Opinions on private tutors needed.

[maudemma]

Any mothers looking for private tutors I would be very grateful for your opinions. I am a final year maths student in London and I do some tutoring for secondary school children. I've noticed that many of the tuition agencies based in London seem to charge a lot (£30 to £40 per hour) for tutors who are not qualified teachers and I personally feel it is wrong for these agencies to charge so much for unqualified people.
My friends and I are thinking of setting up a tuition agency providing student and graduate maths tutors but I disagree with them on the price.
I have some friends who are for example single mothers and would like tuition for their children but would not be able to afford so much. My friends argue that only rich people can afford tuition so we should charge the same as the other agencies.
I would like to know how much you would be prepared to pay for student/graduate maths tutors (and who is right out of me and my friends - are there mothers out there who want tuition for their children but can only afford say £20 an hour?)

I will bump it up for you. I think that you would get plenty of people for that price.

My union suggests a tutoring rate of £35 per hour.

As for qualified/unqualified, I think a lot would depend on who it is for and why they are struggling.

If they need tuition for examinations, then I would think that it was important that their tutor is a teacher who is familiar with the specific board.

scienceteacher I agree that a qualified teacher is better, especially for exams as they know the exact exam requirements, I am concentrating mostly on tutoring KS3. In fact it is the issue of the agencies charging such a lot for unqualified people that bothers me as I think the parents are getting bad value for money.

I think that it sounds like a huge amount of money for an unqualified tutor (that said I am a quailified english teacher and only charge £22's an hour. Am in Scotland though). I think you acccess kids who have fewer oppertunities if you charge less but also that you probably should take the money if people are prepared to pay it

I am in N London and one (very popular) agency charges £21-£27 per hour for qualified teachers. Other agencies I know of charge around £24. Also these agencies say all their tutors have CRB checks.
I would be reluctant to pay £30-£40 to an unqualified tutor with no experience.

I think you should set up your agency with a set price per hour for single tutees (say £30 each), groups of two (£20 each), groups of three etc (£15 each).

So at least the less well off parents won't be totally put off by the pricing.

And if you think you have found an especially deserving case you can always give a discount.

I think your price seem fair as long as you tell customers that you are not qualified teachers. Keep a record of the number of students you teach, add them to your portfolio with details like whether you taught gcse, as a level ks3, which exam boards you have taught etc. Ask customers to give testimonials. After you have about 15 under your belt you can ut the prices up because you will be just as good as a qualified teacher.

I've just done a lot of research on this myself cos I was desperately trying to find private tutors.
The going rate in Hertfordshire is £20-25 per hour - 1 on 1, more if travelling is involved.

Don't forget about CRB clearance - it is important for parents.
Exam boards have on their websites past exams papers together with marking schemes and it is vital to study those - it makes a lot of difference to teaching the children.

Parents/carers would need to know if tutors are not qualified teachers, but it doesn't always matter depending on experience, references etc.

The online tuition market is really taking off and is worth looking at too.

I did private tutoring via a large agency about 7 years ago and people paid £17-20 for GCSE and A-level - undergraduate level was higher. And travel costs were extra.

I'm not a teacher, and the agency didn't CRB me or ask for any proof of my qualifications at all, or even contact my referee! Actually none of the parents ever asked, either...

But there's clearly a desperate need for tutors - the agency kept calling me trying to persuade me I could get to all sorts of places by public transport. A friend is a full-time tutor (not a teacher, but has postgrad qualifications in the only subject she tutors) and charges around £22/hour. The tutees have to come to her, but she's near some large schools so it works well.

Finding exam requirements doesn't need you to be a qualified teacher either - they're often marked by totally unqualified people. My lab tech used to mark Science GCSEs and I ended up double-checking her as her English wasn't good enough and she'd not give credit if they used words she didn't understand.

I was a bit too honest and talked myself out of work, telling worried parents that their kid clearly understood everything they'd been taught so far, but to contact me if they had problems later. Probably why I ended up mainly teaching English to 14-year-old ESLers, rather than science A-levels.

Crikey - you shock me notcitrus! Although I suppose 7 years ago is a long time in CRB land - it has all taken off since then. Gobsmacked about the lab tech marking papers - prob just as well we parents don't know some of this info!

I suppose everyone is different, however I would prefer to see CRB clearance and probably references too. Maybe it depends whether child left alone with tutor or not. I agree that being a teacher isn't vital - some teachers are worse than others I suppose.

Anyway - each to their own!