What geography tuition actually pays
Let’s do the maths plainly. The current TheTutorLink rates for geography:
- KS3 / Year 7-9: £25-£35/hr
- GCSE (AQA, Edexcel, OCR): £30-£50/hr
- A-level: £40-£60/hr
- NEA / fieldwork coursework: £45-£65/hr (often as one-off blocks)
After our 5% commission, a tutor charging £45/hr keeps £42.75. Ten hours a week of that is £427.50 weekly — £22,230 a year if you work 52 weeks, more realistically £18,000-£20,000 across 38-42 working weeks (avoiding August and the December break). Doing 15 hours a week at £45 gets you to £640 a week, £24,000-£28,000 across an academic year. That’s alongside a teaching job, a PhD or part-time work — nobody on the platform is doing 40 hours a week.
Who books geography tutors
Three main customer groups. GCSE parents whose pupil is targeting a 7-9 in AQA Paper 2 and getting wobbly on case studies (Typhoon Haiyan, Boscastle, Lagos urban issues, the Lake District tourism case study). A-level pupils prepping for Edexcel Paper 2 or AQA Paper 3 fieldwork-skills questions. NEA panic — the 3,000-4,000 word independent investigation due in spring of Year 13 lands hard, and parents want a coursework specialist for four to six sessions of structured supervision.
The sweet spot for most new tutors is GCSE AQA. Volume’s high, the spec is well-defined, and parents will pay for technique-focused work even when grades are already a 6 chasing a 7.
Where new tutors lose
Most failed first months come down to three things. Vague bios — “experienced and passionate geography teacher” reads identical to fifty other profiles. Be specific: years of teaching at named schools, exam boards taught, marker experience, levels covered, two example student outcomes. Second, unrealistic rates — listing at £60/hr as a fresh PGCE graduate just won’t book. Start at £35-£40 GCSE and raise once you have ten reviews. Third, slow message replies. Parents typically message three or four tutors at once; the one who replies in two hours with specific, useful answers gets the booking, not the one who responds three days later.
Practical setup and the 5%
Sign up, build the profile (qualifications, school history, exam boards, levels, rate, photo, 200-word bio), upload ID and DBS, go live. Most tutors are bookable within 48 hours of submitting verification. We charge tutors 5% on every lesson the platform processes, deducted from payout. Free trial calls aren’t charged either way — they’re a sales tool you control. Payments clear to your bank within 5 working days of each lesson. Cancellation policy you set. Most tutors run a 24-hour cancellation rule.
A £45 GCSE geography hour, ten times a week, every week of the academic year, is roughly £18,000 a year keeping 95%. Same hour-volume on Tutorful at 75% retention nets you £14,200. The maths is simple — over a year that’s nearly £4,000 difference. That’s why tutors come, that’s why we take the model seriously, that’s why we don’t promote the platform with fluff. List, get bookings, get paid.