ELITE STUDENT TUTORING IN NORTH LONDON

[lochankorpal]

I am setting up a tutoring business in North London, specifically in Harrow, Barnet and Watford targeted at GCSE and first year A level students.

All tutors will be of a high calibre in the second year of their A levels, who have achieved at least 6 A's or more at GCSE level, with an A in the subject they tutor. They will all be DBS checked and are friendly, enthusiastic and encouraging tutors.

As they have recently done their exams in which they tutor, they will have a great grasp of the specification to which they teach.

Pricing wise, it would be £25 per hour for AS level and £20 per hour for GCSE, with specific deals for booking for four sessions in advance.

Is this something that would be of interest to you? As I only want to pursue the idea if the feedback is positive.
Thanks

So....a Y 13 student will be teaching a Y12 one (or Y11).
You say that this will ensure they are au fait with the specs, but what about subjects like English literature where each part of the spec offers a choice of between 4 and 6 texts? Will you guarantee that your student willl know all of these?

I teach A level lit. I tutor for it too, and mark A levels. Parents and students want experience IMO. Will you be sending your teenage tutors on EDEXCEL/AQA training courses? (Or other boards). What about IGCSE or CIE?
You haven't thought this through.

The specs across the different boards are vastly different. How will you ensure your teen tutors are adept in all of them?

If they're in the second year of A-levels they won't have any idea about the GCSE specifications as they will have changed dramatically since they sat them.

If you're planning on starting within the next year, your second year maths students also won't be familiar with Y12 maths as that's a new A-level spec.

Students tutoring was not what I had expected when I saw 'elite'. Agree with previous replies. Non-starter unless a lot of gullible and desperate parents in your neck of the woods.

Yes noblegiraffe is correct. From next summer, the GCSE A * will become a thing of the past in all subjects.
What will you demand of your teen tutors then, OP? In their chosen field of teaching? Will it be a 1 or a 9 ?

All tutors will be of a high calibre in the second year of their A levels, who have achieved at least 6 A's or more at GCSE level, with an A in the subject they tutor.

You've got a different definition of elite than I do.

There's no way in hell that you would be able to compete with other tutoring agencies, in this area. I've lived in the area and taught in the area. Parents paying for tutoring normally expect a lot - a qualified teacher with a good track record and experience. At a push, an excellent undergraduate student who really knows their stuff.
Sure, you're probably charging a bit less but why on earth would parents pay for a tutor who is in the same age group as the student who needs help? A lot of parents would feel that they would have to be supervising the tutor as well and the dynamic would be strange to say the least.
The market for this is over saturated with a lot of established agencies but new ones can flourish. Don't you need to pay for advertising as well??

There's a difference between doing an exam and teaching it...
Teachers attend the exam conferences, specific CPD and should be completely up to date with the nuances of the questions, examiners' reports etc. They will also be able to adapt legacy questions for the new specs.
A student who has just been taught this would not have the above experience and knowledge. In this case, far better to use the extra help in schools which should be available anyway.

My child's school offers a mentoring scheme where Y13 pupils help Y10/Y11 ones with subjects such as Maths under the supervision of a qualified teacher for free. So I wouldn't be prepared to pay for this.
I would consider an "elite" tutor to already have A levels and a degree in the subject being tutored from a "top" university.

I think you would be doing the students, parents and tutors a massive disservice with this scheme. The word "Exploitative" comes to mind.

Qualified teachers who have a proven track record of exam success charge that here. I spoke to a tutor who had hard data x% achieved A*, x% improved their school mock grade by 2 letter grades etc

You need to either halve your prices or hire people studying at university. You need a tutor who could score 100% in the exam, not someone who achieved less in this year's paper. That's why for GCSE you need someone who's studying at degree level,

The change in GCSE specification is a real problem for you. 2017 Chemistry for example is different to 2018 Chemistry. Also no A level student will know all of the texts and poetry specifications for English.

For languages, it might be best to find native speakers for the tutoring to be elite.

Yes I don't think having a GCSE in a subject makes you 'elite', especially if it's a core GCSE subject which EVERYONE is meant to have.