Would this be of interest to those of you who home ed?

[CeeCeeMacFay]

I am a qualified English teacher with experience of both primary and secondary as well as teaching the new GCSE spec. Considerable experience of working with pupils with SEMH and additional needs. Currently working as a personal tutor and writer. Am thinking about offering small group lessons to home ed children particularly with a view to teaching those wanting to undertake the new GCSEs in English. I would offer sessions in my home with a dedicated classroom with groups up to a max of 5.

Sorry should say not advertising! Just trying to get a feel for if there would be a market for this. I would keep costs as low as possible for example for a one and a half hour session with four pupils I would charge £10 per pupil.

I imagine that would probably be quite popular in my area. If your area has quite an active home ed community, it would be worth putting feelers out

Yes, but just be warned that there are a LOT of people who say "yes yes, interested" and then are flaky about actually turning up.

If I were doing it, I'd do a series of (say) 8 sessions, and people only reserve their space by paying in advance; don't run it unless you have enough people committed to cover your costs and make some money out of it. I've had too many experiences where people all say "yes yes, fabulous, definitely interested" and then don't actually turn up...

Thanks for the advice, my area has a very active home ed community. Would definitely need to get people to reserve a place and pay in advance. Thanks again

i wonder if the risk of no-shows would be less by GCSE age, and if it was an actual GCSE course you were running rather than a drop in enrichment activity

I would hope so Bran, I would be offering the actual GCSE course for Literature and Language. Pupils could take either or both.

That format is popular. Given that there's an active HE community in your area, it's quite possible that somebody else is already offering it. For that reason, you might want to approach the subject tactfully to ensure you don't tread on anyone's toes! If someone else is already doing it, perhaps you can offer something complementary. For example, some HE parents in my area report that if their kids haven't done much essay-writing, it can be a big jump up to producing GCSE-level writing; recently, tutors have started offering pre-GCSE courses for 11-14 year olds which focus on that.

Or you may find that the local tutors aren't good with kids who have SEN, and you can specialise in that: some tutors like to be in a position to brag about how many A* results their group achieve, and aren't very supportive toward lower-achieving teens, or maybe they just lack understainding. There's probably a disproportionate number of kids with special needs in the HE population, so whatever experience you may have there will be helpful.

A couple of other things people may be wanting/expecting you to provide:

1. Information about, and help with, special exam arrangements for kids with SEN. I know little about the subject, but I think it's rather more complicated to get approval outside the school system.
2. Identifying exam centres which will accept external candidates for the particular exam for which you are tutoring. Obviously it's no good the kids doing all the preparation with you and then discovering there's nowhere local to do that exam and they should have prepared a different syllabus instead! This requires local knowledge, networking and liasing with the centres, which can change their policy on external candidates from one year to the next.
3. Making the exam entries and liasing with the exam centre. I understand that some exam centres don't want the extra administrative work of dealing with individual parents, and will only accept external candidates if there is someone (you) to enter them as a group, explain the basics of the system to parents, and act as go-between.

The above is just hearsay from me, so I may not have the details quite right. My own teen hasn't done GCSEs, but I overhear lots of chat about it!

Thank you Saracen, some useful points I hadn't thought about especially treading on some-one's toes! I have a lot of experience with SEN so that's definitely an area I could focus on. In terms of exam entries and centres I was thinking of running one specific course where everyone starts at the beginning and I register them so they all do the same exam board etc and then some other classes which are for those already part way through offering specific skills such as essay writing etc. Again thanks for the info.

also many home ed groups might expect that you would also be home educating rather than purely as a business venture. Just thinking. It may or may not be an issue

Good point, I did home ed my son when he was small for a couple of years but he is incredibly sporty so I felt school was the best option for him.

Why should you worry about other people’s toes?
You have a service, you put it out there, parents decide who they prefer.
This is business.

I know Pom but I just worry too much about stuff like that, I need to toughen up!

"Why should you worry about other people’s toes?
You have a service, you put it out there, parents decide who they prefer.
This is business."

Sure, but when people go into business they usually get the lay of the land beforehand. You only get one chance to make a good first impression on everyone.

Setting up shop directly across the road from someone who is offering an identical product may be a poor idea, especially if you are new to the community and your competitors have more specialised knowledge of home education than you, as well as being better connected. HE exam tutors often work together offering complementary services, perhaps sharing a venue and admin; so you wouldn't want to alienate potential business partners by accidentally setting up in competition with them. Even if you aren't actually going into business with other tutors, there's a good chance they have knowledge of the HE scene which you lack, which they are more likely to share with a newcomer if you've approached them sensitively.