A teacher charges £30/hr to tutor some of his own pupils, is it ok?

[rightvswrong]

A teacher at my ds' primary school has been tutoring 3 children in his class for a while now. Few of us, parents at the school, think it is tottaly wrong. What do you think?

I couldn't agree with you more mathanxiety! btw not only the children, the teachers and the head can tell as well!!? Yet everyone looks the other way.

I don't have a problem with a school offering extra tuition (one-to-one or in small groups) to kids needing extra help. That's completely normal and something any decent school should be doing. I do have a problem with them charging for it though. That's completely ridiculous. They're basically saying, 'We aren't meeting your child's needs and have no intention of doing so unless you pay us £30 a week', which is not on. At all.

It's slightly different if a parent has approached the teacher for unnecessary additional tuition, but even then the sensible thing to do would be to explain that they don't need it and not to offer tuition. If the parent then goes on to hire an independent tutor, that's their choice.

It?s impossible to be completely neutral when you receive payment from some children but not the others. The teacher would want to prove that he is worth the money he gets from the parents by showing how well they are doing with the extra tuition. I think it is very wrong. There are plenty of tutors out there to choose from, why not their last year teacher instead.

Sounds like a conflict of interest to me. Why teach them properly in class when you can extract money from their parents and pick up the slack out of school?

Sorry, I'm an old cynic from way back

I would be very surprised if any head put the poorest teacher in Y6 when you have school league tables based on SATS results!!! Agree that is a total waste of money to spend on getting said SATS results but that is up to the parents ultimately. Admittedly there are teachers who are better than others but with constant monitoring , planning, assessment, learning walks, performance management etc means that I am a bit sceptical about some of the things posted here.

It has been known ...

although admittedly they don't last long

Teachers get asked quite often.
I haven't known any do it, but some of the teachers have asked me if I was interested (I was a supply teacher) but I didn't.
I have recommended tutors because I have once used one for my DS and I wouldn't have had one without personal recommendation. It was for French and so I asked his French teacher who put me in touch with someone she used to work with who was a SAHM.

I'm a speech therapist. I'm not allowed to give private therapy to kids I see on the NHS. It's pure conflict of interest.

RedHelenB- The head rotates the teachers every 3 years so this year was his turn.

[...... sceptical about some of the things posted here.] I am glad to see that many find them so outrageous and unbelievable. Well so am I !! I am all the time gobsmacked by it all and actually that it si allowed.

To all the other posters- Thank you for your wise words I find them comforting :)

Don't worry OP :)
The posters who doubt, are either unaware or lucky and haven?t come across a situation like this.
The teachers: 1- who find nothing wrong with your concerns are not that different from the one you have described. 2- who doubt you, they want to keep things the way they are and keep the parents out of their DCs lives.
One thing that most of the teachers don?t want to lose is POWER / AUTHORITY

Thank you pastoral :)

Hello,

My daughter is in year 5. I am desperately looking for a good tutor for 1:1 to coach her for entrance exams for Bancrofts.... Forest. Any suggestions please.

A teacher should NOT, tutor children in his own school or class imho. It is wrong , for obvious reasons. I cant believe that some posters think that this is acceptable.

forehead- that's the weird thing about it, the moral compass is not working well for some I think :(

Huge conflict of interest - if the governors are no use, then I'd report it to Ofsted as Cory suggests. Both he and the head are behaving unprofessionally.

Sorry to revive an old thread but I was looking for some advice on this.
I have been approached by a couple of parents to tutor their children this year. These are children in my class who are struggling to keep up with the demands of the curriculum placed upon them.

My initial reaction was 'thank you but save your money until they may need tuition later in education and I can support him in class as it's my job'. The same parent came back the next day and asked me to reconsider. I have been asked on several occasions in my career to private tutor children but something just doesn't sit right with me? Is it the ethical issue?
My first thought is for the child, would the child benefit from 30 minutes per week one to one with me. Undoubtedly yes. He's a lovely lovely boy. Dad was also keen to stress that he won't get help at all because he's a long distance lorry driver and Mum doesn't speak English so he's not getting supported. This then plays on my emotions! I want the absolute best for my children in my class. I'm an EYFS specialist, plan all the English/Maths for my year group so can really pinpoint the gaps in his learning but without the support of a TA, he will continue to fall behind without specific support. I can even provide pre teaching so he has some understanding before introducing work in class.
I know I won't accept his offer but I just wanted to hear some more viewpoints from either side of the fence whether you agree or not.
Thanks for reading.

The problem is not the teacher, the problem is the headteacher. It is extremely unprofessional to discuss a member of staff with anyone, let alone a parent, using the phrasing you said "The head herself said to us that he is immature and that she is hoping he grows up"

It is unethical to ask for a contribution of the payment - where exactly is this money going? How is she accounting for this in her budget, unless it's going straight in her back pocket.

It's very straightforward to tell your staff that they may not tutor anyone who attends the school. Actually, the conflict of interests in terms of the work being done is secondary to the very awkward and compromising position you put yourself in as a teacher in having one-to-one, private lessons with a student.

The headteacher sounds unethical and with poor judgement if she not only condones this behaviour but is also complicit in it and benefiting financially. The only other option is that she is totally ignorant.

zippy - I would decline but perhaps set aside 15 mins a week at lunchtime to help him out for free. Then you are working with a child in need for support reasons.

The school I currently works states that tutoring current pupils is a sackable offence. Staff can tutor pupils who do not attend the school.

Zippy, I would suggest to the boy's family they get a different primary school teacher to tutor him. Sometimes an explanation from a different person can help. Would it be possible to get a parent helper to work with this child?

A child in the foundation stage doesn't need tutoring. They are babies.

Totally wrong as conflict of interest. might not be illegal and I'm sure he's doing nothing wrong, but seems unethical imo.

He is employed by the school not the parents, during school hours.
Some parents may feel he will favour the private pupils during the school day.

Totally unprofessional if the children are in her class. It creates resentment from other parents not being able to afford the tuition. The teacher is using 'favouritism' if offering extra help only to those able to pay. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Zippy – can you recommend someone else to tutor him – either another teacher in the school, or some other local teacher friend?

Zippy, I totally agree with Ginmummy1.
If he really need a tutor, he shoud get one, but not you, imo.