Online GCSE Tutoring in Stanmore
One-to-one lessons for Year 10, Year 11 and resit students, £30 per lesson
Online GCSE tutoring in Stanmore across every subject we teach. The message we get most often from HA7 in January reads roughly the same each year: my child got 54 per cent in the mock, what grade is that? This page is the long answer, because the short one is that nobody can tell you yet.
Understanding how a mark becomes a grade changes what you do next. It is the difference between panicking at a percentage and knowing which paper, which tier and which twelve marks are actually in play.
The first session is free and it is a real lesson. Bring the mock paper to it, marks and all.
What Stanmore parents ask about
- What a mock percentage actually means.
- Why boundaries move from one year to the next.
- How the tier changes the number.
- Which marks are realistically reachable.
- Whether a target grade is still on.
How does a mark turn into a grade?
Not by a fixed percentage, which is the single most common misunderstanding we meet, and the one that causes the most unnecessary alarm in February.
Exam boards set grade boundaries after the papers have been marked, not before. Ofqual sets out how grading works and the logic is simple enough once you see it. Boards compare this year’s cohort with previous cohorts, identify provisional boundaries, then have senior examiners look at real scripts sitting on and around those marks.
The purpose is that the standard of work behind a grade holds steady while the paper varies. If a paper turns out harder than intended, the boundary drops so that students are not punished for the question setter having a bad day. If it turns out easier, the boundary rises.
There are no quotas. Ofqual is direct about this: no cap on how many students can get any grade, and no number who have to fail. Boundaries follow performance on that paper rather than a predetermined share.
Which means a raw score in isolation is not information yet. It becomes information the moment you attach a boundary set to it, and every school has those from last summer.
What actually moves a boundary
| Factor | Effect on the boundary |
|---|---|
| A harder paper than last year | Boundary falls |
| An easier paper than last year | Boundary rises |
| Higher tier rather than Foundation | Lower raw mark for the same grade |
| A different exam board | Different boundary entirely |
| How many students got each grade | No effect. There is no quota |
Four of those are outside anybody’s control. The fifth is a myth worth retiring.
What should you do with a mock result?
Two questions get you most of the way, and neither of them is about the percentage on the front of the paper.
The first question is which boundaries the school applied. Most departments mark mocks against a real series from a previous summer, which makes the grade meaningful. Some apply a stricter internal scale deliberately, to leave room for improvement, and if that is what happened the grade on the report is not the grade the student would have got in the summer.
The second question is where the marks were lost, and this is where a raw percentage becomes genuinely useful. Fifty-four per cent spread evenly across the paper is a very different problem from fifty-four per cent with three topics scoring nothing. The first needs broad consolidation. The second needs three weeks of targeted work and can move a grade quickly.
A marked paper sorts into three piles: marks lost to a topic never understood, marks lost to a method known but applied badly, and marks lost to reading the question wrong. Only the first pile needs teaching. The other two need practice and a habit change, which is cheaper and faster.
Questions worth asking the school
- Which series were the mock boundaries taken from?
- Was the paper Foundation or Higher?
- Which topics lost the most marks?
- Is my child entered for the tier that suits them?
- What would move this by one grade?
None of those cost anything, and the answers change what to do next.
Why does the tier change the number so much?
Because the two papers are aimed at different halves of the grade range, so the same raw mark means something different on each.
Maths, the sciences and modern languages are tiered. Foundation covers grades 1 to 5. Higher covers grades 4 to 9, with a narrow allowance below that. The Higher paper contains harder material throughout, so the boundary for a grade 4 on Higher sits at a low raw mark, sometimes strikingly low, while a grade 4 on Foundation sits comfortably up the paper.
This produces a result parents find counterintuitive. A student scraping a 4 on Higher and a student getting a comfortable 4 on Foundation hold the same grade, and the second one probably understood more of the paper they sat.
It also means a percentage quoted without a tier is close to meaningless. Ask which paper before you interpret anything, and if the answer is that the school has not decided yet, that is a conversation worth having before the entry deadline rather than after it.
Our page on Foundation and Higher tier goes further into who decides and when it can still change.
Same grade, different paper
- Foundation caps at grade 5, whatever the mark.
- Higher aims at grades 4 to 9.
- A grade 4 on Higher can sit at a low raw mark.
- A grade 4 on Foundation sits much higher up the paper.
- Entry decisions are made by the school, usually in Year 11.
Which GCSE subjects can your child get help with?
Every subject listed below, with a specialist in each rather than one tutor stretched across them.
Maths
Both tiers, and the subject where boundary confusion causes the most worry. See GCSE Maths tutoring.
English Language and Literature
Mark schemes, band descriptors and what an examiner is rewarding. See GCSE English tutoring.
Combined and Triple Science
Three strands, three specialists, both tiers. See GCSE Science tutoring.
Computer Science
Programming, algorithms and the written papers. See GCSE Computer Science tutoring.
Business Studies
Calculations, case studies and evaluation marks. See GCSE Business Studies tutoring.
Humanities
History, Geography and Religious Studies, when a specialist has room.
What about a resit that missed by a few marks?
Common, and worth knowing that a near miss and a distant one are different problems even though the certificate looks the same.
A student three marks off a grade 4 has almost the whole paper working. What they need is a narrow fix and some exam-day discipline, not a year of teaching repeated at the same pace.
The 16 to 19 maths and English condition of funding, updated in July 2026, keeps the subject on the timetable after Year 11 where grade 4 was missed. Grade 3 points to a GCSE; grade 2 or below opens up Functional Skills level 2 as an alternative.
Before committing to anything, ask the school or college about a review of marking. A paper close to a boundary is exactly the case where a check is worth the fee, and the deadlines are short.
More on that on our Harrow page, which covers post-results services in detail.
Two entry points a year
- November takes Maths and English Language only.
- Roughly ten weeks after August results.
- Everything else waits for the summer series.
- The school or college controls the entry.
See GCSE resit tutoring and the exam dates page.
How does an online lesson run?
Video, a shared whiteboard, and the student writing on paper where the tutor can see it. Working matters more than answers here.
Send the marked paper
Marks, comments and all. It is the most useful thing you have.
Free one-to-one session
A real lesson, no card details taken.
Sort the lost marks into piles
Never taught, taught but shaky, or misread.
Work the first pile
That is the part a tutor is actually for.
Check again in six weeks
Against a paper, not a feeling.
The full process is on how it works. Harrow publishes term dates for its community schools and points families to academies and voluntary aided schools for their own.
What does a GCSE tutor in Stanmore cost?
One to one at £30, with no setup charge and no run of weeks to commit to.
That price is the same whichever subject and whichever tier, and it does not rise closer to the exams, which is worth checking with anyone you compare us against.
When you compare quotes, ask how long the lesson is, because that is where hourly rates hide. Our guide to GCSE tutoring costs sets out what the market actually charges.
What £30 covers
- A full one-to-one lesson with a subject specialist.
- Planning against your child’s board, tier and paper.
- A read of the marked mock before the first lesson.
- Honest advice on whether the target grade is realistic.
- A tutor change if the match is wrong.
Tell us what the mock said
A percentage and a subject is enough to start with. We reply during the day.
- Year group and subject.
- The mock mark, and the tier if you know it.
- Which exam board the school uses.
- Target grade, and where it came from.
- 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
Why do GCSE grade boundaries change every year?
Because papers vary in difficulty. Boundaries are set after marking, so a harder paper gets lower boundaries and a kinder one gets higher boundaries. The point is that the standard of work needed for a grade stays the same year to year, even though the mark does not.
So what is a grade 7 out of 100?
There is no fixed answer, and that is the honest one. It differs by subject, by tier, by exam board and by year. On some papers a 7 has sat near 60 per cent of the marks and on others well above that.
Are there quotas on how many students get each grade?
No. Ofqual is explicit that there is no cap on the number of students who can get any grade and no quota that has to fail. Boundaries respond to how the cohort performed on that paper, not to a target.
Then how should we read a mock score of 58 per cent?
Ask the teacher which boundaries they applied and from which series. A mock marked against last summer’s boundaries is a reasonable signal. A raw percentage with no boundary attached tells you almost nothing.
Does the tier affect the boundary?
Substantially. In tiered subjects the Higher paper is marked out of the same total but aimed at grades 4 to 9, so a grade 4 on Higher often sits at a low raw mark, while a grade 4 on Foundation sits much higher up the paper.
Which GCSE subjects do you cover?
Maths, English Language and English Literature, science in the Combined or the Triple route, Computer Science and Business Studies. Humanities depend on which specialist has room.
What does it cost?
£30 for a lesson, one to one, and no charge to get set up.
Do you have a tuition centre in Stanmore?
No, and we would rather say so plainly. Lessons are online, the business is registered in Feltham, and nothing here depends on being nearby.
Book a free GCSE session for your child in Stanmore
One free one-to-one session, no card details and no obligation. Send the marked mock with the enquiry and the tutor will have read it before the lesson starts.