How much do you pay for GCSE tuition

[littleoldme]

I teach secondary English. I've been offered some tutoring but am not sure what the going rate is.

I should also add, they are supposed to be registered with HMRC even if below the tax threshold. They will also still have to pay NI.

One way of checking whether tutors are CRB checked and all above board is whether they're members of The Tutors' Association. It's relatively new and it's voluntary so obviously not all tutors are in it, but it's a start.

I should say DBS checked nowadays.

Good point, Antoinette. I joined this at the end of last year. They do check a tutor's qualifications, teaching experience, client references, DBS etc etc. If things go wrong with a tutor/client relationship they also provide an independent body to complain to and all tutors are required to sign up to their code of ethics.

Jumping onto this thread, sorry. For those of you who tutor, do you offer much feedback to the parents? I had/have a tutor for my pre GCSE son. Was paying a lot of money (£35, reduced from £40!) once every 2 weeks (struggled to afford anymore). I was never offered any feedback and whenever I asked I just got vague 'yes, he seems to be doing fine, no everything is ok, just make sure to read the questions properly' type answers. Is this the norm? My reason for wanting the tutoring was due to the fact that he was always below or well below expected levels and progress.

I haven't called the tutor back for a good few weeks as I'm wondering if I'm wasting my money.

I give as much feedback to parents as they want. Some send their children and wait out in the car and never come in to say hello or ask questions and in those cases I tend to send a half termly email just updating them, but most parents (up to GCSE at least) come in and ask how it's going at the end of every lesson. So in those cases I tell them what we've done, what prep I've set, where improvements are being made and what still needs work-in as much detail as they require depending on how much time I've got. If a parent wanted more details than I had time to give I'd call them with it at another time. I think if you want more details you'll need to ask for them and I'd be irritated in your position that they're not more forthcoming though the tutor may not realise you want details as not all parents do.

I always try to spend 5 minutes after a session having a quick chat with parents on what we've covered and which bits (if any) still require further work. I keep notes for every student on the learning objectives for each session and whether these were met or not, plus any more detailed info and will tend to send this document to parents once every 6 weeks or so to give more detailed written feedback. Parents are also welcome to come and sit in on sessions, which some do and this can also help.

If I've set homework, I let parents know (if I can, as Antoinette says, some wait in the car, or are not available when a session finishes) because otherwise I find I'll get a wide range of excuses for why they haven't done it, whereas if parents know the student has homework they will often work on it with the student.

I find though, the best evidence of a student making progress comes from the student's school teachers who will often comment to parents that they have noticed the student's confidence, enthusiasm and ability in the subject increase. Results in school tests start to increase consistently and predicted grades for GCSE and A'level increase. This is good because it is independent from me saying, "yes he's making marvellous progress" etc. I've also had students go from less than confident in chemistry at GCSE to wanting to study it at A'level and beyond.

Thank you both very much for your answers. yes, its true that I feel a bit irritated at the lack of information he gives me! I explained before lessons started that I was frustrated about his lack of progress, I explained all the avenues I had tried and him know how far behind we were in maths. I didn't ask the first few times other that to ask if everyone was happy as I knew it was too early then for feedback. After that I was asking the tutors opinion, if he felt he really was as far behind as the school thought, he said he felt he was doing ok. I was surprised as when I have sat with him on maths homework I have not felt he was doing ok at all!

Many lessons on I was still having to ask each time and feeling a bit embarrassed at always asking and always being told the same thing. I want to know his strengths and weaknesses and so on. My maths isn't that great so I was kind of hoping someone with more knowledge on the subject would be able to pinpoint the issues.

Teachers at school give no feedback, a large secondary where the teachers probably have so many students they forget their names. Homework (when set) is entirely online. I have emailed the maths dept twice now this last academic year but never got a reply.

We are due to get maths exam results in a couple of weeks so I am hoping to see at least a little improvement or I will feel I have spent a lot of money on nothing!

How long do you feel it would take before you begin to see some improvements? A tricky question I am sure. If someone had a lesson each fortnight, sometimes each week over the space of a couple of school terms would that help at all??

Thank you all!

Yes it should help though it will depend on the tutor and on the relationship they have with your DC. I would say half the benefit of tutoring is actual course content and skills taught and the other half is the DC feeling inspired and motivated to work hard(er) in their own time too. Tutees who arrive each week and are clearly just there because they have to be, doing the bare minimum, are not going to make the same kind of progress as those who want to learn. But they're children so wanting to learn has to come from them AND be inspired by their teacher/tutor-we can't expect them to do it all by themselves.

As far as how long until you see improvements-that's a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question. It depends so much on the child, their strengths and weaknesses, the teaching they've already had, the quality of the tutor plus many other things. Sorry-that's probably not a very helpful answer! The speediest improvement I've ever seen was in a boy who was predicted a G at GCSE and had half a term of lessons with me (an hour a week)-he got a C. I've had other tutees who've picked things up much more slowly but got there in the end and a very few others who have made it clear they're not willing to put in any work outside of lessons and who have made little progress as a result. (In the case of the latter group, incidentally, I tell their parents what the situation is as early as possible. Some of them feel that having the hour a week is still worth it because it's the only way they can get their DC to do any work outside of school and some of them stop tuition because they don't want to waste money if their DC aren't going to put in the effort. I imagine sometimes it's personal and the DC just don't like me and might do better with someone else tutoring them, though I'd like to think that's not the case of course! The point is that I won't just take a parent's money indefinitely if I don't feel I can help, or not without further input at home, and I think most good tutors would say the same.)

How long before seeing improvements really depends very much on the individual student.

Just as the dreaded Ofsted expect in school, I would expect to see some progress against the session objectives after each lesson. I always say to students and parents though that the amount of progress they make depends as much on the amount of work they are prepared to put in between lessons as the (relatively small) amount of time I spend with them. I'd rather a student spends 10 minutes each day working on the subject and engaging with it, than relying totally on me one a week or so. I find those students who make the time to complete exercises, homework etc in between sessions often make progress very quickly and we can spend more time discussing what was done well and how to improve.

It is also important though to keep expectations realistic, particularly in line with the amount of time dedicated to completing work etc. For example, last year I had 2 GCSE students who came to me getting F grades at school. One of the students completed all the homework set without fail and by the mock exam was getting a C grade. The other, didn't complete the homework, was always too busy in between sessions and by the mock exam was on the D/E border.

I think if you are worried about progress, discuss this with the tutor. See if you can discreetly observe a session and if you are unhappy, try someone else - sometimes students gel very well with one tutor but less so with another. The most important thing in the relationship is that both sides feel comfortable and your son enjoys learning. Once he is enjoying the sessions, self-motivation and progress often follow.

57 a month English and maths 2 hours on London

Thanks for all of your help on here. I've just used Peppo tutors peppo.org/ and they only charge £30 per hour. Which today is really good value. Plus, they donate tutoring time to disadvantaged children which is also a great initiative.

£20 an hour here - NW England. The tutor is a recently retired secondary school teacher who is excellent.

Someone with a teaching qualification charged us £25/hour (outside London). I also had a uni student (studying math at Durham) tutor my kids for £15/hour.

Gosh, some of you are getting very cheap tutoring!
I tutor secondary maths, mainly year 10/11 and A level and charge £45 an hour. I think that is fair for a graduate with a postgrad qualification and many years experience. My hairdresser charges £40 for a cut and blow dry and it takes less than an hour.
DD has done some tutoring in London and charges £55+ an hour.

The rate recommended by the Musicians’ Union for music teachers is £38 a hour.