11 Plus Tutor and Payments

[HoneyFlowers]

My daughter is sitting 11 plus in a year's time, I have enquired about tutoring, however the tutor has asked me for a payment of £1500 upfront before any lesson has taken place. Is that normal? It just seems a lot to pay before seeing a service in action.

Just to add the £1500 isn't the full amount, total of lessons to pay is £3k.

No, not normal. Definitely only pay by lesson and not in bulk.

Goodness me. How many sessions does that £3k cover?!

No, ours invoices at the start of each half term. £27 per hour, an hour a week.

What are you getting for £3k? Sounds very expensive.

I'm a tutor: I charge monthly in advance. That's perfectly normal. But then my average invoice is about £200. Are you confident that you will get what you pay for?

They are weekly sessions for a year school time, but class groups not one to one.

Yes, I don't mind paying upfront, but not half a year up front!!! Maybe half a term.

Perhaps a month's money up front to secure the place but seems unreasonable to me. How will you get it back if you're not happy with the service?! I would ask for a trial lesson too to see if it's a good fit.

A school year is 38 weeks.

So this £3k divided by 38 weeks means that you are paying £79 per week for group tutoring.

A school teacher on the top payscale earns half of this hourly.

How long are the sessions?
And how many in a group?

Now way, run.

No this is overpriced and too much upfront. I paid £25 per hour long lesson in group of 6. Paid in monthly instalments, price included the cost of the books. Mock exams cost more.

That is a ridiculous amount, find another tutor.

£150ph to teach 6? I'm off to dig out my teaching certificate!

That is ridiculous. We paid monthly in advance...think it was c. £35 for a 90 mins session in group of 4.

Are they very in demand and have a solid track record? (Even so, it's still crazy!).

Christ no.

I charge upfront for the month £160 but I wouldn't dream of asking for this much upfront. Whereabouts are you based?

That's very expensive.

I'm starting to think I need to up my prices!

So the tutor is earning £360 per session with cost of all students together.

Yes that's my worry that we may start and it's not a great fit! And if you don't complete the whole year you lose a large deposit too.

Coastal Wave... I can't work out how to send you a PM... Can you send me one please

You are being ripped off, unless you live in Kensington or Knightsbridge. Find someone / somewhere else.

Wow op, I tutor (exam classes rather than 11 plus tbf) and that is very expensive. £75 pH for a group lesson? Have understood correctly? I wouldn't expect to pay that much for 1-1 tbh. I certainly don't charge that (tho I imagine 11+ can charge more than i could).

We paid £50 per hour for a one on one. Only paid as the lesson took place. Do not pay upfront! Our tutor was great (got the school we wanted for September), happy to PM you details if you would be happy with online rather than in person.

In SE here - our tutor asked parents to book a block of lessons by term: for 1:1 it was £23 p/h if paid up front, £25 if paid on the day - all lessons payable. For group 11+ sessions it was £18 p/h - normally around 4 kids in the session. She was (is!) a phenomenal tutor too - really knew how to engage both my NT and ND DSs - and taught them all round skills to cope with exams, not just the academics.
Not quite sure how £3k fees are justifiable!!

Sounds well dodgy. My DS does group tutoring for 11+, he had a free trial to check he was a good fit and could keep up with the group before any money changed hands. After that we pay monthly in advance. He also gets a second more generic consolidation session a week. I can't remember exactly how much as DH pays but it was a lot less than £75 a week.

My family used Maths Concierge, they pay per hour and they get extra free homework help in the week between sessions too. DN is doing 11+ this september