WAJD Learning

Tutoring and teaching practice · Introductory to Level 3, for new and practising private tutors

Professional private tutoring

The business, the safeguarding and the teaching craft of one to one work, taught honestly.

  • 4modules
  • 8.0CPD hours
  • 400guided minutes
  • Freemodule 1

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About this course

Private tutoring in the United Kingdom is unregulated. There is no licence, no required qualification and no register, which means the entire weight of doing it properly falls on the tutor. Most new tutors discover the three hard parts in the wrong order: the tax return they did not know they owed, the safeguarding situation they were not prepared for, and the pupil who nodded through ten lessons and learned almost nothing.

This course covers all three before they happen. It teaches the business of tutoring: registering with HMRC, insurance, contracts, agencies and going independent. It teaches safeguarding as the serious subject it is, including what a Disclosure and Barring Service check actually covers, which check a self employed tutor can and cannot obtain, and exactly what to do if a child discloses harm to you, because in a private lesson there is no designated safeguarding lead standing behind you.

And it teaches the craft: why fluent explanation is the great failure mode of one to one teaching, and what the evidence on retrieval, spacing, worked examples and misconceptions says to do instead. It closes on running the practice itself: diagnostic first lessons, reporting to parents, pricing, and the data protection duties that apply to a one person business holding children's information.

What you will be able to do

  • Set up as a self employed tutor: HMRC registration, records, insurance and contracts
  • Explain what basic and enhanced DBS checks cover and how each is obtained
  • Respond correctly to a safeguarding concern or disclosure as a lone professional
  • Keep professional boundaries in home, online and messaging settings
  • Apply retrieval practice, spacing, worked examples and misconception diagnosis in one to one teaching
  • Run a practice properly: diagnostic first lessons, parent reporting, pricing and data protection

Modules

  1. 1 The UK tutoring landscape and setting up properly 100 min study · 4 min script · 7 question knowledge check
  2. 2 Safeguarding, vetting and professional boundaries 100 min study · 5 min script · 7 question knowledge check
  3. 3 Teaching that works when it is one to one 100 min study · 4 min script · 7 question knowledge check
  4. 4 Running the practice: first lessons, parents, pricing and data 100 min study · 5 min script · 7 question knowledge check

Assessment and certificate

Knowledge check after each module and a final assessment at 80 per cent, with unlimited attempts.

A free digital certificate of completion showing 8 CPD hours with a verification code that any parent, school or agency can check, plus an entry on your CPD record. Be clear about what it is: tutoring is unregulated, so no certificate from anybody is a licence to practise, and this one does not claim to be a regulated teaching qualification. It evidences that you have studied the professional practice of tutoring and passed an assessment on it. A criminal record check is a separate process that no website can perform, and the safeguarding module explains exactly how to obtain one.

Questions

Is this a teaching qualification?

No, and nobody can sell you one for private tutoring, because tutoring in the United Kingdom is unregulated: there is no licence and no required qualification. This is a certificate of completion evidencing that you have studied the business, safeguarding and teaching practice of tutoring and passed an assessment on it. Parents and agencies value that evidence precisely because the market is unregulated, but it is not, and does not claim to be, a regulated qualification.

Can you DBS check me?

No website can, and you should walk away from any that claims to. You can apply for a basic DBS check on yourself, which shows unspent convictions. An enhanced check, the one schools use, cannot be requested by a self employed person on themselves: it has to be requested through an organisation such as a tutoring agency or an umbrella body. The safeguarding module covers the routes, the Update Service, and what each level of check does and does not tell a parent.

Do I need to tell HMRC about tutoring income?

Once your total trading income passes the trading allowance of one thousand pounds in a tax year, yes: you register for Self Assessment and declare it. Below that figure the allowance covers you. The deadline to register is 5 October after the end of the tax year in which you started, and the course covers what records to keep so the return takes an evening rather than a fortnight.

How much do private tutors charge?

Typical published rates in the United Kingdom run from about twenty pounds an hour for GCSE level work outside London to sixty pounds or more for specialist exam preparation and London rates. Where you sit in that range depends on subject, level, location and evidence of results. The pricing section covers how to set a rate you can defend and why underpricing hurts more than it helps.