GCSE tutoring need not cost the world and pricing plans can make sure that it is affordable for most households.
First, it is important to ask what are the goals of GCSE tutoring? Does the student want to go up a grade from what they have been predicted? Or does a student simply want some extra support to fill in a particular gap in their knowledge?
Continued Support
For those wishing to go up one or more grades in their GCSEs, continued tutoring is likely to be necessary, as it will take several weeks to make a difference. This is because the GCSE courses are learned over a period of 2 years at school, so there is a lot of content to get through! A tutor will likely assess a student to see what level they are at and then make a plan for moving forward which can be discussed with parent’s/carers.
Let’s walk through the pricing of this scenario to understand how much tutoring might cost.
The standard rate for tutoring is £40 per 1-hour session and most students are recommended to have weekly sessions, although the more the better! These sessions should continue up until the exams to maximise the benefits of tutoring. So this brings the weekly cost of tutoring to £40. This can understandably seem expensive but many of us buy meal deals and coffees during our lunch hour or before work that cost £5 each time. If we do the maths then that’s £5 per day and at the end of the workweek, we have spent £25 on coffee and sandwiches! When you think about it like this, spending £40 a week on your child’s education is a no-brainer.
Let’s say you really do have a stretched budget and £40 a week is not affordable. There is nothing wrong with that; it doesn’t mean your child has to go without a high-quality education. In this case, a session every other week may be suitable. Bi-weekly sessions can allow a tutor to cover the most difficult concepts at GCSE and still have a big impact at the end of the year. Best of all, thought of as a weekly cost it has now halved to only £20 per week. That’s a 50% difference and could be much more affordable to some families.
Occasional Support
Some students may not need continued support throughout the year and might be having particular trouble with a single or a few subjects. This is another area where GCSE tutoring can help and should be affordable to nearly all families. Giving the student the confidence that they can learn anything and be successful could be transformative and just a few sessions could dramatically increase their overall grade. Let’s say a student has 5 sessions each at £40 spread over 5 weeks. This is £200 to alter the course of a child’s education. This is a remarkable value.
