Tutoring aged 15

[debbs77]

My son is almost 15 and very skilled in Maths. We mentioned the other day that he would make a great Maths tutor and he has done a lot of research and loves the idea as a career!

We spoke to a friend who owns a tutoring business who has said that when he is older she would love him on her books, but that in the meantime we could set him up tutoring from home.

Any recommendations on the best way to do this? Would zoom be good? How much would you pay?

We didn't get to ask her these questions as we needed to leave x

He needs to develop his maths more if he wants to tutor and once he does his maths GCSE, A Levels and hopefully a degree he'll come to realise that he can do a lot more with maths than just tutoring

At 15 he can only tutor for primary age - as he hasn't taken his GCSEs yet?
I'd look up charges etc. We had a tutor when my son was year 6. Paid £15 an hour.

There are lots of tutor directory sites, try looking at a couple.

My 16yo tutors primary school kids (maths and English) but does it face to face. She really enjoys it!

She charges between £12 and £16 per hour.

We got started because a family friend asked her to do it with their dc. They then introduced others.

I would have a look at Kip McGrath or similar and see at what age they take tutors on from. That would give some experience.

There is a vast difference between being skilled at maths and being a good tutor. He needs not only to be able to do the maths himself, but how to break things down to mini steps, how to find different ways to explain, what common mistakes less able pupils make, etc.

He's good at maths - not good at teaching. You need to be taught how to teach to do it properly.

Please also don't think that he can 'just' teach primary. Primary is actually harder to teach than secondary as you have to scaffold the maths and understand how to explain. You can actually do more harm than good at this age!

Professional tutors charge £30+ an hour. You're paying for their experience, their qualifications, their professional insurances, the fact they're tax registered etc etc.

He needs to ensure his prices reflect that he has none of this!

There are lots of tutor directory sites, try looking at a couple.
Most tutor directories don't allow under 18s to register with them.
As a career tutoring is really insecure and the market is becoming saturated.
There are all sorts of things that you/he needs to think about before setting up in business. For instance would him working from home affect your household insurance?
You would also need to monitor as a parent how many hours your child works to make sure that you stay within guidelines. The link is here www.gov.uk/child-employment/restrictions-on-child-employment

I'm good at maths and tutor at A level and higher. I wouldn't dream of tutoring anybody below GCSE level. At least, not without training. The kinds of problems and blocks some children have with maths are often hard to understand - especially for people who are good at maths.

Are you sure he will have the maturity or teaching skills to become an online tutor. I'm sure his maths is fantastic, but what does he know about the way children learn? I have 30 years teaching under my belt and still find online tutoring quite difficult sometimes, although it's a joy too. I think tutoring is so much more than knowing about a subject.

There are challenges to tutoring when you are young. My school did ask us to take some lessons (learner led learning) as part of our development, but not until the 6th Form. And they could be pretty scrappy at times. 😀.

What I would say is that tutoring is a great way to earn some money if you are a bit older. And young people do sometimes engage with each other very well. However when he is 18, I would advise getting at least a Level 3 Award in Education and Learning. These are offered by several organisations (e.g. Qualified Tutor, Myelin etc.), are online and usually relatively low cost. Frankly, it's the minimum I would expect from any tutor I employed. Hope this helps a bit.

To be an effective tutor, you need to understand how children learn and why they are finding something tricky or have misconceptions. You need to understand how to teach and understand the pedagogy involved. You also need a very detailed knowledge of the National curriculum/exam syllabus.

This is why it takes years, and a degree, to become a teacher.

Primary maths is a very different kettle of fish and far more complicated, pedagogically from GCSE, especially when you factor in all the gaps in learning caused by covid.

A 15 year old who is talented in maths could quite possibly offer homework help and charge a small amount for this, but I'd highly doubt they could plan a decent series of lessons to develop progression and conceptual understanding.