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The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

Teachers moving to private tutor / tutoring

6 replies

MartyDoc · 30/09/2021 19:36

I’m a primary school teacher (14 years in!)
I’m desperate for a change due to poor behaviour (but mostly the lack of any support from SLT in dealing with this behaviour)
ANYWAY what I’m hoping for is anyone’s advice who has moved from teaching (any age) to tutoring.
Do you think I would be restricted to only tutoring up to age 11? (And won’t be offended if you say yes as I’m sure secondary maths is beyond me Confused )
Where I live is not very affluent and no 11+ - do you think tutoring would be viable? Is much of it being done online?
I would absolutely love to hear from anyone who’s done it. I’m in no way expecting the same wages just an improved quality of life Smile

OP posts:
southchinasea · 01/10/2021 08:32

Hi I've just made this move, after teaching early years and key stage one children - I was a full time class teacher for 25 years. I am absolutely loving it so far! Really enjoying going at the right pace for each child and feeling like I'm making a difference for them. Great to be out of an intense school with all the politics and pressure too!

I'm loving the more relaxed pace of life, working from home and feel like I have a great balance. I'm looking to build up the tutoring steadily over this term and hopefully make equivalent to a part time 3 days/ week salary in the end. I am happy if I add 1 extra child each week, so far I started with 1 over the summer and now have 6 - 8. So there is definitely a demand. I specialise in KS1 and it's mainly phonics and reading catch up. Lots of children who find it harder to focus in class or who didn't make much progress during home learning. And a few who need extra stretch and challenge. I'm also happy to support lower KS2 children who are working at an earlier level. Building confidence and reinforcing skills at a gentler pace. I'm an early years specialist really. So you might well be able to do similar across KS3? I don't do 11+ prep at all.

I have set up a tutoring space at home, and bought quite a lot of resources including reading books. Another ex colleague drives around to children's houses, so either seem to work well. Sessions are after school/ early evening. I've also added some in Sundays, but take Fridays off instead. I have set up a website, Google maps search and Facebook page. Sharing the Facebook page to local groups seems to be bringing in plenty of enquiries. I haven't registered with any tutoring agencies yet but that's another possibility to try. There's a really helpful facebook group called something like leave teaching and thrive. Lots of detailed advice on there, I'm finding it really useful. Good luck and do ask if you have more questions.

DerErlkoenig · 01/10/2021 14:29

I've done this. I trained in secondary MFL and worked as a secondary school teacher for five years before going on maternity leave. I never went back and set up as a private tutor instead.

I now do it full time (30 hours of teaching a week plus preparation and admin). I earned £40k last tax year and am hoping for nearer £45k this year. I charge £40 an hour for A level, £36 for everything else. I have 38 "official" teaching weeks a year that students are committed to but with school holiday teaching and extra lessons at exam time, it really adds up. I work after school (usually 3 or 4 hours), and all day Saturday and I do a small amount of day-time teaching (adults and university students and the occasional home-schooled child). I absolutely love it! I love working from home, I love the independence and I feel that I'm making a real difference to each individual student.

I started with French and German but then branched out into English and then Spanish (all four subjects at secondary - mostly GCSE and A level). After a while, I started to offer primary English and was then asked to do 11+ preparation, which I did. At first, I just did English, VR and creative writing for 11+ but the demand was so great that I started offering maths as well (plus NVR). (I do live in an 11+ area and there is huge demand.)

Pre-covid, I did mostly face-to-face teaching at my home, with some online students. All switched to online at the beginning of the first lockdown. I'm now starting to offer both again. It's almost always the primary parents who ask for face-to-face; the older ones are mostly happy online. I have never travelled to students' houses.

Things I've learnt:

Parents don't really ask about qualifications! Mine are all listed on my website, so maybe that's why, but not a single primary parent has ever queried that fact that I trained in secondary and have never taught in a primary school. I'm sure they do look for a qualified teacher though. (I also have absolutely no qualifications in Spanish but get loads of queries for Spanish and have tutored lots of children in it.)

You really need to know your stuff! It's so individual and so intense that you absolutely cannot wing it. (Not that I think you would!) If you're just teaching your specialism (in your case, primary maths and English?), then this shouldn't be a problem but if you branch out (which you may or may not need to, depending on demand and how many hours you want to do), you need to be absolutely sure of your ground, for your sake as much as theirs! (I actually offered free Spanish lessons to the daughter of a friend for a year to be sure I was up to scratch before unleashing myself on members of the public.) So you absolutely could branch out into secondary (maths or English or anything else) but you would need to be really sure of your subject knowledge first. For 11+/grammar school entrance, you also really need to know about the different schools and all the exam requirements.

You need to be really strict with parents or some will really mess you around in terms of cancelling lessons. I learnt this the hard way. I now send out invoices to be paid half-termly in advance. That takes up quite a bit of admin time but it's really worth it. If they can't make the lesson, I do offer to rearrange it, but either way, I don't lose the money. Nobody has ever expressed any dissatisfaction with the system.

I paid a professional to set up my website and I pay him an annual fee to run it. It's worth every penny and makes me look serious and professional. I used to use Google ads in September each year (I did that for about three years I think), which really helped to build things up. I don't need those now, as I am pretty much permanently fully booked (sometimes with a waiting list), but I would do it again in future if need be. I've never used an agency.

You need to keep really detailed records - financial of course but also for each child. In my case, it's what schools they're applying for for 11+, what exam board they're using for GCSE/A level and of course what work I've done with them.

Sorry - that was a bit of an essay. I really love it so much though and I think you should go for it if the maths adds up for you in terms of earnings. Bear in mind that it takes time to build things up, as I'm sure you realise. Feel free to PM me.

MartyDoc · 01/10/2021 18:04

@southchinasea thank you so much for your time in replying, all that info was fab! I was worried that perhaps there wouldn’t be much call for tutors at a lower level (like you I usually teach key stage 1) you have been both reassuring and so helpful. I will def ask if I think of anything specific - the only thing I thought was how does DBS work?! Do you get your own? You have encouraged me to make a proper plan Flowers

OP posts:
Sweetsweetsoul · 02/10/2021 07:05

My friend got extra tutoring work teaching Chinese students English online. I don’t think it’s as well paid as UK based tutees , but she got quite a lot of work through it and it was daytime hours which suited her more than evenings.
There are more and more homeschooled primary kids now so I would imagine there is more demand for specialist tutors. You could also consider offering small group tutoring for home Ed kids.

MartyDoc · 02/10/2021 15:00

Thank you all for the time you have given in replying with such helpful responses. You have been wonderful - it’s given me lots of encouragement and positivity! I have lots to look at, I’m going to spend this eve reviewing it all. We do live in an area with lots of home ed children though suspect many would struggle with cost. @DerErlkoenig no, your essay was most welcome! I may be in touch if I think of 101 questions!

OP posts:
Sweetsweetsoul · 02/10/2021 16:34

That’s the thing with doing small groups for the home edders - you can reduce their individual costs as you’ll have a few at a time. Good luck with it all!

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