Tutoring

[gettingwise]

I am thinking of leaving mainstream primary teaching and tutoring instead as I feel it maybe more rewarding to spend quality time with individuals.
Any tutors out there who have done the same and never looked back?

I want to help children gain confidence and achieve their own personal best so that means working with all levels of ability.
Who mainly gets their child tutored at primary age, I am happy to do entrance exam prep but would not want all tutee relationships to be about chasing golden tickets.
Any advice appreciated

Hi there
I am an ex-primary teacher who now tutors. I love it to bits and wouldn't want to do anything else! I get a lot of tutoring that isn't exam entrance, but it means that a lot of my students have specific learning difficulties of varied (and sometimes multiple) sorts.
The main warning I would say is that it isn't easy to make a decent living doing it. You'll earn a LOT less than teaching.
Other than that, the disadvantages are:
"Interesting working hours" into the evening and at weekends. (I don't teach on Friday evenings though as I've discovered it is pointless!)
Having to do a tax return
Winter tutoring. You just about get your car warmed up when you reach a student's house. Then you spend an hour plus in the house which gives the car time to cool down nicely. It then takes the 10-15 mins time driving to next student to warm up again and you leave it to tutor again! etc etc.

A six year old I teach (who has problems with literacy) wrote this on my whiteboard last week.
"I lice choots. Choots are the best." (Translation: I like tutors. Tutors are the best.) Says it all really.

PM me if you want chat more.

Thanks so much for such a positive reply!
|Will stay in touch!

I have to agree about the hours, though it is hugely rewarding. I do some supply as well. My youngest is 7 and I feel she misses out which is why I only do a very few hours a week. It goes towards the university fund for her 3 teenage siblings who entertain her while I'm working. If I could do it in the day, I'd jump at it!

I love tutoring as its a great way to really get to know the kids better and personalise their learning much more than you can in a class. Although I don't know if I would stop working at my current job, I love being a SEN teacher.

I do supply and tutoring. The tutoring doesn't make me a tonne of money because I don't take on more than a few kids in any one space of time - but it's a constant drip feed when supply's running tight (which it has more and more in recent years).

I'm picky about who I take on - I go for parents and kids I get a rapport with, because I don't want it to become a chore - I do it mainly for enjoyment. It can really take over your evenings though, sometimes I feel like I get in from school and am permanently either going out, or just got in - I try to double-up things so I have two kids one after each other and keep it to a couple of nights a week that way or it can feel like it's taking over your life.

One thing I've learnt this year - get a decent cancellations policy in place - previously I've been lucky - this year's been attack of the timewasters who don't appreciate that them having a slot and pratting you around every week taking advantage of you being flexible and relaxed about things cuts you out of offering that slot to people who DON'T cancel at 30 minutes notice week after week after week.

Empty shell I totally agree. Evenings vanish but then as you said I work with children I get on well with and the parents are supportive not pushy. I love tutoring as is keeps my toe in primary education while I work within a secondary school.

I have a current parent who emails me daily telling me what to do with her son. I'm finding him a real challenge and although I want to help, I can't get any teaching done because his mother wants me to play board games with him for an hour. He has additional needs and yes maybe he doesn't want to work, but the expectations she has for him to achieve with me won't be reached if I play games weekly. Not sure how to tell her I don't want to carry on tutoring.

emptyshell
I agree about cancellations. I have a "terms and conditions" sheet that I give parents at the start of tutoring and it includes saying that I will charge for cancellations made without 48 hours notice.

redapple80
Sounds like you have got one anxious parent there. I think you have to bite the bullet and say exactly what you have put here: "He has additional needs and yes maybe he doesn't want to work, but the expectations she has for him to achieve with me won't be reached if I play games weekly." Maybe offer a balance of 10mins more formal work, 10 mins game?

Sarahfreck, I think there is more to his needs than she is letting on, she seems to think all his needs are linked to having glue ear although what SLT and support at his school recommend he does, I personally don't think its to do with having glue ear at the start of school (he is 11).
She hasn't replied to my email about scheduling time after Easter, hopefully she's thought about what I said about games not being the best thing to do for an hour.

I'm looking more to tutoring Hearing Impaired children in primary, just not sure where to get into it.

My friend is a tutor and i would agree with ensuring that there is a cancellation policy and make it known to the parents.
My friend has many students and when she wanted to reduce the number of students she had, she first got rid of those who would cancel 10 minutes before she would arrive and who therefore thought that it was ok for them not to pay.
Another thing that she mentioned would that she would make it clear to the parents that she had another child to tutor, as she wanted to prevent 20 minutes of post mortems after every lesson.

forehead, I totally agre about the lesson post mortems, Ive been trapped for upto 30 mins at some lessons!! There was one family I didn't mind as the kid was brilliant and so were his parents. Tea, biccies and discussing their kid... I didn't mind that!

I deliberately allow 10 to 15 mins or so talk time after a session to discuss what the child has been doing and see this as part of the service I offer. I also accept that occasionally I may need to stay longer to discuss something like a SEN statement or psychologist report. Sometimes I wonder if I'm actually offering more support to the parent than the child! I wouldn't have a problem though with looking at my watch and saying that I've got to go now if the chat was taking too long. Perhaps I need to toughen up and be more business minded!

You could make up board games covering maths topics, I have created loads and found it a good way to get through to those chldren who struggle with maths.
I have found with particular students that teaching conventional methods just doesnt work, but put it into a "game" and it has worked wonders.

Most of mine came of the government maths sites.

Why dont you get the students to come to your house, rather than you driving around to them, using up all your time and having wasted minutes between sessions? That way if someone cancels, you can at least get on with your home duties?

RoadArt - cos then I'd have to tidy up! (And evict the dog, cat and man from the room for an hour!)

Thankfully the mega-timewasters I had lived in the street behind me so the short notice cancellations didn't have a massive impact since I hadn't set off to walk around - but if I'd have had a journey to make I would have been mundo pissed off.

I'm not sure if this is the place to ask, but can anyone give me an idea of how to find a reading tutor for my nearly six year old? His school are telling me alarming things about his behaviour which seem to indicate his total lack on interest in literacy. Any advice would be welcome.

Are you concerned about his behaviour?
Do they mean his interest in reading or is he badly behaved at school?
He is not that old and may be is not yet ready to read. is his school a high achieving school? what are their main concerns?
I teach this age group.

Well this is quite a story. I can't help feeling that there are too many comparisons being made with his brother who went to the same school and has been diagnosed with high-functioning autism. I know my five/nearly six year old can be a handful but compared to what I went through with his brother at that age, I feel there is more difference than similarity. There are issues with non-compliance but on the whole I find my five year old quite reasonable, if rather cheeky and yes certainly a bit anxious in loud crowded environments. I hadn't really had any cause for concern until he got to year one. May be I have been kidding myself, but he has always been happy to go to school and hasn't expressed any negativity apart from the fact that he hates assemblies and finds them boring. Then over the last few months things have hotted up. with the SENCO and educational psycologist indicating that they think he needs assessing for a statement.
Frankly I am astonished and have expressed my reservations, knowing what we went through to get a statement for his brother which I might add wasn't necessarily the right thing to do, but which I was pressured into on account of concerns about secondary school provision for his needs. I think I am right to be cautious about what the school are saying and how quickly they are going for a statement. The SENCO and the psycologist are the same people who assisted by older son and while I can see their concern I think they are jumping the gun. Really I think my five year old needs more boundaries and perhaps more one to one with his reading, because where they see a looming large problem I just see a slightly anxious little boy who lacks confidence and has an arsenal of avoidance techniques that he employs to great effect. Really and truly I believe that if the school can't teach him a tutor can. I believe this because my eldest, who was stubborn beyond belief and didn't read until he was eight, did so when I found a tutor who caught his interest and got him reading above his age group within nine months. I am a bit disappointed with the schools response. Perhaps you can see it from their side?

Can I butt in here and ask what it is that parents can do to make a tutor's visit a good one. We have a tutor visit (dd yr 3) weekly and I always offer her a hot drink but is there anything that we should do or avoid doing t make our relationship go well.

Hi Jewelosopher, I can see it from both sides, there is truly little time for quality 1-1 work in school and I agree that maybe a tutor is the best way forward at least to see if that can raise his self esteem and give insight to those keen to statement him.Where to go to find a tutor I am not sure but First tutors is a good website.

Thank you gettingwise, that was a nice succinct and practical answer to my conundrum. I shall check out First tutors.