HOW TO HIRE · LESSONS & TUTORING · CHECKED OCTOBER 2026
How to hire a maths tutor in the UK
The checks, the questions and the paperwork.
There is no register for maths tutors. Here is the vetting to ask for in your nation, how to judge exam knowledge, and the terms to agree in writing.
- Search and compare — no account needed
- Nearest to you first
- One score from Google, Trustpilot and Locufy reviews
TWO WAYS TO BUY THIS
Which do you need?
A maths tutor, by the hour
One person who teaches at the times you book and works on what you ask — a topic, a paper, a test next week. Right for steady weekly help through GCSE or A level.
A tuition company, for a course
A business that assigns a tutor, sets out a programme and progress reports in writing, and covers absence. Right for an intensive course before an exam or when you want a replacement guaranteed.
What changes between them
A rate per hour against a price for the course; one tutor against whoever the company assigns; your instructions against a written programme; and VAT, as a sole trader's maths tuition is exempt and a company's is standard-rated.
THE 60-SECOND VERSION
Hiring a maths tutor in five steps
- Name the course and the boardGCSE tier, A level, National 5 or Higher, the exam board, and the date of the next paper. A maths tutor plans each one differently.
- Vetting firstBefore maths lessons at your kitchen table or on a shared online whiteboard, see the enhanced DBS, PVG or AccessNI certificate that fits your nation.
- Ask what they have taught, and to whomWhich levels, how many maths students now, and what those students went on to do. Knowing maths is not the same as teaching it.
- Start with one lessonOne maths lesson at your kitchen table or on a shared online whiteboard tells you more than any profile; commit to a half-term block paid in advance only afterwards.
- Agree the terms in writingThe notice to stop a block, what happens to lessons missed for illness, and whether past papers cost extra — in writing before the first payment. A message on Locufy counts.
BEFORE YOU BOOK
Check before you book
No register applies
No licence or register applies to maths tutors in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and no qualification is needed to tutor maths at your kitchen table or on a shared online whiteboard. Subject knowledge, teaching record and vetting are things you ask to see, not entries you can search.
Ask the maths tutor what they hold, where they trained, and for two people they teach now.
Criminal record check for a young learner
In England and Wales, teaching or instructing a child on more than three days in any 30, or once overnight, is regulated activity — so a maths tutor seeing your child for an hour every week through Year 11 should hold an enhanced DBS check with the children's barred list. The definition changed on 1 September 2026: a maths tutor who is supervised is now inside regulated activity too. Scotland uses PVG scheme membership, and mygov.scot names tutors and instructors a parent engages for a child as a role to ask about; in Northern Ireland, a self-employed maths tutor gets an enhanced AccessNI check with the children's barred list through an Umbrella Body.
You cannot apply on a maths tutor's behalf. Ask to see their own certificate and read its issue date — it has no official expiry — or PVG proof in Scotland, or an AccessNI certificate shared from their nidirect account. gov.uk →
Who has a maths tutor actually taught?
QTS appears on the Teaching Regulation Agency's record in England; that service is open to schools and other employers, not to families. A maths degree, Further Maths at A level or QTS all help; what matters most is recent teaching at your child's level and board.
If a maths tutor says they are a teacher, ask where, and which specifications they have taught since last September. gov.uk →
Your rights when paying for a half-term block paid in advance
Paying for a half-term block paid in advance makes it a consumer contract: the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says a maths tutor must use reasonable care and skill. Booked online or agreed at your home, maths lessons carry 14 days to cancel under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013; if you asked for teaching to start inside those 14 days, you pay for what was given. Agree in advance what happens about a block cut short when the tutor's diary filled up before the exams.
Ask for the notice to stop a block, what happens to lessons missed for illness, and whether past papers cost extra in writing, and keep the message, before a half-term block paid in advance changes hands. legislation.gov.uk →
VAT
Maths tuition is exempt when a maths tutor teaches personally as a sole trader or partner, maths being ordinarily taught in schools and universities; a tuition company or its employed tutors are standard-rated. A tutor on their own under the £90,000 registration threshold does not charge VAT and has no VAT number to give; a tuition company over it must charge VAT and show it separately.
Ask whether the invoice comes from the maths tutor or a company: a sole trader is exempt, and a registered company should give its VAT number and show VAT separately. gov.uk →
A good answer: The right one for your nation — enhanced DBS, PVG or AccessNI — with a date, shown before a maths tutor starts.
A good answer: A specific answer — the board, foundation or higher tier, and how many students this year. In Scotland, National 5 and Higher; in Wales, the Welsh specification.
A good answer: A short diagnostic in the first session across number, algebra, geometry and statistics, then a written list of the gaps.
A good answer: A small amount of practice each week, marked at the next lesson, with a note to you every few weeks.
A good answer: Topic by topic first, then full timed papers from your board in the months before the exam — not past papers from the first lesson.
A good answer: Yes; GCSE maths includes a non-calculator paper, and a good maths tutor plans for both.
A good answer: A notice period both ways, written down, and any maths lesson the maths tutor cancels made up or refunded.
Getting the quote right
- Who actually attends the lessons — the maths tutor named, or a stand-in the company sends, employed or subcontracted
- The VAT number if a tuition company is invoicing, with VAT as a line of its own
- Price and length of each maths lesson, stated together
- Booked by the hour instead: the rate per hour, the minimum booking, and the topics agreed before the first lesson
- Anything you must buy for the maths lessons, listed
- What happens to a half-term block paid in advance if you stop early, or the maths tutor does
Walk away if
- No vetting shown, though the maths tutor would see your child for an hour every week through Year 11
- Promised grades: no honest maths tutor guarantees a grade 7 by June
- They teach every child the same worksheet, whatever the board or tier
- No refund rule for a half-term block paid in advance, or one that changes after you pay
What a maths tutor costs: £25–£55 per hour
Maths tutors charge by the hour, often for a term's block of weekly lessons; A level and Further Maths sit above GCSE. Maths Tutor price guide →
Guide prices compiled by the Locufy team from published Irish and UK provider price lists and 2026/27 cost guides. Updated 2026.
KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR? NOW FIND ONE
Maths tutors near you, with the badges that matter shown
ID checked, trader status and one score from every review — on the card, before you message anyone. Nearest first. No account needed to look.
Or post the job free and let them come to you, or book by the hour.
- First session: find the gapsThe tutor tests a spread of topics, not only the one your child is stuck on, and writes down what is secure and what is not.
- A plan for the termTopics in order with the exam date in view: number and algebra foundations before trigonometry and proof.
- Each lesson: teach, practise, checkA worked method, questions your child does alone, and a quick check at the end that it has stuck.
- Practice between lessonsShort, marked homework; mistakes go back into the next lesson rather than being ticked and forgotten.
- Exam run-inTimed papers from the right board and tier, mark schemes explained, and time spent on the questions that lose the most marks.
- Foundation and higher tier
- The two GCSE maths entries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; only the higher tier gives access to the top grades.
- Specification
- The exam board's list of what can be examined; the tutor should teach from yours.
- Non-calculator paper
- A GCSE maths paper sat without a calculator — methods are done by hand.
- National 5 and Higher
- Scotland's SQA courses, taken in place of GCSEs and A levels.
- Further Maths
- A separate qualification beyond the main maths course, most often taken as a second A level.
- Diagnostic
- A short test at the start to find what your child can and cannot do yet.
AFTER
When the job is done
Hiring a maths tutor: questions people ask
No law makes every maths tutor hold one. But teaching a child for an hour every week through Year 11 becomes regulated activity in England and Wales once it passes three days in 30, and a barred person must not do it — so ask for the enhanced DBS check with the children's barred list, PVG membership in Scotland, or an enhanced AccessNI check in Northern Ireland.
There is nothing official to look up for this kind of teaching. Ask what they have taught, at which level and board, and for references from families they teach now.
£25–£55 an hour, with £40 typical and A level and Further Maths at the top. The maths tutor price guide breaks it down; search your town above to see maths tutors who work near you.
Normally no. Maths is taught in schools, so a maths tutor working as a sole trader or partner is exempt; a tuition company or its employed tutors are standard-rated and add VAT once over £90,000.
For most secondary pupils online works well for maths with a shared whiteboard. Younger children often concentrate better with someone at the table.
Usually one hour a week. Closing a grade gap takes a term or more; a few lessons just before the exam help with technique, not with missing topics.
MORE GUIDES
More hiring guides in lessons & tutoring
Maths tutors near you
Sources — checked October 2026
- gov.uk (DBS) — regulated activity with children
- gov.uk — change to the definition of regulated activity with children from 1 September 2026
- mygov.scot — who needs PVG scheme membership (personal employers)
- nidirect — AccessNI checks for the self-employed and personal employees
- gov.uk — check a teacher's record (England)
- gov.uk — Education and vocational training (VAT Notice 701/30)
- gov.uk — statement from the qualification regulators on GCSEs, AS and A levels in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- gov.scot — school leaver attainment in National Qualifications (SQA)
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 49 — reasonable care and skill
- Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 30 — cancellation period
- Citizens Advice — deciding whether to make a small claim (England and Wales)
- Scottish Courts and Tribunals — guide to simple procedure
- nidirect — small claims process (Northern Ireland)
- Education and vocational training (VAT Notice 701/30) — 6.1 The treatment of private tuition
- GOV.UK — VAT rates
- GOV.UK — Register for VAT: when to register