Would you hire a 16 year old maths tutor?

[Stevendude]

Hi I am 16 and have been told time and again that I should try and go into maths tutoring.
I did my Maths GCSE a year early (though should have done it earlier) achieving a Grade 9 with 237/240 marks when only 200 marks was needed for the top grade. I have also sat my A level Maths this year with my other gcses and am expected to get all 9s as well as an A* in the Alevel.
Based on this do you think parents would be willing to hire me to tutor GCSE maths mainly and possibly Alevel or Primary school level?
Also what price would you be willing to pay: £10, £15, £20 or other?
I understand that I have no proper experience teaching however I have a good understanding of the new Mathematics Specifications/exams having gone through them and aced them.
Generally with tutoring maths I expect that the parent/pupil would have a particular topic they'd like me to help go over rather than have to make my own lessons and things - is this correct?

Most tutors use lesson plans

Your age isn't a problem in itself but I would want to know that you can teach as opposed to just do maths yourself.

I would. I think being a closer age to my son would help him. He's 10 and if I had the money, I'd hire you.

That being said, I'd be at home the whole time while you were tutoring him. So when people mention DBS, I wouldn't have a problem with it because I'd be monitoring the situation.

If it helps him then it helps him 🤷‍♀️ When I try and explain things to him, he gets cross and snappy with me. 😂

Your grades are clearly impressive but more important than that is that you can explain clearly to kids less able than you, have tons of patience, can bring maths to life and engage others to find it interesting enough to work at it, and to build confidence.

I didn't particularly excel at Maths GCSE but a friend of mine asked me (when I was 16) to tutor her 10 year old son because in his case it was as much about building confidence with the basic maths skills (which I was very competent in) rather than aiming for A grades.

Young tutors can be really good because they are still in learning mode so understand how to learn and can easily recall the methods they were taught with and are familiar with current expectations of the qualifications.

You would need to be very aware of the different requirements of the different exam boards' syllabuses if you advertise yourself as a teacher who can prepare pupils for exams.

As a tutor you would need to identify the students weaknesses and develop a short/medium term plan of work to plug the gaps, flexing the plan as needed depending on how well they respond. You would need to assess their capabilities, learning style, motivate them and set work to stretch them, but not too much to knock their confidence, have infinite patience if they still struggle despite your best efforts.

Think of creative ways to engage them in a subject they might hate. Be able to communicate with the parents effectively and deal with any conflict if their child isn't progressing as much as they hoped.

Being good at maths is a very small part of what a parent will expect from you. At 16 a good place to start would maybe be offering to help (don't frame it as "tutoring") family and friends who couldn't afford a tutor with maths for the next year or two to gain some experience and see if you can actually "tutor" effectively, maybe ask for a token £5/hr for this.

Expecting to go in to "tutoring", charging £10-£20/hr, and expecting parents to trust you with their childs education immediately is ridiculously naïve and immature.

no. Teaching maths is a very different skill compared to just being good at it.

Yes I would. If you are good at maths it doesn’t matter how old you are. Go for it!

In Scotland the exam requirements can change year to year, and I'd be very worried about teaching the wrong things. If they were younger students, pre exam years, and you were getting them up to speed that would be different.
I'm sure you know being very good at something doesn't mean you'll find it easy to teach it.
Congratulations on your success by the way, and good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Generally with tutoring maths I expect that the parent/pupil would have a particular topic they'd like me to help go over rather than have to make my own lessons and things - is this correct?

No, the parent will have a child not achieving in maths and expect YOU to work out a plan to improve their grade. They wont say ds is struggling with Gradients can you show them? If it was that easy I could do it!

No I wouldn't, but that's a personal choice. However if you do want to go ahead I would ensure you know the curriculum back to front for the required age group and in respect of GCSE's whilst you may know 1 or 2 exam board requirements you do not know them all, and they do differ. I would also suggest the first lesson free for parents to weigh you up and you yo understand yhe childs requirements and then a lower rate of say £10 per hour initially until you get results and positive reviews from parents. You will need to register with HMRC as self employed unless earning under £1k per tax year which is allowed under the hobby/permitted earnings loophole.

Perhaps it may be worth contacting a few tutors to see if you could shadow a few of their lessons to understand the requirements.

My DS was in your position and he successfully tutored a primary school child. £15 for an hour or so every week.

You don't need a DBS check if you are under 18 - unless the rules have changed recently.

I wouldn't agree to anyone shadowing a tutoring session that I was paying for, by the way.

I’ve actually just selected a maths tutor from a website for my own DS so I can tell you what I was looking out for in the online mini-CVs.

Most importantly, I was interested in maths teaching prowess rather than maths ability in itself. There were a couple of students who were selling themselves on the basis of being at Oxbridge and having obtained the highest grades at A-level but, for me, they were placing too much emphasis on what they could do and not providing enough evidence of what they could help someone else to do.

I ended up choosing a tutor with a lot of tutoring experience and good reviews.

But I would certainly consider paying a young, relatively-inexperienced student if I knew that they could be understanding and patient with people who were struggling.

So, by all means, explore the possibility of providing paid tuition but I think that you should try to build up some tutoring experience on a voluntary basis too, perhaps at your school, and see if you have an aptitude - and a liking - for it.

You don't need a DBS check if you are under 18 - unless the rules have changed recently.

My daughter started a job aged 16 working for a Saturday morning drama club. She had to have an Enhanced DBS check

I employ an English tutor for ds as he is really struggling. You may find that many children whose parents resort to tutors have an SEN of some kind. Many parents themselves will have no idea of the subject themselves especially as the curriculum has changed so much.

I expect a tutor to work out my son's weaknesses, find ways of teaching that work for him that maybe he finds difficult in a class situation. I would expect a tutor to be able to employ several different methods and explain things in different ways and have a knowledge of SEN.

I would encourage to offer your services not like a tutor but as help with preparing and revising for exams.
You have an experience how it is to sit an exam and you can share that experience too. You can help to understand concepts and find correct solutions. You don't need a teaching degree for that.
Because of your young age you need to have parents of your student in the same house/flat and I recommend to start asking £10 p/h
Give a try. You even don't know will you like it. Tutoring isn't so easy and fancy as it might sound.

I pay a 15 year old tutor £15 an hour. She is awesome and very well prepared. My daughters results have jumped and she is a lot more focused. Best of luck x

No, too young and nowhere near qualified enough at 16. A tutor would need to have a degree at least, and have some experience actually teaching. I would consider the lowest age for me to hire a tutor would be around 22/23 years of age.

Good luck with finding something op!

I would. I'd give you a shot but would probably get rid almost immediately if I thought it wasn't working and would expect a discount initially though.
I tutored as an 18 year old and just started at a low price and ended up with 24 dc a week !

We have a 16 yo girl tutor our daughter who is in year 5. We pay £15 for an hour. She sets homework etc and goes through maths and English. It seems to work really well. I am not bothered re dbs as it is in her home and I am there in a different room chatting to the mum. This girl tutored her brother who successfully got into 4 schools which were all selective