How much does an A-Level tutor cost?

A six-week A-Level course is £475 by correspondence, £775 in a seminar of six and £1,275 one to one. That is about ten per cent above the equivalent GCSE course, which reflects the marking each A-Level script carries rather than any difference in format. Everything — diagnostic, marking, mocks, recordings, materials, reports, seven-day tutor contact — is inside those figures.

Can you help with coursework or the NEA?

We coach the question, the structure and the scholarship. We do not write it, edit it line by line, or do anything your board’s rules on tutor involvement prohibit — and we will tell you plainly where that line sits for your specification. Coaching a student to choose an answerable question is worth far more than polishing prose anyway.

What is the Individual Research Project and why do you spend two weeks on it?

The IRP is the section of the A-Level Modern Languages speaking exam that the student chooses and controls entirely. It is therefore the most reliably winnable part of the paper, and the part most often left until three weeks before. We spend two weeks choosing a subject with something genuinely arguable in it, researching it in the target language, and rehearsing against the follow-up questions an examiner will actually ask.

My child is predicted an A. Is this for them?

Usually yes, and often more usefully than for a struggling student. The gap between an A and an A* is almost entirely method — a thesis rather than a survey, criticism used rather than reported, idiom that is worth the risk. Those are teachable across two courses. We will tell you at the consultation if we think the marginal gain does not justify the fee.

Do you teach A-Level English Language as well as Literature?

Yes, and the combined Language and Literature specifications too. Tell us the exact specification code at the consultation and we will confirm which of our tutors has taught it most recently.

Is a small group appropriate at A-Level?

Arguably more so than at GCSE. A group of four arguing about a text is a seminar, which is the format they will meet at university and something close to what an interview does. The Education Endowment Foundation rates small group tuition at four additional months’ progress against five for one to one — and a group costs half as much.

Do you write the personal statement?

No, and anyone who does is doing your child harm. We coach it: we ask the questions that surface what they actually think, we tell them which sentences an admissions tutor will not believe, and we cut the claims they cannot defend in December. The words stay theirs, because in the interview they will be asked about them.

Is Oxbridge interview preparation actually worth it?

It is worth it in a specific way. It will not manufacture an intellect. What it does is remove the shock — most candidates have never been argued with by an academic, never had to think aloud while someone watches, and never been told they are wrong mid-sentence. Removing that shock is the whole of the value, and it is substantial, because the interview is trying to see how you think rather than how you cope with novelty.

Is there still an admissions test?

No, not for our subjects. Oxford retired the Modern Languages Admissions Test from the 2027 cycle along with seven others, and has not set an English test since 2023. Neither subject appears on Oxford’s current list of courses requiring a test. That makes the UCAS answers, the submitted written work and the December interview the entire application — which is why both our courses are built around writing rather than test technique.

What about the old English admissions test?

Oxford has not set the English test since 2023 and it does not run for 2027 entry. Submitted written work and the interview carry the weight instead. Cambridge arrangements vary by college, and we confirm the current position for your specific colleges at the consultation rather than relying on last year’s guidance.

Can we take just the Interview Programme?

Yes, and a good number of families do — often after a school has handled the application well but has nobody who can run a convincing mock interview. Take it in November.

Do you guarantee an offer?

No, and you should treat any agency that implies one with suspicion. Roughly fourteen per cent of Oxford applicants receive an offer and no amount of coaching changes the arithmetic. What we can do is make sure that nothing in the application, the written work or the interview is losing marks for reasons that were fixable.

Which courses do you cover?

English, Modern Languages, and the joint schools that combine them. We do not take applicants for Medicine, Law, PPE or the sciences — we have no tutors who read them, and pretending otherwise would be exactly the thing we set the practice up to avoid.

How is this different from an hourly private tutor?

An hourly tutor sells you an hour. A course sells you a diagnosed problem, a written plan to fix it, six taught hours, roughly three times that again in marking and materials, two mocks marked to your board’s scheme, three written reports, three parent calls and a tutor reachable seven days a week — with a defined end point at which we show you what moved. The hourly rate is the least interesting number in that list.

Can we do one hour a week instead of two?

Yes. The private course includes one live hour a week because that, alongside the recorded curriculum and a marked piece between every session, is what most students need. If your child has a genuine emergency we will add a second hour at the consultation and quote it before you commit. What we will not do is sell hours as the default, because contact time is the part of tuition families over-buy and marking is the part they under-buy.

Will it be the same tutor every week?

Yes. You are told which tutor, which degree and which year before you pay anything, and we do not substitute partway through a programme. If a tutor is ill the session is rescheduled rather than handed to somebody else.

Which platform do you teach on?

Video with a shared annotatable document, so your child watches their own sentence being marked as it is discussed rather than being emailed a marked PDF afterwards. Every session is recorded. Written work goes back and forth in a private channel with the tutor.

Can more than one of my children enrol?

Yes, and ask about sibling and multi-subject rates at the consultation. Multi-subject discounts apply when two courses run in the same intake, and we will quote before you commit to anything.

How big is a group, really?

Two to six students, and six is a hard ceiling rather than a target. Most groups settle at three or four. We publish the cap because the Education Endowment Foundation finds effectiveness drops noticeably above six or seven, and a cap you can check is worth more than a promise you cannot.

Is my child’s work still marked individually?

Yes — all of it, always. The diagnostic, every piece of homework, both full mocks and all six progress reports are individual. Nothing is marked collectively or given a group grade. The only shared element is the two live hours each week.

What if my child is much weaker than the others?

They will not be, because we run the diagnostic before placement and match on starting point as well as board and texts. If no suitable group exists we will tell you rather than place them badly — and we will either open a new group or recommend the one-to-one programme instead.

Can I enrol with a friend or a sibling?

Yes, and it is one of the most popular ways in. Two students on the same board and the same texts can enrol as a closed group of two. The fee is the same as any other seminar place, and nobody else joins unless you want them to.

Why is the group course not half the private fee?

Because the live teaching is the only part that is genuinely shared. Everything else we do for a seminar student costs us exactly what it costs for a private one — the marking is written for your child alone, the reports are written for your child alone, and the recorded curriculum is identical. You pay less for the live hour and the same for everything else, which is why the gap between the tiers is narrower than families expect.

Do group students get the same tutor quality?

The same tutors. Not a comparable tutor, not a trainee working from the same materials — the same Oxford graduates who teach the one-to-one programmes, named before you book.

What if the group does not fill?

You still get the price. A group of two runs at the group rate, and we do not cancel a confirmed group because a fourth student did not materialise.

Are there group programmes for university admissions?

Yes, capped at four rather than six. Mock interviews in a group of three or four have a particular advantage: watching somebody else be challenged, and thinking about what you would have said, is unusually good preparation. The fee is £675 against £1,350 one to one.

How much does a private tutor cost in the UK?

Hourly rates for a private tutor in the UK typically run from around £25 an hour for a student tutor to well over £100 for a specialist at a London agency, and premium agencies frequently do not publish figures at all. We sell six-week courses rather than hours. A GCSE course is £425 by correspondence, £695 in a seminar of six and £1,150 one to one, and every tier includes the recorded curriculum, weekly hand marking, a full mock, reports and materials. We do not quote an hourly rate because the live hour is the smallest part of what you are buying.

Is anything charged on top of the programme price?

No. The diagnostic, the roadmap, session recordings and recaps, weekly practice sets, marked mocks, the exam-technique masterclass, the confidence toolkit, progress reports, parent calls and seven-day tutor contact are all inside the price shown. There is no materials fee, no booking fee and no charge for paying in instalments.

Why is A-Level about ten per cent more than GCSE?

Because it costs us more to deliver. An A-Level essay takes appreciably longer to mark properly than a GCSE one, the reading behind each session is heavier, and components like the NEA and the Individual Research Project carry preparation that a GCSE programme does not. Ten per cent is roughly what that difference is worth.

Is the group course really half the private fee?

It is not half, and we would rather explain why than pretend. The live teaching is genuinely shared, so that part is much cheaper. Everything else — marking, mocks, reports, tutor contact, the recorded curriculum — costs us the same for a seminar student as for a private one, so it is priced the same. £695 against £1,150 is roughly what that arithmetic produces.

Is there a discount for more than one subject?

Yes. Tell us at the consultation which subjects you are considering and we will quote before you commit to anything. Sibling rates are also available, as are rates for taking two consecutive half terms together.

Can we pay in instalments?

Yes. A course fee can be split across the six weeks. We will set this out in writing before you enrol, and there is no charge for paying in instalments.

What if it is not working?

Tell us early. If a course is not doing what we said it would, we would rather move you to a different tier or stop it than take the rest of your money. Our cancellation terms are set out in full on the terms page.

Do you charge for the consultation?

No. Thirty minutes, no charge, no obligation, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.

Winter Term I 2026 · six weeks · all inclusive
Course	Correspondence	Group of six	Private
GCSE English, Spanish or French	£425	£695	£1,150
A-Level English, Spanish or French	£475	£775	£1,275
UCAS Application Course — 4 weeks	—	£495	£895
Oxbridge Admissions Course — 10 weeks	—	£995	£1,795

Home / GCSE tutoring

GCSE English, Spanish & French · Winter Term I 2026

GCSE tutoring in English, Spanish and French, taught to your board.

A specialist GCSE English tutor, Spanish tutor or French tutor, online and one to one, in a seminar of six, or by correspondence with no live hours at all. Six-week programmes in English Language, English Literature, Spanish and French, every piece of work marked to the Russet Standard.

Book a free consultation See the week-by-week curriculum What’s included

£425Six weeks by
correspondence

£695Six weeks in a
seminar of six

£1,150Six weeks
one to one

6Pieces marked by hand
every course

The autumn term

Mocks are in December. The work that changes them happens now.

Term one is the only stretch of the year long enough to fix method rather than patch content. Our GCSE programmes are built to finish exactly when the mocks begin.

The twelve-week programme, mapped against a typical England school calendar. We adjust to your child’s school, including independent schools running longer terms.

GCSE courses · Winter Term I intake

One curriculum. Three levels of access.

The course is the same whichever you choose: the recorded curriculum, a piece of your child’s own writing marked by hand every week, and a written report at the end. What changes is how much live teaching sits on top — none, a seminar of six, or a private hour.

Winter Term I · six weeks from Tuesday 15 September 2026 · enrolment closes 11 September

No live hours · six weeks

The Correspondence Course

£425

Six marked submissions · the full recorded curriculum

A personalised Learning Plan, yours to keep
Every seminar recorded, watched when it suits you
One piece of your child’s own writing marked every week
Examiner marginalia on the actual page, by hand
Written report and agreed target grade at week six

The correspondence course

Most chosen

Seminar of six · six weeks

The Group Course

£695

Everything in Correspondence, plus a weekly ninety-minute seminar

A personalised Learning Plan, yours to keep
Six students at most, matched by board and set text
Weekly live seminar, taught in tutorial format
Marking still written for your child alone
One full mock, marked individually

The group course

Private hour · six weeks

The Private Course

£1,150

Everything in Group, delivered one to one

A personalised Learning Plan, yours to keep
A weekly private hour with your named tutor
Curriculum reordered around the diagnostic
Two full mocks, marked and then argued through
Seven-day tutor contact between sessions

The private course

One curriculum, three levels of access. Every student on every tier gets the same recorded curriculum and the same weekly marked submission. The only thing the fee changes is how much live teaching sits on top of it. We do not publish an hourly rate, because we are not selling hours — marking, materials, mocks and reports are inside the fee rather than charged against it.

Course contents

GCSE English Language & Literature: two six-week courses, in full.

Every course we sell is six weeks long. The method below runs across two of them, back to back, on the school’s own half-term calendar. Winter Term I is weeks 0–6. Winter Term II is weeks 7–12. Each is a complete course that stands on its own, with its own diagnostic, its own mock and its own report — you are never buying half of something. Most families take the first, see the marking, and then book the second.

Winter Term I · six weeks from 15 SeptemberA complete course: its own diagnostic, its own mock, its own report.

Week 0

The diagnostic

Before teaching begins we mark a full piece of your child’s writing against their own board’s assessment objectives and show you, line by line, where the marks are going.

Full essay marked to the real band descriptors
Assessment-objective breakdown
Target grade agreed in writing
Learning Plan written and handed over at lesson one

Weeks 1–2

The architecture of a top-band paragraph

Most students lose marks in the shape of the paragraph rather than in what they know. We rebuild the shape first, because everything after it depends on it.

The four sentence types a Grade 9 paragraph uses
What AO2 actually rewards, in the examiner’s wording
Claim, method, effect, significance
Writing about form and structure, not just language

Weeks 3–4

Quotation economy and the method vocabulary

Short, precise, embedded. A three-word quotation analysed properly outscores a thirty-word one reproduced accurately.

Embedding quotations inside your own syntax
Naming methods precisely rather than listing devices
Etymology, register and sound as analysable method
Building a personal quotation bank per text

Week 5

Mock one — the baseline made real

A full paper under timed conditions, marked exactly as an examiner would mark it, with the band descriptors quoted against your child’s own sentences.

Full paper, timed
Examiner-style annotation throughout
Written report to parents
Roadmap revised against the result

Week 6

Context that earns marks

AO3 is where the most time is wasted. Context is only credited when it changes the reading — we teach the difference between a history lesson and an argument.

Context as argument, not preamble
Integrating AO3 into an AO2 sentence
Critical and theatrical reception
Avoiding the biography trap

Winter Term II · six weeks from 3 NovemberThe next complete course. Booked separately, and only if the first one worked.

Weeks 7–8

Set-text mastery

Whole-text argument rather than extract-spotting: the thesis that can be defended across any question the board is capable of asking.

A defensible whole-text thesis per set text
Structural reading — openings, turns, endings
Character as construct, not person
Question-proofing: one argument, many prompts

Week 9

Unseen material and comparison

The part that cannot be revised, taught as a procedure that works on a text nobody has seen.

A five-minute annotation routine
Finding a line of argument in an unseen poem
Comparison as argument, not alternation
Handling a text you actively dislike

Week 10

Timing, command words and the last ten minutes

The marks most often lost are lost to the clock, not to ignorance.

Minute-by-minute paper plans
Decoding command words
What to do when you do not know
How to spend the final ten minutes

Week 11

Mock two — proving the movement

The same conditions as mock one, so the comparison means something.

Full paper, timed
Marked against mock one
Grade tracker updated
Remaining gaps named explicitly

Week 12

The handover

The programme ends with a document, not a goodbye: what changed, what to do between now and the exam, and how to revise without us.

Final written report
Independent revision plan to the exam
Question bank released permanently
Parent call and completion certificate

Course contents

GCSE Spanish & French: two six-week courses, in full.

Rebuilt for the reformed specifications first assessed in summer 2026 — which introduced dictation, read-aloud, a prescribed vocabulary list and an assessment objective for plain correctness.

Four of the five spoken task types did not exist in this form before 2026.

Winter Term I · six weeks from 15 SeptemberA complete course: its own diagnostic, its own mock, its own report.

Week 0

The diagnostic — all four skills

The reformed specifications assess things the old ones did not. We baseline every skill, including the two most students have never been formally taught.

Written and translation baseline
Read-aloud and dictation baseline
Grammar and accuracy audit
Learning Plan written and handed over at lesson one

Weeks 1–2

The prescribed vocabulary, used rather than learned

The new specifications build from a defined, frequency-based word list. Knowing which words are on it — and drilling those — is a straightforward advantage.

Working from the board’s own vocabulary list
High-frequency verbs first, by return on effort
Spaced retrieval that actually holds
Cognate traps and false friends

Weeks 3–4

Dictation and read-aloud

Two task types that did not exist before 2026. Very few students have been taught them by anyone who has seen a real paper.

Phoneme–grapheme correspondence, drilled
Dictation under timed conditions
Read-aloud: liaison, elision, stress
Where the accuracy marks actually sit

Week 5

Mock one — a full paper set

Listening, reading, speaking and writing, sat and marked as the board would mark them.

All four papers, timed
Speaking recorded and marked
Written report to parents
Roadmap revised

Week 6

Role play and the photo card

Short, high-pressure tasks where a rehearsed structure is worth more than a wide vocabulary.

Question forms under pressure
Predicting the unpredictable prompt
Describing, then developing
Recovering from a blank

Winter Term II · six weeks from 3 NovemberThe next complete course. Booked separately, and only if the first one worked.

Weeks 7–8

Grammar for the accuracy objective

The reformed specifications reward correctness explicitly. We teach the tense range that carries the top band and drill it until it is automatic.

Three tenses reliably, then five
Subjunctive and conditional where they earn marks
Agreement, gender and the errors examiners flag
Complexity that is worth the risk

Week 9

Translation, both directions

Into and out of the language, taught as two genuinely different disciplines.

Literal accuracy versus natural English
Handling structures with no direct equivalent
Mining the source text for marks
Checking routines that catch the silly losses

Week 10

General conversation and spontaneity

The part that cannot be scripted — developing an answer, holding an opinion, and sounding like a person.

Extending every answer by one clause
Opinions with justification, as a habit
Fillers and repair strategies that buy time
Sounding fluent when you are not certain

Week 11

Mock two — proving the movement

The same four papers, the same conditions, marked against the first set.

All four papers, timed
Marked against mock one
Grade tracker updated
Remaining gaps named

Week 12

The handover

A written plan for the run to the summer, and the whole question bank released permanently.

Final written report
Independent revision plan
Vocabulary and question bank released
Parent call and completion certificate

New for 2026

The reformed GCSE language specifications

Summer 2026 was the first assessment of the new GCSE French and Spanish specifications. They introduce task types that did not previously exist: dictation, read-aloud, an assessment objective covering grammar and correctness, and a prescribed vocabulary list built from the most frequent words.

The boards diverge in how they assess these. Eduqas combines reading and writing into a single two-hour paper with fewer, longer texts and no visual support; AQA and Edexcel use more texts of varied length with visuals, and Edexcel weights read-aloud and dictation more heavily.

Very few students have been taught these formats by anyone who has seen a real paper. We have.

Everything in the fee

The teaching hours are the visible part. Here is the rest of it.

Twelve hours at £70 is the easiest thing in the world to compare against the going rate for a private GCSE tutor. So here is everything else, itemised, because most of the work happens between the sessions rather than during them.

Before the first session

The diagnostic

A full piece of your child's own work — an essay, a translation, a listening paper — marked against the real assessment objectives for their board, not a generic rubric.

Worth an hour of tutor time before you have paid for a single lesson

The Learning Plan

A personalised document, written by your tutor after reading your child’s own work and handed over at the first lesson. It sets out the approach for the six weeks — and the route from there to the exam itself.

A Word document, yours to keep for the rest of the course

Board and set-text audit

We confirm the exact specification, the exact texts and the exact papers before we plan anything. AQA and Eduqas do not reward the same essay.

Included

Your tutor, named

Which Oxford graduate, which degree, which year, and which subjects they read — confirmed in writing before you pay. No pool, no allocation, no mid-programme substitution.

Included

Every single week

Live teaching

Two live one-to-one hours each week with your named tutor, taught in the tutorial format — argued with, not lectured at.

24 hours across a term programme

Session recording and written recap

Every session is recorded and followed by a written summary within twenty-four hours. A difficult explanation can be replayed; a parent can see what was covered without sitting in.

24 recordings, 24 recaps

A practice set built from that session

Not a worksheet off a shelf. Questions written after the lesson, aimed at the thing that wobbled during it.

12 bespoke sets

Marked homework with examiner annotation

Returned with marginalia in the examiner's own language — which sentence earned which objective, and which one cost a band.

Individually marked, always

Between the sessions

The stuck button

Photograph the question, send it to your tutor, seven days a week. You get a prompt back — a nudge, not an answer — usually within a few hours.

Unlimited, term-long

A bespoke question bank

Built for your board and your set texts across the programme, and yours permanently when it ends.

Yours to keep

Model answers written for your weaknesses

Not exemplars downloaded from a board website. Answers written by your tutor to demonstrate the specific move your child cannot yet make.

Written to order

The quotation and vocabulary bank

Short, precise, memorable — the three-word quotation rather than the thirty-word one; the high-frequency vocabulary the reformed language specifications actually test.

Curated per student

Measuring it honestly

Full mocks, marked to your board's scheme

Sat under timed conditions and marked as an examiner would mark them — with the band descriptors quoted, so you can see the judgement rather than just the number.

Two on a term programme

The grade tracker

Every marked piece plotted against the baseline, so improvement is a line on a page rather than a feeling.

Updated fortnightly

Written progress reports

What has moved, what has not, and what we are doing about it. Written for a parent to read in four minutes.

Six per term programme

For parents

Scheduled parent calls

At the start, the middle and the end of a term programme. Fifteen minutes, honest, and we will tell you if we do not think it is working.

Three per term programme

Recording access on request

At any time, without giving a reason. It is your child and our safeguarding policy is published in full rather than summarised.

Always

A single point of contact

You speak to the person teaching your child, not an account manager between you and them.

Always

The parts nobody itemises

The exam-technique masterclass

Command words, timing, what to do when you do not know, and how to spend the last ten minutes of a paper.

Included

The exam-day confidence toolkit

The night before, the morning of, and the twenty minutes in the corridor. Practical, not motivational.

Included

Welcome pack

Premium on term programmes: the roadmap, the reading, the annotation key and a proper notebook.

Posted, not emailed

Completion certificate and priority rebooking

Returning families choose their slot before we open the next cohort.

Included

Multi-subject discount

Available when two courses run in the same intake. Quoted at the consultation, before you commit.

On request

No fee of any other kind

No materials fee, no booking fee, no charge for paying in instalments, no charge to reschedule a session given notice.

Guaranteed

Subjects & boards

Every board that examines our three subjects at GCSE.

GCSE English Literature

AQA · Edexcel · OCR · Eduqas · WJEC

649,481 entries in 2025

GCSE English Language

AQA · Edexcel · OCR · Eduqas · WJEC

866,023 entries in 2025

GCSE Spanish

AQA · Edexcel · Eduqas

136,871 entries in 2025

GCSE French

AQA · Edexcel · Eduqas

132,808 entries in 2025

OCR does not offer GCSE French or Spanish, having withdrawn from Modern Foreign Languages. If your child sits a language, they will be on AQA, Edexcel or Eduqas. Entry figures: JCQ, summer 2025.

How it works

Three steps, and the first one is free.

The conversation

Thirty minutes, no charge. We ask what has already been tried, look at recent marked work, and establish which board and texts your child is actually sitting.

The diagnostic

In week one we mark a full piece of your child’s writing against the real mark scheme and show you, line by line, where the marks are being lost.

The programme

Built on what the diagnostic found, not on a template. Written progress reports throughout, and a tutor reachable seven days a week.

If it goes wrong

Two guarantees, both of which we control

Session make-up. Miss a session with notice and it is rescheduled at no charge. Illness and school trips happen.

First session. If the fit is wrong after session one, we will change tutor or credit that session back. You should not pay to discover a mismatch.

We do not guarantee a grade, and we would be wary of anyone who does. Final grades depend on effort, attendance and exam-day performance, none of which we control. What we can promise is measurable movement against the diagnostic we set in week one — and we will show you it in writing either way.

Included, and not sold separately

Every student gets a Learning Plan written for them, at the first lesson.

Not a welcome pack and not a course outline. A document your tutor writes after reading your child’s actual work, setting out what they think the best approach is — for these six weeks, and for the rest of the course after that. It arrives as a Word document at lesson one, and you keep it.

Written after the diagnostic, not before

It cannot be produced in advance because it depends on what the marked work reveals. Two students on the same board, in the same seminar, get materially different plans.

It outlives the course

The six-week section is the beginning of it. The rest maps the route from where your child is now to the exam — which topics to attack in which order, what to revisit, and what to leave alone until spring.

It is yours to use anywhere

A Word document, editable, with no watermark and nothing locked. Share it with the school, work from it independently, hand it to a different tutor entirely. We would rather it was useful than proprietary.

What is actually in it

Where your child is, in the examiner’s language

The current band, quoted against their own sentences rather than asserted, and the specific thing that is capping it.

Written from the marked diagnostic

The six-week sequence, and why that order

What we attack first and what deliberately waits. The reasoning is written down so you can disagree with it.

Agreed before teaching begins

The route to the exam

Term by term to the final paper: which texts and topics need what, and where the pressure points fall in Year 11 or Year 13.

The part that outlasts the course

Revision that suits this student

What to do independently between sessions, and what is a waste of their evening. Most revision advice is generic; this is not.

Specific, not a checklist

The target grade, in writing

What we think is achievable and by when, stated plainly enough that you can hold us to it.

Reviewed at week six

Updated at the end of the block

Reissued at week six against what actually moved, so the version you keep is the current one rather than the opening guess.

Two versions, both yours

It is included at every tier. Correspondence, group and private students all get one, written to the same standard by the tutor who marks their work. It is not an add-on, an upsell, or a premium extra — it is the thing that makes six weeks of teaching useful for the eighteen months afterwards.

Between the sessions

Your own tutor channel on Slack, seven days a week.

Every family gets a private Slack channel with their tutor in it. Not a ticketing system, not a shared inbox, not a chatbot — the person who marks your child’s work, reachable on the day the work is actually being done.

The stuck button

Your child photographs the question they are stuck on and sends it. What comes back is a prompt rather than an answer — enough to get moving again, not enough to do it for them. It is the difference between losing an evening and losing five minutes.

Seven days, including Sunday night

Homework is not done on weekday afternoons, it is done on Sunday evening in a panic. The channel is open then too. Most messages get a reply within a few hours; nothing waits longer than the next morning.

Parents are in the channel too

You can see what was asked and what was answered without having to interrogate anybody at dinner. Ask us a question directly whenever you want — you are not going through an office.

What it is not. It is not a homework-answering service, and we will not write anything that is going to be handed in. If a question needs a proper explanation rather than a nudge, we say so and it becomes the first ten minutes of the next session — or, on the correspondence course, a note in the margin of the next piece of marking.

Questions

Before you enquire.

Who will actually be teaching my child?

An Oxford graduate in the subject your child is sitting — English taught by English graduates, Spanish and French by Modern Languages graduates. You are told which tutor, which degree and which year before you pay anything, and we do not substitute tutors partway through a programme. The Russet Collective is independent and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the University of Oxford.

How much does a GCSE tutor cost?

A six-week GCSE course is £425 by correspondence, £695 in a seminar of six, and £1,150 one to one. Every tier includes the full recorded curriculum, a piece of your child’s own writing marked by hand every week, mocks, reports and seven-day tutor contact — inside the fee rather than charged on top. We do not publish an hourly rate, because we are not selling hours. There is no booking fee, no materials fee and no charge for paying in instalments.

Do you teach the reformed GCSE Spanish and French specifications?

Yes, and it is one of the main reasons to come to a specialist rather than a generalist. The specifications first assessed in summer 2026 introduced dictation, read-aloud, an assessment objective for accuracy and a prescribed frequency-based vocabulary list. We teach all four explicitly, and the boards differ in how they weight them — Edexcel loads read-aloud and dictation more heavily than AQA, and Eduqas combines reading and writing into a single paper.

Are sessions recorded?

Yes, every one, and a short written recap follows each session. Your child can replay a tricky explanation and you can see exactly what was covered without sitting in. Recordings are available to parents on request at any time, without giving a reason.

What is the stuck button?

Between sessions your child can photograph a question they are stuck on and send it to their tutor on Slack, seven days a week. They get a nudge back — a prompt rather than an answer — usually within a few hours. It is the difference between losing an evening and losing five minutes.

Which course should we choose?

If one paper or one skill is the problem, Winter Term I on its own is usually enough. If your child’s writing needs rebuilding rather than patching, or if December’s mocks matter for setting or predicted grades, book both half terms together. We will tell you honestly at the consultation which we think you need — including if that is neither.

Is a small group as good as one to one?

Not quite, and we will not pretend otherwise. The Education Endowment Foundation puts one-to-one tuition at five additional months’ progress and small group tuition at four. What a group gives you instead is a seminar — students arguing with each other about a text, which is genuinely useful preparation for A-Level and for interview — at half the price. We cap groups at six because the EEF finds effectiveness drops noticeably above six or seven.

Can we start after September?

Yes. Places are staggered through to December, so a course can begin later in the term. Winter Term II is designed to finish before mocks, so starting late means either compressing it or finishing after them — we will be straight with you about the trade-off.

Do you teach Maths or the sciences?

No. We teach English Literature, English Language, Spanish and French, at GCSE and A-Level. We would rather turn work away than take it on badly.

Seven places per cohort. Term starts in September.

Book a free thirty-minute consultation. We will look at recent marked work and tell you what we think, whether or not you go on to book.

Book a free consultation

Course	Length	Recorded seminars	Marked pieces	Fee
GCSE English Language or Literature	6 weeks	6	6	£425
GCSE Spanish or French	6 weeks	6	6	£425
A-Level English, Spanish or French	6 weeks	6	6	£475

Course	Format	Length	Total
Young Linguists (ages 5–11)	Small group · 45 min/week	8-week term	£144
The Conversation Club (adults)	Small group · 1 hr/week	8-week term	£192
The Reading Room	Group · 90 min fortnightly	6 sessions	£150
The Writing Room	Small group · 1 hr/week	8-week term	£216
Any course, one to one	1:1 · 1 hr/week	6-session block	£270

Element	Group of 2–6	One to one
The two live hours each week	Shared	Yours alone
Baseline diagnostic	Individual	Individual
Written roadmap	Individual	Individual
Homework and practice sets	Individual	Individual
Marking and examiner annotation	Individual	Individual
Full mocks	Marked individually	Marked individually
Written progress reports	Individual	Individual
Parent calls	Individual	Individual
Tutor contact between sessions	Your own channel	Your own channel
Session recordings and recaps	Yes	Yes
Marked to the Russet Standard	Yes	Yes
Pace set entirely by your child	Shared with the group	Yes
Peer debate and seminar discussion	Yes	—
GCSE, six weeks	£695	£1,150

Course	Length	Live seminars	Marked pieces	Fee	Private fee
GCSE English, Spanish or French	6 weeks	6 × 90 min	6	£695	£1,150
A-Level English, Spanish or French	6 weeks	6 × 90 min	6	£775	£1,275
Oxbridge Admissions Course	10 weeks	10 × 90 min	10	£995	£1,795

Included	Correspondence	Group	Private
The full recorded curriculum	Yes	Yes	Yes
Diagnostic and Learning Plan	Yes	Yes	Yes
Weekly submission marked by hand	Yes	Yes	Yes
Written progress reports	One	Two	Three
Full mock, marked individually	One	One	Two
Live teaching each week	—	90 min seminar	60 min private
Seven-day Slack tutor channel	Yes	Yes	Priority
Curriculum reordered to the diagnostic	—	—	Yes
GCSE fee, six weeks	£425	£695	£1,150

English, Spanish and French tutoring, by people who read them.

We teach the difference between saying something true and earning the mark for it.

An English tutor, a Spanish tutor and a French tutor — and nothing else.

English tutoring

Spanish tutoring

French tutoring

One curriculum. Three levels of access.

Programmes at GCSE, A-Level and university admissions.

GCSE tutoring

A-Level tutoring

University admissions

Every piece of work is marked to the Russet Standard.

Degree-matched

The tutorial method

Named before you book

Leah

Both formats work. One of them costs half as much.

Interesting facts about the languages we teach.

A historic first

Spanish crosses a threshold

French is growing, sharply

The most spoken language on earth

A-Level French is now genuinely rare

Languages have become a class marker

Spanish overtook French in 2025. A-Level French almost vanished.

What a programme costs, without a “from” attached.

You are billed for the teaching hours. They are the smallest part.

What you are entitled to know before you book.

Enhanced DBS

Registered company

Recorded & reviewable

The Grade 9 answer structure, in nine pages.

Check your inbox.

The same tutors, for the love of the language rather than the grade.

Young Linguists

Conversation & Culture

The Writing Room

Start with a conversation, not a commitment.

GCSE tutoring in English, Spanish and French, taught to your board.

Mocks are in December. The work that changes them happens now.

One curriculum. Three levels of access.

The Correspondence Course

The Group Course

The Private Course

GCSE English Language & Literature: two six-week courses, in full.

The diagnostic

The architecture of a top-band paragraph

Quotation economy and the method vocabulary

Mock one — the baseline made real

Context that earns marks

Set-text mastery

Unseen material and comparison

Timing, command words and the last ten minutes

Mock two — proving the movement

The handover

GCSE Spanish & French: two six-week courses, in full.

The diagnostic — all four skills

The prescribed vocabulary, used rather than learned

Dictation and read-aloud

Mock one — a full paper set

Role play and the photo card

Grammar for the accuracy objective

Translation, both directions

General conversation and spontaneity

Mock two — proving the movement

The handover

The reformed GCSE language specifications

The teaching hours are the visible part. Here is the rest of it.

Before the first session

The diagnostic

The Learning Plan

Board and set-text audit

Your tutor, named

Every single week

Live teaching

Session recording and written recap

A practice set built from that session

Marked homework with examiner annotation

Between the sessions

The stuck button