A Private Tutor Survival Guide to the Summer Holidays

by Jack E. Software Development Company

The school summer holidays are upon is - the kids are off school, and the teachers are sat with their feet up for the next 6 weeks! OK, so at least half of that is a lie but daily life is certainly different for teacher and student for the next month and a half. Whilst having a well-deserved break should be ‘Job 1’ for the mental health, wellbeing and basic happiness of a busy teacher, there are also massive opportunities to be found in the summer weeks.

We all know that every day of teaching is precious, and we also know students will typically fall back a bit over the holidays – the lack of daily study having a detrimental effect on progress in education. This set of circumstances is made even crueller by the fact that many modern school systems will evaluate students on entry into the school or new school year, benchmark them against their peers and establish expectations for the coming year. Set from a lower base capability off the back of a long summer break, this can result in a lowering of expectations and, ultimately, result in outcomes that do not reflect the true capabilities of the student.

Summer School!

Happily, there is a solution and one you are in a perfect position to offer – well-structured summer holiday tuition! I’m not sure who groaned louder at that prospect, the student enjoying the summer sunshine or the teacher who longs for a holiday the other 10 months of the year. There is one group who absolutely didn’t mutter under their breath at the idea though – the parents, and the parents are very likely to be your paying customer as a tutor. Parents want the best for their children of course, and as parents ourselves, Tutorially™ know as well as any other parent how often the ‘I’m bored, what can I do?’ refrain echoes around the living rooms and kitchens of family homes worldwide. Keep the children occupied for an hour and improve their educational outcomes? Awesome. Maybe even keep it light and fun so the kids are motivated rather than crushed in their holiday time? Even better. Make some serious money to fund a holiday whilst making your life easier for the rest of the academic year by improving student progress in education? Feels like we’ve got the whole package doesn’t it?

Get to it

So many extra-curricular activities come to a close for the summer break, so one of the most simple and effective things you can do to maximise tuition income over the holidays is make sure everybody knows you are still available for lessons! You won’t believe how many tutors completely ignore this period of the year, literally leaving money on the table. And somebody will profit from that, it might as well be you!

All the usual means of advertisement remain sensible – flyers in shops, leaflets, business cards and the like, but setting up a website is the most effective means of getting your message out to the world. If you do not currently have a website time may be a little short for getting one off the ground in time for the summer. Good news! Tutorially™ can give you some great short-cuts. Whether you choose to use your tutor profile right off the site or redirect your own custom domain name to it, Tutorially™ has you covered. We can help you with registering domain names and all the other things you’d need to do via our trusted partners, delivering you a polished and professional web presence. By creating a custom tutor profile on an already successful Internet site like ours, you can take advantage of our established position in search – putting you ahead of your tuition competition!

So now you’ve let everyone know your tuition services are available over the summer months, how do you make the sessions as much fun as possible, making the most of your holiday as well as earning some much-needed extra money over the summer months?

Find the Fun

You may very well find that whilst parents love the idea of lessons over the holidays, the students are less excited by the prospect – but there is no rule that says learning can’t be fun! Make sure to take advantage of technology to offer lessons on their terms - Tutorially’s fantastic online lesson capability enables you to teach from anywhere in the world, at whatever time works for everyone. Our online tutoring software is packed with features to make lessons every bit as enjoyable and interactive as face-to-face, and you can reduce travel time as well – maximizing the holidays for everyone!

Our advice would be to concentrate on the elements of study that your students most enjoy – maintain their enthusiasm and take advantage of the fact that they are not currently chasing down the next test score or entrance exam. The goal here is to keep the ball rolling by keeping up the good work you’ve been doing all year and prevented the dreaded summer slip backwards. Make sure to incorporate learning games into the rotation – the sessions will be much more fun for everybody! Try to avoid lengthy tasks and walls of text – the summer temperatures make it much harder for everyone to focus.

With those temperatures in mind, try to schedule lessons in the morning and evening to avoid the worst excesses of summer sun – mid-morning is likely to be popular with students; not so early that sleeping in is disrupted, but early enough in the day that the session is complete and the rest of the day free for enjoying with family and friends. And that goes for you as well as the students! Also, make sure to keep everyone properly hydrated during sessions since keeping everybody comfortable gives you the best chance of positive outcomes.

Thank You!

From everyone here at Tutorially™, thanks for all the fantastic work you’ve done over the academic year. If you choose to fill your summer with profitable tuition work, we’ve got the tools to help you succeed. If you’re planning to enjoy your break and make ready for the coming year, frankly we don’t blame you for that at all either! Enjoy your well-earned break.

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