How much do you spend on tuition?

[pocketpairs]

Most of the parents in DCs school have private tuition, either class based or 121, more so when they enter GCSE years. How much, if any, do you spend on tuition a month?

We pay for classes in German 1:1 as it's not possible to take at child's current school. Our child enters 3rd yesr German education at her new school then we relocate at Christmas so it's necessary for her to keep up.

None, my child is happily achieving (just done GCSEs and got all 9s and 8s). All the tuition in the world won’t turn a stupid kid into a bright one. A grade increase or two maybe, but what happens when they go to uni and are out of their depth without mum and dad…,

We are doing tuition for 11 plus and it’s working out at about £300 per month in year 5 this is group tuition with about 8 to 10 other children not a 1 to 1

If your child is self motivated, then you may not get that much out of private tuition. For a bright self motivated child at GCSE you really need someone with knowledge of the current exam spec, in my opinion - this won't usually come cheaply. In my neck of the woods you are probably looking at £40 an hour 1:1 - in an area with more demand for tutors you will obviously be looking at more!

I have seen a lot of families spend a lot of money on tutoring for minimal results however.

Ooof smug post much!

What type of school is your school?

How many hours is this paying for? Either that's a lot of time or you're paying a lot for those group sessions!

None

That’s what I was thinking! Surely group tuition in a group of eight, even in an area where there is strong competition for grammar, wouldn't cost more than £15 an hour? That’s 20 hours a month.

It’s great that your child achieved so well at GCSE.
I’d suggest the concept of a “stupid kid” is not only unpleasant but also simplistic.
Some children need additional support that the overstretched state system isn’t able to offer. There can be many reasons for this.
Not everyone wants to go to Uni and the difference between a 4 and a 3 in Maths & English can be significant for post 16 options.
I’m grateful my older children didn’t need tutoring but very thankful I had the resource to pay for my youngest.

In some cases it does help, friend’s child during GCSE years had 2 physics teachers and lots of cover teachers in between so they had a physic tutor. Both parents in the creative art field felt them helping their kid in physics would be hopeless or damaging.

DC are at grammar schools, but average amongst cohort, tracking at grade 7-ish, slightly better in maths, and struggle more with compulsory language. Hoping to get them up a grade or so.

Found that it particularly helps with languages, especially speaking element, over a longer period of time.

It works out at about 3 hours a week x 4 weeks so 12 hours but they do occasional additional classes usually at no additional cost so I guess per hour £25 but that also includes all the materials e.g books etc

Aren't you pleasant?

It isn't all about going to uni.
A grade or 2 increase can make the difference between getting on to the next course or not. For example passing Maths / Engl Lang or getting to a 6 for entry requirements.
Or getting grades to 'average a 6' so not letting a poor subject pull down the average.
Or overcoming missed education due to illness.
Or a poor / missing teacher in a specific subject.
Or a SpLD which means that that some 1-1 is helpful.

I’m spending £60 a week for history tuition and £80 every 2 weeks for science. I’ll probably add in a few English sessions post mocks for specific texts if needed.

The science is to supplement poor teaching and lack of teachers at the school and seems to be paying off with the 3/4 at the end of year 10 appearing to be closer to 6/7 currently. If he pulls off 66 in the final exams I’ll be delighted as he hates science. The history is more around support for structure and latest tests are showing he’s around a 7 close to 8. English if I add it will be to push it to secure 8/9 as he’s struggling a bit with a poor teacher after the good teacher left and is a bit lost and unmotivated on Jekyll and Hyde

My other kids had tutors too. I paid £80 an hour for A level politics but child 2 came out with A*.

Child 1 had an English tutor after mock results of 64 and ended up with 88. He also had a science tutor after mock results of 45 and ended up with 88. For a level he had a bit of economics tutoring after the year 12 exams around a few specific things and ended up with an economics degree from a RG uni. He also had a psychology tutor as he hated it and it was too late to change. Got an A* so worth it

for me it’s about them meeting their potential. So, whilst 5 and 6 are decent grades: they’re able children and aim for higher and I can support that

When my son was doing his exams his school opened every Saturday 8-4 for 9 months leading up to his exams… A few teachers for Maths and English, I made my son go every week and he said every week there were 3 pupils to 8 teachers, so that was good for us!

He managed to get his English and Maths from a 4 to a 6.
Im not sure if all schools provide this though.

We pay £30 for MFL on zoom with a native speaker.

Interesting range of prices on here. Ofc it depends a) where you are, b) what level of tuition and c) the qual level of the tutor.

Tutoring from, say, an undergraduate, while it can be valuable and helpful, may not be as targeted as a qualified teacher. Especially if they have experience in the specific board and qualification. I would expect the uni student to be cheaper.

I tutor MFL (not touting!) and am not a native speaker but I do know the specs very well. I charge a lot less than some figures quoted here. I charge more for GCSE and A level candidates but I think £80 an hour is a lot even there. If it helped someone get the grade they needed to progress and family were able to afford it tho then it’s money well spent.

Just to clarify, DC is not studying for GCSE as it's only A2 level on CEFR and it's already done.

I have DD in year 5 and we currently have tuition for 11+, 3 hours a week come to about £300 (London). Once in secondary school, we will definitely start tutoring for MFL, as I do not believe anyone can learn a language to a decent standard with 2 hours of school lessons a week. We may also continue with math tutoring throughout secondary as I believe maths is extremely important for employment nowadays and DD is more into humanities

What's MFL?

That feels like a lot for Year 5? When does she have time to do the homework from the tutor?

Or is she doing it all in the lessons?

I paid £40 an hour once a week for 6 months in year 11 for my DS who needed 1:1 input for English Lit as his weakest subject on the run up to GCSEs. He got an 8 in line with his other results after sitting at a 5 for the previous year. He now loves the subject as is predicted A star for A level (without tuition). It was worth every penny.

She has 3 hours of tuition on 3 days, and does homework for an hour on another 3 days, one day free. It sounds a lot, but most of her friends are doing the same or similar, and she has enough time to also do drums (30mins) and gymnastics/cheer (4 hours), plus walk in the park with the dog and play with her toys :) she possibly only has about 30mins every day to watch TV but that's fine with me