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Being a Private Tutor

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Hey folks,

I'm a newly qualified teacher (yay) for secondary English, Media and Drama and have secured a job for the coming academic year but so far have found no temp work to tie me over for the summer. Admittedly, I get my first pay August 15th so I can't moan too much.

Anyway, it will be my first teaching year. I've been thinking about putting out cards offering myself as a private tutor. I know the demand is low over the holidays and it will be term time, but I wanted to know :

a) Anyone has done this and what have their experiences been.

b) What is your lesson content? I mean, what do you cover in an hours lesson as I realise it is not typical teaching but are you trying exam questions, teaching exam techniques, completing homework with them - what do you cover in your lesson with them?

c) Rates of pay? I'm based in North East - sort of London/Essex!

d) How many students can you juggle at any one time and what days do you private tutor?

e) Do you think it is reasonable to cope with my first years full time teaching and take on extra pupils.

Just to fill in, I am a qualified certified teacher and my first degree was in Drama. Although I did not take it at A level I have English lit A* GCSE and English Lang BA (double award course) GCSE.

Thanks folks!

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    oooo hello again! :wave:

    That's exciting! I used to have a private maths tutor in year 9 because I was in a class of unruly students that the teacher couldn't control so wasn't learning anything. So my parents got me a tutor for an hour a week who actually turned out to be another maths teacher at my school! We'd basically go over everything I needed to know for my SATs and do extra on the things I wasn't sure on until I got it all. So if you're going to be hired as a private tutor I suspect it may be for similar reasons such as they're struggling to keep up or feel they are not getting enough out of lessons so you'll be filling in the gaps basically. And they will probably tell you their weak areas. He charged £20 an hour and that was 5 years ago. Sorry that's all I can really say!

    Good luck x
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I did private tutoring of maths and science when I was at university (in London). I worked for an agency, I got paid £25 per hour but the clients were paying £36.50 an hour, this was for a posh agency though and I mostly tutored posh kids with very rich parents. The amount I did depended on my own work load, in my second year of uni I had several clients and in my final year I cut back to focus on my own studies.

    As for lesson content it would depend on the student (and the parents!) and what they needed from the lessons. I tutored general lessons like if they'd been away from class when a topic was taught, catch up lessons for if they had fallen behind, revision lessons, exam questions, more intensive exam focussed lessons and even had a lawyer client who I taught numeracy for job applications. I taught secondary age upwards, there was a lot of demand for year 8 as this is the year that they do the 13+ exam and scholarship exams to get into top private schools as well as year 11 being very popular for GCSE help.

    There was demand certainly in the Christmas and Easter holidays as this was when the boarders would be back from school and would often have tuition lessons everyday or three days a week etc in the holidays. I didn't ever work in the summer holidays as I would be abroad myself but my agency were especially keen to recruit tutors for English as a foreign language for the summer holidays, apparently demand was high for it.

    I really really enjoyed it and it was one of the best jobs I've had. You can really bond with your pupils and genuinely want them to do really well. I got amazing feedback, letters from pupils and an amazing reference so I feel I really made a difference to their lives.
  • littlemissylittlemissy Posts: 9,972 Supreme Poster
    It's a great idea and definitely one to think about but make sure you don't wear yourself too thin. I found my NQT year as hectic as my PGCE year. My advice would be to do it next academic year.

    If you do go for it this year the time to be putting yourself out there would be after Christmas. Before Christmas people don't often see the urgency of it and cruise along. After Christmas, when exams are *this* year as opposed to *next* it seems more real and there are more people out there wanting tutors.

    Oh, and congrats on that elusive job. Well done :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Randomgirl wrote: »
    I didn't ever work in the summer holidays as I would be abroad myself but my agency were especially keen to recruit tutors for English as a foreign language for the summer holidays, apparently demand was high for it.

    Just a quick note on this. TEFL is a very different skill to the teaching of English as a curriculum subject to native speakers. Without training or experience, you are likely to find teaching foreign students frustrating.

    The two qualifications recognised by the British Council are CELTA and TESOL. The courses to gain these qualifications cost about £1000, run for four weeks and, in my experience, are great fun. Most colleges will take graduates with any degree and a sound knowledge of English grammar.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You'll also need a CRB check.

    Because in this country, if you express a desire to work with children, you're automatically assumed to be a paedophile unless you have a piece of paper
    that states otherwise.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I am starting my NQT year in September too :d

    I think littlemissys suggestion is really good, I was going to say that a lot of the teachers I've spoken to say your NQT year can be just as bad, if not worse than PGCE year. But yes maybe around Christmas time you will have more of an idea about your workload and how much spare time you have, and then you can go from there.

    In my limited knowledge of people who have had private tutors, they often discuss with the student/parents areas of weakness that they want to cover, and then the focus is generally on passing the exam.
  • littlemissylittlemissy Posts: 9,972 Supreme Poster
    You'll also need a CRB check.

    Because in this country, if you express a desire to work with children, you're automatically assumed to be a paedophile unless you have a piece of paper
    that states otherwise.

    True, but if OP has managed to secure a job in a school she will have one of these in place already :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    As far as I'm aware, when you change jobs you need a new CRB check. The girl I was seeing a few months ago is a teacher and when she moved schools, she needed a new check even though she moved immediately.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    As far as I'm aware, when you change jobs you need a new CRB check. The girl I was seeing a few months ago is a teacher and when she moved schools, she needed a new check even though she moved immediately.

    Correct. A CRB check is, strictly speaking, only valid for 6 months. Before I left (in 2007), there were moves afoot in the NHS to recheck all staff regularly. However, due to cost and admin resources, I don't think any Trusts actually do.

    Re private tutoring, although a CRB check would be desirable, you would need to be with a "registered body", e.g. an employment agency authorised to carry out these checks. I am sure you would still be able to find work privately without one. The reason employers like schools and healthcare providers need to carry out CRB checks is due to the unsupervised access their staff may have to children and vulnerable adults. If you are tutoring a child at their own home, where a parent is present, there should be no need for a CRB check.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hello Ballerina :wave: and everyone thank you so much for your responses. I actually received my schools CRB in the post today so that would be my most recent. I have about 6 issued in 3 years - they do tend to be associated with particular companies i.e. my school obviously purchased mine, but yeah I understand what you're saying about CRB.

    Also I would quite like to do TEFL as I've realised in my local area there is a big demand for people teaching English from the ground up. Teaching so many EAL kids, I realise I am no way qualified to teaching English as a language and struggle enough trying to devise lessons that give them access to English, let alone teaching them words.

    Thank you for your thoughts - after xmas would be a good idea. I'm thinking of seeing what my school have as I know previously they offered a lump sum to English teachers who took on students for additional sessions. I think I will see how I'm doing up until xmas as obviously I haven't got a clue what my work load will be like until I get stuck in. My partners putting a bit of pressure on as I've just finished my PGCE, had no income since June's student loan and am ridiculously skint until my summer pay (first pay yay!!) comes in next week!

    Thank you for the insight as well - I figured it would most likely be filling gaps, exam questions, techniques etc...I just feel a bit unconfident that I'm actually worth as much as tutors ask for an hour! These kids are obviously lacking something in their general education that is leading to them needing to pay someone for something they should be receiving.

    Thank you all!! Good luck FireFly85 :D - I remember you enquiring about doing a PGCE! Cor how far we've come - I've been off of thesite for a while!!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I did private tutoring of maths and chemistry when i am at university and now i also like to start it ...i had a experience about private tutoring.
  • Olly_BOlly_B Posts: 222 Trailblazer
    Correct. A CRB check is, strictly speaking, only valid for 6 months. Before I left (in 2007), there were moves afoot in the NHS to recheck all staff regularly. However, due to cost and admin resources, I don't think any Trusts actually do.

    Hi,

    A CRB disclosure is not *valid* for any length of time. The purpose of a CRB is to validate what an employee has told an employer about any previous criminal convictions that may make them unsuitable to work with children or vulnerable adults.

    It is part of each organisation's own safeguarding policy to determine how regularly CRB disclosures should be carried out.

    Think of it like an MOT, which highlights only faults on the day it is carried out but is required once a year. This doesn't mean that the car is safe for the next year, just that it would be impractical to carry out an MOT more frequently.

    More info on CRBs: http://www.thesite.org/workandstudy/gettingajob/applications/employmentcriminalhistory

    Olly
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