School-Holiday Tutoring Programs: Should Your Company Run Them?
Should a tutoring company run school-holiday programs?
Yes, if the profit maths works and you can fill the room. I think holiday tutoring programs are a really good thing to run, especially for students in their final years of high school, and at EquateIt we made a profit after paying tutors. But most students don’t need tutoring over the holidays, so the decision is made family by family, not because the calendar says it is break time.
Contents
- Who are holiday programs for?
- What should your holiday operation look like?
- Who runs the program?
- How do you work out if a holiday program will make a profit?
- How do you fill a holiday program?
- How do you run one in ClassQuill?
Who are holiday programs for?
The final high-school years are where I would start. Start before the school year does, so students can catch up. In Victoria, for example, the summer break runs from Monday 21 December 2026 to Wednesday 27 January 2027, according to the Victorian Government term dates page. Other states publish their own dates, so check the education department page for each state you operate in before you pick weeks.
A holiday program also doesn’t have to be academic. Robotics and coding are two examples of programs that suit the holidays.
What should your holiday operation look like?
Be honest about demand first. Most students do not need tutoring over the holidays, so don’t build the operation around the idea that they do. Talk to each family about what they actually want, then decide what your holiday operation looks like: which weeks you run, which students it is for, and which programs you offer. Some companies will run a full program and some will run a handful of extra sessions for current students. Either can be the right answer, and you only find out by asking the families.
Who runs the program?
Your tutors decide what you can offer. If your tutors are, for example, engineering students, they can create the robotics or coding programs themselves. You are not limited to the subjects on your regular timetable.
Holiday availability is something to settle before the holidays arrive. When you hire a tutor, set the expectation about holiday work then, not in the week you need the hours. How much you can ask depends on how you engage tutors, so read tutor contractor versus employee in Australia first, and see where to recruit tutors if your pool is too thin to run a program.
How do you work out if a holiday program will make a profit?
Work it out before you advertise, using your own numbers. I have not put figures here because yours will be different. The method is the same for every company:
- Tutor pay. Tutor pay is usually a set percentage of revenue, so take that out of the price first.
- Customer acquisition cost. What you spend, in advertising and time, to win each student.
- Fixed costs. Accountants, insurance and the other costs you carry whether or not a program runs.
- What you need to make in a year. Your target is the number the program has to help you reach.
- Students needed. Divide through to find how many students you need before the program makes a profit.
Students needed to turn a profit = (fixed costs you assign to the program + what you spend to win the students) ÷ (price per student minus tutor pay per student)
Then track average student lifetime: how long a student stays with you. It tells you what a student is worth to you over time, which matters when you decide how much to spend winning one. For the price side, see how to price tutoring services.
How do you fill a holiday program?
I would advertise, and I think paid ads are probably the best way to fill a program. Run the profit maths first so you know what you can afford to spend per student, then check that the spend sits inside it. For other ways to find families, see how to get tutoring clients.
How do you run one in ClassQuill?
Treat a holiday program as an ordinary classroom with a start and end date. In ClassQuill you can set up a group or classroom, schedule the sessions and add the students, so you don’t need a separate tool. Send each family an invoice before the first day, with the dates and your cancellation terms, so a half-empty room is not your problem alone. For the pricing logic behind that, see charging by the term.
A holiday program is worth running when you have done the profit maths and talked to the families first, not when the school calendar goes quiet.
