GCSE English: knowing what to say about what you read
English is the subject where students most often say “but I don’t know what they want from me”. Unlike maths, there is no single right answer — which is exactly why one-to-one help works so well. A tutor can show your child what examiners actually reward, and practise it until writing under pressure stops feeling like guesswork.
Sessioned matches your child with a verified English tutor for one-to-one online sessions across Language and Literature.
Two GCSEs, not one
Nearly all students sit both:
- English Language — reading unseen fiction and non-fiction, then writing: creative, descriptive and persuasive. No set texts. This is the GCSE colleges and employers look for
- English Literature — set texts studied in class: typically a Shakespeare play, a 19th-century novel, a modern text and a poetry anthology, with mostly closed-book exams
Different skills, different revision, one shared foundation: writing analytically at speed.
Exam boards we cover
- AQA (8700 Language / 8702 Literature) — the most widely sat
- Edexcel
- OCR
- WJEC / Eduqas
Set texts and question formats vary by board, so a tutor matched to your child’s board — and their texts — starts useful from session one.
What a session looks like
Sessions run one-to-one over video, 30, 60 or 90 minutes.
A typical session:
- Start from real work — a recent essay, mock answer or class paragraph
- Teach one skill: embedding quotations, analysing language effects, structuring comparison, or planning under timed conditions
- Write together, sentence by sentence where needed, until the skill holds without prompting
- A short note home on what was covered and what to practise
For Literature, sessions also rebuild set-text knowledge — characters, themes, key quotations — because analysis collapses without material to analyse.
Every tutor, properly vetted.
- Identity-checked — we verify who every tutor is before they can teach
- Qualification-checked — degrees and credentials evidenced, not self-declared
- DBS status on every profile — we verify Enhanced DBS certificates ourselves and label each tutor “DBS Verified” or “DBS on file”, so you can see it before you book
Your child never works with a stranger we haven’t vetted.
Clear pricing, no surprises
Tutors set their own rates and keep every penny. You pay the tutor’s rate plus a transparent 20% platform fee, shown before you book.
Frequently asked questions
My child reads well but writes very little in exams — can tutoring help? Yes — this gap between understanding and output is the most common problem in GCSE English. Timed, scaffolded writing practice in a one-to-one setting is precisely what closes it.
Do we need separate tutors for Language and Literature? No. English tutors cover both, and the skills reinforce each other. Sessions can weight towards whichever exam needs more work.
Which set texts do tutors cover? All the major ones — Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls, Jekyll and Hyde and the poetry anthologies among them. Tell us your child’s texts when you request a match.
Is a grade 4 or 5 the “pass”? Grade 4 is the standard pass most colleges and employers require; grade 5 is the “strong pass” used in school performance measures. Students below 4 in English Language must continue studying it post-16 — one reason this GCSE carries so much weight.
Get matched with a GCSE English tutor
Tell us the exam board, the set texts and where the difficulty lies — reading, writing or both. We will hand-match a tutor.