What I have learned, what has changed and what will come next

At the end of my last IT contract in 2015 I decided with my wife  for a change of career direction into Maths tutoring – a gentle wind-down to retirement  – or so it seemed. Ten years later, in 2025,  I have reached the apparent required number of hours in a role to be an expert (ten thousand)  and the business is thriving with my work essentially full time.

It is time to reflect on learnings and changes

When I started, the new 9-1 Maths GCSE syllabus and grading had just come in. So although I had expertise from school days and work, it seemed like a good opportunity to learn the syllabus from scratch and create my own teaching materials. I designed  imaginative slide-packs and interactive quizzes for each topic (by myself before any fancy AI help – see below!) By offering these on TES as well as using them with pupils this compels you to really understand the syllabus in great depth and create high-class materials. I still frequently update them to reflect the latest exam questions, or with a new real life example from the news, or a new video such as a science core practical. This also means my own lifelong learning continues.

To get started in tutoring you have to be willing to practice with some free or low cost work perhaps with your own or friend’s children to get a feel for what works or doesn’t. But once you get a few paid lessons under your belt,  your experience and reputation develops, perhaps with a bit of advertising to launch your business.

But you soon  realise that just local Maths tutoring at purely GCSE level is not enough to earn a living, So I chose to diversify – using my own knowledge of real entrepreneurial business strategies. Broadening horizontally across to the three Sciences – Physics, Chemistry and Biology; and to Business Studies and Economics; and to non-core qualifications; and introducing depth, vertically up and down the age groups from junior to A-Level and University entrance. And internationally too.  Approaches from non-UK individuals and companies could only have come from having a good website – this doesn’t have to expensive, pay for a server but develop the pages yourself. And pupils in different time zones helps you to expand your working day capacity.

 

The Coronavirus Years

Covid from 2020-22 was a game changer. Parents wanted educational continuity for their children so demand expanded and for the first time I used Zoom. So successful was it that post-Covid, on-line is still 90% of my work – even for fairly local pupils – it saves the bus-journey!   Students got comfortable with using on line access to materials and being able to share their homework and write on screen. And Maths web-sites like BBC Bitesize and Dr. Frost came into their own. Also, for the first time as a  U.K. tutor I could receive and accept requests from anywhere in the world. 

The tutoring process.

Administration is important. It is helpful to separate out this from the actual teaching. A spouse or partner can create the schedules and invoices and even do most of the accounting. Payment in advance helps tutors and parents alike – it creates certainty, trust and expectation.

Parents of course want improved results but also need to be assured of the process. A follow up email after each lesson is essential to record progress and set specific homework and announce what comes next. A weekly lesson at the same day and time works best to create the  routine which students need. Parents appreciate you going the extra mile, offering them advice born from your experience, or accepting reasonable change requests.

Reputation within schools and with Parents is important – word travels fast if you are good. Siblings provide great continuity – in some cases the younger and older family members have been with me almost the whole ten years.

A good tutor works hard – 5 hours a day, 25 hours a week, for 40 weeks direct paid tutoring a year makes the 1000 hours a year (and my ten thousand hours after ten years!) And as well as the 5 hours a day with pupils, another 5 hours following up with emails and homework; and developing new materials, expanding the business. So 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. is a typical day. 

Embrace variety. I have tutored over 200 pupils. At any given time I am tutoring around 20 different ones with a large variety of topics and levels – at handover time you have to switch instantly between them so have to be well organised. Further, I am able if needed to teach two completely different topics – perhaps Maths then Science – in the same one hour lesson.

Because I have created such a well organised data base of high quality materials I don’t have to spend much time preparing before the lesson – although I start with a default plan, like a D.J. I can respond quickly to requests for help in topics or for a test. In fact, strangely, I prepare after the lesson more than before it.  I pick out specific pieces of homework – on-line links to quizzes,  and packs of relevant past paper questions where I have taken the time to put the worked answers the very next page. The examiner’s model answers are very useful but I often add my own extra explanatory notes.

I tend to follow the syllabus – either what the student is doing now; or what I predict they will do next – when correct I feel smug! My philosophy is to teach to the test – if pupils feel its super-relevant there is much more chance of retaining attention and absorbing content. Occasionally I will amplify the syllabus with real life news items such as the Science of greenhouse gases and climate change, or the Economics of balancing interest rates versus inflation, or the Maths of sports statistics; or my own real life Business experience in the chemicals industry.

As a tutor you have to enjoy and be fascinated by your subject. As an example I will bring my Cambridge recollections of  atomic theory and also DNA structure – which had only recently been discovered in the very laboratories in which I worked – up to date with the latest sub-atomic particle or photosynthesis-generated chemicals discovered on far away-planets. In doing so, realise the same laws of science can be applied from the smallest entity up through hierarchies to ever more complex systems such as humans and the Universe. The benefit of teaching and remaining curious about so many STEM topics at so many levels is that I can pitch the tuition at just the right level to challenge the pupil, yet without losing sight of the syllabus.

For those tutors without much experience of working in schools it is important to take opportunities to learn about the management of education, such as by being a school governor, or taking on a marking or moderating role for a qualification.  And understanding the subtle differences between Exam Boards, and how their marking criteria and grade boundaries work, and between Higher and Foundation.  

 

So in 2025 what do I predict for the next ten years in the world of tutoring?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) . The first wave of on-line Learning Management Systems, language translation Apps and past paper websites especially for Maths is well established and will continue to grow and thrive.

But AI takes us into new possibilities. It works through machine learning with Large Language Models (LLM’s). It is able to provide a reasonable answer to almost any question, including sometimes maths problems, by very quickly synthesising relevant information from its databases to present answers in a neat, summarised form. The answers are increasingly – but not 100% – correct. Much of it is free but sometimes a fee is charged. Personalised Learning platforms which automatically tailor the programme to a student’s responses and needs are emerging. There may even be roles for tutors to orchestrate “compare the market” advice and train pupils to use the best platforms.    

And don’t forget the benefits of AI in helping tutors and teachers alike with creation and update of teaching materials – this is called Generative AI. To create a new slide you can use a mixture of syllabus Specification, old-school search engines and AI summaries (Co Pilot is fine for this). But be very careful with copyright – use your creations internally – but never publish anything externally over and above your own material without credits or permissions. 

Some of a tutors work will be automated or be phased out, but not all; a pupil still has to know what questions to ask of AI, whether to trust the answer, and be motivated to use the internet for uses other than gaming and social media. And if a pupil relies too much on AI to generate answers they will not benefit from thinking through problems and be found out eventually in coursework and especially in exams. Also,  there are well publicised AI downsides around veracity, security and data privacy.

So the weekly face to face routine with a tutor still very much counts.

National framework changes. We are likely to see two changes at national level. The addition of VAT to the Independent Sector fees could mean that some parents may choose a middle way path – leave or don’t start Private Schools, use State Schools instead, but use the money saved to top up their child’s education with a private tutor. Secondly, syllabuses and exam structures are being reviewed and this may lead to changes. Both of these developments may lead to more requests for additional help at least in the short term.

Beyond GCSE’s, A-Levels and Entrance Exams. Those are my core qualifications in Maths, Science and Business/Economics, but some of my work is now in extra-curricular stand-alone qualifications, both at school age and also  lifelong-learning and Continued Professional Development. l. Initially I did none of these below but now I tutor in all of the following “non-core” areas – demand has grown and is likely to grow more;

EPQ’s So Extended Qualification Project are taken by students in the middle holiday of sixth form and involve the research for, project management of, and execution of a 5000 word dissertation on any subject at all – as long as its outside or over and above their A-Levels.  A tutor can offer anything from weekly help to an essay-review before handing in. Personally I have learned so much from students fantastic essays on topics both within and outside my STEM and Business spheres.

Technical. As AI replaces paper-based service jobs and heavy industry winds down, students may want to take specialist Technical qualifications such as Apprenticeships, B-Tech or the new T-Levels.  These are qualifications leading to jobs in hands-on service areas like hospitality or hairdressing, or light industry areas like composite plastic manufacture, or  the newer high-tech and green industries, or Trades such as Electrical, which are never going to disappear especially with the demand for housing. With the expansion of qualifications comes the creation of roles for moderators, markers and quality controllers as well as direct topic teaching, and often Technical Colleges top up with roles with contractors with tutoring experience.

Maths Challenges. Many schools suggest their top sets enter national Maths Challenges (typically organised by the UKMT) at primary, junior, intermediate and senior level, and parents take these seriously enough to ask for some help. The questions require a good understanding of basic maths techniques of course – but two more things are needed, First the ability to work fast and manage the exam, secondly to think out of the box for the end-of-paper problem solving questions. Numerical reasoning is another growth area with many public and private sector roles fitting this into job application interviews.

The above three avenues have proved very successful and are ongoing, but some other non-cores have run their course quickly –  in business you sometimes have to speculate to accumulate.

The organisation of tutoring. Many large tutoring companies have sprung up and we could see a consolidation in the market with smaller ones swallowed up and independent tutors encouraged to come under their wing.  So tutors don’t have to find their own candidates but lose a share of the revenue. More regulation of the sector is possible. We see tutoring “shops” in the high street, or in supermarkets – where parents can leave their children while they do the shopping.

Ten Years After

It’s ten years after the start. I never thought my tutoring would become so diverse and full-time. With offering so many topics I  have not only picked up where I left off at University but have also progressed my Lifelong Learning. Satisfaction comes in two respects – running your own business and adding that bit of value to students’ education.

I often finish my blogs with a song – so here of course you will find the great British Blues Rock Band, Alvin Lee’s Ten Years After. Known as an album band – but this was their hit single on video and Live. .