Tutoring is becoming more widespread, and it’s a wonderful thing to see. I have seen a corresponding growth in resources, tools, and training for personal tutors. Alongside this, it can be a challenge for a parent to connect with a suitable tutor as I see requests for a tutor inundated with a variety of offers as soon as they are shared. How can parents choose the right tutor for their child and know that their investment will pay off?
Skills Verification
There are no qualifications required to be a tutor, and this is one of the main qualms in choosing a tutor. The usual response to this is to choose a qualified teacher. While this means that they are training in pedagogy it does not mean that they are qualified to tutor. The two are different specialisms, and it is well worth digging deeper than this.
Many parents are unaware that there is in fact a Qualification for Tutors available from Qualified Tutor. This covers:
Unit 1: CPD Safeguarding
Unit 2: Relationship Matters
Unit 3: The Learning Loop
Unit 4: Barriers for Learning: Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Mental Health
Unit 5: Powerful Feedback
The training is specifically focused on one to one or small group tuition, which is a different skill to classroom teaching.
All of the Green Tutors team are provided with this training. We also contribute to the training and discussions in building resources for tutors with Qualified Tutor.
Alongside this training, Qualified Tutor provide Skills Audits to confirm that tutors have the required subject, examination, and curriculum knowledge to support their students. This verification from an external training provider can give you absolute confidence to choose a tutor qualified in what they offer.
Safety First
Working in the private sector also means there is no requirement for safeguarding or criminal records checks before someone can start working as a tutor. This is something that professional tutors are well aware of and take seriously, and I encourage you to ask for proof of a DBS certificate and Safeguarding training.
The Tutors Association is a professional membership body for tutors providing criminal records checks and a code of conduct for tutors. All tutors signed up to this organisation have agreed to a code of conduct which requires them to practise safe and responsible tutoring. This is something that TTA takes seriously and any tutor found not to be holding to this will have their membership revoked.
Ask to see a DBS certificate (Disclosure and Barring Service) and Safeguarding Training certificate issued within the last 12 months before scheduling any appointments with your potential tutor. This is something that all Green Tutors have and yet no parent has ever asked me to share them in all of my time tutoring (since 2011). This simple step can help you to identify a professional tutor.
Community Referrals
Those tutors most committed to professional development and responsible tutoring are part of an online tutoring community. There are many, including the Love Tutoring Community, Tutors Need Tutors, and the Tutors Learning Network. I am a contributing member of all of these communities (and founder of Tutors Need Tutors) and have learned much more through the connections these have allowed with other tutors than in any of my previous training. While community is not a requirement of a professional tutor, it is certainly a green flag for responsible tutoring. Being able to choose a tutor referred to you by an existing tutor in these communities should give you even more confidence in their standard of tutoring.
Choose a Responsible Tutor
While anyone can set themselves up as a tutor, responsible tutoring shows and will be reflected in their reputation and practices.
Does your tutor communicate with you exactly what to expect from lessons?
Do they support your child with their studies outside of lessons, and encourage them to build independence?
Are they helping to identify goals for their progress, and encouraging a positive attitude to learning?
Responsible tutoring ultimately leaves the tutor redundant as a sign of success. We aim for our students to not need us anymore, and the sooner that can happen, the better we have done our job.
The long term pay off from this is that clients will sing our praises and will be happy to refer us to their friends.
If your tutor is not able to share stories and referrals from happy customers despite claiming to have experience in the industry, there is likely a reason for this.
This is not to say that you can’t trust a new tutor. They will also be learning as they go, but their commitment to responsible tutoring can easily be demonstrated by any of the previous points made – community membership, safeguarding training, DBS certificates, and relevant qualifications.
Specialism
While there are many qualified, responsible tutors, we are all different. Each tutor will offer a different service, a different relationship, and a different journey for your child. You should look for those with a specialist interest in the tuition you need. There are 11+ tutors, exam skills coaches, STEM tutors, SEND tutors, retired teachers, student tutors, dyslexia and dyscalculia specialists, teachers turned tutors, and many more.
Who is the best fit for your child?
What do they need?
Rates
“How much do I charge for tutoring?” is a question I see asked pretty much weekly. There isn’t an answer for that question. Much like everything else in the private sector, it tends to increase with qualifications, experience, and the fullness of your calendar.
It is important to know what your budget can stretch to, as tutoring is often a long term commitment. You get what you pay for, but if you are happy to invest in a student for long term support, it can be worthwhile for your child to grow with them.
The below is a very rough idea of the sorts of prices for one to one tutoring in the UK.
Green Tutors pay scale
If you’re looking to connect with a tutor, a great place to start is the Qualified Tutor Accredited Tutor Directory. All of the tutors in this directory have been assessed against the International Tutoring Framework, and have been found to meet the gold standard for tutoring businesses committed to delivering the highest quality tuition.
As we come to the end of the year, thoughts naturally fall to plans for the new year. This post-Christmas week is one of my favourite times of year for that very reason. There are no expectations, schools are closed, students are on holiday, and my time is entirely my own. It’s the perfect time for some thinking and planning.
In this blog I share my annual planning process for my tutor business, and some resources to help you with your annual tutor business plan.
What is your financial goal?
When it comes down to it, we all need to pay the bills. Tutors aren’t generally in it ‘for the money’ as there are many more affluent online business models, but there’s no shame in having a financial goal.
Do you know much money you need to earn this year in order to comfortably pay your bills, and take yourself on holiday, plus whatever else you want to do? Spend a few minutes jotting it all down, and perhaps check your monthly bank statements to work out how much you’re spending each month.
Don’t forget to make a note of your regular business expenses here. They’re often overlooked when it’s one off software costs, or a stationary top up. But note them all down because they all add up to wondering where your money went.
Bear in mind also that costs tend to grow as businesses grow, so if you’re making big plans this year you may need to upgrade your software or bring in new staff to manage it. This will also add up to more spending, so make a note of it.
When you have your total income goal here from all of these elements, we need to consider tax. I tend to add a third of this entire amount on again to account for tax. Of course it varies, but that’s a reasonable rough estimate.
How many hours are you hoping to work?
If you were to generate this income by one to one tuition, would this be possible? How many lessons are you prepared to sell each week? The chances are this would be more than you are hoping to work each week. Especially when you consider planning, admin, marketing, and development time.
In order to achieve this financial goal, do you need to add in some passive income options?
Do you work with others, as an employment business? How many hours do you need to sell through this business to meet your goals?
Spending the time setting out a plan to include all of these elements will give you a much better chance of achieving that financial goal. You may need to set aside some time up front to develop resources to sell, but that time investment will lead to a stable source of income down the road, and so is well worthwhile.
Will you need to seek out help to achieve this? It is best to factor that in early too, as you may need to budget for it. If you are recruiting tutors, that can take some time too, so start early and set up a rigorous training plan for them.
Prioritise your projects
You may well have lots of ideas for ways to boost your income in 2023. How do you know where to start?
I start by sorting all of my ideas from most passive to least passive. Passive options require the least time for money earned. This is a valuable way to secure regular income without committing yourself to working lots of additional hours. It makes sense to start with these and give your income a boost, so you have more flexibility to invest in future plans.
Are there any costs associated? Will you need to invest in software or manpower for this project? What will it cost? Factor that into your expenses to make sure they don’t make a dent in your income. This can also help you with setting the price for your product or service, as that can be difficult with passive income projects.
What income goals can you predict achieving with this project? Once you’ve set a price, how many sales will you need to make to achieve your goal? When you break that down monthly and/or weekly does it feel achievable? It must not be overwhelming, so you may need to make adjustments. The idea is to make progress and not to burn yourself out.
Break it down into high level steps
When you have picked your first project, consider the tasks you have to schedule to deliver it. What timeline can you deliver them on? Consider these at a high level initially, to plan them into your timeline. You can add the details later when it comes time to deliver them.
How much time are you planning to work each week? Are you planning to take a holiday? Don’t overcommit your time. Factor this all into your calculations so that you don’t fall behind schedule, or take your laptop on holiday with you!
With all of this considered, do you have time to fit these in? If not, perhaps you need to stretch out your timeline, or seek support to deliver it.
Consider your wellbeing
With all of these elements you need to consider your wellbeing. Your plans should make time for work, rest, and play each week. Life is not all about working and you will soon lose interest in your goals if you are not also supporting your health, and spending time with your loved ones.
If you’re not already planning a holiday, perhaps you should schedule something for 2023.
Do you have family commitments? Are you hoping to attend the school play, or football matches at the weekend? Schedule them into your diary and make work fit around them. Last minute panic may push you into decisions that you’ll later regret. Schedules help to prevent this.
I hope this helps you to feel better about 2023. If you are working on your annual plan, you can get a copy of my spreadsheet template here so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Maths Anxiety is defined by the Maths Anxiety Trust as a negative emotional reaction to mathematics, leading to varying degrees of helplessness, panic and mental disorganisation that arises among some people when faced with a mathematical problem.
As you can imagine, this doesn’t allow students to perform at their best in maths papers or in lessons. Students with maths anxiety often relate this difficulty to deliver in maths papers to a general failure on their part and tend to move away from maths as a whole.
For students experience maths anxiety, it can present as negative self-talk (I can’t do this, I’m stupid) and cognitive overload (brain fog) when presented with a mathematical challenge. They may also experience physical symptoms of anxiety (tension, headaches, dizziness, stomach cramps, sweating). Generally the whole experience is very unpleasant, and so understandably leads to avoidant behaviours. These may be described as disruptive in a classroom environment (back talking to the teacher, comedy interruptions, storming out, repeated absence, truancy, temper tantrums, shutting down, copying, talking when asked to listen).
Initial assessments
When a student with anxiety reaches out for support, those students are often quite anxious about their initial session. That can present in a number of ways as described above. In those situations, it is far better to avoid anything that looks or feels like an exam. This already has negative connotations for the student. The physiological response they would experience in this scenario is similar to my having inflicted physical pain on them. We are trying to build trust and confidence rather than torturing them. Instead I opt for a verbal assessment, and we discuss the content they remember covering in class.
I always start out by getting to know my student. If they’re anxious around maths, we won’t talk about that (at least not obviously) at all at the beginning. Ask them what they enjoy, ask them how school went this week. Ask them what they would like to do in the next stage of their learning, or anything else that means them talking about themselves and the things that make them happy. Whatever they say, find a genuine way to be enthusiastic about it and relate to them. Do be genuine, as they’ll spot fakery and it’ll damage trust. By talking about things they enjoy, you’re already putting them into a good mood and building a connection with them.
Identifying the source of anxiety
Asking the student about their memory of maths lessons (in the context of identifying a topic) can lead them into a discussion of their emotional experience too if they’re feeling comfortable to share. I encourage this, and it allows me to normalise the experience for them. This will hopefully remove some of the isolation and judgement they may be feeling. Acknowledge what they’re feeling, and share that many students feel maths anxiety. It is not their fault, but it is something that can be overcome. I don’t make any false promises though – nothing happens without hard work on their part. I have my own experiences with anxiety, so I can relate to their experiences here.
It may also lead us to identify the source of their anxiety, if they’ve had a particularly bad experience. Often there is no single event, but a boiling pot of anxiety that has built up over time. The aim is to enable them to understand their emotional, physical, and mental experiences separately. I want to separate their anxiety from their comprehension. Without the requirement for delivering in this initial session (an informal chat) the hope is to identify their ‘wins’ and start to show them there is a more positive path for their future learning.
Building confidence for exams
Exams are often an anxiety trigger for these students. This is why we don’t start with a test, but they are an unfortunately staple part of the learning experience. Over time, we work to build confidence so that the exams are less daunting by the time they come around.
Can you remember a time that you had to do something that terrified you, and you overcame it and did it anyway? The chances are that it took up a lot of your mental energy in the process. And I’ll bet that after having done it you had a moment of elation. Sharing that with your student will help them to relate to you. It will also show them what they can achieve if they are willing to invest the mental energy up front.
The eternal confidence Catch-22 is that confidence comes from taking action. We very often wait to feel confident enough to do something before we start. We are left in a constant state of inaction which only confirms the ‘I can’t do this’ idea. We need to take one or two steps out of the ‘comfort zone’ to the ‘growth zone’.
Where is the growth zone?
The important thing to remember here is that going too far out of our comfort zone (boredom, no challenge, distraction) leads us into overwhelm (avoidance, panic, refusal). This is where those anxiety symptoms of brain fog and physical discomfort return. This is where our negative self-talk gathers more evidence for itself. It is so important to be supported in these steps so that students remain in the growth zone (asking questions, self-doubt, visible progress over time). They should be repeatedly shown evidence of their success.
You can also get a free copy of The Ultimate Guide to Exam Success, plus more helpful information like this, by signing up at https://subscribepage.io/greentutors.
When I talk students through their weekly timetable, one of the questions I ask them is “how much homework do you have each day?”. Would you have an answer to this question, or is it just ‘lots’? I know how easily work can creep up before we realise how much of our days, weeks, and months we are giving to them. Homeworks is important, but should be time-bound in order to make sure there is time each week for work, rest, and play. So how much homework should students be doing in year 11?
How much homework should I be doing in year 11?
Set goals for your homework
You of course want to do well, and are obviously a good student who doesn’t want to disagree with the teachers. But putting unnecessary pressure on yourself through an already stressful year is only going to make it harder to reach your goals.
If you haven’t set specific goals for yourself yet, I’d recommend you do. It helps you to focus on the things that give you the best chance of success, and therefore make the best use of your limited time this year.
Students don’t just get work from one direction. There are several demands on their time. This is how I tell my students with a homework and revision schedule to prioritise their study time.
First do the homework on the timetable.
Then do the revision on your schedule.
And only then do any additional homework you have time for.
Every school approaches homework slightly differently but generally there is a schedule to the way homework is set, so you shouldn’t have work for every subject on every day. And some pieces of work are more than can be completed in an evening (like coursework) and would be spread out over a longer time period.
Make a homework agreement
Some schools have an agreement on how much homework students should be doing in year 11. Students with additional needs may have a specific arrangement on this. If you don’t have one, I would encourage you to aim for one. Ideally homework should be no more than 1-2 hours per evening, and in year 11 it is likely that a significant part of that would come under ‘revision’ anyway.
If this doesn’t match up with the work you are being set, speak to your teacher, form tutor, or head of year to see how they can help you with it. The work is set to help you rather than to burn you out, and in most cases they will be happy to offer advice and support.
If you encounter any challenges, share this with your parents/guardian. The teacher can speak to them to confirm the amount of time you’ve spent doing homework. Any pushback is likely to be based on the need to encourage students to work. If you can show that is what you are doing, that should be all that is required.
Get a homework study buddy
If you find homework challenging, try working with someone else in your class. This can often make the work less daunting, and actually more beneficial. You could use break and form time to work together, or perhaps work together after school.
I often do this for the work I find most challenging even now. It helps me to overcome any mind blocks I encounter. It also adds some accountability if you’ve arranged a time to work together. You’re less likely to both lose motivation at the same time. You get the work done faster and have more fun doing it.
Make time for rest and play
I think teachers sometimes forget just how many plates you’re balancing in year 11. They’re balancing a great deal themselves, and it is very easy to forget the challenges of being a teenager. If you are finding you need a break, you can’t focus any more, or you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s time to step away from the books and do something for your wellbeing.
Rest time can be sleep, reading, spending time with family and friends, meditation, walking, stretching, listening to music, or anything that recharges you.
Play time can be sports, social events, gaming, crafts, or anything that inspires you and makes you feel joy.
Making time for these even when you have lots of work to do is actually beneficial. They help you to recharge. Our minds and bodies need a balance and none of us can work all of the time. Check out this blog for more details on why.
If you would like to make better use of the days, weeks, and months leading up to your exams, you can get a copy of The Ultimate Guide to Exam Preparation completely free at subscribepage.io/greentutors. And if you’d like help implementing a schedule that works, you can sign up for a revision workshop with me at https://calendly.com/greentutors/revision-masterclass.
I’m always being forwarded GCSE maths hacks videos (like this one) claiming to provide a shortcut to maths success with some neat trick. While they’re a lot of fun to watch and often highlight a neat numerical pattern, they’re no substitute for actual understanding of the subject material and problem solving skills.
GCSE Maths Hacks: Anti-Learning
What works for one doesn’t work for all
Often these GCSE maths hacks will show you a trick that works for a particular question, or a particular type of question. They might not even include any explanation of why they work. So how do we know this particular GCSE maths hack will work for the problem we’re trying to solve, even if we remember the hack?
The answer is that we don’t, unless we work out why the hack works in the way it does, which means working out the theory being applied in the question. And if we understand the theory, do we need a hack, or just practise applying our problem solving skills to this theory?
Difficult to memorise
These hacks only work if we remember them, which means committing a series of GCSE maths hacks to memory before your exam. While that may be possible, it’s actually harder than learning the material on the curriculum. There are endless GCSE maths hacks and it would require an extensive library to cover the entire curriculum. Alternatively we can select a few trusted hacks and hope that those are the ones that answer the questions on our paper. But what are the chances of being that lucky?
It just doesn’t make sense to put the time and energy into memorising hacks instead of putting it into learning the curriculum and practising applying it to exam style questions.
As I said, in order to correctly understand GCSE maths hacks and when you apply them, we need to understand the maths theory that makes them work. Which would mean that we don’t really need the hack, right?
This is potentially the one bonus I see in GCSE maths hacks videos. We can work backwards from the solution demonstrated in the hack to the theory that makes it work. It’s a good way to demonstrate mathematical patterns. But having analysed it in this way, we not only don’t need to remember the hack but will have gone one better by understanding the theory.
The correct application of mathematical theory will allow us to solve whatever question we are presented with for GCSE maths, with one additional skill.
Develop problem solving skills
It is important to practise solving a variety of problems in preparing for your exams, and as a valuable life skill. The mathematical problems we are presented with in exam preparation are a workout for the mind, and develop our ability to solve problems outside of maths.
In order to develop our problem solving skills we need to work with a variety of different questions, rather than see if we can find a shortcut that doesn’t require any understanding to apply. That misses the entire benefit of an education in mathematics.
Practice makes perfect
It is really important to keep practising these skills to develop our mathematical understanding and problem solving skills. This practice does not come through using GCSE maths hacks to find answers. It comes through understanding the problem and working out a route to the correct answer. Practice, practice, and more practice is how we get really good at this. Most of us study maths for ten years before we sit our GCSEs. Nothing about that decade of practice suggests that success comes overnight.
You can find lots of practice questions by topic at Maths Made Easy.
How many times has a teacher told you to check your work? It isn’t to do their job for them, but because we often make mistakes that we can correct ourselves if we check our answers by checking our method, or using an inverse operation to work backwards. How can we do that when we’ve used a GCSE maths hack? We can’t check or reverse a method without first understanding it.
So while I encourage you to keep sharing any interesting maths videos you find, resist the temptation to memorise this hocus pocus and instead spend time understanding the logic behind the problem, so that you can solve any type of question that comes your way.
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