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Best tutors in Wimbledon

Private tuition in Wimbledon seems to be growing in popularity, a development explained by the fact that the competition for selective schools appears to be growing year on year and parents feel that tutoring can maximise their child’s chances of success.
A bridge over Beverley Brook, Wimbledon Common
Beverley Brook, Wimbledon Common

Of course, schools try to discourage the practice but seem to be fighting a losing battle. Stories of some children seeing three or four different tutors, attending multiple tuition centres or logging in to numerous online classrooms each week in the year or two leading up to the 11+ are not apocryphal.

Destination schools try to develop assessments that do not give any advantage to pupils who have been tutored but it is hard to prove whether this is working and, while there is evidence that the brightest children do secure places at the more academic schools without the extra input, it is hard to convince parents not to jump on the tutoring bandwagon ‘just in case’. 

Tuition centres and group tutorials are relatively cost-effective options but can lack the personal touch. In Wimbledon, Kumon and Mathnasium are both popular options for developing the numeracy of children of all ages. Meanwhile, there has been a huge growth in the number of agencies that appear to offer everything from one-to-one lessons, online tutorials, webinars, mock entrance exams, interview practice, half term and holiday revision sessions and intensive summer courses (sometimes lasting for three weeks). They also offer access to a range of other resources, including practice papers, to support learning across the age ranges but especially in the build-up to the 7-plus, 11-plus and 13-plus. The cost of some of these provisions can be eye-watering. Two – Examberry and The OxBridge Centre – have tuition centres in local schools (Hollymount and King’s College) while Yellowbird Education offers workshops and mock exams in Fulham. Owl Tutors and Mentor Education focus more on providing qualified teachers for one-to-one online and in-home tutoring. 

By far the most popular form of tutoring is to secure the services of one of the numerous teachers (existing and retired) who offer one to one tuition either in their own or their pupils’ homes. It can be hard, however, to track down the most successful of these as parents are often reluctant to share contact details with the perceived opposition. Certainly, people wait until their youngest child has dispensed with the services of an effective tutor before sharing information about them and passing them on to the next cohort.