Lots! In a nutshell, the Study Central portal provides a place where you can safely tutor students in either English or maths (or both) using materials which have been created and improved over more than twenty years and more recently re-created to work in an online tutoring space.

In more detail, the Study Central portal itself is a tutoring platform which has been created specifically to provide an infrastructure within which you (a tutor) can set up and run an online tutoring business. Your subscription provides access to you and your tutees (or their parents) to a bespoke learning platform which itself has been developed for online learning, first and foremost. You also get teaching materials in maths and English, suitable for learners from about the age of 5 to 15. With these materials come additional, interactive resources and extensive teaching guidelines (lesson plans) which help you deliver the most effective online learning experience possible.

We also help you to set up and run an effective tutoring business, through our partnership with The Tutors' Association. As a Study Central subscriber, you get discounted membership - find out more here: 

https://thetutorsassociation.org.uk/membership/why-join/

As a subscriber, you will also be listed on our tutor's directory, where you can showcase your skills and attract more customers.

Our aim at Study Central is to help you, as a tutor, provide high quality and effective tutoring to the next generation, with the human touch!

Taxes and fees! If we take payment from a parent then we have to include VAT (at 20%) in the charge. The bank then charges us to take the payment and pass it to you. Let's look at an example:

Anya signs up for an hour of tutoring which costs £48. She pays it to us. We have to take off VAT and pass it to the government, so that leaves £40. Most of that can then be passed to you (Anya's tutor) but we still have to take off bank processing fees and make a charge to cover our other costs. However, if you charge Anya direct (read more here on how to do that) then you get the vast majority of the £48, as it's highly unlikely that you will be VAT registered yourself.

Fundamentally, we charge per student, but to keep things simple, we group students into 'packs'. The more students you have, the cheaper it gets per student. The Standard Pack is our starting point, which gives you access for up to 10 students in one subject (maths or English) for a month. Once you have more than 10 students, you will be asked to add a Booster Pack, where you can choose to add another 5 or 10 students (10 students is cheaper per student).  

All packs automatically renew monthly unless cancelled. We do offer discounts, when you take the second subject, for example. 

Importantly, there are NO HIDDEN EXTRAS. Because we don't process parent's payments for you, we don't have to add processing fees or service charges/admin fees. It's these fees that often significantly increase what other platforms might charge for their service. Although you might think that having a platform manage the money for you is a good thing, it's expensive when compared to doing it yourself and we promise that it's easy to do yourself! If you've not done already, we recommend that you join The Tutors' Association, as they have all the information and tools you need to operate a profitable and ethical tutoring service. And, as a Study Central subscriber, you get a discount on your annual subscription for them!

Your earnings are dependent on many factors including the number of students you have enrolled, how many lessons you run and the fees you charge.

It’s possible to cover your Study Central subscription cost and make a profit from tutoring with a very small number of students. Take a look at our guidance on how much you can earn.

None from us! Your subscription gets you access to all the key elements you need: materials, a teaching platform, management tools and an increased online presence. 

Running a business does have other costs though, consider:

Promotion.
You will probably want to advertise to get more customers. However, this can be cheap or even free: join local Facebook groups and network in your community.

Equipment.
A student will find it hard to engage if your internet keeps freezing and your laptop takes ages to respond. Make sure you have reliable internet and a reasonably up-to-date device to use - we recommend nothing smaller than a laptop to make the most of the teaching tools.

Tax.
As you might expect, nothing is tax free!

Time.
Aside from tutoring time, you will need to do admin and marketing. However, you can pat yourself on the back as a Study Central subscriber, as we save you LOADS of time! You won't need to find suitable materials, spend ages chasing parents, or plan lessons. We do that for you. PLUS, as our materials are designed to work with small groups, you can maximise your income per hour by having 3 or 4 students work together.

You must only use a student login for the registered student. We anticipate that most students will receive one tutoring session per week. We accept that you might offer more frequent sessions, especially if you are helping a student prepare for an exam. You must not allow extra people to 'sit in' on sessions.

You must not try and record any tutoring you provide through our platform. You must not take screenshots (other than as part of the system) or try and grab content from the screen. All materials provided as part of the tutoring materials subscription is only to be used within the platform and by users with an active subscription.

We may restrict your account if we suspect you are abusing this system and you will have to contact us to clarify your situation so you can resume teaching online.

Our materials have been written to support the National Curriculum for England and Wales. We do not guarantee that we cover absolutely everything, as approaches will vary from area to area, and from school to school. If you want to prepare for SATS or GCSEs, you may wish to add some practice paper questions through the additional materials upload option.

Our materials have been written to support the Curriculum for Excellence. We do not guarantee that we cover absolutely everything, as approaches will vary from area to area, and from school to school. If you want to prepare for exams such as National 4 or National 5, you may wish to add some practice paper questions through the additional materials upload option.

Our materials were initially written to support the National Curriculum for England and Wales. However, as this is a broad curriculum, this will usually mean that all main topics are covered, regardless of the curriculum you want to support. You are also able to add materials (such as practice questions for exams) using the additional materials upload option.

Our subscription service runs on a month-by-month basis. If you want to take a break then that's no problem - simply cancel your subscription once you have taught your last session. If you want to come back later (such as after the summer break) then you can pay a small monthly fee to keep your students, sessions taught, materials uploaded and feedback records (basically everything) in our system. When you then re-start your subscription, everything will still be there for you to pick up where you left off.

If you choose not to pay, then all your data will be deleted after 14 days and you will have to register again to re-start later.

We welcome feedback on both our tutoring portal and the teaching materials themselves. Simply click on the Help button within your Study Central portal and choose the contact option that works for you.

No - our recommendation is that you set up small group tutoring sessions. Our materials have been developed specifically with this in mind and our teaching guidelines will often contain suggestions for group activities, to encourage engagement within your learning group. You can offer 1-2-1 if that is your preference - but we believe that small group learning is more effective - and certainly more profitable!