price of private tutors and the stress of finding the right one

[Claudia001]

Hello mums (and dads :) ) I'm fairly new here, although I've been reading few of your blogs for quite some time.

I have a son, Felix, and we've just been through the process of finding the right private tutor for him that lasted over 5 very stressful months! Luckily after a few very bad tutors we now have a lovely guy who comes in once-weekly for a 2 hour lesson with Felix but I wanted to get other people's experiences and stories to see if this is what other people experienced when looking for tutors.

We (my husband and I) first went through agencies and we were very VERY disappointed by their tutors. Then luckily a friend of mine recommended a very good tutor that we are using now, and Felix loves him dearly. He even enjoys doing Maths now and he went from a D to B within 2 months of lessons!

Another two issues are that people are very protective and cagey when it comes to revealing the name of their tutor - I literary stopped speaking to some of my "friends"after they blatantly refused to give me the phone number of their tutor. Why is this - have other people experienced this?

Second is the BIG difference in price - what do you guys pay for private tuition? We paid 70 and even 80 pounds per hour for the so-called "best"tutoring agencies and it's a rip off. One of the agency tutors told us that tutors get paid a mere 20-30 pounds an hour while the agency keeps the rest. Now we are paying 40 pounds per hour and I am keen to hear what other people think of this price? I think for the quality of tuition I'd pay even more, but my husband is always complaining that we spend way too much money on it, so I just don't know, what is the usual price people pay?

Thanks for your feedback and I look forward to chatting with you,
Claudia

Where in the country are you? I would say £20-£40 ph for gcse tuition,

North London - so prices range wildly from 20 per hour (which seems to be for the very poor quality inexperienced tutors) to 80, even 100 pounds which some agencies charge. I just wanted to hear other people's experiences and see what other are paying.

Thanks for your answer!

Blimey, that's a lot of money. My friend tutors Maths and I think she works for First Tutors - we're in the NW. She charges £25 for GCSE and £30 for A level.

Well, I suspect London prices will be appalling compared to everywhere else! I'd try and avoid agencies. You could ask local high performing schools to put an advert in their staff room?

If she works for First Tutors (or any agency) then she will not be allowed to teach on the side or she'll get sacked, that's what one of our previous tutors told us - they are made to sign some contract. And yes, they get paid 20-30 and the agency charges double that, margins are usually 50% of what they pay their poor tutors from what I've experienced in taking to some of them now.

I am very happy with my current tutor as it's the only one Felix really liked (and we went through quite a few, mind you), but thanks for the recommendation! If anyone needs his contact, unlike some of my aforementioned "friends" I'm more than happy to share his contact (need to ask him first though)

C.

What do you mean they can't work on the side or they get sacked?