Sixth former acting as maths tutor - experiences?

[AChickenCalledKorma]

DD1 is in year 12 and is very good at maths. A friend of a friend is looking for a sixth former to give her 13yo daughter some maths support. DD1 is interested but we're trying to figure out how it would work.

Has anyone got an older child that acts as a tutor or a young secondary aged child that receives tutoring from a sixth former?

If so -

• whose house does the tutoring take place in?
• how much money changes hands (we are in Surrey)?
• what do I need to think about that I haven't yet?

It can work well I tutored for the 11+ at 15/16 and common entrance at 21, DS was tutored by a 16yo for the 11+. He is now 15 and planning on doing some 11+ tutoring this summer.

I'm a qualified teacher and charge £35ph for reference.

I'd always recommend travelling to the student's house and the tutoring should take place in a family room.

It's always good to get parent/student's expectations up front so the tutor can plan their teaching.

DS has been doing this since he was 14 - both general support and GCSE and now A level and STEP. He now offers tuition during Uni vacations.
Lessons take place at the students home with a parent present in the house. He was wondering about getting a CRB check now he has turned 18 but no one has yet asked him for one. His students parents tend to know him via his old school or via word of mouth so he has not had to advertise. He used to charge about 50% of what local tutors asked for but will increase that this year.

Dd2 tutored a neighbour’s daughter in maths last year, she was Yr 12 helping yr8. She went to the other family’s house, I think she charged £20 per hour. The girl’s maths improved a lot. I should probably add DD2 was doing maths A level & got close to full marks for GCSE.

Thanks everyone, this is really useful. She and I both fully appreciate that she will be no substitute for a qualified teacher. But the child in question is specifically looking for someone nearer her age, so that's good.

She has one friend who is doing something similar, and charging 50% of Synecdoche's rate, so that seems a reasonable principle. We'll have a look and see what the local going rate for qualified, adult tutors is and go from there.

She's doing Maths and Further Maths A level and hoping to study Maths at university. And she also has a bit of experience volunteering with younger children at church, as well as quite successfully coaxing her reluctant younger sister through homework! So I think the building blocks are there, but finding out what the parent actually expects, and whether she can deliver it, will be the next step.

DD was horrified that her student didn’t have good tables knowledge & that her number bonds were poor. The poor girl had managed to scrape by in primary school and needed basic arithmetic help before they could do senior school maths.

At my dds secondary school sixth formers acted as mentors for younger students in subjects such as Maths (up to GCSE) for free. They would take them through materials that had be prepared by Maths teachers.
It could work but being good at Maths doesn't necessarily mean that you would be good at teaching it. I don't know whether this would apply to your dd or not.
I do also know someone (one of dds peer group) who was doing very well with tutoring, but spent so much time doing it that they neglected their own studies and didn't pass their 1st year degree exams. So your dd would need to make sure that she can manage the workload and expectations of the potential tutee's parents.

My dd tutored English in yr 13, she got great GCSE results for Eng Lang and lit (full marks for some papers).

She charged £15/hr, so, less than a qualified teacher, but still good money. She did three hours a week with three different students. I think she will really have made a difference to their grades. Obv she had to prep but not masses, practice questions as much as anything, also help with HW.

One student came here, she went to the other two (v local). She stopped at Easter as she was about to do A levels.

We are in London and have had a couple of local sixth formers helping our Y5 daughter with maths. They come to our house and the rate for both of them has been £15ph.