A level tutoring

[Tinkerbell1987]

Hi my child needs A level tutoring and while I appreciate that tutors can pretty much charge what they want some are charging an extortionate hourly fee
How much would you pay an hour max
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Many tutors charge around £40-45 especially for A level.

It does depend on what they offer tho - are they an experienced A level teacher? Do they set and mark HW and past papers?

I tutor and charge less than that (I'm not touting for business here tho!!) but I am not as flexible with hours as some. I think I undercharge tbh but I am OK with that.

I'd pay up to 45ph tbh

I'm interested @Tinkerbell1987 in what you call extortionate BTW?

£90 an hour

Yes I agree £90 an hour is a lot. What's the plan? Is it a few months before try to move from a C to an A? Or is it two years of regular tutoring?

Know an amazing tutor. They charge £55 for A Level Maths but more for Further Maths as not many teachers do this. They are fully booked for 2 years in advance… you pay for what you get

Yes that's a point too - if someone is tutoring s subject not often offered they may well charge more. There is a dearth of computer science teachers for example, so a tutor may be able to charge more.

what is the subject @Tinkerbell1987 ? And what other prices have you been quoted? It may be that the £90 ph is bc the person doesn't really want any more students and is quoting an high price almost hoping to be refused, if that makes sense.

How much would you pay an undergraduate maths student to teach A level maths and further maths out of interest

We paid £30. He regularly stayed an hour and a half and more.
He was amazing.

....this was for Maths.

@Sunnnybunny72 how did you find your student tutor

I wouldn’t, personally. I strongly believe you need to be a maths teacher to teach that level - there is SO much to it - their ability to predict papers, know trends, access teacher material only…

however if I just wanted my child to get some help, £25ph max

How much do you pay for a plumber?

It is all about demand and supply.

Depends what you want. If you just want a sensible undergraduate to sit with the student and talk over things or mark practice problems, then £40 per hr. If you really what teaching and exam prep and help with specific topics, you need a v experienced tutor and £90 per hour is plausible.

I must say I would never expect to pay a non-teacher £40 ph. I know a couple of actual teachers (and very good ones) who do some tutoring through an agency local to me - so I imagine the fee is higher as the agency obv take a a cut - and their fee is £45. So £40 for an undergraduate is more than I would pay.

(I'm a qualified teacher too btw but no longer employed teaching in a school.)

I guess it also depends where you are - I am in the midlands but I imagine in the SE the charges are higher - it costs more to live there for starters.

I think people are underestimating, especially in some areas where there is a huge shortage of A-level maths tutors. When dm used to tutor, she had people asking for 70 miles away, prepared to travel for an hour's lesson.
Also dm used to say if you want to be rich, don't tutor, run an agency. Some of them took 50% of the costs. What did they do for this? They put numbers of tutors on a list and gave them to people who asked. They didn't even check her qualifications nor do a DBS check (when they came out). She tutored up to 2010, so not that long ago.
In fact one company she did a bit of work for she was horrified to find they were charging £90 per hour. She got £30 of it. She withdrew from that company when she found out.
She mostly got pupils by word of mouth, and would charge a set amount depending on the level plus petrol money. She generally charged way lower than the going rate and she still got parents saying it was too much. In some cases the parents tried things like "not having enough money, can I just give you this amount" or in another case "accidentally" leaving their child with her for an hour and a half rather than an hour.

I'd say between £40 and £100 depending on whether they expect to travel, the shortage etc.
It's a professional job, needing to both understand the maths well enough to teach it, and have the qualifications. If I call a plumber out for an hour's work, I wouldn't think I'd be paying much less than £100.

Undergraduates can be good enough, but you can't know until you've tried them. Dd would have been excellent, but she'd spent a certain amount of her a-level years explaining to her peers, and would be very keen on keeping up with the current spec because she likes that sort of thing.

When considering the hourly rate charged by a private tutor, remember one hour of tuition probably equates to around 1.5 - 2 hours of work for them when you factor in preparation and marking time, plus administration. if they are coming to your home they also have to factor in travel time. Professional tutors will also be paying for professional indemnity and public liability insurance, ICO registration (data protection), enhanced DBS checks, books, resources, Professional Development Courses to ensure they are teaching the most up to date content, and many other associated costs (eg running a website). They get no holiday pay, sick pay or pension contributions.

For a fully qualified and experienced ‘A’ Level Maths teacher in the South East, the usual hourly tuition rate is around £75 - £100 per hour. This is only slightly above most skilled trades (plumber, electrician, car mechanic) and way below most other professions seen privately (doctor, lawyer, accountant, dentist, architect etc). For the younger age groups, £50 - £75 per hour is not uncommon in this area. This is about the same hourly rate as a personal fitness trainer or hairdresser and less than most alternative health practitioners.

If you can’t afford a fully qualified and experienced teacher, who makes their living from providing a professional tuition service, the alternative is to employ a student or someone who just does a bit of tutoring on the side for some extra cash. A huge number of students jumped on the tuition bandwagon during the pandemic and saw an opportunity to make extra cash when parents were desperate for help. They undercut professional tutors and made all sorts of promises they were unable to deliver, which still goes on today.

I have to admit I’m biased because, as you’ve probably guessed, I’m a private tutor myself. I know the children I’ve tutored have gone on to achieve far more than schools predicted prior to their parents employing my services.

To anyone trying to decide if private tuition is worth it, my question is, what value is tuition going to add to your child’s confidence and well-being both now and for their future employment opportunities? At A Level a further question is, if by paying £x for tuition now means your child is much more likely to get the grades necessary to go on and study for their chosen career or uni course, how many more times x will they earn during their lifetime?

I used to charge £50 an hour. I was recently offered £60 an hour to do online tuition but declined - don't really have the time.

£60 an hour.

I think that’s not quite the same though.

I am all in favour of tutors being paid for their skills and time - obviously! - but when you call a plumber to fix your leaking tap, it’s a one-off emergency.

You usually use a tutor for regular repeated sessions - once a week for six months or a year or more. So I don’t think a comparison in that way is reasonable.

I mean people can ask what they want eh - I could ask for £150 an hour if I wanted. Nobody has to pay it do they?

But Yy it’s about supply and demand for sure.

My DS studies Further maths and is in year 13

Quite a few of them including him mentor Yr 12 students that need more time given to certain areas of maths they don't understand or whatever help they need
They arrange the time between themselves, meet up and explain what needs to be explained

These are DC though that just get maths so don't really need to be taught it

They're just shown the new concept and they get it

So it's easy for them to explain it to a yr 12

They all have access to past papers and the specification

The leaking tap is a one-off emergency for you, but it's a routine call-out for the plumber. Granted, the rate at which they get those call-outs may fluctuate, but they're not sitting there doing nothing for the rest of the week.

Lots of people use a tutor at this time of year; after the exams in June their income usually plummets, and although they may have some students continuing, it will probably take until November/January mock results to fill up again. So their charges need to allow for the fact that they'll be earning less for part of the year.
The work also has to fit largely into their evenings/weekends, limiting how much they can earn in any week, especially if they want the odd evening off to pursue a hobby or get to put their kids to bed.

I was paying £35 per hour last year. They were mostly graduate students.

A huge number of students jumped on the tuition bandwagon during the pandemic and saw an opportunity to make extra cash when parents were desperate for help.

And a fair number, like DD (who provided tuition for GCSE French), signed up to provide their services for free through the CTI scheme.

As for how much you should be expecting to pay for Maths A level tuition now, though, OP, I'm afraid I can't help.

My daughter, who was a student at the time, also volunteered as a tutor during Covid (A level students, because her subject is generally only taught at A level. She enjoyed it so much she decided to become a teacher.

She is now in her third year and has just started tutoring her first student (not a pupil at her school). She is charging £45 an hour.