What are you paying for 11 plus tuition?

[utterlyfedup2]

Full disclosure, I'm an 11 plus tutor.

I currently offer face to face tuition and travel to students homes but for various reasons, can't continue doing this. I'll be moving online from September and am trying to work out what to charge.

I'm in the home counties in a big grammar area (Kent) and although distance will no longer matter, I suspect I'll still be working with families in my local area. I have 30 years teaching experience and 10 years of excellent 11 plus results.

What do you currently pay for online 11 plus tuition?

WIBU to charge around £45 per hour for 1:1?

Around where I live (several grammar schools in the area) it's around £50 an hour face to face, so I wouldn't want to pay £45 for online. I believe that £50 might be a small group though (I didn't look into it much as I ultimately don't agree with tutoring to get into grammar schools but that's a me issue).

I pay £48 online - but that’s for a SEN tutor I couldn’t find locally

Thanks. I only offer 1:1, no groups.

Can I ask, why do you think £50 for a face to face group is better value than £45 for 1:1 online?

I think £50 ph for group tuition is ridiculously high, personally.

round here - about £70 - upwards

@utterlyfedup2 £45 is not unreasonable at all. That’s what I used to pay 2 years ago. In person as well.

I would be online only only though?

I'm utterly fed up with the constant mickey taking that happens with face to face clients, so happy to take a slight cut in income if it means those problems go away.

I currently charge £52 ph face to face within 3 miles of home or for lessons st my house.

Better interaction face to face. Easier to engage with the student and see whether they are actually engaged in the activity or just nodding their head. My children did an online music course and the tutor would give them a task and they were too afraid to say if they didn't understand and would just say they got it. If they were asked for an answer they would just say they didn't know or guess and then nod at the feedback.
As I said I don't agree in tuition, but if I was going to go for it then for my children face to face would be better. I feel I would also be able to speak to the tutor too and it feels more personal.

@utterlyfedup2 oh I see. Personally I wouldn’t do online but that doesn’t mean that other parents wouldn’t.

Interesting you feel a group is more personal than 1:1 just because it's in person. Thanks for your perspective.

I do have some online only clients already and can honestly say the quality of teaching and learning is the same... unless the child doesn't wish to engage properly in tuition.

I wouldn’t use online tuition for my DC, but if you charge £52 face to face then £45 is probably about right for those that would use it.

We pay £27 online for 90 mins with max 6 in a class. It's Bexley. Not exactly what you want but builds a picture.

I think we were paying £40ish per hour for 11+ tuition. Mainly online but only really because we had started with her during Covid. I think if starting from scratch I would have looked for f2f. Broadly it worked quite well but I don’t think it does really for creative writing for example - I don’t know is you need that in Kent.

I'm genuinely interested in your comment about mickey taking with f2f clients - why do you think online clients will remove that?

Thanks, that's not far from me.

1:1 is a completely different offering though.

I charge £45 per hour, sole learner, in person. They come to me, otherwise +10 surcharge for travel

£45 1:1 in person.
(I would not choose online and my daughter wouldn't do it, she needs face to face)

Clients who are online can't do any of the followng:

• Forget to cancel and just not be in when I turn up at their house.
• Give me a cold/dirty/noisy room to work in.
• Disappear while I'm at their house, leaving me alone with their child - and not come home at the lesson end time. I was actually locked in a house once - didn't go back there!
• Allow their dogs to jump all over me.
• Allow younger siblings to run a mock or 'join in' the tuition.
• Turn up at my house early for tuition and hammer on the door, disturbing me teaching.
• Leave their child alone at my front door 15 minutes early.
• Bringing their child to my house coughing and sneezing all over me with a heavy cold. Or with a sickness bug that hadn't quite gone.
• Turning up late to collect. No excuse, no apology.
• Children breaking things at my house.
• Children arriving covered in mud.

All of these things happen regularly. They simply aren't possible online.

I’m in Kent and £40 online /£50 in person sounds about right.

I’m well past that stage now but would always opt for in person. If the mickey taking/non payment/no shows/travel are a pain, I’d look to be reviewing your policies rather than just going online.

get yourself a booking platform where all sessions are booked and paid for up front - no payment no booking. Can’t make it/forget - tough no refunds. Late- you get a short class. Only work from your home (assuming that’s what you want) & enforce very strict behaviour rules with a one strike policy.

£33 for 30 minutes in groups of up to 4 online. London.

just seen your post sorry. So most of those wouldn’t happen if only in your home. Banging on the door, early drop offs etc are easily rectified with clear and enforced policies (I used to run a home based business and you really need to toughen up on this as people will take the piss if you let them. Enforce strict boundaries and they don’t (or you don’t offer them your services!) . Children breaking things - are they not just walking in, shoes off and sitting down at the table for the duration? Muddy children - assuming you don’t just mean muddy shoes which could be left outside, then a very clear and firm conversation would have nipped this one in the bud.

It is difficult being business like in your own home but I promise you, it will make your life so much easier.

This is precisely why Only Fans has been such a roaring success. What are your feet like?

I have begun to be much much stricter about everything. I've moved a few families online only and have refused to go back to some houses.

I already insist on payment upfront with no refunds for most cancellations.

The trouble is, parents just carry on! They and their children seem utterly shocked when I tackle them about it too! Total lack of respect....

There seems to be a never ending supply of entitled, rude parents and children who want my services! 😂

I think it really depends on which area and market you are aiming at. Unbelievably, the tutors specialising in the very top private schools in central london are charging £150ph now. People are so desperate (and so rich) that many of them are full. It is what you pay an emergency plumber in London for an hour I guess…

Also Kent borders pay £50/hour face to face for 121 in tutor's home. Very similar price/hour as for music lesson (although these only half as long). We prefer face to face as DS hated online during COVID.

Do kids really have to be intensively tutored through the 11+? Don't they then struggle if they actually get into the grammar school because they're not bright enough to do the work?

I am from north London, went to one if the few girls' grammars in the area, but it wasn't an 11+ area. You just did the specific school entrance exam. There was no tutoring, although my mum got me a book of nonverbal reasoning tests.

Yes, I can imagine a reception/year 1 child didn't get much benefit from online schooling during covid. The offering from many schools was far from ideal but they did what they could I guess.

That's very different to a year 5 child having a personalised 1:1 session for an hour a week online though.

Thanks for your comment about pricing.