Parent guides

Parent guides to UK tutoring

Plain-English answers to the questions parents ask before booking the first tutor — cost, online vs in-person, timing, choosing well, and knowing when it's working. Generic UK-tutoring advice; not platform-specific.

What's in these guides

A library of plain-English guides covering the most-asked questions before — and after — a first tutoring engagement. They're designed to be read in order if you're new to tutoring, or dipped into individually if you have a specific question.

Resit-specific guidance for GCSE resits and A-level resits sits alongside the general guides.

Where to start

If you're trying to budget, start with How much does a tutor cost? for UK pricing benchmarks by level and subject.

If you're trying to decide whether tutoring is worthwhile at all, Are tutors worth the cost? walks through when tutoring genuinely lifts grades and when it doesn't.

If you're trying to time it right, When to start tutoring covers the year-by-year windows where tutoring helps most.

If you've decided to go ahead and want to do it well, read How to choose a tutor before sending the first message, and Online vs in-person tutoring to decide on format.

Once tutoring has started, How to know if tutoring is working covers the signals to look for after a few sessions.

What's not in these guides

Specific subject content (those are in the subject hubs), specific exam-board guidance (exam boards), or specific levels (levels). The guides here are about the practicalities of arranging tutoring, not the academic content of any particular subject.

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Common questions

  • When should I use these guides? +

    If you're new to tutoring or unsure where to start. The guides cover the questions parents most often ask before booking the first session — what tutoring should cost, online vs in-person, when to start, what to ask in the first message. None require an account or payment to read.

  • Are these specific to Tutorperch? +

    No. The advice is generic UK-tutoring advice that applies regardless of which platform you use. Where Tutorperch's model differs from competitors (the £20 finder's-fee approach), we link to <a href='/compare'>our comparison page</a> rather than weaving it into the advice.

  • How current is this advice? +

    Each guide carries a 'last reviewed' date in its footer. We aim to refresh them at least annually as the UK tutoring market shifts. Pricing benchmarks especially can drift — treat specific numbers as point-in-time rather than gospel.

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Last reviewed: 2026-04-29