Can tutoring replace private school? A guide for parents

Can tutoring replace private school? A guide for parents

By Sherpa

If your child's private school is closing, or the fees have simply become too much since VAT came in, you're probably asking whether tutoring could fill the gap. Here's an honest look at the options, what they cost and what the research says. At Sherpa Tutors we’re hearing this question from parents every week, so we’ve put together an honest look at the options, what they cost and what the research says.

Why so many families are asking

This week Leweston School in Dorset announced it was closing, during half term and with no warning to its 577 pupils. It's the latest in a run of closures that has left a lot of parents scrambling.

The numbers behind it are stark. Independent schools have lost around 30,000 pupils since VAT was added to fees in January 2025. The ISC Census 2026 shows 526,611 pupils in January, down 3.5% on the year before, the biggest fall on record. The entry years took the hardest hit: Reception down 5.2%, Year 7 down 5.6% and Year 12 down 6.6%.

VAT isn't the only pressure. Schools have also lost their business-rates relief, faced the rise in employer National Insurance and seen falling birth rates shrink their intakes. One tally puts mainstream closures since the policy came in at 72, and the ISC reports a net loss of over 60 schools in the year to June 2026. It's worth saying that Leweston hasn't given a reason for closing, and the government argues the change will fund 6,500 new state teachers. We're not taking sides on the policy here. We're looking at what families can actually do next.

For context, the average senior day fee is now around £23,400 a year once 20% VAT is added (£6,492 a term before VAT), or about £27,300 in London.

What were you actually paying for?

The short answer to "can tutoring replace private school?" is: it depends what you were buying.

A big chunk of a private fee goes on teacher time. The ISC's own figures show 8.5 pupils per teacher in independent schools, against 18 in state schools. Results reflect that. At A level, 59% of private pupils get A*/A in maths compared with 39% in state schools, and in chemistry it's 53% against 29%. Around 89% of leavers go on to university.

But the fee also pays for a full school day, sport and music on tap, pastoral care, friendships, and a name on the UCAS form. A tutor can give you the first part, often more intensively. They can't give you the rest.

So if your main priority was grades and attention, tutoring is a realistic substitute. If it was boarding, a particular sporting or music pathway, or a child who thrives on the structure of a full school day, it isn't. With that in mind, there are two realistic routes.

Option 1: A state school place, with tutoring on top

For most families this is the sensible route. Your child goes to a state school, which provides the school day, friends, facilities, exams and safeguarding. You then use tutoring to buy back the one thing state schools can't easily offer: more one-to-one adult time.

The research is clear that tutoring works best when it links to what's being taught in class, and when someone keeps an eye on whether it's helping. So the tutor should know the school's scheme of work and your child's latest assessments, rather than running a separate curriculum.

How it might look in practice

1. Give them time to settle. Skip academic tutoring for the first half-term. Use that time to find out what's taught when, which exam boards the school uses and where your child sits in the year group.

2. Find the gaps first. Book one assessment session each for English, maths and science. A good tutor will then write a short plan showing where your child is ahead of the class or has gaps from the move.

3. A steady weekly routine. Two to three hours a week, one-to-one or in a small group with classmates in the same position. Maths and English every week, plus a third slot that changes with need.

4. Stretch, not just catch-up. If your child was being pushed at their old school, the tutoring hour is where the harder material goes: further maths topics, extended writing, an extra language.

5. Step it up for exams. In Years 10–11 and 12–13, move to four to six hours a week from the January before exams, focused on marked past papers. This is the best value use of tutor time.

6. Someone needs to hold the plan. A parent, or a lead tutor, should read the school reports and adjust the hours. Otherwise it tends to drift.

What it costs

GCSE tutoring on the main UK platforms is typically £30–£45 an hour and A level £35–£50. London and the South East run to £45–£70, premium agencies start at £60, and online lessons can be £25–£40. Small groups roughly halve the cost per child.

Three hours a week over 38 weeks at £45 comes to about £5,100 a year. An exam-year programme of six hours a week is about £10,300. Compare that with £23,400 for a private day place.

Where it falls down

Tutoring can't fix a weak school. If your local school has a poor sixth form or doesn't offer the subjects your child needs, you may need to look at moving, a grammar school, a sixth-form college, or Option 2. Getting a place mid-year can also be hard in areas where lots of children went private, such as Kensington and Chelsea (45%) and Richmond (27%).

Sherpa Online Tutors matches families with DBS-checked GCSE and A level tutors for exactly this kind of weekly programme. You can book a trial lesson to see if it's a good fit.

Option 2: Home education, built around tutors

This is the closer match to a private education, but it's a lot harder to run. You take your child out of school altogether and build their week from tutors, online courses and your own time.

Is it legal?

Yes. Under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996, parents must make sure their child gets a suitable, full-time education "at school or otherwise". There's no set curriculum, no requirement to sit exams and no need to follow school hours. If your child is on a school roll, you simply write to the head to remove them.

That's about to tighten up. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 will bring in a compulsory Children Not in School register, with full rollout expected in 2027. If you start now, keep good records from day one.

What a good set-up looks like

Families who make this work tend to have four pieces in place:

1. A backbone course. Full online schools such as King's InterHigh, Cambridge Home School Online and Minerva's Virtual Academy cost £2,750 to £10,950 a year, with live lessons and qualified teachers. Course-only providers such as Wolsey Hall Oxford and Oxford Home Schooling charge £375 to £570 per GCSE subject and leave the pacing to you.

2. Tutoring on top. One-to-one or small-group lessons in the subjects that really need a teacher, usually maths, sciences and essay writing. Think three to five hours a week at KS3, rising to eight to ten in exam years.

3. Someone running the week. Deadlines, exam bookings, letters from the council. The DfE is clear that parents carry the full cost, including exam fees, and the biggest hidden cost is often a parent cutting their working hours.

4. Everything outside lessons. County sport, music lessons, drama, Duke of Edinburgh and home-ed groups for friendships. This is the part families most often skimp on, and most often regret.

Exams

Home-educated children sit GCSEs and A levels as private candidates at a centre that will take them. Most choose IGCSEs because there's no coursework. Expect to pay £200 to £316 per written GCSE and £375 to £523 for combined science, so roughly £1,900 to £4,500 for nine subjects. Entries close in late January or early February for summer exams, and late entry roughly doubles the fee. Centres are scarce outside the South East, so allow for travel.

What it costs

Done properly, with an online school (around £6,000), five hours of tutoring a week (£8,550), exam fees (£1,500) and activities (£2,500), you're looking at about £18,500 a year, before counting a parent's time. A leaner version with a course provider and three hours of tutoring is nearer £10,000.

Where it falls down

There's no ready-made friendship group, no school pastoral team and no sixth-form reference from teachers who know your child. If the parent running it falls ill or changes job, the whole thing can wobble. Universities do accept home-educated applicants, but they want outside evidence such as exam results and a tutor's reference. Honestly, it suits a self-motivated child with a very organised parent, and it doesn't suit a child who needs the routine of a building and a bell.

How the costs compare

State school plus tutoring costs roughly a quarter of a private day place in a normal year, and under half in an exam year. Home education done properly costs about three-quarters, and more in London. These are rough annual figures per child, not quotes.

A few things shift these numbers. Sharing sessions with two classmates roughly halves the tutoring cost. London rates add 30–50%. And home education often means a parent earning less, which for a professional cutting to part-time can be more than the whole budget. None of this covers boarding, which averages £14,980 a term before VAT and has no tutoring equivalent.

Does tutoring actually work?

There's strong evidence that tutoring raises attainment. There's very little evidence on tutoring as a replacement for school, because almost nobody has studied it.

The good news

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) rates one-to-one tuition as one of the best-evidenced things it tracks, worth around five months' extra progress over a year. Small-group tuition of two or three pupils is close behind and better value. In one EEF trial, just 12 hours of small-group tutoring led to three months' extra progress in KS2 maths, with the same gain for children on free school meals. Online tutoring performs about as well as face-to-face.

Most of these studies looked at children who were behind. Children leaving private schools are usually at or ahead of their peers, and while tutoring for stretch hasn't been tested at scale, there's no obvious reason it would work less well. Part of the private-school advantage also comes from family background and support, and that moves with the child to their new school.

The caveats

• Tutoring has been studied alongside school, not instead of it. It works best when linked to classroom teaching. Home education removes that link, and there's simply no research on a child whose whole education is a tutor timetable.

• Friendships and wellbeing matter. The number of home-educated children in England rose to 126,000 in autumn 2025, up from 111,700 a year earlier, with mental health the most common reason given. The new register is partly a response to concerns about children dropping out of view.

• Anyone can call themselves a tutor. There's no licensing or required qualification, and £20 an hour usually buys a student rather than a teacher. With so many families looking at once, good tutors in the South East are already putting their prices up.

• State school places are tight. The government expected 37,000 pupils to move across over several years. The ISC says 30,000 have gone in 18 months. In some boroughs, a good school with a place mid-year is hard to find.

• Home education rests on one adult. Illness, a new job, a new baby or a separation can bring the whole plan down in a way a school would absorb.

• The bigger debate. The independent sector argues that families are now paying twice and children are being disrupted mid-year. The government's answer is that 94% of children were always in state schools, and many of those families already pay for tutoring on top.

Putting it together: tutoring can replace the academic edge of a private school for a child in a good state school, at about a quarter of the cost. It can't replace the school itself, except for a small number of families with an organised parent, a self-motivated child and a budget not far off the fees they were trying to avoid.

So, what should you do?

Tutors can replace what most parents were really paying for, which is teacher attention and stretch. They can't replace the school. If the school itself was the point, the only real substitute is another school. For everyone else, state school plus tutoring is the default, and home education is the exception.

Three questions will usually settle it:

• Is there a decent state school with a place? If yes, go with Option 1. If the only place is at a school you'd never have chosen, sort that out first through appeals, waiting lists or a sixth-form college before spending anything on tutoring.

• What year is your child in? Years 10 to 13 are where tutoring makes the most difference. A child pulled out halfway through Year 11 or Year 13 also needs to stay on the same exam board and specification, and this is the one case where a short spell of home education to get them to the summer may be the least bad option.

• Who's going to run it? If no one can keep on top of reports, tutors and school contact, home education isn't realistic, and Option 1 will need a lead tutor paid to do that job.

If you're a Leweston family, you've been offered places at another school in the same group from 2 November. It may make sense to take that for the rest of this year as a settling period, then decide by Easter which route to take for September. Either option goes better with a planned move than a rushed one.

Practical next steps

• Contact your local authority admissions team about in-year places, and ask about waiting lists at every school within reach, not just the one you're allocated

• Ask the closing school for your child's full records, assessment data and current schemes of work before staff leave

• For Years 10 to 13, check exam boards and specifications, and whether coursework or practicals are already underway

• Get two written tutoring quotes, one from a platform and one from an agency, for three hours a week across maths, English and science

• If home education is on the table, read the DfE's guidance for parents, find exam centres near you and note when the Children Not in School register starts

• Check whether any fees paid in advance can be recovered, and whether the school's insurers or parent body are coordinating claims

If your child's school is closing and you'd like to talk through a tutoring plan for the rest of the year, the Sherpa Online Tutors team can help. We can usually have a weekly programme in place within a week.

Frequently asked questions

Can tutoring replace private school? It can replace the academic advantage (small classes, stretch, exam preparation) for a child in a good state school, at roughly a quarter of the cost. It can't replace the full day, friendships, sport, pastoral care or boarding.

How much does a tutor cost in the UK in 2026? GCSE tutoring is typically £30–£45 an hour and A level £35–£50, with London and the South East at £45–£70 and online lessons from £25. Three hours a week over a school year is about £5,100.

How much is private school with VAT in 2026? The average senior day fee is £6,492 a term before VAT, or about £23,400 a year with VAT. London averages £7,580 a term, about £27,300 a year.

Is home education with tutors legal in the UK? Yes. The law requires a suitable full-time education at school or otherwise, with no set curriculum or exam requirement. A compulsory register is expected from 2027.

How do home-educated children sit GCSEs? As private candidates at a school, college or exam centre, paying £200–£316 per written subject. Most choose IGCSEs, and summer entries close in late January or early February.

Does tutoring actually improve grades? Yes. The EEF puts one-to-one tuition at around five months' extra progress over a year, with small groups close behind and online tutoring about as effective as in person.

Sources

• ISC Census and Annual Report 2026: pupil numbers, fees, staffing, outcomes

• ISC press release, 3 June 2026: 30,000 pupils lost; net loss of 60+ mainstream schools

• Karmactive, 29 October 2026: Leweston School closure; 577 pupils; ILG places from 2 November

• Brit Brief, 27 October 2026: closure tally of 72

• Telegraph via Yahoo News: 77 closures on DfE data; Treasury 37,000 forecast

• Telegraph via Yahoo News (Treasury statement): £1.8bn statement

• EEF response to education recovery package: one-to-one and small-group tuition evidence

• EEF Tutor Trust effectiveness trial: three months’ progress from 12 hours of group tutoring

• The Profs, tutoring cost guide: hourly rates by level and region

• Cognito, home education law 2026: Section 7, deregistration, Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 commencement

• Cognito, homeschooling costs 2026: online school, course provider and private-candidate exam fees

• DfE, Elective home education: autumn term 2025/26: 126,000 children in EHE