How we choose your child's tutor

Most enquiries arrive with two facts attached: a subject and a year group. "Year 10, maths, foundation tier" tells us more than a paragraph of description, because it narrows the field to a small group of tutors who know that specification, that tier and that paper structure. The rest of the matching work is quieter. Exam board, topic gaps, the way your child reacts when they get something wrong, and the hour of the week that genuinely works for your family all shape who we put forward.

This page explains how we choose your child's tutor, what our coordinator asks before suggesting anyone, and the details you can bring to that conversation that help the first match land. We are a network of DBS-checked qualified tutors, many of whom still teach in secondary schools, and we run one-to-one lessons at home or online for pupils aged 7 to 18.

The first conversation: what we ask, and why

The coordinator's call is short, and it is not a sales call. We are collecting what a tutor would otherwise spend the first lesson digging out, and doing that work before we shortlist saves a wasted hour for everyone.

Expect us to ask for the school year and the subject or subjects you want covered, the exam board and tier if you know them, the most recent mock or working-at grade, and the specific topics that keep going wrong. We will also ask what the school said at parents' evening, whether home or online suits your child better, and which evenings are realistic rather than aspirational. An answer of "Tuesday or Thursday, after 6pm, and not Friday" is more useful to us than "flexible" because it lets us check a real slot against a real tutor.

Two of those questions do most of the work. The first is tier. Foundation and higher maths are the same qualification but not the same exam, and a pupil sitting foundation papers needs a tutor who can secure the accessible marks rather than one who teaches towards grade 9 content. The second is the exam board. AQA, Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas, WJEC and CCEA each set the same subjects in their own house style, and a tutor fluent in one will still spend weeks adjusting to another.

If you do not know the board, that is fine. Most pupils can find it on the front of a past paper in their bag, and schools publish the exam boards they use on their website. We would rather wait a day for the right answer than guess.

Subject and exam board before postcode

Parents often ask for someone local first, which is a reasonable instinct when a stranger is coming into your home. We still rank subject fit above distance, because a well-matched teacher two miles further away usually gets further in a term than a convenient one translating between specifications.

Why the specification matters more than the textbook

AQA and Edexcel both set three GCSE maths papers, one of them non-calculator, and both split the qualification into foundation and higher tiers. The topic lists look almost identical on paper. The question style does not. One board will bury a straightforward calculation inside a multi-step problem, another will award method marks more generously for a partially correct approach, and the wording that earns full marks in a six-mark explanation question is board-specific.

English is where the gap widens most. Language papers differ in how many questions they ask, how long pupils get on each, and how heavily creative writing is weighted against analysis. Literature papers differ on whether texts are closed book, which poems appear in the anthology, and how comparison is assessed. A tutor who has marked or taught that paper knows where the marks sit in a way that a general English tutor does not.

Science adds a further layer. Combined and separate sciences carry different content and different practical requirements, and a tutor needs to know which of the required practicals the board actually examines in writing.

When distance does matter

Home lessons involve travel, and travel is real time. A tutor based in Redland can comfortably reach a pupil in Bishopston on a weekday evening; the same tutor crossing to Keynsham for a 5pm Tuesday slot is a different proposition, particularly in term time traffic on the A4. We say so plainly when we shortlist, rather than booking a slot that will quietly become a fortnightly cancellation. Online lessons remove the constraint altogether, and for a pupil in a rural part of North Somerset that is often the difference between fortnightly cover and weekly consistency.

How the match is made: five steps

1. Enquiry. You call +44 117 0451935 or email [email protected]. We take the year group, the subjects, the exam board if known, and whether you want lessons at home or online.
2. Specification check. We open the board's current specification for that subject and tier and build a short topic map, usually four or five areas, weighted towards the topics that carry the most marks and match the difficulties you described.
3. Shortlist. The coordinator filters the network by subject specialism, experience with that tier and year group, and availability in your slot. Two or three names normally survive that filter.
4. Written introduction. We send you one tutor's profile with plain reasoning attached: why this person, what we have already told them, and what the first lesson will cover. You are not choosing from a directory.
5. First lessons, then a review. After the first few sessions we compare notes with you and with the pupil. If the fit is wrong, we rematch rather than asking you to persevere.

The step that carries the most weight is the second one. When we know that a Year 11 pupil is losing marks on AQA English Language paper 2 because they run out of time on the comparison question, we are looking for a very specific kind of tutor: someone who teaches timed comparison under exam conditions and can show a pupil how the mark scheme rewards a judgement backed by short quotations.

What we check before a tutor joins the network

Every tutor is DBS-checked and qualified, and many are current secondary teachers who spend their week in a classroom and their evenings with one pupil at a time. Beyond that, we look for evidence they can plan to a specification rather than teach a general syllabus.

In practice that means checking their subject knowledge against the tier they will teach, asking which boards they have taught and marked for, taking references, and testing whether they can describe the difference between a grade 5 and a grade 7 answer in their subject without hesitating. We also check that they keep a short written record after each lesson. Progress reports for parents are only as good as the notes behind them, and a report built from memory in July is worth very little.

Year group and tier change the match

A Year 9 pupil beginning GCSE content needs a tutor who can build fluency and confidence without racing ahead. A Year 10 pupil with a topic gap needs someone who can repair it quickly and then keep pace with the class. A Year 11 pupil in February needs a tutor who can work backwards from the exam timetable and decide what to abandon.

Those are three different jobs, and we staff them differently. The same logic applies across the wider age range: 11+ entrance preparation calls for familiarity with verbal and non-verbal reasoning papers and the timings of local grammar school tests, while A-level tuition calls for a tutor who can handle the jump in mathematical or analytical demand. We do not assume that a strong GCSE tutor is automatically the right person for either.

Working style: the question parents rarely ask

Two tutors can be equally qualified and equally familiar with the specification, and your child will work well with one and not the other. Pace is part of it. Some pupils need a tutor who waits in silence while they think; others drift in silence and need a prompt within a few seconds. Directness is another part: some children respond to being told plainly that an answer is not yet full marks, and some shut down.

We ask about this before matching, and we would rather have an honest description than a flattering one. "He says he understands when he doesn't" is exactly the sort of detail that helps us place the right adult in the room.

Maths: what a strong match looks like

For a pupil hovering around the grade 4 boundary on foundation tier, the priority is marks that are already within reach: arithmetic without a calculator, ratio and proportion, straightforward algebra, and the routine geometry questions that appear every year. The tutor needs patience with repetition and a stock of alternate explanations for fractions or negative numbers, because the first explanation is often the one that failed in class.

For a higher tier pupil targeting grades 7 to 9, the match is different. We look for someone comfortable with algebraic proof, iterative methods, vectors and the longer problem-solving questions, and who will insist on written method because the marks are in the working.

English language and literature

English tuition lives or dies on the marking. A tutor who can read a pupil's paragraph and say precisely why it sits at a grade 5 rather than a 6 is doing something a tutor who simply says "add more analysis" cannot. We look for people who can teach pupils to use the assessment objectives by name, to write about structure as well as language, and to build an argument quickly under timed conditions.

For literature, the practical question is which texts are being studied. A tutor who knows the set 19th-century novel well is worth more than one who has read it once at university, especially with closed book exams where quotations have to be carried in memory.

Science: combined and triple

Science matching is about content breadth and maths fluency. Physics papers reward rearranging equations and handling significant figures; chemistry rewards precision with balanced equations and practical method; biology rewards clear extended answers using the right terminology. A single tutor can cover all three at GCSE, but only if their own subject specialism is strong enough to teach the weaker two properly.

We ask which tier and which route a pupil is on before we shortlist, and we check that the tutor is comfortable with the required practicals as they are examined in writing, not only as lab work.

When the first match isn't right

It happens, and it is not a failure. The usual signals arrive within three or four lessons: the pupil stops preparing, the tutor is doing most of the talking, or the work set between sessions is too easy or too hard to complete. Sometimes the timetable is the problem rather than the person, and a 7pm slot after a long school day was never going to work.

Tell the coordinator early. We will ask what you have noticed, speak to the tutor, and either adjust the plan or arrange a different tutor. A rematch costs you a conversation, not a term.

What we will not do

We will not send a tutor who has not read the specification for that subject, tier and board. We will not promise a grade, a pass or a particular mark, because no tutor controls the paper on the day. We will not put two pupils in one session: every lesson is one-to-one, at home or online. And we will not take on a subject outside a tutor's specialism to fill a slot, however convenient it looks on the calendar.

Questions parents ask about matching

Can we ask for a particular tutor?

Yes. If a friend has recommended someone in the network, tell us at enquiry stage and we will check their availability and subject fit before we shortlist anyone else.

Do you match by school?

Sometimes. A tutor who has taught at your child's school may know the department's schemes of work, which helps, but we treat that as a bonus rather than a criterion. Specification knowledge matters more.

What if my child is quiet or anxious about tutoring?

Say so. We will look for a tutor who is used to drawing out hesitant pupils and who will build the first few sessions around small wins rather than a full diagnostic interrogation.

Can we switch between home and online lessons?

Yes, and many families do. A pupil might work online in a busy exam season and at home when coursework or mocks need closer supervision.

How long does matching take?

It depends on the subject, the year group and how quickly you can talk to us about the detail. Availability in your chosen slot is usually the deciding factor, so ask when you call rather than assuming a wait.

Bring us the year group, the exam board and the topics that keep going wrong, and the matching becomes a short piece of work rather than a long guess. Call +44 117 0451935, email [email protected], or write to us at 209 Kings Road and we will start with a conversation about your child rather than a list of names.