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Original poster

Would you hire a teenager to be a maths tutor for your kids?

39 replies

chumaniward · 25/05/2014 14:09

I'm 15 and wondering if i would be able to make any money out of maths tutoring. I go to a grammar school and am predicted all A. I got an A in maths GCSE last year (2 years early) and I am doing A-level maths this year. Would you hire someone like myself for maths (or any other subject) and if so how much would you pay?

OP posts:
QuintessentiallyQS · 25/05/2014 14:14

No, maybe as a babysitter/homework help, but not as a tutor I dont think.

My sons tutor was a retired school teacher from the independent sector. Tutoring requires more than just having learnt maths up to almost A level standard.

It is a really good initiative though! Smile

beatingwings · 25/05/2014 14:17

Again I admire your initiative, but i wouldn't hire you. I would want someone qualified to degree level.

Spinaroo · 25/05/2014 14:19

I agree with Quint. You sound lovely- very intelligent and also enterprising- but I would need to be sure you could share your knowledge effectively. The best tutors are not always the most intelligent and vice versa. Good luck!

VivaLeBeaver · 25/05/2014 14:23

I might give you a go. But I'd probably only pay half the going tutor rate. Which I think is £20 an hour round here so I'd pay £10.

But I'd be hovering out of site to see if you could teach/explain things well. And I'd be quizzing dd afterwards.

Our local primary school uses a grammar school sixth former to tutor the really bright kids in maths. Guess it must be after school,not sure as dd was never bright enough to be put to do it. Grin. But a friends ds regularly had sessions with him.

LynetteScavo · 25/05/2014 14:23

I'm looking for a maths tutor for my 15 yo to help him get an A, but I'd go for someone who knew the exam paper, and how to teach the syllabus, rather than someone who understands it, but can't necessarily explain it.

VivaLeBeaver · 25/05/2014 14:25

My brother has a maths degree btw and teaches at a primary school. He got a 1st.

He sometimes struggles if my 13yo dd asks him for help as he's unsure of the methods used to teach. So you'd need to make sure you kept up to date with how they're been taught.

forago · 25/05/2014 14:25

I would as long as you knew the sylabus and relevant exam papers. I'd pay less than the going rate. I think there is a website that does this already.

holidaysarenice · 25/05/2014 14:26

Mumsnet will hate you or this idea but speaking from general experience parents will love you and will bite your hand off.

Get this exam done. Then market yourself at younger kids,was than tutors rate obviously and for young kids use a lot of fun number activities to explain things well.

You'll make a mint, I did.

QuintessentiallyQS · 25/05/2014 14:29

Lol, by your own logic, holidaysarenice (as you are on Mumsnet) you would have to say the same as the rest, and yet you dont! Grin See, it is possible to have your own opinion here. Wink

Shedding · 25/05/2014 15:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

gardenfeature · 25/05/2014 15:53

Yes, I pay £10 per hour for a 6th former who is doing A Level Maths, A Level Additional Maths and is off to do a Maths Degree in Sept to help my Yr 9 DS.

Chocotrekkie · 25/05/2014 15:57

What about tutoring for younger kids ?

Say 11+ tutoring ?

meditrina · 25/05/2014 16:03

As a tutor, it'll be hard to convince people you have the experience in coaching.

As an afterschool babysitter who will supervise and help with homework, I think you'd have greater success in finding clients. There was a thread here only a couple of days ago about someone returning to work who was worried about a year7 being alone in the house. A sensible teen with them would have solved her problem, and then if you then add homework help your can grow a business by word of mouth.

Morgause · 25/05/2014 16:09

Both my DSs tutored maths when they were in the sixth form. I think pre GCSE is too young.

snoofle · 25/05/2014 16:14

My son was hired for a time.
I dont think that it is necessarily ideal, long term for whoever you tutor, but for short term, yes.

And you can always ask say to the parents to ask the Maths teacher at school if she/he thinks it is money being well spent.

snoofle · 25/05/2014 16:15

He tutored someone who was about 12/13 btw.

gardenfeature · 25/05/2014 16:22

We work in unison with the school maths teacher who has given us a homework text book and he writes in DS's maths book which topics to cover or what's being done in class the following week. Nice guy Smile

Schmedz · 25/05/2014 18:28

I would ask for a trial session to see how you worked with my child and assessed their strengths/weaknesses. I would also want to know how you'd approach the tutoring - would it be repetitive practise questions or do you have other approaches/games to address fundamental understanding and interpretation of questions? Usually people want a tutor to address weaknesses in understanding so it would be crucial that you could demonstrate / explain how you would help a struggling child (and also extend the understanding of an able one for everyone keen to get their DC into grammar schools!!)

I would happily hire someone like yourself if I felt you had a good manner with my child and the ability to explain concepts and deliver activities which would encourage them and help them effectively improve their mathematical understanding, accuracy and speed of working. I would not, however, pay the same rate as someone with more experience and training!

If you are serious about maths tutoring, offer to tutor children of friends of your family. If you do a good job, word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool!! If you have time, you may want to become familiar with the national curriculum syllabus for KS2 and KS3 and also talk to maths teachers (especially at primary school level) about the methods they use to teach concepts and skills at each year level...it may well have changed a bit since you were in primary school, even though that was not very long ago.

Good luck and all power to you for identifying a skill set and thinking of how else you could use it!

Spurious · 25/05/2014 20:39

My 7 yo DD has a sixth form Maths student who helps her once a week for 45 minutes.

I wouldn't call him a tutor, he's a helper. He sets her Maths queries and works through them with her. He engages with her in a way I can't.

It's win win win, I'm helping him, he's helping me, he's helping her.

I wouldn't use him for eleven plus but it's just right for what she needs right now. She likes Maths with him, she hates it with me.

sashh · 26/05/2014 06:13

You can obviously do maths but what do you know about teaching/tutoring? Do you know what VARK is? Could you adjust your teaching in light of the results of VARK?

What syllabus are you following? Is it the same as other schools? How do you know the stuff that's not been taught to you?

Pythonesque · 26/05/2014 08:51

I tutored maths as soon as I'd finished school, and found I was quite good at it. Looking back, one of the clues that I had teaching ability was that I was frequently explaining things to friends in my class.

The first thing you need to find out is whether you have good teaching abilities, which is somewhat separate to being good at maths though this is an excellent start! I do like the suggestion of trying to offer afterschool supervision + homework help, if the timing works for you - it will allow you to work out how good you are and how much you like doing this sort of thing, and then you can go further based on your experience.

If you are really interested in maths teaching, see what you can look up about how children learn, and mathematics concepts - often those of us to whom maths is just "obvious" have to be more creative to think of ways to explain the "obvious" to those for whom it is not so.

Good luck!

TheHoneyBadger · 26/05/2014 08:54

i think if the price was right then yes however round here some cheeky guy is trying to charge £20ph when he is just studying a'level maths and it always makes me laugh at his audacity. i'm a qualified teacher and would only earn £20ph tutoring.

SheherazadeSchadenfreude · 26/05/2014 08:56

I used to tutor when I was 16-18 (French and German). It was very lucrative. I used to get £5 an hour, and this was back in the early 1980s! I was very in demand, particularly after I got my first two pupils through their O levels!

BeckAndCall · 26/05/2014 09:06

There is definitely a market for it and yes, I would hire you in a year or so - perhaps when you're upper sixth.

But the points about which exam board and syllabus are relevant, as you would need to find a good match in your tutees.

You'd need to be not just good at doing it yourself but be good at explaining the 'why' and you won't know that until you try it.

hellsbells99 · 26/05/2014 09:34

I have paid 6th formers in the past for maths and piano tuition - £10 an hour. DD1 is now a 6th former and tutors piano. She is also a maths mentor as school - 1 lunch time a week, she voluntarily does maths tution with a younger pupil.

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