Book a first assessment lesson

Booking a first assessment lesson takes one email or one phone call. The hour has a specific job: find out where your child actually drops marks, not which topics they say they dislike. Below is the practical detail: what to gather before we book, the questions the tutor will ask, how the hour is split, and what lands in your inbox afterwards. It applies to maths, English and science for pupils in Years 9 to 11, and to younger pupils from age 7 and students up to 18.

What the first assessment lesson is, and what it is not

An assessment lesson is a normal one-to-one lesson with a diagnostic purpose layered on top. It runs for the same length as any other lesson, either online or at home, with one DBS-checked, qualified tutor and one pupil. It is not a general ability test, and it is not a sales conversation with a worksheet attached.

The tutor arrives with two questions in mind. First, what does this pupil already control reliably, because we build from what works. Second, where does the work break down: is it a gap in knowledge, a misread question, a timing problem, or a method that earns partial marks and then stops? Those four causes need different responses, and a school report rarely separates them.

Most parents who contact us have a version of the same story. The pupil works, attends and revises, and the mock comes back lower than anyone expected. A tutor who only re-teaches content will fix that only by accident. The assessment hour is designed to find the actual fault line.

What to send us before the first lesson

Nothing here takes long to collect. Ten minutes with a school report and a phone should cover it, and the more we have in advance, the more of the lesson we can spend teaching rather than asking.

1. Year group, subject and tier. Tell us the subject, year group, and whether your child sits foundation or higher tier where that applies. A Year 10 pupil on higher tier maths and a Year 11 pupil on foundation tier need different papers, different timing practice and a different conversation about what a secure grade looks like for them.
2. The exam board and specification code. AQA, Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas and WJEC each phrase questions differently. If you can find the specification code (a short number and letter combination on the school's curriculum page or in the front of a revision guide), send it. If you cannot, send the board name and we will work out the rest in the lesson.
3. The most recent mock or school assessment result. A photograph of the paper is ideal, marks visible. The mark itself matters less than the pattern: which questions were left blank, which were attempted and scored two out of five, which ran out of time at the end of the paper.
4. Your child's own description of the problem. Ask them, in their words, what feels hardest. A pupil who says 'I run out of time on the last page' is telling you something different from a pupil who says 'I don't get simultaneous equations', and both are useful.
5. The practical details. For home lessons, the address and anything about parking or a quiet room. For online lessons, a working camera and microphone and a surface to write on. Also tell us about anything that affects the hour: a diagnosed difficulty, a wobble in confidence after a bad mock, a busy household at 6pm.

Send all of that to [email protected] or call +44 117 0451935, and our coordinator will come back to you with available slots. Lesson times and availability are confirmed when you book. You can also write to us at 209 Kings Road.

Why we ask for the exam board and specification code

Two pupils can sit in the same classroom, study the same topic and face genuinely different papers. Board specifications differ in the command words they favour, the way marks are split between assessment objectives, the presence or absence of a formula sheet, and the balance between short and extended answers. Grade boundaries move between boards and between years, so we work from the specification document rather than a generic revision workbook.

The specification is the tutor's map. For GCSE maths it tells us how many papers there are, that one is non-calculator, and how content is weighted between number, algebra, ratio, geometry and probability. For combined science it tells us there are six papers across biology, chemistry and physics, and for triple science three longer ones. For English language it tells us how the reading and writing sections are marked separately. Without that document, a tutor teaches content. With it, a tutor teaches toward the paper in front of the pupil in May.

We also check the school's scheme of work where a parent can share it. If your child's class has not yet covered a topic that appears in the mock, that is a scheduling problem, not a failure, and the tutor should know before the lesson rather than discover it halfway through.

What happens in the hour

The structure below is what most assessment lessons follow across those subjects. The tutor adapts it to the pupil in front of them, and the timings are a guide rather than a rigid timetable.

The first ten minutes: a low-stakes start

No test paper is handed over at the door. The tutor opens with a short conversation and a couple of quick questions pitched below the level the pupil is worried about, so the lesson begins with something they can do. That tells us what a confident answer looks like for this pupil, which makes it easier to spot the moment a method starts to wobble later.

For a Year 11 pupil this might be a two-minute warm-up on rearranging a formula. For a Year 9 pupil starting GCSE content it might be a fractions question they last met in Year 7. Both are diagnostic, and neither feels like an exam.

The middle half hour: working alongside the pupil

This is the substantial part. The tutor selects two or three questions from the pupil's own board style and works them in real time, asking the pupil to talk through the reasoning rather than simply produce an answer. Watching a pupil attempt a question reveals far more than marking a completed one. Does the method survive a twist in the wording? Is the working written down in a way a marker can follow? Is the final answer left without a unit, or rounded too early?

In English, this section usually involves reading a short extract aloud, then working through how an answer is built: what to quote, how much to quote, and how to explain the effect of a word choice rather than just labelling it. In science, it often means a six-mark extended response, where the marks sit in the structure of the answer as much as in the facts. Many pupils know the content and still lose half the marks because the answer is a list where an explanation was wanted.

The last ten minutes: technique and next steps

The tutor finishes with the part of the hour school lessons have least time for. That means command words and what they demand: explain, describe, evaluate, justify, compare. It means looking at a mark scheme line beside the pupil's own sentence, so they can see why one earns a mark and the other does not. It means a word on timing: how many minutes per mark, which question to leave and come back to, what to do in the final five minutes of a real paper.

Before finishing, the tutor agrees two or three specific targets with the pupil, written in language the pupil would use: 'show the substitution step every time before solving' rather than 'improve algebra'.

At home or online: what changes

We run both, and the assessment does the same job either way. At home, the tutor can see the actual workspace, the pile of past papers on the floor, the wall where the timetable could go, and can talk to you at the door for two minutes afterwards. That face-to-face handover is worth something, especially after a first lesson.

Online, the lesson runs on a shared whiteboard with the pupil's camera on their page. Many pupils find it easier to show their working on screen than to hand over a book, and there is no travel time eating into a weekday evening. It does need a reliable connection and a table rather than a sofa, and our online setup page covers the rest.

Some families mix the two: home lessons through the autumn term, online during the weeks around mocks when evenings disappear. That is easy to arrange and does not change the tutor.

Who the tutor will be

Our coordinator matches your child to a subject specialist, not to whoever happens to be free. Every tutor is DBS-checked and qualified, and many are current secondary school teachers who mark for an exam board or have done so recently. That background matters in a specific way: a teacher who has marked Paper 2 knows what a marker sees in thirty seconds, and can teach toward it.

We tell you the tutor's name and subject background before the lesson, and we take account of practical things. A pupil who shuts down with a brisk manner gets a calmer tutor. A pupil who needs pushing gets someone who will push. If the fit is wrong after the first lesson, tell us and we will change it. That is not an awkward conversation for us.

Booking, fees and what we confirm when

The fee for the first assessment lesson is available on request, and we confirm it along with the slot when you book. The same applies to ongoing lesson fees and any block arrangements, so you have the numbers in writing before anything starts.

Availability varies through the year. September and the weeks after November mocks are our busiest periods, and the run-up to the May and June exams fills quickly, so ask early if you already know the subject and year group. There is no long contract to sign for a first lesson. You book one hour, read the summary, and decide.

After the lesson: what parents receive

You get a written summary, not a verbal impression in the doorway. It covers what the tutor assessed, what the pupil did well, the specific gaps found, and the targets agreed with your child. Where we have seen the mock paper, we reference the question numbers so you can look at them yourself.

If you continue, that summary becomes the baseline for regular progress reports to parents. Each report tracks the agreed targets rather than offering vague encouragement, and it tells you what is being worked on next and what you can reasonably do at home between lessons. Our guide to reading a progress report explains how to get the most out of them.

Questions parents ask before a first assessment

Does my child need to revise for it?

No. Revising distorts the picture. We want to see the pupil as they arrive on a normal Tuesday, because that is who sits the exam.

What if my child is anxious about being assessed?

Tell us in advance and the tutor will drop the word assessment entirely. The hour is framed as working through a few questions together. Most pupils relax within ten minutes once they realise nobody is scoring them out of forty.

Can we do a first lesson in a single subject and add another later?

Yes. Many families start with the subject causing the most worry, usually maths or the science they are closest to dropping, then add English once the timetable settles.

What if we do not have the mock paper?

Send what you have: a grade, a teacher comment, a screenshot from the school app. The tutor will build the diagnostic from scratch in the lesson. The paper makes the hour sharper, but its absence does not stop it working.

How do I know which board my child is on?

Check the school website, a recent exercise book, or the front of a revision guide. If none of those helps, ring the school office. It is a thirty-second question for them and a useful one for us.

One hour of diagnosis is usually enough to know whether we can help, what the work would look like, and roughly how much of it there is between now and the exams. If you are near Gloucester Road or over in Redland and want to talk it through before booking, ring +44 117 0451935 and ask for the coordinator. Bring the mock paper if you have it. Bring your child's own words about what feels hard if you do not.