Before lockdown and covid-related school closures, and the need for online tutor help for GCSEs, I arranged for my kids to have extra help from a local tutor.

Every week, the tutor helped both of my children with year 11 Maths and Economics GCSEs; and Maths preparation for year 10. We found this wonderful tutor via the app Tutorful, and Sevi (the tutor) lived close to us here in London. Sevi would come over for a couple of hours on a wednesday, and teach and support both boys in turn. Oh and would sometimes have supper with us too!
We are lucky to live in a London borough where the State secondary school is ‘outstanding’ yet both boys really benefitted from these weekly extra hours. The youngest teenager moved up a set in Maths as he headed into his GCSE years.

And the extra 1:1 hour a week with the tutor, helped to ‘shuffle’ the eldest teenager over the ‘pass’ line for Maths GCSE – which none of us thought was possible given that he, like me, has discalculia. Tutorful made it super easy to find a local tutor (you pop your postcode in to the search, Sevi used to cycle over after work, and the kids really enjoyed his company as well as learning LOADS).
Then along came Covid 19 and the need for online tutor help for GCSEs
Then two years later – along came the Coronavirus. Schools shut, and online learning began. The A’level “online classroom” study for the eldest was a real struggle – (because, dyslexia, concentration, distractions, his bed, his cat… and so on). Although only having three subjects to focus on, which he found easier than the multitude of GCSE options, that focus, and his homework, drifted.
From Primary to A’level
So once again, we turned to tutorful – and found two brilliant online tutors for him – one specialised in History and Politics, the other in Philosophy. If anything, the lockdown made it easier to find the RIGHT 1:1 tutors for A’level support as the net could be cast wider – no longer limited to the couple of miles radius we’d used for the search for GCSE help – with the online tutor help for GCSEs and A’levels that tutorful had quickly adapted for their app, we could literally search the entire country for A’level experts!

He’s now safely ensconsed in University life, and I would say that extra support we, and tutorful, gave him helped to secure a place at a good University (and yes, they do check to see what GCSE grades you have when considering offers.) His History & Politics tutor went above and beyond the call of duty and helped his with his ‘personal statement’ too – I loved that she was a recent graduate herself, which really made her lessons fun and relatable for my son.
And now we are doing the same again, as our youngest son heads into the lower sixth, we are booking some History A-level top-up lessons for him with tutorful too.
Try tutorful for yourself
If you too wanted to give tutorful a try, need online tutor help for GCSEs, or any other stage of the game; I would highly recommend tutorful, you can browse here and compare literally hundreds of tutors, filtering by qualification, subject speciality, and price. You can check over the tutor’s profile, to find out about their experience, and read the reviews.
click here to get started, and do message me if you’d like to ask me, or my youngest, any questions about our own experience. Four years down the line, we think this is a brilliant website, and a great top-up of 1:1 support for your kids, whether state or fee-paying, from primary to A’level.
#ad – This post is written in collaboration with Tutorful, as a family we have been using the service for over four years, and highly recommend them.
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