Where potential becomes performance.
TJ Tutors is a specialist English school for families preparing children for selective school entrance and top GCSE grades. Our programmes combine structured live teaching with detailed written feedback.
Apply For A Complimentary English DiagnosticEvery new family begins with an assessment. Findings in writing, whether or not your child joins us.
Specialist English teaching from Year 4 through to GCSE
English only. Taught live, online, in small cohorts, by teachers trained in one method.
Selective grammar and independent entrance. ISEB and GL formats, and the Stage One and Stage Two grammar papers, for schools including St Paul’s, Habs, City, Westminster, Wilson’s and QE Boys.
11+ EnglishThe reading, analysis and writing that GCSE will assume is already secure, built in the years when there is time to build it properly.
KS3 EnglishAQA and Edexcel English Language and Literature, and IGCSE. Precise work on where marks are being lost, on the student’s own set texts.
GCSE EnglishEvery 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.
Nothing is improvised
Children are taught named frameworks explicitly, rather than being asked to infer what a good answer looks like.
Reading and comprehension
A consistent way of approaching any question on an unseen text, from retrieval to inference.
Analytical writing
How to explain a writer’s effect, not just identify a technique.
Descriptive writing
Controlled, precise description that holds together over a whole piece.
Persuasive writing
The devices of argument, used deliberately rather than listed.
Every new TJ Tutors family starts here
Before recommending a programme, we first establish where the child is now.
- 1
You apply
A short application telling us about your child, the schools you are considering and what concerns you most.
- 2
Your child completes the assessment at home
An English assessment matched to their stage. One sitting, nothing to revise.
- 3
We mark it
Marked by a TJ-trained teacher, the same way every piece of programme work is marked.
- 4
We discuss what we found
Thirty minutes, online. Strengths first, then what is limiting performance, then what should be prioritised.
- 5
You receive it in writing
A written findings summary with one clear recommendation and the reasoning behind it.
There is no charge for the English Diagnostic Assessment. Its purpose is straightforward: we assess first, then recommend the programme that the evidence supports.
Apply For A Complimentary English DiagnosticWhich 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.
Recommended when a child needs focused specialist development in either comprehension or creative writing.
Recommended when a child needs complete English development across comprehension and writing.
Recommended when a child needs complete English development alongside additional specialist teaching, individual intervention and closer academic oversight.
Recommended when a student needs individual attention on their own set texts alongside the complete Mastery curriculum.
Families we have taught
Shared with each family’s permission.
The method is written, not improvised
TJ Tutors was founded by Tom Harrop — MA Creative Writing, PGCE, Qualified Teacher Status since 2018, and a trainer of teachers. He wrote the method the school teaches, and trains the teachers who deliver it.
That is why the standard does not depend on which teacher your child has. The frameworks, the marking and the next step are the same.
About the school and the methodQuestions parents ask
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.
Are lessons one-to-one?
Lessons are live and taught in small cohorts. Individual teaching is part of Private Client at 11+ and Mastery Plus at KS3 and GCSE, where it is directed by evidence from the child’s programme work. It is not offered on its own.
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.
Do you teach maths or verbal reasoning?
No. TJ Tutors teaches English only, from Year 4 to GCSE.
My child is in Year 4. Is it too early?
No, and it is the point at which an assessment is most useful. Year 4 is when a gap can be corrected calmly rather than compressed into the year before the exam.
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.
Find out what is currently preventing your child from reaching the level they are capable of.
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