Rough prices for a GCSE English tutor

[britespark1]

My son did poorly in his English mock GCSEs and we are looking for a tutor to help improve things. As we live in a small village with not many options for tutors, I have only found one so far, priced at £45 ph. Is this reasonable?! We are Worcestershire

Yes I would say £40+ is typical.

I agree. I'm a teacher and about that for GCSE tuition. It involves prep as well as the teaching.

However I would want someone who was used to teaching the actual spec for that price, OP - not an unqualified person.

Thank you both.

Yes £40-60 are prices I've seen. I pay £52 per session for son's tutor.

We're using someone absolutely FANTASTIC who is much cheaper than some of these (somewhat crazy!) hourly rates x

Depends what you are looking for I suppose! We have a Durham University English student; she's inspiring as well as really boosting DD's confidence. I don't think there is much benefit to a super fancy £50/hr tutor at GCSE level... (sorry if I'm creating controversy!)

As much as an English student is fabulous they won't have the latest knowledge on how to pass a GCSE. Things change every year based on exam marking feedback and teachers take this onboard with curriculum planning for the next year.
I charge £40 per session and also exam mark so I know how the questions need to be answered for maximum marks.

We paid £40 for 45 minutes for dd1 (who is now 18) but for dtds, they are in a class of 6 and it’s £90 a month or £170 for maths and English (per child) for an hour of each subject.

Standard price.

English gcse is all about knowing the text but then understanding how to answer the questions. You need someone who really knows the style of questions that could come up which a student can’t provide.

We paid £25 per hour for small group sessions online. My son enjoyed them despite not enjoying English. We will see in a few weeks if it was worth it! I think it probably was.

https://www.osterleyeducation.com/small-group-lessons-secondary

I’m in London and used to charge £40 per hour if they come to me. £45 is fine.

A student sounds great for general confidence and enjoyment/understanding of texts, but usually with a GCSE tutor you're looking for someone who really understands the exam board, the marking scheme, exam technique etc. That experience is what you end up paying for vs. someone who is great at English.

You’re paying for a student with no teaching experience. I am a head of English, experienced exam marker, teaching for 15 years. I have tutored students who failed their GCSE in summer and got a 6 in November re-sit. You don’t have to pay it of course, but the price isn’t crazy and I have a long waiting list.

Yes we paid £40 per hour between mocks and gcse for English. It was worth every penny as his weakest exam subject. He went from grade 5 in each to 8 in each and went on to do eng lit a level and is predicated Astar which is firmly down to the 1;1 work he did with the tutor.

He put the work in, of course. It wasn’t just one extra hour of teaching. She had him doing past papers every week (marked by her outside of the lesson). I reckon he did at least 5 hours from every 1 hour with the tutor

We are in the same area as you and paid £45 hour. SEN specialist so cost more. It was done online.

Have you got a local FB page to ask on? I found an amazing maths tutor from recommendations on our local page. He was £35 hour and worth his weight in gold. (Also online)

Agree with this - you want someone who is actually a teacher of the subject not an undergrad in the topic. Tutoring is about exam technique, understanding what is required, what the examiners are looking for, how to make sure you convey your knowledge in the answers in the way to maximise marks. It’s not just about the ensuring you understand the topics (though that is where they should obviously start). Ideally current teachers will have been to exam board briefings and be fully up to date with what the examiners are looking for and any changes in emphasis by the exam setters. A 20yo uni undergrad (or even a 22yo recent grad) just will not have that data.

We paid £72 an hours for A/AS level tutoring in my DS’s first year. Worth every penny as it really helped him understand what he was supposed to have done in the GCSE’s that he barely scraped through!

I’m in Worcestershire and charged £35 in the last academic year. English teacher of many, many years’ experience. £45 sounds on the pricey side to me.

I charge 35 per hour. English teacher with over 20 years' experience. Perhaps I live in a cheaper area?
I agree with the poster above- you need a proper teacher who can work on exam technique. Uni students are great for confidence boosting and perhaps even covering the content, but for English you really need to be taught how to answer the questions.
Would you consider online tuition? Feel free to DM me.

Thanks very much for all the replies. I’d asked on our local fb page and the only one that’s been recommended is this one. I do prefer face to face and DS can walk there in 5 minutes so very handy. Just hadn’t got a clue how reasonable that price was.

I've put the cat among the pigeons (as I expected I might...)

However, the notion that an English student who scored all A*s/9s in GCSE and A-levels (across the board) can't tutor current students on the best way to pass the exams with top grades is, frankly, ludicrous. Ironically (and I appreciate controversially) we have found good student tutors to be better than teachers across the board. I'm sure teachers are excellent with their classes, but on a 1-1 level it's not just about that, it's about rapport, more targeted improvement and, fundamentally, having a tutor that can use teacher/school feedback.

I strongly recommend using 'near peer' student tutors with a proven track record. They're cheaper, offer something different to standard schooling, and can be better than teachers.

I also note one theme about teachers knowing the syllabus and the 'change in emphasis of examiners'. To the extent that the 'emphasis' is more than a de minimis factor in reality, a good tutor will always review the syllabus and exam board updates. It's not gate kept information and it's entirely standard stuff. Fundamentally, at GCSE level, a 9 grade could be easily achieved by any competent and educated adult: the key is just in the effectiveness of the teaching/tutoring for each particular student. That might be good rapport, engaging tutoring techniques, recording lessons for revision purposes... and on it goes.

In any case, best of luck to everyone using a tutor! Each child clearly needs something different :)

I’m a teacher and have students who have tutors. It’s interesting to see how different tutors can be -I would strongly suggest using a tutor who knows the spec, the exam structure and either teaches it currently or did until a year or two ago.

I’ve had to speak to my students and tell them they’ve been given the wrong information by their tutors and then I’ve had to unpick their work. This has been when university students have been tutoring.

I really think you (mostly) get what you pay for.

£40 per hour would be appropriate where I am.

If you like you could DM me your location as I will am looking for new tutees for September. I agree that face to face works much better than online.

Here is some information from a research project on what tutors list for using the publicly available First Tutors data. Its not the most complete dataset for every region but it is a good starting point: Most parents looking for a English GCSE tutor in Worcestershire pay between £35 and £50 an hour. £30: Bottom 25%, £35: Median, £45: Top 25%, £50: Top 10%.
Its called the 'The UK Private Tutoring Rate Report 2026' if you want to read. I wont link to the report itself because I don't know about including links but it gathers all the data from 9,138 profiles that listed a price, and the data set was richest just before the pandemic so take those averages as a starting point.
I think its really helpful information for parents about what UK private tutors actually charged, by subject, level, region and reputation and its got an interactive tool with 'Pick a subject, level and region' and it'll show you what tutors in that cell of the market actually charged.

Thank you so much for that!

OP, please don’t be tempted to hire a student tutor. Absolutely ridiculous. Just because they have passed their exams does not make them qualified to teach.