Areas We Cover
Online GCSE Tutoring in Battersea
One-to-one lessons for Year 10, Year 11 and resit students, £30 per lesson
Online GCSE tutoring in Battersea across every subject we teach. Battersea parents tend to arrive having read a great deal about their school and very little about their own child, so this page starts by separating the two.
Lessons run one-to-one over video at times that fit the household. Nobody travels, which in SW11 removes the least enjoyable part of any weekday afternoon.
The first session is free and it is a genuine lesson. The tutor teaches, finds the gap, and reports back on what they saw.
What Battersea parents ask about
- What the school’s published measures actually mean.
- A good school and a child who is still struggling.
- Maths and Science towards grade 7 and above.
- Triple Science taught by three specialists.
- A capable student who has lost interest.
What do a school’s published measures actually mean?
Two numbers do most of the work in school comparisons, they measure different things, and only one of them says anything about the school itself.
Attainment 8 is the simpler one. It scores how a school’s students did across eight subjects, with maths and English weighted double. High is good, and it is heavily shaped by who walks through the door in Year 7. A school in a comfortable catchment will post a strong Attainment 8 almost regardless of its teaching.
Progress 8 is the interesting one. It compares each student’s results against students nationally who had the same results at the end of primary school, then averages the difference. A score of zero means students did about as well as expected. Positive means the school added something. Negative means it did not.
Which is why the two can point in opposite directions. A school with a high Attainment 8 and a Progress 8 near zero is coasting on its intake. A school with a modest Attainment 8 and a strongly positive Progress 8 is doing a great deal of teaching. If you are judging the school, Progress 8 is the number that answers the question.
And here is the part that matters for a parent rather than a governor. Neither number tells you anything about your child. Both are cohort averages, and an average is silent about any individual inside it. A student can be a full grade adrift inside a school with an excellent Progress 8 and nothing in the published data will show it.
What the two numbers do and do not say
| Attainment 8 | Progress 8 | |
|---|---|---|
| Measures | Results across eight subjects | Results against similar starting points |
| Shaped by intake | Heavily | Much less |
| Good for judging a school | Weakly | Yes |
| Predicts your child | No | No |
| Zero means | Not applicable | About as expected for that intake |
So what does tell you how your child is doing?
A marked script, read properly. It is unglamorous, it is free, and almost nobody asks for it.
A report grade is a summary of a summary. A target grade is a projection made from a Key Stage 2 result several years old. Neither shows you a single thing your child actually did wrong.
The same caution applies to the national picture. Department for Education data for 2024/25 is published by borough, not by school and certainly not by child, so it describes a cohort you happen to live near rather than the one sitting your kitchen table.
A marked mock paper does. Go through it question by question and every lost mark falls into one of a few categories: content that was not known, content that was known but explained in a way the mark scheme could not reward, arithmetic slips inside correct methods, and questions never reached because the clock ran out. Those need completely different responses, and only the first is about revision.
Ask the school for the paper rather than the grade. Most will hand it over or let you see it at a parents evening if you ask directly, and it will tell you more in twenty minutes than a term of reports.
It is also worth knowing that grade boundaries move each year, set by the exam boards under Ofqual after the papers are marked. A mock graded against last year’s boundaries is an estimate wearing a disguise.
Ask the school for these
- The marked mock script, not just the grade.
- Which exam board and tier your child is on.
- What the target grade is calculated from.
- Whether the mock was a full paper or shortened.
- Which topics the department knows the class found hard.
All five are reasonable requests and all five are usually granted if you ask directly.
Which GCSE subjects can your child get help with?
All of them from this one page, with a specialist per subject rather than one tutor across three.
Maths
Higher tier towards grade 7 and above, and Foundation where that is the right route. See GCSE Maths tutoring.
English Language and Literature
Essay structure, comparison questions and the set texts. See GCSE English tutoring.
Combined and Triple Science
Three strands with three specialists, required practicals included. See GCSE Science tutoring.
Computer Science
Programming, algorithms and the written paper. See GCSE Computer Science tutoring.
Business Studies
Case studies, calculations and evaluation answers. See GCSE Business Studies tutoring.
Humanities
History, Geography and Religious Studies, where a specialist has room.
And if a grade 4 is missed?
The subject carries on into sixth form or college, under a national funding rule rather than a school decision.
Under the 16 to 19 maths and English condition of funding, updated in July 2026, a student aged 16 to 19 on a study programme who has not reached grade 4 in maths and English keeps studying that subject. Grade 3 commits them to a GCSE specifically; below that, Functional Skills at level 2 opens up too.
Our Wandsworth page goes through what that means in practice, including who decides whether a student is entered in November.
The two series
- November takes Maths and English Language only.
- Roughly ten weeks from results day, so it suits a near miss.
- Everything else waits for the following summer.
- The provider decides entry timing, not the family.
See GCSE resit tutoring and the exam dates page.
How does an online lesson run?
Video, a shared whiteboard, and a pen and paper at the student’s end. The tutor reads the working rather than the answer.
Send a marked paper
A photograph is fine. Add the exam board and tier if you have them.
Free one-to-one session
A real lesson with no card details, then an honest report.
Match and schedule
A tutor confirmed and a weekly slot agreed around school and clubs.
Weekly lessons against the mark scheme
Timed questions of the type that went wrong, marked as an examiner would.
Feedback with evidence
Which categories of lost mark shrank, and which did not.
The full process is on our how it works page.
What does a GCSE tutor in Battersea cost?
£30 per lesson, one to one. No registration fee, no agency margin, and the same price in SW11 as anywhere else.
How many lessons depends on what the marked paper shows, which is why we will not quote a package before seeing one. Technique problems are often three or four lessons. A missing topic that everything rests on is a term.
Ask us to confirm lesson length so an hourly rate elsewhere can be compared fairly. Our guide to GCSE tutoring costs sets out the market.
What £30 covers
- A full one-to-one lesson with a subject specialist.
- Planning against your child’s exam board and tier.
- Timed practice marked against the real mark scheme.
- Feedback specific enough to act on.
- A tutor change if the match is wrong.
Tell us about your child, not the school
The published measures will not help us. A marked paper will. We reply during the day.
- Year group and subject.
- The marked mock, if you can get hold of it.
- Exam board and tier.
- Current grade and target grade.
- Days and times that work at home.
Prefer to talk? WhatsApp us, or use the contact page.
Send an enquiry
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Attainment 8 and Progress 8?
Attainment 8 is how well a school’s students did across eight subjects. Progress 8 is how much better or worse they did than students who started secondary school with the same results. One measures outcome, the other measures the school’s contribution.
Which one should I look at when judging a school?
Progress 8, if you are judging the school. A school in a wealthy catchment can post a high Attainment 8 while adding very little, and a school with a tougher intake can post a modest one while adding a great deal.
Does either predict how my own child will do?
Neither. Both are averages across a whole cohort, and a Progress 8 score of zero means average progress for that school, not for your child. Nothing published at school level tells you anything reliable about one student.
So what does tell me something about my child?
A marked paper, read question by question. It is the only document that shows where marks are actually going, and it is the one thing schools rarely send home without being asked.
Which GCSE subjects do you cover?
Maths, both English GCSEs, Combined or Triple Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics as separate subjects, Computer Science and Business Studies, with humanities where a specialist has room.
Do you have tutors based in Battersea?
No. Every lesson is online and the business is registered in Feltham. Local schools are named as context only.
What does it cost?
£30 for a one-to-one lesson, with no registration fee and no package to buy in advance.
Can you help a student who is already above their target grade?
Sometimes, and sometimes the honest answer is that they do not need us. A student comfortably ahead of target who is simply anxious usually needs less on their plate rather than more.
Book a free GCSE session for your child in Battersea
One free one-to-one session, no card details and no obligation. Bring a marked paper and you will learn more about your child in an hour than from any league table.