Private tuition is now part of normal schooling in the capital. The Sutton Trust's Private Tutoring 2026 report found that 45% of London pupils had received private tutoring, against 27% across the rest of England.
For most parents the question is no longer whether to arrange tuition. It is who to trust with it.
Merit Tutors is a tuition centre built around that question. We teach from three branches in East London, at Forest Gate, Ilford and Plaistow, and online for families further out. We cover KS1 and KS2, 11 plus preparation, GCSE and A level. Every student begins with a free assessment, and every student is taught on their own exam board specification.
This page sets out exactly how we work and why it produces results, so you can judge us properly before you book.
A free assessment before anything else. We find out what your child can and cannot do before we teach them.
Small groups. Group sizes stay low enough for every student to get individual feedback in every session.
Taught on your exam board. AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR and WJEC Eduqas differ. We teach the specification your child is sitting.
Past paper work with real marking. Students answer exam questions and get them marked against the official mark scheme.
Three local branches plus online. Forest Gate, Ilford and Plaistow, with online sessions for families outside those areas.
One centre from KS1 to A level. Families stay with us as children move up, so progress is not restarted every few years.
We did not design our model around what is easiest to run. We designed it around what the research says actually raises attainment.
The Education Endowment Foundation reviews the evidence behind school interventions and reports it as months of additional progress.
|
Approach |
Average impact |
Evidence base |
|---|---|---|
|
About five additional months' progress |
Moderate security, 123 studies |
|
|
About four additional months' progress |
Moderate security, 62 studies |
Small group tuition delivers close to the impact of one to one, at a fraction of the cost to families. That is the model we run, and the EEF is specific about what makes it work.
Group size. The EEF states that "once group size increases above six or seven there is a noticeable reduction in effectiveness." We keep our groups small for exactly this reason. Large classrooms of fifteen or twenty students are not small group tuition, whatever they are called.
Frequency. The EEF finds that "frequent sessions, three times a week or so, lasting up to an hour over about 10 weeks typically show the greatest impact." Our revision courses are built as focused blocks, not open-ended weekly slots that drift through the year.
Targeting. Tuition "is most likely to be effective if it is targeted at pupils' specific needs." This is why we assess first. Teaching a child by year group, instead of by diagnosed need, wastes most of the hour.
Connection to school. The EEF notes that tuition works best "if it is additional to and explicitly linked with normal lessons." We teach your child's specification, alongside what their school is covering, not a parallel syllabus of our own.
Most centres take a booking and put your child in a group. We assess first.
The free assessment shows us where the real gaps are, which is rarely where parents expect. A student struggling with GCSE Physics calculations usually has a maths fluency problem. A student losing marks on A level essays usually knows the content and has never been taught to answer the command word.
The assessment tells us which group your child belongs in, which topics to start with, and what to measure progress against. It costs you nothing and it is the reason our sessions do not waste time on what a student already knows.
This is where generic tuition quietly fails students.
Content, paper structure and mark allocation differ between AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR and WJEC Eduqas. A student sitting Edexcel A level Maths who has spent a year practising AQA papers has been prepared for the wrong assessment. The same applies to GCSE sciences, English and across the subjects we teach.
We ask for the exam board and specification code at the assessment, group students accordingly, and use past papers, mark schemes and examiner reports from that board. Our tutors work from the specification, not from a general textbook.
Tuition centres are out-of-school settings, and the Department for Education publishes guidance for parents on using after-school clubs, tuition and community activities. It tells parents to ask providers for their child protection and complaints policies and the name and training of the safeguarding lead. It also says to ask how staff are recruited and checked, who handles first aid, and how information about your child is stored.
We welcome every one of those questions. Ask us at your first visit and we will answer them in writing. A centre that hesitates over this list is telling you something, and it is worth paying attention to.
If your child is aiming for a selective place, the Redbridge 11 plus is used by Ilford County High School for Boys and Woodford County High School for Girls. Registration takes place during Year 5 for a test sat early in Year 6, the registration deadline falls in June, and eligibility depends on living within the common catchment area. Check the council's page each year, as the exact dates change.
Our Ilford and Forest Gate branches sit within reach of both schools, and our 11 plus preparation starts from the assessment rather than from a standard workbook. Our guide to 11 plus tuition explains what realistic preparation looks like, and our article on choosing the right support for your child covers the decision in more detail.
Travel time decides whether tuition survives past January. A centre forty minutes away is one your child stops attending when the evenings get dark and mock exams arrive.
We teach from Forest Gate, Ilford and Plaistow, which puts most families in Newham and Redbridge within a short journey. Families outside that reach, or who prefer to study at home, get the same model online: assessed first, grouped by exam board, taught in small groups with marked past paper work. Our guide to online tutoring sets out what to expect from a remote session.
Not every centre in London is run the way ours is. Before you book anywhere, watch for these:
Guaranteed grades or guaranteed exam passes. No provider can promise an outcome. Anyone who does is telling you how they sell, not how they teach.
Results claims with no explanation of how they were measured or how many students they cover.
No assessment before your child joins a group.
Group sizes the centre will not state.
No named safeguarding lead, or vagueness about staff checks.
Long contracts with no notice period.
If you are comparing tuition centres in London, start with the assessment. It takes an hour and costs nothing. You get a clear picture of where your child stands and what they need, whether or not you go on to book sessions with us.
Visit us at Forest Gate, Ilford or Plaistow, or arrange an online session, and book your free assessment today.
The strongest tuition is not the most expensive or the most advertised. It is assessed before it starts, taught in small groups, matched to the exam board, and built on marked past paper practice. It is also close enough to home that a student keeps turning up. That is how Merit Tutors has been set up from the beginning, and it is why families across Newham and Redbridge stay with us from primary school through to A level.
We teach from branches in Forest Gate, Ilford and Plaistow, serving families across Newham, Redbridge and the surrounding East London boroughs. Our online sessions are open to families anywhere in the UK.
We cover KS1 and KS2, 11 plus preparation, GCSE and A level, including Maths, English and the sciences. Teaching is matched to your child's exam board and specification.
The EEF puts one to one at about five additional months' progress and small group tuition at about four. The gap is narrower than most parents expect. Group size, frequency and how well teaching is targeted matter more than the format, which is why we keep our groups small.
Your child completes a short assessment before any sessions are booked. It shows us the specific gaps behind the grade, which group they belong in, and what to measure progress against. There is no charge and no obligation.
For the 11 plus, preparation usually begins in Year 5. For GCSE and A level, start early in the final year. That leaves time to find gaps and work through past papers properly, instead of revising under pressure in spring. Book the assessment first and we will advise from there.
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Updated 05-October-2026
