Private tutor - how much to pay?

[ColeslawGuzzler]

DD in Y8 has been in set 1 for maths since they were streamed in early Y7. She's always enjoyed the subject, but has increasingly suffered from a lack of confidence over the two terms. At the last parents' evening we discussed having her move down to set 2, to be at the top of set 2, rather than in the bottom quarter of set 1. This has had a good effect so far, but we'd like to do more and have decided a tutor would be a good idea. I don't want to go to a tutors.com-type of set up (impersonal, which is the point here I think) and since I teach at a local university, on a course that requires A grade A level maths, I thought of approaching a student to help out. I'd approach one I am not due to teach next year, so there is no conflict of interests of course. My thinking is that a young female, patient and good at communicating (I am in a position to select the right person since I know them well), would be a good role model and tutor. They'll have gone through GCSEs themselves in recent memory too, so I think the scheme of work will probably be quite familiar.

My question is what to offer by means of payment to an inexperienced but bright 20year old? Any ideas?

I'd say between £20 and £25 / hour would be fair. The student may be inexperienced at teaching, but they are nevertheless a skilled person looking to pass on their knowledge, so you should be prepared to pay a reasonable amount of money.

DS1 (currently doing GCSE'S) has a tutor.

We are on our third Uni student (all have been friends of each other but the first one graduated last year and the second one has gone home to revise for exams and now we have a third friend who we started with in March who is doing her maths masters, all have charged £10 per hour.

DS is top set boys but lacks confidence. He is retaking units 2 and 3 and at the moment she is going over these with him.

Having a tutor has done him a world of good.

Btw, if they would have said to me they charged £25 per hour I would have still paid. We are in Yorkshire so not sure if this has any bearing on ' per hour.

£

Could I sound a note of caution? Might it be better, particularly if it's a confidence issue, to have q tutor who is experienced in tutoring children, rathe than in maths?

Thanks. We're in Yorkshire too. Seeker, that is something I had thought of too, which is why I discussed it with school. I thought they may say it was an odd idea. I'll need to speak more, with the students I'm thinking of approaching, about experience with children. The one I have in mind in the first instance said she helped out with guides before leaving home for university. Yes, Gruntfottocks, I had of course intended to pay correctly for skill worth passing on to my DD. My first though was of offering £15/hr, and thought I'd see if anyone has experience. Students with bar and shop jobs here earn, £6-£7/hr, and for babysitting they seem to get £10. I am not looking for a bargain, but don't want to be excessive either.

When I say I thought I'd see if anyone has experience, I was meaning here on mumsnet...experience of a similar situation.

If they have some teaching training, but no experience, £20 - 325 seems fair, but if they have no teacher training, I'd start them on something like £15 - £17 on a trial basis, with you selecting and paying for all the text books/papers etc. and saying what needs covering/in what order and provide a rough scheme of work.

It depends what you want the tutor to do. If it is just to encourage a better general understanding of maths, then a student is fine.

But if you want someone to tutor for the GCSE, then to me you need someone who has been taught to teach, understands current teaching methods and has an up-to-date knowledge of the exam.

I would be worried that someone vaguely remembering back to their GCSEs could be giving conflicting advice to their maths teacher.

My 17 year old dd has some pupils- she teaches riding and music. She gets £12 an hour, if that helps.

As a qualified teacher I'm tutoring for £15 p/h at the moment, for one person who'd said that that was what his last tutor charged. It does feel a bit low, but it's fairly long-term, he's a nice student and I do other work for more. I think that you could pay £15 to an unqualified teacher without being rude. However I would be cautious about employing a non-teaching tutor if you're hoping they'll coach her to GCSE and have some input into how well-prepared she is for exams. Would a local tutors company be a happy medium?

Thanks, that does help.

I want DD to be encouraged really, on a regular basis, in a formal/informal kind of way, as it might be with me if I was more organised and less old (your point creamteas applies to me, but not to someone only 20?).

When I lived in Yorkshire I usually charged £20-25/hour for KS3/4 students. At that time, I was a new Maths teacher, (teaching in a grammar if it makes any difference :)

In Cheshire here and have a fab A level maths tutor who used to be head of maths, is also an examiner, retired, and charges £12 an hour! I had to say "pardon?" 3 times as I didn't think I'd heard him right! He told me he does it because he loves it, not for the money! Love him!! So there's no way I would pay an untrained student more than £10 an hour! She would probably be delighted to be offered the opportunity!

I had a general concern with DS that had me looking at changing schools
(state to private !!!!)
excellent friends put me in touch with a general tutor.
three hours at £20 / hour identified a very specific and dealable problem.
DS loathed her but had to accept she was right
THAT problem solved : no school change

(if Gove carries on we may yet need to but that's another issue)