Online GCSE Tutoring in Forest Gate
One-to-one lessons for Year 10, Year 11 and resit students, £30 per lesson
Online GCSE tutoring in Forest Gate, across every subject we offer. The maths complaint we hear most from E7 families sounds like a contradiction: my child can do every topic in the book, and still loses marks all over the paper.
It is not a contradiction. A large slice of GCSE maths is written so that the question does not tell you which topic it is about, and a student who has only ever practised with the topic named at the top of the worksheet has never rehearsed that first decision.
This page explains how those marks are allocated, why they hurt students who think they are well prepared, and how to practise for them. The first session is free.
What Forest Gate parents ask
- Why homework marks and mock marks differ.
- What problem-solving questions are.
- How much of the paper they carry.
- Whether Higher is harder for this reason.
- How to practise them at home.
How are the marks in GCSE maths divided?
By three assessment objectives, and only one of them is the routine technique most revision concentrates on.
The Department for Education’s subject content and assessment objectives for GCSE mathematics fixes the split for every board. The first objective covers standard techniques. The second covers reasoning, interpreting and communicating. The third covers solving problems.
On Foundation, half the marks go to standard technique and a quarter each to the other two. On Higher, technique drops to two fifths and the other two rise to three tenths each. So a Higher student who is technically excellent but cannot reason through an unfamiliar question has a hard ceiling, however many topics they know.
That is the thing worth understanding at home. Doing more questions of the type already mastered feels productive and moves the grade very little, because it practises the objective the student was already scoring on.
Which topics carry the marks, a separate question, is covered on our Kingsbury page.
Share of marks by objective
| Objective | Foundation | Higher |
|---|---|---|
| Standard techniques | One half | Two fifths |
| Reasoning and communicating | One quarter | Three tenths |
| Solving problems | One quarter | Three tenths |
Department for Education, GCSE mathematics subject content and assessment objectives.
Why do capable students freeze on these questions?
Because the first step, deciding what kind of problem it is, is the step classroom practice usually does for them.
A worksheet titled Pythagoras contains Pythagoras questions. The student reads the first one, applies the method, and repeats. What never happens is the moment of looking at a ladder against a wall and working out that this is a right-angled triangle problem at all.
On the exam paper that moment is the whole question. A problem-solving item might hide a ratio inside an area question, or need a percentage change before a probability can be calculated. Students who freeze are not short of knowledge; they are short of practice at choosing.
The other common failure is stopping too early. Multi-step questions award marks along the way, and a student who writes nothing because they cannot see the end will score zero on a question where writing down the first two facts would have earned something.
Why a correct answer with no working can still lose marks is explained on our Golders Green page.
What the freeze usually hides
- The topic is not named in the question.
- Two topics are combined.
- The context is unfamiliar.
- There is no obvious first step.
- The student fears writing something wrong.
How do you practise problem solving?
With mixed, unlabelled questions and a routine for starting, not with harder versions of the same worksheet.
The most useful change is removing the label. Questions drawn from across the course, in a random order, force the student to decide what each one is about, which is the skill being tested. Past papers do this naturally, which is one reason they work.
The second change is a routine for the first thirty seconds. Write down what the question gives you. Write down what it wants. Ask which topic connects the two. Students who do this consistently stop freezing, because there is always something to write.
The third is talking through the reasoning aloud. In a one-to-one lesson that is where the real teaching happens, because the tutor hears the exact point where the student’s thinking goes off course, rather than seeing only the wrong answer at the end.
Forest Gate students are spread across Forest Gate Community School, St Bonaventure’s, St Angela’s and schools in neighbouring Redbridge, and boards differ between them. Every board follows the same objective split, so the practice transfers.
A routine for any unfamiliar question
What do I know?
Write every given fact down.
What do they want?
Name it before starting.
What connects them?
Which topic links the two.
Take one step
Marks are given along the way.
Check it makes sense
Size, units, sign.
Which GCSE subjects can your child get help with?
Maths is the focus of this page, but every subject below is available.
Maths
Problem solving built into every lesson. See GCSE Maths tutoring.
English Language and Literature
Both papers in each. See GCSE English tutoring.
Combined and Triple Science
Including the maths inside science. See GCSE Science tutoring.
Computer Science
Algorithms and code. See GCSE Computer Science tutoring.
Business Studies
Case studies and calculations. See GCSE Business Studies tutoring.
History, Geography and RS
Where a specialist is available.
Does this apply to maths resits?
Strongly. Many resit students know enough content for grade 4 and are losing it on the unfamiliar questions.
A student who took Foundation and scored a 3 has often been beaten by the reasoning and problem-solving questions, together half of the Foundation paper, rather than by missing topics. Repeating the same content course will not change that; practising the decision will.
Students below grade 4 continue maths after Year 11 under the 16 to 19 condition of funding, resitting the GCSE from a grade 3, or with Functional Skills level 2 available from grade 2 and below.
For resit students
- November and summer series for maths.
- Entry is the college’s decision.
- Mixed practice beats more content.
- Evening lessons fit around college.
See GCSE resit tutoring and the exam dates page.
How does an online lesson run?
On video with a shared whiteboard, so the tutor watches the working happen rather than marking it afterwards.
Free first session
Including an unlabelled question set.
Pattern of lost marks identified
Technique, reasoning or problem solving.
Weekly slot agreed
After school or at weekends.
Mixed practice between lessons
Topic labels removed.
Past papers in the final term
Timed, then reviewed together.
More on the format at how it works. Newham sets out community school term dates for 2026 to 2027; voluntary aided and academy schools in Forest Gate can differ.
What does a GCSE tutor in Forest Gate cost?
£30 for an hour one to one, whichever tier the student is entered for.
Problem solving is the part of maths that benefits most from a second person in the room, because the useful moment is hearing the student reason aloud and catching the wrong turn as it happens.
Typical market rates are in our GCSE tutoring cost guide, and our online versus in-person comparison is candid about where a local centre would suit better.
What £30 covers
- A full one-to-one lesson with a specialist.
- Mixed, unlabelled practice set between lessons.
- Working checked, not just answers.
- No registration fee.
- A new tutor if the match is wrong.
Tell us where the marks are going
A marked mock paper is the most useful thing you can send.
- Year group and subject.
- Tier and exam board.
- Latest mock grade.
- Which questions went wrong, if you know.
- Days and times that suit.
Prefer a conversation? WhatsApp us or use the contact page.
Send an enquiry
Frequently asked questions
What are the problem-solving questions in GCSE maths?
Questions that do not say which method to use. The student has to decide how to start, often combine two topics, and carry the working through several steps without being prompted.
How much of the maths GCSE is problem solving?
Problem solving is one of three assessment objectives. It carries a quarter of the marks on Foundation and three tenths on Higher, with reasoning taking the same again.
My child knows the methods but freezes on wordy questions. Why?
Because recognising which method a question needs is a separate skill from carrying it out. Most classroom practice drills the method with the topic already named, so the recognition step never gets trained.
Can problem solving actually be taught?
Yes, though not as a trick. It improves with mixed practice where the topic is not labelled, and with the habit of writing down what is known before choosing a method.
Does it matter more on Higher tier?
Proportionally, yes. Higher carries fewer marks for routine technique and more for reasoning and problem solving, which is part of why the step up feels steeper than the content alone suggests.
Do you teach subjects other than maths?
Yes: both English GCSEs, the sciences, Computer Science and Business Studies, with humanities subject to availability.
How much is it?
£30 a lesson, one to one, at either tier.
Is there a centre in Forest Gate?
No. All lessons run online, and the registered business address is in Feltham rather than E7.
Book a free GCSE session for your child in Forest Gate
One free one-to-one session with no card details and no obligation. We will set a few unlabelled questions and show you exactly where the marks are leaking.