In this post, I’ll run through some tips for finding and running primary school grinds. It can be a great passive income and experience to work with different children too.

To be honest, I didn’t think that Primary School grinds were as common in Ireland as they are. But perhaps with the impact of Covid-19, there’s been a rise in interest by parents in extra support with at home tuition.

I’ve linked some activities that I use for hands-on activities in grind/tuition sessions. Any links to Mrs Mactivity are affiliate links- use code Rebecca to get 10% off the Mrs Mactivity website subscription.

How do you find Primary School grinds?

1. Word of mouth
2. Schooldays.ie
3. Gumtree
4. Advertising in your local Facebook group

Usually, once you start giving grinds to one family, word gets out and if there are neighbours, friends, colleagues interested, your number could get passed around.

How much do you charge for Primary School grinds?

Ah. A topic of great debate generally, that ranges vastly depending on the person you’re talking to.

Of course, family friends and close neighbours may be different, but I charge 30-35 euro per hour. The increased rate would be for families that are further away to travel to.

Remember it’s not just the hour of the actual grind that’s out of your time. It includes:

• Travel time to and from the house.
• Planning and preparation.
• Discussion before/after with the parents.

*If giving grinds via Zoom, you may want to reduce the price accordingly, however don’t undersell yourself either. You still have the planning and preparation to do too.

How do plan for Primary School Grinds?

Just like a normal class lesson. Take into account the children’s abilities, needs, likes, dislikes, interests etc and plan accordingly.

Prior to the session, have a conversation with the parents and find out what they’d like to get out of the grinds.

• Reading fluency/comprehension
• Spelling
• Maths Skills
• Mental Maths
• Gaeilge
• Social Skills
• Fine Motor
• Phonics
• Oral Language

You know the aspects that you can cover yourself, so once you’ve nailed down what the aims are, you can begin to plan appropriately.

If seeking ready made resources to dip in and out of, this site is my go to for practical, hands-on resources to keep engagement and purposeful learning at the forefront.

How do you structure Primary School Grinds?

Quick, purposeful, fun tasks.

Remember, just like you, the child will be coming from a day in school and will likely be tired and have less concentration. With that in mind, I tend to keep the sessions light and fun to keep them interested, while getting the content covered.

This is a ROUGH structure of a primary school grind session I do with a 5th Class boy for Gaeilge.

1. Comhrá- greetings,  how was your day, how’s the weather etc
2. Mind map- I’ll introduce the topic for the day and create a mind map together to access his prior knowledge of vocabulary on the topic.
3. Gain interest- I’ll ask him to add words/phrases he’d like to know/needs to know based on this topic by the end of the session.
4. Story- together we’ll read a short paragraph based on the topic, discussing new vocabulary/phrases and adding them to our mind map in a different colour.
5. Bingo- a quick game of bingo with the new phrases and vocabulary.
6. Grammar- we’ll go through some verbs or other grammar points, relevant to the story.
7. Grammar examples and practice.
8. Comic strip using new topic vocabulary and phrases.
9. Play a game to revise what’s learned today.
10. End by asking what topic he’d like to cover next week.

Do I print of reems and reems of resources and spend hours laminating? no

Do I spend hours planning and preparing for grinds sessions? no.

I try to keep to a similar structure with each session and keep it interesting by changing the game, topic or follow their interests.

My advice is to make use of the resources already available to you. For example:

• Folens Online/CJ Fallon Online (enormous amount of interactive resources there). Bring your laptop and use the material.
• Bring a whiteboard, marker, dice etc from school.
• Draw some of the pictures, grids, tables together.

A successful grind doesn’t equal lots of filled in worksheets, much like a day in school.

Face-to-face or Zoom?

Entirely your call.

Personally I prefer to give grinds via Zoom as it suits the students I teach and it’s more efficient, time-wise.

Giving grinds via Zoom is not suited to all students so it may depend on the children you have.

If giving grinds over Zoom, be sure to have an adult nearby (on the child’s end)- child protection.

What are the tax implications?

Another very common question asked around the topic of giving grinds.

If you are applying for a mortgage, it will be seen on your bank statements that you have another income that hasn’t been declared.

It will be questioned by the bank if applying for a mortgage and could cause issues with your application, so be aware of that.

Is it worth it then?

That’s up to you to decide.

Could you raise the price a bit per hour (if appropriate)?

For more information, see this explained by Revenue here.

Other things to be aware of (even if they seem obvious)

• Keep track of payment- 1 or 2 missed payments can seem like nothing, but if you lose track, you could be losing out on your earned money by letting payments slip without realising. Keep a track of the grinds completed on your phone or in your diary and tick off when you have received payments.

 

• Decide prior to starting when payment will be received and try to keep it consistent (to help with the point above). Weekly, Monthly, whatever works. But know when to expect the income.

 

• Don’t take on too much. I have done this and regretted it hugely. It seems doable, especially when you think of the income you could receive. But doing a grind or two too many can push you to your limits mentally. Start off small and build up to it, if you think you are able too.

I hope that’s been helpful. Feel free to ask any questions on my instagram post linked below.