Most popular Good Schools Guide articles

---

• Secondary school: understanding the 11+

  The 11+ is the entrance exam procedure for getting your brightish little button into a fee-paying or state grammar school. Much of the country abolished the 11+ several decades ago for state schools, but a few local authorities, such as Bucks and Kent, retained a large number of grammar schools and run county-wide entrance tests. In some other areas, such as Barnet and Kingston, a few grammar schools exist in tandem with the comprehensive system found in most of the country. These grammar schools set their own entrance exams. Sixth Form

• Capital Tuition overview

  Review snapsot: Most tutoring is by trained teachers for GCSEs and A levels, with a little (but growing) amount at university level (‘but we hold our hands up if we can’t help, for instance we recently had to turn down a tutoring request from a property development student,’ says Matthew). Specialist subjects currently span biology, chemistry, physics, maths, further maths, English language, English lit, geography, history, RE, philosophy and ethics, psychology, French, Spanish, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, PE, business studies and economics. Small amount of 11+ and 13+ also on offer from non-teacher trained tutors.

• Bruton Lloyd overview

  Review snapshot: "Back in the early noughties, friends Ekaterina Ametistova and Anna Kunitsyna (who met at Moscow State University, where Ekaterina did an MSc in maths and Anna an MSc in physics) spotted a growing demand for tailored tutoring services among local Russian families. ‘Anna has two children and was increasingly hearing about the shortage of tutors available,’ says Ametistova.

• Mentor Education overview

  Review snapshot: ‘The first thing I noticed was how much the owner cared about the tutors, who were nearly all trained teachers,’ recalls Mary. ‘Knowing teachers were poorly paid, she gave them good quality work at a good rate. We became good friends and I bought her out in 2014.’

• Keystone Tutors overview

  Review snapshot: This is the BMW of tutor agencies – wow-factor quality, innovative, always evolving, an authority in the industry. It doesn’t pretend or want to be Ferrari – rich jet-setters and Russian oligarchs aren’t their target market.

---

---