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?

Like you say, some parents choose to tutor.

Most of the children I tutor go on to thrive at grammar school because they are naturally bright but benefit from being taught the content and exam technique not taught in most primary schools. It actually makes them better, more effective learners and equips them with useful study skills.

I offer an hour a week tuition for year 5s to help them feel ready for the exam. Hardly 'intensive tutoring'.

I’m on the London/Kent border. We pay £25 an hour for class tutoring for the 11+. I think there’s about 20 in the class.

Gosh don’t sell yourself short. Our dcs’ tutor charged £60 per week for 2 90 minute sessions and had groups of 7 children in 6 slots over the week. She was making over 5 grand a month. She now has 10 per slot and is making over 8,5k a month. It’s a big business!

Both DDs were tutored in Kent. The Kent Test covers things way beyond where they had got to at Y5 in primary school. DD1 got into a superselective grammar (just) due to tutoring which was really right for her. DD2 didn't pass, and didn't get on with secondary school at all and ended up doing online school. I don't like the system at all though I think the main problem is that schools are way too big, cannot deal with SEN properly and Kent County Council are a disgrace in their attitudes to SEN - and I scarcely think Reform running it will be better - so glad we are out of the system now.

There was no way we could prepare DDs for the Kent test ourselves though. I am educated to post graduate level and have a professional job but struggled with the questions! There were no grammar schools where I grew up.

I pay £60 per hour in London for 121 face to face tutoring at the tutor’s house (it’s another £10 per hour if she comes to you). Paid up front so any cancellations from our side she keeps the money.

We are paying £30 per hour face to face in small group of max 4 at the tutors house. I personally wouldn't chose online, I feel she engages better un person and dont want added screen time as optician has advised she should do max 20 mins a day.
Our tutors are very strict in terms of parent behaviour - I was 5 mins late picking up once and we got a warning that if hapenned again she would lose her place - this tutor is excellent and incredibly popular and can pick and chose, children have to be on her wait list by year 3 latest.

For DD1 we paid £40/hour for in-person tuition. DD2 is currently having online tuition for £30/hour. Both were/are 1-2-1, for the Bexley and Kent tests.

I have waiting lists until 2031and get enquiries most weeks ... so clearly do need to be a bit more choosy.

You call your tutor 'very strict'... maybe she's just had enough of the mickey taking and has the self respect to insist on being treated considerately.

I'm afraid I have no patience with parents who turn up late, especially if they don't bother to at least warn me. It's incredibly rude and entitled behaviour to just rock up at your own convenience and assume someone else is happy to watch your child.

I think I need to drop the home visits and just concentrate on them coming to me or going online. I've decided I'm just going to go zero tolerance on all the rude, disrespectful behaviour. It's getting me down.

Thanks, that's very useful.

Wow, that's a high rate! London prices, I guess...

In Essex I didn't get DD tutored. Not did my brothers kids in Kent. Got previous papers to practice on. She still got into a good grammar. And didn't struggle there

It’s a lot cheaper than private school fees for seven years 😂

Yes, I'm sure.

At least here in Kent we have some great non grammars too in most areas.

Fair enough, DD1 would have passed but would not have got the score to get into the school which she thrived at, has she not had tuition.

Ah My DD couldn't get into a higher grammar school locally.( As there wasn't one)so made no odds. I'm sure there wasn't all this tutoring when I did my own 11+

One of my brothers had to travel 8 miles each day to get into a comprehensive in Kent.

I dont disagree with you, although arriving 5 mins late once when there has been a pile up on the motorway back from work I don't think is take the mickey - my patients turn up late repeatedly and still have to see them. Doing it repeatedly yes is entitled behaviour.

I'm sure you warned her you were going to be late, apologized profusely and then didn't do it again. Yes?

When it happens 5/6 times a week, almost every week, the reasons stop mattering to be honest.

I don't really care that there were sheep in the road or an accident or a diversion or temporary traffic lights when I'm yet again standing with a child outside my house in the cold and dark with no idea when their parent will bother turning up and then having to apologise to the next parent for starting their lesson late. Even worse, is when the late parent tells me 'it's no big deal'.

It's a little different if you work in a healthcare setting and are salaried or employed to work the whole day. Although definitely still irritating I'm sure. Have you ever had to give the next patient a partial refund because the person before them was late?

Yes, lots of children in Kent travel quite a way to get to school. I used to have over an hour on the bus, there and back.

I pay £30 per hour for in person maths and English. GCSE level. This is for an hour and there will be 2 students.
I pay £170 for chemistry/ physics. This is online individual tutoring. It is from 3:30 - 6pm but with breaks. We will be using this man for A level. One week he will do chemistry/ the next maths. My son will be doing maths/ chemistry and biology A level. Hoping he doesn’t need any help with the biology. No 11 plus where I live.

Also I would prefer online than just one person in their house. The in person tutoring is at a setting with several tutors.

I use online although my preference would always be face to face.

My kids are in a group tuition group (face to face) and regularly complain about the teacher who is apparently moody and angry during the class. They have requested a change of teacher.

They are in an online class (one to one) for another subject and it is good to listen in to hear how the lessons are going. It also saves me driving them to the teacher's house. However I am aware that they don't always tell the teacher when they don't understand something and the teacher isn't always aware of it. When I notice this, I email the teacher afterwards and ask her to do further work on it the following week. I don't always listen in though.

Assuming it's 1:1, how does the teacher not notice if a child hasn't understood? Surely they check their understanding and know the child hasn't got a question right? I'm confused as to how the teacher can just 'not notice'?

Yes it is 1:1. She asks if DC understands and they mutter yes and she accepts that DC does. I feel if in a face to face class, she would see from their body language/face that they don't know.

But surely she must see their answers/work? Sounds like it's not working brilliantly.

Any decent teacher would be constantly assessing and checking for understanding. I can honestly say I know my online students just as well as my face to face ones, if not better to be honest.