Search

Private Tutoring Costs - The Definitive New Zealand Guide for Primary and Secondary School Students

Updated 13 July 2025

The steady rise in private tutoring across New Zealand springs from a simple tension: class sizes and curriculum demands keep growing while in-school support staff and one-to-one teacher time are stretched ever thinner. 
Parents increasingly notice that even the most committed classroom teachers can’t simultaneously reteach fractions to one child, push another toward NCEA Excellence, and calm the inevitable mid-afternoon melt-down in a room of thirty-plus. 

​What is private tutoring? Why do Kiwis need private school tutors? Isn’t public school teaching good enough?
Private tutoring is any additional lessons or sessions above the baseline standard school curriculum taught in schools. For example, additional after-school sessions, one-on-one tutoring or working on online modules to prepare for upcoming exams are all examples of private tutoring. 
While publicly funded New Zealand schooling has been a fine baseline for many decades, it's become increasingly more difficult for the state to keep up with the rising population, increasing competitiveness in further education and widespread disruption with new technologies changing the education landscape.
Add three lost years of pandemic disruption in 2020/2021/2022 - the result is a historic learning gap that schools struggle to close. This vacuum has created a strong response from the private sector (particularly after-school tuition), from franchised “learning centres” to boutique one-to-one agencies, peer-tutoring start-ups, and purely online self-study platforms. Each promises better grades, greater confidence, or accelerated advancement, yet they differ wildly in quality, price, and how sessions are delivered. 


Why do I want to pay for private tutors? Who should undertake private tutoring?
Private tutoring isn’t for everyone – but it can help your child massively in certain situations: 
  1. Support your child if they're underperforming the class average and want to improve at a certain topic.
  2. Support if they have a cognitive disability or have trouble focusing in the classroom.
  3. Provide support if they are anxious about their grades or academic work.
  4. To enable high-performing students to become even better (particularly if they have large ambitions to go for scholarships or study abroad at Australian or American universities with very high entry barriers). 

What are the main factors I need to consider when looking for a private tutor?
  1. Teacher-to-student ratio. 
  2. Cost.
  3. Content/Curriculum (standard vs additional/new).
  4. The expertise of the tutors. 
  5. Private vs public.
  6. Workload requirement (e.g. how much homework).
  7. Factors like how many children are taught together (i.e. small group vs one-on-one), Private tutors vs groups like Kip McGrath.

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

What are the different types of tutoring models? 
Before looking at individual brands, it helps to classify the dominant delivery models.
  1. One-on-one private tutoring.
This is the traditional gold standard: a tutor sits beside your child (in-person or online via Zoom) and tailors each minute to the learner’s questions, pace, and preferred examples. It’s highly responsive and instantly switches from clarifying today's algebra worksheet to prepping next term's novel study. However, that exclusivity carries a premium price. Independent tutors can charge anywhere from $80 - $120 an hour for senior-secondary science and calculus, although Year 4-6 literacy support can be closer to $50 – $60 due to less complex curriculums. Parents can either work through an intermediary (e.g. MyTuition or Crimson) to get assigned a tutor that has already been vetted or vet the tutors themselves (e.g. validate the tutor’s grade in the course they took, curriculum knowledge, teaching style, consistency, etc.). 
  1. Micro-group tutoring (Usually up to a 5:1 ratio of student to teacher).
Micro-group tutoring aims to balance cost and attention: more students keep fees down, the sessions can feel less intense given multiple voices in the room, and a wider variety of questions can lead to better student learning outcomes. 
While potentially more effective, cheaper and less stressful (on the student) than one-on-one tutoring, micro-group tutoring can be less engaging for students, given they can just "take a backseat" and let other students ask questions/respond (slightly defeating the purpose of additional tutoring sessions). 
Additionally, there are more significant risks that the tutor has to juggle, given the multiple personalities in the room, so individual attention or “hover time” per child drops. Companies such as Kip McGrath and NumberWorks'nWords typically run a 4 or 5 1-ratio of students to teachers. 
  1. Franchised learning centres.
These organisations are typically much larger after-school classrooms and run more rigorous programmes for specific courses (e.g. NCEA level 1 English) using computers, proprietary software, and trained supervisors rather than a “personal tutor” sitting beside every student. 
Children rotate through diagnostic tasks and receive short feedback - progress is tracked centrally, and parents get printed reports. Kumon is a very close example of this - families attend 15-minute sessions twice weekly and complete daily worksheets at home. 
Because these centres are largely mass market aimed at many students, the cost can be a flat monthly fee rather than a per-hour charge and is usually much more effective. 
Deciding which model fits depends on the academic gap you’re trying to close, your child’s temperament (self-paced vs needing constant encouragement), and how much independence you (as a parent) want in the learning process.

​

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

​What are the main large-scale (group) tutoring companies?
  1. Kumon: drill-and-skill mastery at a flat monthly price.
Kumon is the longest-running franchise in New Zealand, with more than fifty centres across New Zealand. Its methodology is famously consistent worldwide: a free diagnostic test places your child several "levels" below, at, or above their year-group (e.g. they benchmark your child against the cohort), and they then complete daily worksheets that increase in micro-increments of difficulty. Parents mark the sheets at home and record times. Students visit the centre once or twice a week for 15-20 minutes, where assistants spot-check techniques and hand out the next stack of booklets. 
Because the focus is on independent repetition, a single instructor can oversee many learners simultaneously, keeping fees predictable. Costs usually sit around $160 per month per subject (c. $40 a week) and cover unlimited worksheets and centre visits, but note you pay per subject. Often, many Kiwis will choose to do multiple subjects that the student wants to get better at (e.g. maths + English). 
Kumon is ideal for students who need foundational fluency as it offers automatic times-tables recall, fast arithmetic, spelling patterns for children who respond well to routine or similar repetitive tasks. It’s less effective for open-ended essay writing or conceptual chemistry (or for students who struggle to concentrate on repetitive tasks). 
One of Kumon's top criticisms is that the high volume of worksheets can feel monotonous and that progress isn’t explicitly tied to the NCEA/NZ Curriculum Achievement Objectives. Still, many teachers report a visible lift in speed and confidence once students master the earlier levels. While Kumon is great for younger students, another criticism is that Kumon is less suited for more advanced courses (e.g. when students enter secondary school onwards) compared to other tutoring companies.
For parents comparing prices, remember the monthly fee hides the true per-hour cost: a conscientious child spending 25 minutes a day on worksheets plus two 15-minute centre visits clocks roughly three hours of practice a week, bringing the real hourly cost down to around $12. 
However, families who struggle to supervise homework may find the at-home component becomes a battle, so factor in your time commitment and the dollar outlay. 
Sources:
  1. Kip McGrath: traditional tutoring structure with diagnostic software and small groups.
Founded by a former school principal, Kip McGrath, it operates more than sixty centres across New Zealand. Every child begins with a free 40-minute assessment covering reading, comprehension, writing, and/or maths. Results generate an individual learning plan that blends computer-based exercises with printed workbook tasks. 
In contrast to Kumon, Kip Mcgrath is more focused and has a higher touch - centres keep a strict 1-teacher-to-5-students cap; each 60-minute session alternates five-minute tutor explanations with independent practice chunks. Because students rotate in sync, the hour feels structured yet personal. The franchisor sets a rough price of $70 per session, although individual centres can adjust slightly. Fees are usually paid weekly; most families commit to one or two subjects (English or maths) once a week for a full term. 
Parents who value teacher qualifications appreciate that the lead tutor in each centre is a registered educator, and every session yields an emailed progress graph that maps tasks completed versus curriculum objectives. 
Compared with Kumon, Kip McGrath’s programme is more directly aligned to NCEA/New Zealand curriculum levels and assessments; writing tasks can include paragraph structuring and NCEA internal practice. However, the group setting means a shy child may hesitate to ask for clarification, and the cost , $70 per hour (versus Kumon's $160 per month LINK) can climb quickly if you add multiple subjects or sessions.
Kip McGrath’s strength lies in structured catch-up or extension where a little explanation goes a long way; it’s not designed for last-minute homework rescue at 8 pm the night before an assignment is due. 
Sources: Pricing - Kip McGrath Education Centres.

  1. NumberWorks’nWords: lively 1:4 micro-groups and confidence-building ethos.
NumberWorks'nWords brands itself as the fun, confidence-boosting middle ground between solo tutoring and large-scale e-learning. Originating in Christchurch in 1984, the chain spans over 70 centres across NZ, Australia, and the UK. 
Classes are strictly limited to four students per tutor, all working on bespoke programs that interleave computer-driven drills, hands-on manipulatives, and rapid-fire white-board explanations. The company does not publish national fees online, but case-study media coverage places the typical cost at c. $50 per one-hour lesson, with families billed by the school term. That rate reflects the lower tutor-to-student ratio compared with Kip McGrath, and centres emphasise a carnival atmosphere of sticker charts, certificates, and prize drawers to keep children motivated. 
NumberWorks’nWords trains senior high-school and university students as tutors, arguing that near-peer mentors are more relatable than adult teachers; a qualified centre manager oversees curriculum fidelity. 
Sessions are fully curriculum-aligned - Level 1 numeracy for a Year 3 child, essay structuring for Year 10, or algebraic proof for NCEA Level 2. Parents receive colour-coded progress graphs and mid-term phone calls. Because each student plugs headphones into a bespoke software bank, even four learners can be working on different strands simultaneously; the tutor floats, delivering targeted two-minute explanations “just in time.” 
Families weighing costs should note that an 11-week term of two subjects (one hour of English + one hour of maths weekly) approaches $1,100, a significant investment. However, many report the anti-boredom vibe keeps kids attending happily long after the initial academic crisis passes. N
umberWorks'nWords especially suit learners who crave social energy and gamified goals rather than silent one-to-one sessions. Parents of children with auditory-processing difficulties or anxiety may prefer a quieter environment. Inspect trial classes carefully: quality can vary between franchisees based on how rigorously they apply the 1:4 rule and tutor-training protocols. 
Source: Would private tutoring help your child - NZ Herald

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

One-on-one tutoring options.
Since 2010, a new wave of university–student-led agencies have disrupted the tutoring market by matching high-achieving tutors with school students for home-based or online sessions. Many of these leverage technology or marketplaces to match high-performing students who otherwise would not have been tutored by students in need. Often, for Year 11-13 students facing high-stakes external exams, these more focused and flexible tutoring companies can provide additional niche support that more developed tutoring companies cannot. 
The hour-for-hour intensity of one-to-one can outstrip group-centre gains, provided your teenager is happy to engage actively rather than hide behind classmates. Parents should insist on a clear learning plan, termly goal-setting, and written progress notes to ensure each $80 translates into measurable improvement rather than a pleasant chat.
  1. MyTuition.
MyTuition began in Auckland and now covers most major centres. Its fee structure is transparent: $75 per one-hour one-to-one lesson, dropping by $10 from the second consecutive hour, or $44 per student for paired lessons. 
A small travel surcharge applies if a tutor must cross suburbs without good public transport. The agency provides lesson-planning templates, police vetting, and continuous professional development, and parents receive lesson summaries via email. 
Source: Pricing - Private Tutoring Rates - MyTuition
  1. Inspiration Education.
Inspiration Education positions itself slightly higher-end with a research-backed “metacognition” framework. Packages start at $82 per 55-minute lesson for a five-lesson block, dropping to $79 per lesson in a 20-lesson “Complete” bundle. Sessions are either in-home or in public libraries, and tutors undergo 25 hours of annual training, unusually rigorous for student tutors. Both agencies claim NCEA Excellence endorsement rates double the national average, but the caveat is self-selection bias: families ready to invest $1,600+ across a year are already highly motivated. 
The boutique model's main selling points are flexibility (select any NCEA, Cambridge, or IB subject), tutor continuity, and the chance to pivot the lesson to next week's internal or scholarship preparation. Because overheads are lower than brick-and-mortar centres, nearly every dollar you pay lands in actual tutor time rather than rent, but this also means reliability rests on individual contractors, illness cancellations can require short-notice reshuffles. 

Source: Packages & Pricing - Inspiration Education
  1. Independent private tutors.
Beyond the branded agencies lie thousands of independent tutors advertising on Facebook groups, university noticeboards, and sites like First Tutors NZ. Hourly rates swing from $40 for a first-year BSc student helping with Year 9 maths to $120 for an experienced ex-teacher specialising in Scholarship Chemistry. 
There is generally a high demand for specialist subjects (particularly international curriculum subjects for things like Cambridge or IB) and a limited supply of subject specialists (due to fewer students who did these exams, excelled, and were available to tutor these subjects). 
Because independent tutors keep 100 % of the fee, they can offer more generous time allocations (e.g., 90-minute sessions) or include free email Q&A between lessons. They also decide their pedagogy: some set weekly homework, others operate as on-call homework lifelines, and a few integrate spaced-repetition software and mock exams. The upside is bespoke support; the downside is no overarching quality control. 
When comparing the cost to a franchise, remember that a $100 two-hour session equates to $50 an hour, similar to micro-group pricing but with total personal attention. However, solo tutors cannot easily provide in-house diagnostic tests or generate fancy progress dashboards, so parents must monitor results via school reports and practice papers. Where an independent tutor truly excels is in niche subjects (e.g., Calculus Scholarship, IB Spanish B HL) or unusual timetabling, Sunday morning lessons for rowers or compressed holiday boot camps before externals that mainstream centres simply do not offer.

​

Heading

Coming soon

Heading

Coming soon

Alternative Tutoring Options

Holistic Extracurricular Tutoring

Example: Crimson Education

Our View: ​Unlike most mass-market tutoring companies, Crimson Education occupies the ultra-premium end of New Zealand's tutoring spectrum. Their services wrap school-subject support, standardised test preparation, extracurricular mentoring and full overseas university admissions strategy into a single, highly bespoke service. 

Everything is delivered online through a dashboard that lets parents track progress while their child meets a strategy lead and a rotation of specialist tutors from a bench of more than 2,400 mentors worldwide. 

Packages are expensive. They start at roughly $30,000 and can climb well past $100,000 over multiple years, reflecting both the depth of coaching and the multi-year scope; despite that price tag, Crimson is explicit that it does not guarantee admission offers. 

Despite the super high price tag, there has been anecdotal evidence that students get high-quality tutoring and holistic coaching, particularly in the context of Ivy League university applications.

Self-Study

Example: For families on a tight budget, or for students who prefer self-paced learning, an expanding universe of online resources bridges many gaps. Whether finding supplementary NCEA course tests/resources online that you can print out at home and work with your child on or asking the teacher for additional resources – tutoring doesn't have to go through a typical company. There are other alternatives. 

Comparing typical costs across each provider: What various tutoring paths cost over a school year
Let’s translate fees into annual totals so you can weigh them against your household budget. Assume 40 teaching weeks a year (four 10-week terms) and that your child attends weekly sessions:
Disclosure: These costs above are estimates only and are purely illustrative to show differences in cost structures between different tutoring methodologies. Also, the above has no potential subsidies: some iwi trusts, community grants, and Pacific education funds reimburse part of tutoring expenditures if the provider supplies progress reports. Speak to your school's dean or representative; they often know of grants or programmes that can stretch your tutoring dollar further.

​We can identify a few facts from the above numbers:
  1. Tutoring is rarely a one-off cost - sustained impact, which usually requires a whole-term commitment and is not a “one and done” type of situation.
  2. Software-based low-human-effort options (like LearnCoach) are far cheaper than one-on-one sessions. The more advanced classes (e.g. Kip McGrath over Kumon) are generally more expensive. 
  3. The real value lies not in dollars per hour but in progress per hour: a focused one-to-one lesson might compress three hours of centre-based worksheet time, while a motivated learner using free online videos could surpass both for the cost of a broadband plan. 
  4. None of these costs factor in any hidden costs associated with tutoring (e.g. petrol to drive to a centre, parking, time off work, or dinner bought on the way home.) Also consider opportunity cost - money spent on tutoring may limit funds for extracurriculars, class trips, sports fees or family holidays, so try to weigh up what other options the additional dollar of tutoring brings to your student’s holistic school experience. ​

Online Software-based education platforms

Example: LearnCoach 

Our View: LearnCoach offers more than 2,500 NCEA video tutorials plus AI-driven quiz support; the paid “Pro” version costs around $11 a week on a full-year plan (about $570 annually).

Content covers 80 English, maths, and the sciences standards, perfectly aligned to NZQA exemplars. StudyTime, Khan Academy and countless YouTube channels supplement these videos with free flashcards and walkthroughs.

Some schools increasingly run lunchtime "Homework Clubs" supervised by teachers, and libraries in Wellington and Christchurch offer free drop-in study sessions for teens. 

The advantage is obvious: Zero or very low cost, on-demand access, and the ability to rewind explanations as many times as needed. The trade-off is accountability - without a live human, procrastination can creep in, and misunderstandings may linger uncorrected. Parents can help with success by scheduling regular “study sprints,” printing NCEA past papers, and reviewing marked answers together. 

For primary-aged children, curriculum workbooks such as ESA Publications cost under $20 a term; paired with the NZ Maths "Figure It Out" PDFs freely available online, you can replicate much of a tutoring programme for the cost of printer ink. Some families adopt a hybrid strategy - a fortnightly private lesson for feedback and motivation, with interim days spent on LearnCoach videos and school-issued homework. Remember that self-study effectiveness hinges on the learner's maturity -Year 13 students should be able to drive their revision. In contrast, a Year 4 child will likely need an adult sitting beside them for 20 minutes.

Further resources: Resources for NCEA Students

Our Checklist for Choosing the Right Tutoring Support for Your Child

Before hiring any tutor, make sure you understand why you're doing so and what you want to achieve. Our checklist helps you do just that:
  1. Clarify the goal. Is the priority foundational fluency (times-tables, phonics), catching up to curriculum level before Year 8, or hitting Merit/Excellence in NCEA externals? Different providers optimise for different outcomes - make sure you understand what you want to achieve.
  2. Test out your child’s learning style. Do they crave social energy or freeze in groups? Are they self-directed enough for daily worksheets without nagging? You can see what works for them in a trial session before you commit further.
  3. Demand data from your tutoring companies. Whether it's a Kumon progress chart or an email from the tutor you hire, insist on measurable fortnightly feedback tied to the NZ curriculum (e.g. for primary school lessons) or NCEA standards. You're paying for top-quality education, and they should have the data to back it up – don't just take anecdotal evidence from your child's interactions.
  4. Cost-per-result, not cost-per-hour. A $100+ expert who lifts an NCEA grade boundary in six weeks may be better value than $30 worksheet sessions that drift all year. Use the annual cost table above to benchmark and see what is likely to work best.
  5. Check credentials and safety. References and a written code of conduct (if you're using an agency) are essential - while most tutoring platforms do proper tutor checks, checking never hurts. For online lessons, ensure the platform records sessions for transparency so your child can re-attend their tutorial on demand.
  6. Review the cancellation policy. Life happens - sports tournaments, illness, family trips. Know whether missed sessions roll over, are refunded, or simply expire.
  7. Start with a defined trial. Four to six weeks is enough to see behavioural change: improved homework completion, fewer tears, and renewed classroom participation. If you see no shift, pivot early.
  8. Integrate school feedback. Email your child’s teacher once a term for insight. Tutoring that ignores classroom schemes risks creating parallel (but unaligned) learning tracks.
  9. Maintain balance. Mental health matters; overscheduling can backfire. Ensure at least two tutor-free afternoons a week and build in play, sport, and rest.
  10. Plan an exit strategy. Tutoring is a scaffold, not a crutch. Set a target, for example reading age within six months of chronological age or merit in mock externals, and taper sessions once achieved so independence thrives.

Must-Know Facts about Private Tutors

Before taking on any tutor, keep these facts in mind:

1. ​Don't automatically default to tutoring to quickly deal with the "problem"
Sometimes, tutoring isn't the right option, and your child just needs your support. Easy wins like ensuring your child is paying attention in class and doing their homework after school can save thousands in tutoring costs. Ensure your child is doing the homework before you pay someone else to help your child do theirs.

2. Tutoring is expensive but invaluable if done right
Tutoring is a big financial commitment, but it can transform their assessment results and lifelong attitudes to learning if chosen wisely and monitored closely. 

3. Tutoring is almost essential if your child wants to study at a competitive university overseas
If your child is looking to move overseas for university or further studies, know it is significantly more competitive overseas than in New Zealand. Doing NCEA with merit and hoping to get into Harvard isn't going to work. The acceptance rates at these schools are extremely low, and it's not just about academics either – it's about the life story, mission, extracurricular, excellence in all areas of life and ambition. Many of these things are not solved by the public schooling system alone – and where companies like Crimson Education can add value (although at a serious cost). 

4. A tutor isn't just for students who are underperforming
When used correctly, a private tutor is a diverse tool – and not just for students to get to baseline relative to peers. Tutoring can build competence in weak subjects, but it can also be great for students who want to excel or do better in subjects they enjoy or want to do more seriously as a career path. Knowing why you are getting a tutor is the more important question.