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Original poster

Yikes Quick! How much do private tutors get paid?

38 replies

Berrie · 07/03/2007 15:41

Some one has given my number to a parent who wants some maths tuition for their daughter. Only just looked at the text so they could ring any time and I know absolutly nothing about how much I should ask for or other issues I should consider. Has anyone any experience? I am a qualified junior teacher but not working at the moment.

OP posts:
GameGirly · 07/03/2007 15:47

I pay £25/hour, but I've a feeling ours is particularly good value and that others pay about £30/32.

Blandmum · 07/03/2007 15:48

When I last did it I got £25 an hour for A level Biology tuition. This was 3 years ago. I think the going rate is now more like £30 for A level

VioletBaudelaire · 07/03/2007 15:49

We pay £20 per hour for an extremely good tutor with 20+ years teaching experience.
We're in the North of England.
Where in the country are you?

speedymama · 07/03/2007 15:51

I last did it about 8 years ago and I was paid £20 per hour for A'level chemistry. Easiest money I have ever earned tbh.

Blandmum · 07/03/2007 15:52

Ditto. My db is also a scinece teacher and just boufgt a fender Telecaster with the poceeds of last years tutoring

Mind you, he was nominated for teacher of the year,.....

Enid · 07/03/2007 15:52

I pay dd1s tutor 25 an hour

Original poster
Berrie · 07/03/2007 15:54

Thanks I live in the East Midlands. Do they come to you or do you go there? How do you satisfy yourselves that you are getting value for money?

OP posts:
FunMumm · 07/03/2007 15:57

I pay DD's maths tutor £10 for 1/2 hour but he often stays 3/4 of an hour. He has years of experience and used to work at a local primary school.

Blandmum · 07/03/2007 16:00

My tutees came to me, but they were older, near adults.....I always got the parents to visit first so that they were happy with the set up.

Original poster
Berrie · 07/03/2007 16:01

A few of you are mentioning experience, is this very important to you and does 10 years sound like much to you?

OP posts:
speedymama · 07/03/2007 16:04

Do you mean give VFM? TBH, I just turned up and focused on the areas with which the child was struggling. Unfortunately some parents expect you to perform miracles but don't appreciate that you can only do so much, particularly if the child does not have the aptitude for the subject.

My worst experience was a family who asked me to tutor their daughter in order to raise her predicted grade D to a grade B 4 weeks before the GCSE exam. All I could was to go through past papers and explain as best I could concepts as we did them.

I stopped doing it because I became disillusioned with the standard of chemistry that was being taught at schools. Most of my pupils were either grammar or private school kids.

Blandmum · 07/03/2007 16:07

4 weeks, farkin hell!

What the hell did they expect you to do????????????

speedymama · 07/03/2007 16:08

I had no experience of school teaching but I had done some chemistry teaching at a local college when I was doing my PhD plus, as I PhD student, I was asked to help undergraduates in their practical lessons for which I got paid.

Original poster
Berrie · 07/03/2007 16:09

No no I'm interested in how the parent of the child guages the vfm they are getting from the tutor.

OP posts:
speedymama · 07/03/2007 16:10

I know MB, I explained to the parents that it was a tall order but they begged to help their daughter. I tried, she got a D. She was useless at chemistry tbh. Oh, she wanted to be a doctor. No chance.

Original poster
Berrie · 07/03/2007 16:11

I suppose that they thought it was worth a shot but really...4 weeks?

OP posts:
Blandmum · 07/03/2007 16:14

But to get in to be a doctor you need 3 As at A level and references that say you are Mother Theresa crossed with the Archangel gabriel and a years volentary work in a care home!

If she was prdicted a D at GCSE there is no way on Gods good green earth that she would ever get an A at A level! [slapped across the face with a wet fish emoticon]

speedymama · 07/03/2007 16:21

TBH, Berrie, in my experience, there is a huge gulf between parents expectation and the reality of their off-spring's ability if the off-spring does not have an affinity for the subject.

I worked for a year with a grammar schoolgirl on GCSE Chemistry and Physics. At our first lesson, we actually did some maths because she needed some help with her homework. Part of the calculation required 8 subtracted from 14. She reached for the calculator. I took the calculator away and told her that she did not need it for that. She could not do the substraction in her head. I was horrified. I tried my best but in the end there is only so much you can do. She wanted to be a doctor btw (no chance).

OTOH, I had a private school pupil who was very bright and his parents wanted a tutor because the parents of his friends had hired tutors also. He did not need it so I just provided reassurance and worked through exam papers with him as well as teach undergraduate level concepts as he felt that this would give him the edge over his colleagues. He got into medical school. Now that was easy money.

Blandmum · 07/03/2007 16:23

Ohhhh don't get me started on Maths abd calculators..........I'm getting grumier by the minute!

I have to teach a maths based topic to the Upper sixth tomorrow, and iit is going to be ghastly, since they cannot carry out simple arithmatic.

speedymama · 07/03/2007 16:25

I thought that they had banned calculators at primary school now? Was that just a vicious rumour?

Bozza · 07/03/2007 16:28

at the 14-8 example. I practice sums like that with my6yo on boring car journeys. Breaks the monononous football talk from the rear seat.

Blandmum · 07/03/2007 16:29

From your lips to god's ears.

What blows my mind, every time, is when they have 5 50 somethings. You ask them for the mean and they tell you 10something. You calmy say, no, the mean for 5 fiftysomethings, must be fifty something.

No, miss, the calculator8 says it is this*

Cue teacher having a cardiac arrest through raised blood pressure!!!!!

Original poster
Berrie · 07/03/2007 16:31

There was a calculator paper in the SATS for the Y6 I taught the year before last but they were not allowed to use it in the other papers.

OP posts:
confusedandignorant · 07/03/2007 16:32

not impossible to get a predicted D to B, managed it with DS in maths a while back, although it was half an hour every night for those few weeks. Glad I could do it myself as it would have cost a fortune, and no he wasn't doing A level in anything maths related but needed for general uni entrance

Blandmum · 07/03/2007 16:33

Question on an intermediate A level maths question paper. @What is the cube of 3'

Now, granted, this was the no calculator paper , and it was the 'noddy' first question but even so!!!!!!!!