Online GCSE Tutoring in Hampstead
One-to-one lessons for Year 10, Year 11 and resit students, £30 per lesson
Online GCSE tutoring in Hampstead across every subject we teach. In NW3 a tutor is often the first thing tried rather than the last, and money is rarely the constraint. That makes it worth being clear about the problems tutoring genuinely solves and the ones it does not touch, because the second list is where families lose a year.
This page is the argument against buying our own service in four specific situations. We would rather set them out than have the conversation in March.
The first session is free and it is a real lesson. If one of the four applies, the tutor will tell you inside the hour.
What Hampstead parents ask
- Whether more tutoring is the answer.
- What to do when a tutor is not working.
- Whether a target grade is realistic.
- How fast grades can actually move.
- When to stop paying for it.
The four things a tutor cannot solve
Each one has a real answer. None of the answers is a weekly lesson, and buying one anyway delays the thing that would work.
The first is attendance. A student missing a substantial share of a subject cannot be kept level by an hour a week, because the class is moving faster than the hour can cover. That needs the school, and it usually needs the reason for the absence rather than the absence itself.
The second is a student who does nothing between lessons. Most of the learning happens in the six days, not the one hour, and a lesson followed by no practice is a demonstration rather than teaching. This is the most common of the four and the one families most often respond to by adding a second lesson.
The third is an undiagnosed need. A student who has never been assessed, and who has been struggling in a specific and consistent way for years, may need an assessment rather than more teaching of the same thing. Tutoring on top of an unidentified difficulty is expensive and slow.
The fourth is an unreachable target. Grades move roughly a step per sustained term of good work. A student at grade 3 in January is not reaching grade 7 in May, and a tutor who agrees to that plan has agreed to fail at it.
What each one actually needs
| The problem | What helps |
|---|---|
| Not attending | The school, and the reason |
| Nothing done between lessons | A smaller ask that happens |
| Undiagnosed need | An assessment, first |
| Unreachable target | A reachable one |
| A genuine topic gap | This is the tutoring case |
How fast can a grade actually move?
About one step per sustained term, which is slower than the marketing and faster than despair suggests.
A grade is an average across a whole subject, so moving it means enough separate gaps closing that the total shifts. That is why a specific topic can be fixed in a fortnight while the grade takes a term: the fortnight closed one gap out of the many the grade averages.
The Education Endowment Foundation puts one-to-one tuition at around four months of additional progress, on the conditions that sessions are short, frequent, sustained and connected to what the school is teaching. Four months of additional progress is a real effect and it is not a transformation, and any provider quoting the figure without the conditions is quoting half of it.
Two grades in a year happens, particularly from a low base where the gaps are large and obvious. Three is rare. The honest framing is that tutoring buys a step, sometimes two, in exchange for a term of consistent work at both ends.
The corollary is that starting matters more than intensity. A student who starts in October at one lesson a week is in a much better position than one who starts in March at three.
What a term of good work buys
- One grade, usually.
- Two from a low base, sometimes.
- A specific topic, in a fortnight.
- Nothing at all, if none of it is practised.
- Less in March than the same money in October.
And at the top end?
A different question, and one where the honest answer is more often no than families in this postcode expect.
A student predicted grade 7 who wants a 9 is not solving a gap. They usually know the content and are losing marks on the hardest questions, on precision, or on time. That is a real thing to work on and it is a narrow one, closer to five sessions than to a year of weekly lessons.
It is also worth asking what the 9 is for. Sixth forms set entry requirements that a 7 usually clears comfortably, and universities look at A-levels. Where a 9 genuinely matters, and occasionally it does, the work is targeted practice on the top band rather than more coverage.
The risk at this end is buying tutoring as insurance. A student already on course, taking a weekly lesson through Year 11 because it feels prudent, is spending a lot for a small effect and occupying an evening that might be better spent doing past papers alone.
Our Chiswick page goes further into what tutoring at the top end actually changes.
Worth asking before booking
- What specifically is being lost, and on which questions?
- Would five sessions do it rather than thirty?
- Does the destination actually require the higher grade?
- Is the student already doing past papers?
- What would we stop doing to make room for this?
Which GCSE subjects can your child get help with?
These subjects, and an honest answer about which of them actually needs paying for.
Maths
The subject where gaps are most identifiable and most fixable. See GCSE Maths tutoring.
English Language and Literature
Where the top band is technique rather than content. See GCSE English tutoring.
Combined and Triple Science
Three strands, three specialists. See GCSE Science tutoring.
Computer Science
Programming and the written papers. See GCSE Computer Science tutoring.
Business Studies
Evaluation marks, where a grade 7 becomes a 9. See GCSE Business Studies tutoring.
Humanities
History, Geography and Religious Studies, when a specialist has room.
Does the same honesty apply to resits?
It has to, because the timeline is short enough that an unrealistic plan wastes the whole entry.
A student sitting on grade 2 in August is unlikely to reach grade 4 by November, and saying so in September is kinder than discovering it in the hall. The summer series is often the honest target, and aiming at it properly beats aiming at November badly.
Anyone finishing Year 11 below grade 4 keeps the subject under the 16 to 19 maths and English condition of funding, updated in July 2026. At grade 3 that means a GCSE, and at grade 2 or below Functional Skills level 2, which for some students is the better route rather than the lesser one.
A student three marks short in August is the opposite case, and for them ten weeks is plenty.
Which target is real
- Grade 3, near the boundary: November is realistic.
- Grade 3, well below: summer is the honest target.
- Grade 2 or below: consider Functional Skills level 2.
- The centre decides the entry either way.
See GCSE resit tutoring and our South Harrow page.
How does an online lesson run?
A video call and a shared whiteboard, with the student writing rather than watching.
Say what you want to change
And by when, specifically.
Free one-to-one session
A real lesson, no card details taken.
An honest read on whether it is reachable
Including when it is not.
Weekly lessons if it is
Tied to what the school is teaching.
Reviewed at six weeks
Against marked work, not impressions.
The full process is on how it works. Camden publishes its term dates, and academies and independent schools set their own, which vary widely here.
What does a GCSE tutor in Hampstead cost?
£30 for a one-to-one lesson, and an honest view on whether to buy any at all.
The price is the same whichever subject and whichever grade the student is starting from, and there is no premium for a stronger student.
A price without a duration attached is not really a price. Our guide to GCSE tutoring costs explains the range, which is wider than it has any business being.
What £30 covers
- A full one-to-one lesson with a subject specialist.
- A realistic view of what a term can move.
- A recommendation to stop when that is right.
- Work tied to what the school is teaching now.
- A tutor change if the match is wrong.
Tell us what you want to be different
And by when. That is the question the free session answers. We reply during the day.
- Year group and subject.
- Current grade and target grade.
- When the target needs to be reached.
- What has already been tried.
- Days and times that work at home.
Prefer to talk it through? WhatsApp us, or use the contact page.
Send an enquiry
Frequently asked questions
What can tutoring not fix?
Four things reliably: a student who is not attending, a student who will not do anything between lessons, an undiagnosed need that has never been assessed, and a target grade that was never reachable in the time available.
Will more lessons help if one is not working?
Rarely. If a weekly lesson is producing nothing, three weekly lessons usually produce nothing three times over. Something other than the quantity needs to change first.
Is there a point where you would tell us to stop?
Yes, and we would rather say it than keep taking the booking. Six weeks of honest measurement with no movement, after the plan has already been changed once, is that point.
Can a tutor make a student want it?
Not directly, and anyone claiming otherwise is selling something. What sometimes works is a topic going from impossible to manageable, because that experience motivates in a way that being told to work never does.
What about a grade 4 to a grade 9 in a term?
That is not a tutoring problem, it is an arithmetic one. Grades move roughly one step per sustained term of good work. Two steps happens. Five does not, and promising it would be dishonest.
Which GCSE subjects do you cover?
Maths, the two English GCSEs, science either way, Computer Science and Business Studies, and humanities where we can staff it.
What does it cost?
£30 a lesson, one to one, and we will tell you when it is not worth spending.
Do you have a tuition centre in Hampstead?
No, and we would say so even if it cost us the booking. Online only, registered in Feltham.
Book a free GCSE session for your child in Hampstead
One free one-to-one session, no card details and no obligation. If one of the four problems on this page is the real one, you will leave the hour knowing which, and knowing that a tutor is not the answer to it.