-45,000 and if they are from overseas, the schools are likely to add another £5-10 k and flights and uniform and spending money. For every zoom hour there is all the prep over the years, prep for the lesson itself and creating specific resources from the huge directory I have built up and then setting HW and marking so actually per hour it is probably £30-40. When I wanted a tutor once I rang around the big names and the minimum was £80. And that was two years ago. As usual in the Uk we are all very awkward at talking about money.

We used mytutor for dd a level chemistry. Took her up from a C to an A . Two sessions a week for 7 weeks... 14 hours tuition at £35 an hour. Under £500 for 2 grades difference, money well spent.

£30-£35 is absolutely fine and absolutely not ripping people off.

Tutors are not working full time as you know what, kids are in school! Probably a maximum of 3 kids an evening (allowing travel time between pupils)

Tennis coach - £30 an hour
Gymnastics coach - £30 an hour
Chiropodist - £50 an hour
Physio - £50 an hour

Yet people moan about a tutor charging £30 for actually EDUCATING your child!

I am a bit confused about those saying that prices of £50 are too much? If you are paying for someone who has a minimum of 2 university qualifications and who has many years working as a professional why would you think that you should pay them less than your hairdresser? Remember that the hour they actually teach for is only a part of the time they spend, preparing, marking and travelling.

Yet people moan about a tutor charging £30 for actually EDUCATING your child!

Recently there was a thread asking if private school was worth it. A number of state teachers posted that they taught just as well etc. A number of people posted that people they knew had attended state schools and went on to become highly paid professionals.

On this thread, posters are saying that paying £50+ an hour is worth it to get high marks.
The pupils using tutors are the ones really struggling or the ones competing for grammar schools or those hoping to achieve uni courses.

It shows that the standard education system is not enough on its own. School teachers are not enough to help struggling students or brighter students?!?!

Having the means to pay a tutor is seemingly necessary but not always possible.
Tutors are charging extraordinary fees. I paid for a tutor last year for the academic year to help my primary school student with one subject. The tutor was a teacher in another school. She did bring DC to the standard expected and exceeded it but I can’t pay this for the duration of my child’s education because some teachers are not doing their jobs or maybe I am?

IMO that is why people resent the fees tutors charge. If their fellow teachers did more, parents wouldn’t need to involve tutors.

Maybe teachers could get together and decide to be lax in their day jobs so parents have to look elsewhere and they all make extra money. Who knows!

Hairdressers, chriropodists, physios etc generally have significant additional costs in the form of premises, insurance, professional fees, necessary equipment. If someone works from home I’d expect to pay significantly less, even more so if on zoom.
I’m not sure if anyone has complained at £30-40 an hour for an experienced and well qualified teacher as I haven’t read every single comment. I think most of the ‘ridiculous’ comments were directed at students with no teaching qualifications and those charging the equivalent of well over 100k diary a year. I’d also be interested to know if all of these people are declaring their income!
I’d feel fine helping my kids out with most subjects, everything is so easily accessible on the web, it’s just finding the time to do it.

Those of you complaining are missing the point - no one is making you pay the top rates.

The most I've ever spent on shoes is £100. On average I spend less than £50. I could afford more if I really wanted, but for me it's not worth it. But I'm not going to rail against someone that's spent ££££ on Louboutins. There's a market for everyone in shoes - shoezone up - but you'd be off your trolley if you expected your Primark specials to be as good as a bespoke pair.

Tutors vary enormously in skill, qualifications and experience, and if they know their worth, they charge accordingly. They, like other self-employed people have to pay tax, insurance, have no sick or holiday pay or pension.

Teachers earn ish-£30ph with all this built in. Tutors can offer a great deal more because of the 1:1 interaction, if they're experienced and qualified.

Need bargain-basement? Go to a tuition centre. Use the lunch time /home work clubs in schools that are usually hugely under used. Want bespoke Oxbridge prep? You have to pay.

Just because education is usually free at point of access, doesn't mean that those offering a private service should be paid peanuts.

@Dancingonmoonlight

Yet people moan about a tutor charging £30 for actually EDUCATING your child!

Recently there was a thread asking if private school was worth it. A number of state teachers posted that they taught just as well etc. A number of people posted that people they knew had attended state schools and went on to become highly paid professionals.

On this thread, posters are saying that paying £50+ an hour is worth it to get high marks.
The pupils using tutors are the ones really struggling or the ones competing for grammar schools or those hoping to achieve uni courses.

It shows that the standard education system is not enough on its own. School teachers are not enough to help struggling students or brighter students?!?!

Having the means to pay a tutor is seemingly necessary but not always possible.
Tutors are charging extraordinary fees. I paid for a tutor last year for the academic year to help my primary school student with one subject. The tutor was a teacher in another school. She did bring DC to the standard expected and exceeded it but I can’t pay this for the duration of my child’s education because some teachers are not doing their jobs or maybe I am?

IMO that is why people resent the fees tutors charge. If their fellow teachers did more, parents wouldn’t need to involve tutors.

Maybe teachers could get together and decide to be lax in their day jobs so parents have to look elsewhere and they all make extra money. Who knows!

Teachers are, by and large, doing their best. The thing that has changed is the number of people expecting top marks for their children without sitting every day and grinding through the work with them.

Kids have had 2 years of disrupted schooling, with many horrendously disadvantaged by online teaching, but are still being measured with the same arbitrary stick. Don't blame teachers for the fact that many fall short of those measures.

If their fellow teachers did more, parents wouldn’t need to involve tutors.

The recent state vs private thread seemed to suggest more that if parents did more then there would be less call for tutors...

I'm sorry to disappoint your Machiavellian visions but I'm afraid that if you walked into any state school in the country at lunchtime or after school you are more likely to find staff giving up their time, unpaid, to provide additional support for students who need or request it.

I'm sorry to disappoint your Machiavellian visions but I'm afraid that if you walked into any state school in the country at lunchtime or after school you are more likely to find staff giving up their time, unpaid, to provide additional support for students who need or request it.

Sadly many of us learned whilst homeschooling during covid that many teachers do as little as they can get away with.

I paid £60 hour for A level tutor Remote during Covid. He is a head of year tutor. However, he would mark my child’s work outside of the lesson, send him work during the week and again mark it. So the hour was a proper hour of lessons. Expensive but a one off as my child needed a particular grade. To be honest he sparked an interest in a dull subject that my child had never found in the two years of school lessons. So it was well worth it.

@NumberNineTwo

I’m puzzled why parents need tutors anyway. Fair enough if you don’t speak French or whatever - but everyone knows Maths and English and most parents are educated to degree level?

Yes, that’s why everyone found homeschooling such an easy walk in the park.

It’s almost like teaching is a skill and benefits from a degree of expertise.

Just like everything else that is more expensive in London and parts of the SE, I am totally unsurprised that tutoring costs more. Cost of living is higher, therefore the amount you’ll want to make to make tutoring in your spare time worth your while will also be higher. I know I’m paying for my tutor’s travel time as he comes to our house, as well as being in an expensive area where the economics of supply and demand come into play. My son’s tutor is great and gets him to work really hard, happily so for me the ‘extortionate’ sum is worth it.

You lot will be horrified at how much more building works cost here.

@Dancingonmoonlight

I'm sorry to disappoint your Machiavellian visions but I'm afraid that if you walked into any state school in the country at lunchtime or after school you are more likely to find staff giving up their time, unpaid, to provide additional support for students who need or request it.

Sadly many of us learned whilst homeschooling during covid that many teachers do as little as they can get away with.

'Many'. OK.

I'll leave you to your agenda.

ThanksItHasPockets

A quick use of the search function for posts about teacher support or lack of during homeschooling will back up my point.

HTH.

@Dancingonmoonlight

ThanksItHasPockets

A quick use of the search function for posts about teacher support or lack of during homeschooling will back up my point.

HTH.

my kids teachers were amazing during lockdown, their secondary school provided a complete set of lessons.

I didn't post on all the lockdown threads about schooling. Compare the number of comments on those threads with the number of kids in school, and you will realise they were a tiny number.

but despite the efforts of the school, one of my teens did not/could not engage well with online schooling, and if behind. School is helping, they are doing catch up lessons etc, but she is exactly the sort of kid who would benefit from a tutor.

you get what you pay for - and I have paid for a lot of tutors!!!

I have paid between £30-£50 an hour at different times over the past few years.

The best value for money I had was a head of department, who charged £50 an hour. He was well worth it, and certainly instrumental in moving my child up one grade to meet his UCAS offer in his non specialist subject

@isabellabasil absolutely! I prepare thoroughly for my tutoring sessions and mark their work too. The 1 hour is just face to face time. For the work I do, I feel like £50 isn't a bad deal to be honest. I used to do some teaching in Switzerland and I know parents who wanted extra tuition were charged CHF 120 per hour (around £80 an hour I think at the time, although I only got around half of that).

It's supply and demand. I honestly don't get how people can accuse tutors of 'ripping parents of' as long as they're honest about their fees and services! I find that a really odd attitude. And to those teachers who say they wouldn't charge any more than they get per hour in the classroom... why on earth not?! Many people feel that teachers are underpaid (although that shouldn't factor in to charging what you want to charge anyway).

I charged £50 when I did tutoring (I stopped when Covid hit). As a previous poster also said - I'm not twisting anyone's arm! If they don't want to pay my fees for my services, that's entirely up to them! Nobody is being forced to hire me - and there are so many tutors around that they can get a cheaper option if they wish!

I also find the objections to the lawyer analogy weird too. Lawyers do not all charge the same fee. In any given area, you will certainly get lawyers that charge more for the same type of work than another. And so what? If you want to pay less, go with the cheaper one! Likewise, we got some work done on our house. We got quotes. The quotes were different, for the same job. So what?

Finally, very few people have mentioned qualifications and experience. There is a big difference between a qualified and experienced teacher with a doctorate and masters degrees, who has done exam marking for the relevant exam board, and written/published study guides and articles on the topic, and (for instance) a 17 year old student. As a parent, I would expect to pay less for the student, surely, despite it being the same 'work'. Equally, different areas - in Surrey, I paid much more for a manicure, for instance than in Hartlepool. Why are people so angry about people charging higher rates in more affluent areas?

My issue with tutoring is when/if tutors aren't honest about their experience or qualifications, or about the pupil's progress. As long as they are honest, I can't see any issue with charging whatever they want. If they don't get any work because their fees are too high, they're the only ones who it will affect!