GCSE English | TJ Tutors
GCSE English · Years 10 and 11

Working hard in English, and the grade is not moving.

The first step is not more revision. It is understanding exactly where the marks are being lost. Framework-led teaching for GCSE English Language and Literature, with every piece of work marked and returned within 48 hours.

Apply For A Complimentary English Diagnostic

Every new family begins with an assessment. Findings in writing, whether or not your child joins us.

Why capable students stall

Your child knows the texts. They revise. Their teacher says they understand it. And the mock grade comes back the same as last time.

That is rarely a knowledge problem. The mark scheme rewards what a student does with what they know: explaining a writer’s methods, sustaining an argument, controlling their own writing under time. A student can know a text well and still write the same mid-grade paragraph in every answer.

More revision tends to rehearse that paragraph rather than change it. The practice is real; it is being spent on the wrong thing.

What moves a grade is naming the specific move that is missing, and teaching it.

What we prepare students for

AQA and Edexcel

GCSE English Language and English Literature.

IGCSE

IGCSE English Language and Literature routes, including coursework.

Their own set texts

Literature teaching and individual sessions work on the texts your child is actually studying.

Both papers, both subjects

Unseen reading, analytical essays, and descriptive, narrative and persuasive writing.

What your child is taught, and how

The same named frameworks, applied to the demands of the GCSE mark scheme.

PETAL

Literature and analysis

A sustained analytical paragraph that explains a writer’s effect, the skill that separates the higher grades in every literature answer.

VIPERS

Unseen reading

A consistent approach to any extract and any question the language paper sets.

SMAF

Descriptive and narrative writing

Controlled, precise writing that holds together from first line to last.

AFORESTPIE

Persuasive writing

Argument built deliberately, with devices chosen for effect rather than listed.

How the method works
The TJ Tutors standard

Every piece of work your child submits is marked by a TJ-trained teacher and returned within 48 hours, with one named next step.

Most tuition ends when the lesson does. Ours continues in the marking, in writing, so you can see exactly what was said about your child’s work.

Which programme is right for my child?

You do not need to decide.

New families begin with a Complimentary English Diagnostic Assessment.

We assess your child’s current English performance and look closely at what they can already do, where marks are being lost and which areas should be prioritised next.

We then make one clear recommendation based on the evidence in their work.

Mastery

Recommended when a child needs complete English development across comprehension and writing.

£699 | 12 weeks
Mastery Plus (KS3 and GCSE)

Recommended when a student needs individual attention on their own set texts alongside the complete Mastery curriculum.

£995 | 12 weeks
The recommendation is based on what we see in the child’s work. If a higher level of provision is not necessary, we will not recommend it.
Full programme details

How your child starts

Every new TJ Tutors family starts with a Complimentary English Diagnostic Assessment.

  1. 1

    You apply

    A short application telling us about your child, the schools you are considering and what concerns you most.

  2. 2

    Your child completes the assessment at home

    An English assessment matched to their stage. One sitting, nothing to revise.

  3. 3

    We mark it

    Marked by a TJ-trained teacher, the same way every piece of programme work is marked.

  4. 4

    We discuss what we found

    Thirty minutes, online. Strengths first, then what is limiting performance, then what should be prioritised.

  5. 5

    You receive it in writing

    A written findings summary with one clear recommendation and the reasoning behind it.

Questions GCSE parents ask

My child is in Year 11. Is it too late?

No, but the time is shorter, which makes the priorities matter more. The assessment tells you which two or three things are costing the most marks now, so the remaining months go on those rather than on everything.

Do you teach my child’s set texts?

Yes. Tell us the exam board and texts on the application. Mastery Plus adds individual sessions on the student’s own set texts, directed by what their marked work shows.

Are lessons one-to-one?

Lessons are live and taught in small cohorts. Mastery Plus adds individual sessions alongside the complete Mastery curriculum. Individual teaching is not offered on its own.

Should we have started earlier?

Starting at KS3 gives the skills longer to settle, which is why we teach from Year 7. But a Year 10 or 11 student with a clearly named gap can still move, and the assessment is how you find it.

Is the assessment really complimentary?

Yes. We will not recommend a programme for a child whose work we have not seen, and a family deciding whether to spend several hundred pounds is entitled to know what they would be buying and why. If the assessment shows your child does not need a programme from us, we will tell you that, and you keep the findings either way.

We already have a tutor. Is this still worth doing?

Often more so. An assessment from someone who is not currently teaching your child gives you an independent read on whether the work being done is the work that is needed. You are welcome to share the findings with your existing tutor.

Is online teaching as effective as being in a room?

For English, yes, and in one respect better: every piece of written work is submitted, marked and returned in writing, so you can see exactly what was said about your child’s work rather than hearing a summary at the door. Lessons are live and small-group, not recorded content.

Find out exactly where the marks are being lost.

Apply for a Complimentary English Diagnostic Assessment. Your child works at home, we meet for thirty minutes, and the findings are yours to keep.

Apply For A Complimentary English Diagnostic