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Owl tutors has reach to Sevenoaks and is particularly good for 11+ preparation. Wise Owl Tutors, based in Rochester, is a small set-up offering on-line or in-person tuition. National chain Fleet Tutors has bases across Kent and is particularly popular. The Right Tuition Company offers tuition in each of the West Kent locales (with the exception of Sevenoaks). West Kent Tutors has become a bit of a local hit, as has Bright Young Things in Tunbridge Wells and Kip McGrath in Tonbridge. To find individual tutors not employed by agencies, one parent said, ‘It’s always worth having a quiet word with a trusted teacher at your child’s school - they sometimes supplement their income by private tuition.’
On-line tutoring has grown in popularity since Covid but you’ll still need to make sure your tutor agency does all the right background checks including interviewing all tutors face-to-face and ensuring an enhanced DBS check; we only review tutor agencies that do this. We also advise only using the more established agencies – again, we only review those that have been going at least two years.
Two words of warning: Pushing a child through tutoring to scrape into an environment in which they may not thrive is a common mistake that parents often live to regret. But if you do go down the 11+ tutoring route, don’t leave it past year 4 to begin.
Need help? Perhaps you suspect your child has some learning difficulty and you would like advice on what you should do. Or perhaps it is becoming clear that your child's current school is not working for him or her, and you need help to find a mainstream school which has better SEN provision, or to find a special school which will best cater for your child's area of need. Our SEN consultancy team advises on both special schools, and the mainstream schools with good SEN support, from reception through to the specialist colleges for 19+. Special Educational Needs Index
Find top international, British, IB and American schools in over 40 countries. The Good Schools Guide International publishes impartial and forthright reviews of international schools across the world.
We examined the value-added from KS2 to GCSE for 2022 to see which state selective grammar schools added the most value to their offspring. A note of caution - the more highly selective a grammar school, the less scope there will be to add value.
Grammar schools are state-funded, academically selective senior schools. The education a child receives at grammar school is paid for by the state unlike at private schools which provide education for a fee. There are currently around 163 located in 36 English local authorities, with around 167,000 pupils between them. Northern Ireland has a further 67 grammar schools, but there are none in Wales or Scotland. A word of caution: there are private schools that have the word 'grammar' in their name but this is purely for historical reasons.
At specialist music, dance or performing arts schools, the arts aren't optional extras. They’re intrinsic to the school curriculum. Students are expected to fit in high level training and hours of practice alongside a full academic provision. It's a lot to ask any child to take on, but for those with exceptional performing ability this kind of education can be transformative.