becoming a tutor: advice from all directions please

[newcareer]

I am thinking about becoming a Maths tutor. I have a degree in Maths but no experience in teaching. All I know about the education system is what I have picked up in passing through my DCs.
I currently work P/T and do not want to give up that income to go and get a F/T PGCE or whatever, although I will happily do an evening class of some sort.
Do I need to know more about the education system? Do people only want tutors for exam-passing reasons (again, I don't really know the details about exams) or do they want someone to pass on their enthusiasm for the subject? Can I get the revision book and work through that or do I need to know about learning styles etc?
What are the pitfalls? For one, I think that I will not be comfortable with a child coming alone to my house - too risky these days.

Tinies take tutors on, if you have a 2:1 you don't need teaching experience. Maybe you could ask them? I'd be interested in what they said. I might be interested in the future.

I would say, having used a tutor, that people want them for all sorts of different reasons. Passing exams, keeping their child in a top set, supporting a child that struggles, giving a child a boost and so on.

I also know that there appears to be a huge surge in demand for them, even in a recession.

Be interested in what others say. Good luck.

Definatly get CRB checked, If you are planning on teaching primary have a look at how maths is taught and the sequence, Number bonds, partitioning ,chunking etc.
Agree there are lots of different reasons why people hire a tutor.

I use a tutor for both my children.
One is for 11+ for exam technique and general revision, the other is more for catch up.

I would say you definitely need to know the curriculum and how it is presented in schools.
For example, I would do division one way but the school teaches a completely different way so you don't want to cause confusion.

Agree you need to get crb checked.

Definitely a demand for good tutors.

An interesting thought re teaching the same way as the school. I can see me getting into trouble there as I go off piste. The whole beauty of Maths is that there is no one right way of doing things, you can come to the correct answer a million different ways as long as you stick to mathematical rules.

I agree with newcareer. Sometimes children don't click with the method presented to them at school. The best tutors know the curriculum, get to know their students' learning style and use the knowledge of these two things to guide their students.
As a former maths teacher and Kumon instructor I can tell you that the majority of Kumon instructors are non teachers and non mathematicians but even so many of these non specialists have been able to successfully help children with their maths (as many non specialist parents)

Hmmmm, Kumon. Whether they help is a separate issue!

There is a lot of Maths that wasn't taught at GCSE 20 years ago particuarly a lot of Stats. Time seies, moving averages etc. Make sure you know these. a lot of parents want someone who knows the exams and how to get through them, do you have that? How many ways can you teach rearranging formulae? The normal equation like way doesn't work so I often use a flow diagram. There are hundreds of examples like these that you learn after a few years teaching - do you have these strategies?
Long division is taught by chunking these days and multiplication by the grid method - do you know these? I would recommend looking at the maths framworks on the standards site. Yes there are other ways but there are reasons why these methods are taught as generally they are the most effective.
You can get the revision book and work through it but is this an effective way to help someone learn? It would be pretty dull for a start! You also need to look at past papers and mark schemes and examiners reports to see where most mistakes are made and the little points that get you marks such as for trial and improvement you must have a minimum of 6 attempts written down.
Can you tutor someone for free to get experience and references? As a parent I would be reluctant to employ someone without any experience.
Sorry if I have been negative, don't mean it that way but want to give you an honest view of things you need to consider.
Happy to discuss it further if you want.

I tutor maths for a few students. I am a qualified teacher but also Montessori trained and i find most of my tutees (well, their parents) want me to use the Montessori methods for teaching, mainly because their children have had trouble picking up concepts in the standard way.

However, in order for these children to cope better in school, it is essential I also teach the methods and skills that they will need in the curriculum so they can make progress in the future and not need me.

My success is determined by how well my tutees do in the future, so method is important.

If I was employing a maths tutor - I would definitely want them to be entirely au fait with the way my child was being taught in school - and with terms like number bonding, chunking, and the fact that a lot of maths is mental maths and is done horizontally and not in vertical columns. I would also want them to have exam papers - depending whether I was employing someone for the 7+ or 11+, and a particular school.
At least 2 good references (and success stories) too (could be their own children). CRB check goes without saying.

CRB check definitely a must.

I would second those who say familiarity with either the exam you are preparing for or the way maths is taught in school plus a few other methods/alternative ways to explain.

What age group were you planning on tutoring?

I would definitely say you need to do some research into the way children learn things and come up with strategies for kinaesthetic, visual, audio learners etc. You might also want to research dyscalculia and other learning disabilities.

Also agree with MadameBelle that strategies and looking to the future are half the point of having a tutor so working through a revision guide, whilst it might be effective for an exam, isn't going to help where it's really needed for lasting progress.

Don't know if this is relevant but ,ideally , I would have liked the Chemistry tutor doing AS with DS ,to give me some tiny feedback .
Some idea of what they were covering ,what he'd asked DS to do in his absence ,how it was going ..

Thanks to all for comments so far, and for those on TheDolly's thread (didn't realise that it had moved on so usefully until after I had started this one).

All info carefully logged on a spreadsheet!

Totally agree about feedback VQ. It's one of my biggest bugbears about school- they only tell you things like 'Johnny hasn't been doing his homework' in the end of year report, when it's a little late to do anything about it.

You must get familiar with 11+ and 13+ CE syllabus and papers etc if you plan to tutor private school students / those doing 11+ to go into grammar school or private senior school. I personaly would not entrust tutoring to someone who has not taught at these levels as the stakes are too high IYSWIM - sorry to be negative

No problem, willali, it's that sort of line of thinking that I need to know.

I have already decided against doing 11+ tutoring. It is very competitive round here - 95% don't get into the Grammars so you are on a hiding to nothing.