What do you look for in an English Tutor and what is the going rate

[mrskeegs]

Hello wise mumsnetters
I've graduated from the Open University recently with a first in Humanities with Eng Lit. and I want to start tutoring as I love kids and may well go in to teaching in a few years. In 32, my degree was 50% Eng Lit and Lang, 50% history and I'm boning up on the key stages now. Can anyone share with me
a)what they look for in a tutor
b)what they pay,
c)where you go to find a tutor, as I want to advertise in the right places (I live in KT4, Worcester Park Surrey).
Any advice greatly appreciated.
mrskeegs.

Hi. Ive used 2 in the past ( for preparing dc for entrance exams) have paid £30 ph. Found them both just through other parents. This was eng and maths though. I've seen adverts in local newspapers, parish type newsletters.

I'm in Manchester and I charge.... £26ph for A/AS level, £23ph for GCSE and £21ph for 11+/KS3. You need to get a CRB check if you want to work through an agency and I would suggest you get one in order to provide peace of mind for the parents who hire you. Some parents will only consider tutors who have QTS especially for exam tuition rather than homework help.

Thank you Kritur, and alittlebitfat, much appreciated advice.

I'm an English teacher.

I'd be surprised if there are many parents who would pay for a tutor without any actual experience of teaching. Understanding of current specifications and assessment is probably as important as content i.e. texts and grammar etc.

fivecandles - that would depend on whether you wanted your child tutored to pass exams or whether you were looking to develop more specific skills that, for example, you felt were not being developed sufficiently at school.

Mmm...even so I would imagine most parents would want a tutor to have an understanding of the sort of thing that their child was covering at school.

Yes, someone with or without an English degree could do general reading, comprehension sort of things but if your child was young you'd really want anyone working with him or her to have an understanding of the way phonics are now taught for example and if he or she was older you'd probably want the tutor to have at least an awareness of the sort of content and skills covered by SATs, then 11+, GCSE or A Level.

Even if a parent was looking to challenge a G & T child then I think they'd want more of a specialist perhaps someone with an MA or PhD in Lit or experience as a writer...

I'm not saying there will be no demand but the OP would need to be honest about her lack of teaching experience and probably charge significantly less than the going rate for experienced and qualified teachers.

Maybe English conversation for foreign students would be more the thing...