Tuition ts & cs

[AnotherCancelledLesson]

A quick one for anyone who has a regular weekly tutor for their DC. Would appreciate input on what are reasonable terms for payment and cancellations.

I was a teacher for years and then became a private tutor. It’s my sole income. Each child is allocated a slot which is booked up in my diary on a recurring weekly basis and isn’t available for anyone else to book. I teach English so most pupils are with me long term for entire school years, as opposed to having a short series of, say, ten lessons.

When I first set up, I was very accommodating about cancellations but people did take liberties. For example, I had one parent cancel 5 out of 7 lessons on the same day. It really hit me financially to have so many people just cancelling lessons at short notice. I also had some take the entire six weeks off for summer then expect to pick up again in summer.

I then changed my ts & cs to include a clause where anyone cancelling within 24 hours of the lesson would need to pay the full price. This massively reduced cancellations. I also put a clause in which said I’d only allow people to take a four week holiday break before offering their slot to another pupil. I do at least now get a bit of work over summer.

I’ve just had a parent message wanting to cancel Tuesday and I can’t put anyone else in the slot so I lose the income. I also still have lots of parents taking two weeks off for holidays.

If you’ve got this far, thank you! I’m not an unfair person and I want my clients to be happy. I just can’t afford to keep getting hit each week as my income each week is pretty unpredictable.

How do your tutors charge? What are their terms if you cancel? Would it be unreasonable to ask parents to pay for a half term of lessons which includes lessons over holidays, and retain the lesson money if they can’t make a lesson and I can’t fit them in elsewhere? My hourly rate is at the high end so I’m not sure if I should just be absorbing the cancellations. I think parents would resent paying for holiday lessons as they are so used to cancelling them, but with staggered term times I literally have about 12-14 weeks a year with barely any income.

YABU - continue to charge hourly each week and let people cancel for free with 24 hours’ notice

YANBU - move to charging in six half termly payments and still charge if people miss a lesson for any reason

IABU for calling it ‘a quick one’! Sorry about that!

Tricky one! I do a bit of instrumental teaching but the school handles most of the admin for that. I just bill the parents. If a kid misses a lesson due to illness, I don't charge for it, even if it is short notice, but I can appreciate that as your sole source of income, that is a PITA. When my DDs had music lessons, their teachers charged either termly or half termly,. If another student was ill, the teacher would text and see if we could come earlier so she could finish earlier, but accepted that it might not always be possible.

Could you perhaps have a retainer option over the summer? Families pay you a nominal amount to "reserve" their slot for the coming term - you could set some sort of summer project to make the fee more palatable. Families who are more laid back and don't pay risk losing their slot or not having one at all. Obviously those looking to continue over the summer get first dibs.

I also think you need to change your fee structure. In your position, I would have some holiday time built in for people who want to take time off to travel or see family. But you could then offer intensive lessons in those holidays to other students using their slots, so you might not be losing out at all.

Covid complicates matters. Personally I don't want to teach a kid with Covid. I would happily teach them online if they were well enough.

Sorry, this is a bit rambling. I sympathise but I think there has to be give & take on both sides. After Easter is a great time to notify parents of changes as it gives them a whole term to make other arrangements, so it is worth getting your head around it now.

I pay for 11+ tutoring so pupils will have a weekly lesson for a whole school year. We have to pay half a term in advance. It is in small groups (4 students), so if you miss a lesson, you miss a lesson, she won't rearrange a whole class for 1 child, neither would I expect her to. She did offer an alternative day once but that is because 3 out of the 4 were away on a residential trip.

The other type of tuition I would liken it to is music lessons, with 3 kids, I spend a fortune on music lesson, 2 instruments each. Again, we pay termly in advance. If my child misses a lesson, the teacher might be able to rearrange it with enough notice given, and some are very good at doing this. However I would not expect a refund if my child missed the lesson and it was not possible to rearrange.

I would definitely expect you to charge termly/half termly/monthly in advance. The slot belongs to that child, if they can't make it and give you x days notice you will try and rearrange another slot that week. If you can't, you can't perhaps offer 2 slots the following week if it's possible. I would not expect refunds for any lessons not used.

I would say though, I would not expect tutoring to go on through the school holidays so 52 weeks a year, I would expect it to follow school terms. Everyone needs a break sometime. You could either charge a slightly higher weekly rate to make up for the fact you will not be earning for 13 weeks of the year.

Or offer holiday classes as an extra during the holidays which gives your current pupils the choice of carrying on through the holidays or having a break which ever they prefer. Some will take you up on the extra classes. Holiday classes could also be offered to other students not normally on your books, small group sessions, or could you offer some kind of intensive workshops during the holidays to make up your income? Online 1 hr a day group sessions on different topics, that could massively widen your potential clients?

If you're worried about parents being used to being able to cancel, you could always keep existing pupils on the old contract but any new pupils, set out more robust T&Cs so over a year or 2 eventually everyone would be on the new contract and not expect refunds for cancellations.

We don't use tuition but for swimming lessons, it is a monthly direct debit (including holidays). We have to pay regardless of whether we come or not.

I think it’s right for lessons to be term time only. That’s how most extra curricular activities work with extra holiday or short courses for those that want them.

We pay a standing order weekly and there is no refund for cancellation but she doesn’t run in the school holidays

I think running in the holidays is quite unusual

I've always paid up front and expected that if a lesson is cancelled by us, that money is lost. This goes for everything from horse riding, to music to Brownies and cadets.
Same with private school, you dont get the missed days refunded.

Parent here. I would not want lessons during the holidays but you can have the option of holiday bookings as an extra perhaps? That said I would expect to pay if I cancel the lesson at less than 2 weeks notice. I usually tell the teachers if we can't make it and ask if we could double up lessons or add 10-15 mins on to subsequent weeks instead, which I feel is a reasonable compromise and the teachers seem to be happy to accommodate.

I think you will have an issue trying to force people to continue over holidays - one of the dcs' tutors has very tough ts and cs and even she doesn't force lessons over hols. I think most tutors who want to work over holidays email their student body offering tutoring slots over the holidays as an extra (and often those doing exams will be looking for hours over the hols) and also take on students just for the hols (eg one of my dcs has history tuition in holidays because she doesn't want to commit to a weekly term time lesson but does want some guidance on types of questions, exam techniques, feedback on essays etc for a few lessons each holiday).

Lots of great ideas here - thanks.

I also agree with the holiday lessons needing to be optional. Families do go away and children do need time off. What I think I will do based on the feedback here is charge half termly and just ask parents if they want to add on any holiday lessons to the charge or let them book an ad-hoc holiday lesson if they want.

Not tutoring as such, but I pay for singing lessons for my dc. The tutor doesn't charge for cancelled sessions at all, regardless of notice period. I haven't paid for sessions when dd has been unable to attend due to illness. However, I do expect to pay if we cancel with less than a week's notice and would actually insist on it, even though I know the teacher wouldn't charge otherwise - it doesn't feel fair to mess her around and not pay.

I wouldn't expect to pay through holiday periods, though, and it would put me off a bit if a tutor insisted on that. I get that it's hard to manage without income during that period, but I would expect you to plan for that and factor it into your hourly rate.

@AlexaShutUp

Not tutoring as such, but I pay for singing lessons for my dc. The tutor doesn't charge for cancelled sessions at all, regardless of notice period. I haven't paid for sessions when dd has been unable to attend due to illness. However, I do expect to pay if we cancel with less than a week's notice and would actually insist on it, even though I know the teacher wouldn't charge otherwise - it doesn't feel fair to mess her around and not pay.

I wouldn't expect to pay through holiday periods, though, and it would put me off a bit if a tutor insisted on that. I get that it's hard to manage without income during that period, but I would expect you to plan for that and factor it into your hourly rate.

You are very decent to insist on paying even giving a week’s notice. Your tutor will appreciate that! They sound a lot like I used to be - I didn’t even charge if people cancelled an hour before! I’ve had to change that though as people really were treating my time as meaningless: they’d cancel after I’d already planned the lesson.

At the moment, parents cancel during holidays and that’s fine. Totally fine with that during half terms and the spring and autumn terms. It’s just the summer that’s a bit of a worry. People cancel then and usually include the last week or two of the summer term and usually the first week or two of September. It’s often 8-10 weeks. I don’t see them for all that time but currently hold their slot open for September and have to turn other prospective pupils away as I’m technically booked up. I can’t expect them to pay for all of those lessons, but I also need to find a way to be sure they will actually pick up again in September.

I suspect that you'll just lose clients if you impose a half termly minimum. We have an english tutor and we'd just chose someone else.

24hour cancellation is normal.

@underneaththeash

I suspect that you'll just lose clients if you impose a half termly minimum. We have an english tutor and we'd just chose someone else.

24hour cancellation is normal.

But why shouldn’t you pay when you’ve booked the slot more than 24 hours in advance? Where I am half termly is entirely reasonable and termly or half termly advance payments in advance are expected

Could you charge more per lesson but then offer a "free" booster lesson in the holidays for every 6 lessons booked.

So if yiu usually charge 30 per week, change it to 35 per week plus a free holiday booster lesson.
You get the same amount of money as you would if they were paying for the holiday lesson, but as it is "free" parents feel able to not take it up in which case you're essentially getting a paid for slot off.

Fellow tutor here. All my work is 1:1 and mostly face to face. I book lessons in term time only as this suits my own family. I do offer extra lessons in the 2nd half of the summer break which tend to be quite popular.

I don't charge for cancellations, especially for illness at the moment. I simply don't want unwell children coming into my office, spreading their germs. I also offer Zoom lessons if a family has Covid in the house.

My families are all very consistent. But they also know that lots of cancellations will result in me reviewing their child's place. I would give notice to a family who cancelled 5 out of 7 slots. Unless there was an exceptional reason.

My sons english dyslexia tutor we pay weekly, no unpaid holidays, if you cant make it you pay anyway, luckily they agreed to some zoom lessons so at least we can do them on holiday, total pain but they are specialised.
Sons maths tutor we pay a month on advance. If we cant make it we still have to pay, if he cancels then we dont pay. He sticks to term time only for tutoring so bit easier to manage.

Nearly all tutors here you pay if you cant make it, doesnt matter when you cancel as that's your slot.

As a parent term time tuition suits me the best and paying a month in advance is fair. It's fair enough for me to pay if child cant attend as that's their slot.

You could offer summer tution on week by week basis outside a term time contract.

Btw what our chess teacher does is is that classes are non refundable but if you can’t make them and give him a bit of warning he’ll try to find a day to fit you in or do via Zoom instead (if you are off sick or with Covid for example). So maybe non refundable but a clause that you will try on a best efforts basis to find a new time?

I also think there should be a way of marketing holiday catch up tutoring. There would be a market for that - children who are maybe boarding or who have too much going on during term time .. OR children who do worse than expected in mock exams and the parents want to try and find out and fill any gaps before the new school year.

I tutor but am not reliant on the income so am pretty free and easy with it all. If a parent wants a place held open, they will need to pay a retainer, perhaps, as an assurance they will return? You could offset that against lesson cost when they do return or non-refundable if they don’t. If you are turning work away, you need to work in whatever way you find maximises your income.

Have you thought of intensive revision courses at Feb half term and Easter? Offered online at a reasonable price with a cap on how many can attend might be a good money spinner.

@AnotherCancelledLesson I tutored for almost 20 years as my sole income (English ). I sent all parents my T&Cs at the start of each term.
I invoiced them for the half term and expected full payment at the 1st lesson.

I made it clear that I gave no refunds except at my discretion for exceptional circs ( such as a car break down or something like that if it was a long term parent.)

Before that, I'd have parents cancelling so that their child could go to a party after school etc, or be on the footie team (why were sports given priority over my lessons?) and of course, term time holidays if they took them.

I was tutoring up to 15 hrs a week, and no way could I lose around £100 a week if pupils cancelled.

Make it business-like and they will respect you more.

Parents don't get refunds for ballet, swimming, or whatever else they book after-school.