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How To Become A Tutor: A Guide On Starting A

Tuition Business

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First Tutoring Session - Top Ten Tips
Would You Be A Good As a tutor, your +rst lesson with each student is crucial in laying the foundations for an
1
Tutor?
ongoing relationship and setting the agenda for future sessions.

Earnings: How to Make Most teachers will know that your +rst lesson with a new class is vital in setting your
2
Money Tutoring
behavioural expectations and enthusing your class. One-to-one tuition demands a
different kind of approach, where your enthusiasm is important, but the main aims are
3 The UK Education System to build a bond with your student and to gain their trust.

Tips on Becoming Self- Here are our top ten tips on how to deliver the perfect +rst tuition lesson:
4
Employed
1) Ask the right questions before the lesson

DBS Checks and Insurance: This is absolutely vital - which is why we’ve put it at number one! Whether you can
5
Your Questions Answered deliver a great +rst lesson is often about whether you have all the information you need
beforehand. Make sure you have asked:

How to Create the Perfect

6 ProCle and Attract New The subject
Students For Private Tuition The age/level
The exam board - it is vital that you work towards the speciCc exam board a
student is working on if they are seeking tuition for a speciCc course.
7 Who Seeks Private Tuition? Current working level (grades achieved) - this will allow you to prepare material
based roughly at the right level of your student.
Areas where the student feels they are struggling (if they're able to identify this)
How to Secure Students Expectations of tuition - you need to know whether your student is looking for
8 long-term tuition or a one-off lesson.
when Messaging

2) Dress to impress (but not to intimidate) and arrive on time

Know the Different Learning
9 Tutors should match their student’s aspirations, therefore your attire is important in
Styles of Students
demonstrating your own standards. Tutors should wear smart-casual clothing and be
well presented. If you are teaching a primary-aged child, you would not wear the same
First Tutoring Session - Top
10 as for lessons for business accounting. As in everyday life, like it or not, your students
Ten Tips
and their parents will make an immediate judgement of your suitability based on your
attire, so dress well.
How Tuition Is Different
11
From School
Being late for your +rst lesson makes a terrible impression. If in doubt, set off early or
book the lesson in for slightly later than you feel would be best. Always make sure that
Student Retention for
12 you have got your student’s exact address well in advance and planned your journey so
Tutors
you arrive with time to spare. Saying your bus was late will just not cut it in your +rst
lesson.
Tutoring Lesson Advice and
13
Planning
If you are teaching online, make sure you are in a suitable working environment with 75

limited or no distractions. We would recommend that you run a browser test before the
How To Grow A Tutoring lesson is scheduled to begin to allow you to check that your connection, camera and
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Business microphone are all working and avoid any disruptions at the beginning of the lesson.

How to Keep up with Trends Everyone understands that there are times when unavoidable delays happen, so make
15
in Private Tutoring sure that you have the student’s phone number on hand so you can call ahead if you
really need to.

GUIDE INTRO
3) Introduce yourself and Cnd out what your student’s aims are
Students are obviously looking to make great progress, however, they are also looking
to enjoy learning and working with someone they like, so get to know them! Introduce

Looking for yourself and ask them about themselves. The approach you take will vary based on
each student but the aim is to make them feel comfortable and to get them talking. You
a Tutor? may want to ask them where they go to school/college, what their favourite subjects
are or what else they are studying, what their hobbies are, etc.
Connect with trusted tutors
online or in-person. Again, this will depend on the age of your student. If they are old enough, ask them what
their aims are and what they would like speci+c help with. Ask about time frames and
Find a tutor their current levels - the best tutors can quickly make their student’s hopes into shared
targets. They may also be able to tell you how they learn best so that you can support
their particular style of learning.

If the student is younger, talk to them about why they are having tuition. Remember,
even young children often know when they +nd a subject diOcult and will be pretty
Join our team switched on about why they are having tuition - your aim is to make sure that they feel

of tutors! like it is a positive opportunity for them to get additional help.

Join our wonderful community 4) Explain how sessions will work

of tutors today. Many students will never have had a tutor before, so it is up to you to set the agenda.
Let them know how lessons will work best and how sessions are different from school
or college. Explain that:
Become a tutor

It will be more like a conversation.

To stop you when they don’t understand anything.
To ask questions whenever they need to.
That you will work on the areas they struggle on, as that will help them the most.
…and answer any questions they might have about how it will work.

" The &rst impression starts before the &rst session has even begun. Ensure
that you have a good on-boarding system in place so that by the time your
students &rst see you live, they already know and trust you.

This could include a pre-&rst session survey asking to give you a basic
understanding of their current abilities, make sure you have both added each
other on the platform you'll be using and that they understand what to expect
from lessons with you and how any tech you'll be using works."

Lindsay Williams, Founder, LindsayDoesLanguages

It is important that you set clear expectations with a student. Tutoring sessions will be
different to how they are taught in school and whilst you should build a good
relationship, there should still be a clear line as to what is and isn’t expected from the
child.

5) Bring resources and assess their current level of study.

Get your student to complete some pre-prepared questions or activities, to +nd out the
level they are working at and how they work. This serves a variety of purposes:

Bringing resources demonstrates that you have prepared for the lesson and will
work hard to help them achieve their goals.
It lets you check the level your student is currently working at. Often parents and
students are unsure about their child’s or their own ability. When they are more
informed, it may be that you disagree with the assessment their school has
given. This will be vital in letting you plan for future sessions.
It lets you see how they work and their attitude to studying. Often students really
need help with their study skills, i.e. how neat they are, how they read questions,
how they plan answers, the speed the take to form responses, etc.
It lets you build shared objectives. Make sure that you are positive about their
correct answers and their wrong answers. When they make a mistake, a great
response would be, ‘Okay, that’s great. You’ve got that one wrong, so that’s
something we can deCnitely help you get better at.’

6) Make the student feel conCdent

It is a good idea to begin tuition at an easier level than the student suggested in your
earlier communications. You can test whether to move ahead more quickly by
challenging them early in the process. This will let them settle into private tuition but
swiftly discover out their real ability level. It will also allow you to ensure that they make
progress during their +rst sessions.

If you +nd that a student struggles with a lot of the content of a +rst lesson, they could
quickly become disheartened and feel tutoring isn’t for them. Be sure to have a couple
of ‘easy wins’ for a student so that you are able to allow them to impress you with their
knowledge. You can revert to these short tasks at times where you feel the student has
had to show resilience for a, particularly long time during the session.

7) Teach them something new

Whilst the +rst lesson is primarily about +nding out about the student’s level, you also
need to demonstrate your ability as a tutor! Remember that you do have to sell yourself
- students and parents have a large choice of tutors, so you do have to prove yourself.

Pick one of the areas your student made a mistake in and teach them this skill. Be
enthusiastic. Use diagrams or notes that you can leave with them, or even consider
multimedia resources. Kids love innovative sites, apps and videos. This might be harder
if you don’t know what you are going to cover, but as you tutor more and more, you will
build a great bank of resources and references you can draw on.

In your +rst lesson, it is better to be over-prepared than under-prepared! Always have a

backup plan and a variety of tasks you can use should you need them. As you don’t
know exactly where the child is at in terms of their learning, having a number of tasks
pitched at different levels will allow you to use what you +nd to be appropriate within the
lesson. You could also use one of the harder tasks to teach your student something
new.

8) Leave some home learning

To make great progress, your students are going to have to practise the skills you teach
them whilst you’re not there. Which means that you’ll need to leave them some
homework.

The word homework might spark some groans but you should always leave something
for your student to practise at the end of your +rst lesson together. This will send a
great message to students that you are thinking carefully about how to support them
reach their goals.

Leave an activity which is relevant and interesting, so that your pupil doesn’t feel that
learning with you is like additional schoolwork. By this stage, if all has gone well, the
student will have bought into how much your tuition is going to help them.

9) Build a rapport with the student’s parents

In the +rst session, it is vital to not only build a great rapport with the student but also
with their parent(s). This will begin when you +rst arrive - shakes hands, be polite, etc.
but mainly when you leave. Give the parents at least 10 minutes at the end of the +rst
session to discuss their child’s needs. This time should be in addition to the amount of
time scheduled for the lesson itself.

Being a tutor is about helping your students make great progress and to build their
con+dence. One hour a week can make a difference, but it will make a real impact when
you build a relationship with parents to help them support their child and formulate a
great plan to help the student as a team. It’s also great to ask for feedback from the
child’s teacher as this will really help you triangulate your approach. Agree on a plan for
tuition and the areas to cover in future lessons and…

10) Book in your next lesson

Ultimately, you must remember that, as a professional tutor, your income is based on
securing long-term students. Be con+dent and ask parents when they would like their
next session and how often they would like lessons to take place.

Scott Woodley, Co-founder of T

Tutorful
utorful

Scott is a fully quali.ed primary school teacher who left

teaching to set up Tutorful, a site which helps parents
and learners .nd the right tutor for them.

If you are looking to become a tutor, you can easily

create a pro.le with Tutorful. You can set your own
price, offer online or face-to-face tuition and begin
building your rewarding career in no time.

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