A student who's behind in maths can feel it in every lesson. In Stoke, our maths tutors help students close those gaps with focused, weekly sessions tailored to exactly what they need. Whether the problem is percentages, word problems, or test-taking ability, we've seen students move up by a full grade within a term when they get the right support.
A Typical Session
Each session lasts around an hour. The tutor works through concepts with your learner, sets practice problems, and reviews previous work. There's no one-size-fits-all script — sessions are shaped by what the student actually needs that week. For students preparing for GCSEs, we use previous exam papers from AQA to build familiarity with the format. For younger students, we focus on number confidence, mental arithmetic, and problem-solving strategies. Progress is shared with parents so you can see improvement building week by week.
What Your Child Studies
Schools in Stoke typically use AQA or Edexcel for their maths specifications. The educators we work with know both, and they'll match their teaching to whichever syllabus your learner follows. This means practice questions, previous exam papers, and revision materials are all relevant to the exact exam your learner will sit — not generic content from a different board. At St Thomas More Catholic Academy, we're familiar with how topics are sequenced and where students most commonly need extra support.
Grade Improvement
Most students who work with a tutor weekly for a term see a noticeable improvement — typically one to two grades at GCSEs level. We track progress through regular topic tests and past-paper scores. But it's not just about grades: students also develop better problem-solving habits, stronger mental arithmetic, and the confidence to tackle questions they'd previously skip. For parents in Stoke, that shift from "I can't do maths" to "I worked it out" is often the most valuable outcome.
Measuring Progress
Parents in Stoke should be able to see tangible evidence that tutoring is working. After each block of work, the tutor provides a brief update on what was covered, how the learner responded, and what comes next. For exam-level pupils, we track scores on topic tests and timed papers, giving a concrete picture of improvement — not vague reassurances. If progress stalls, we adjust the approach rather than repeating what is not working.
Where Students Get Stuck
The most common areas where Stoke students need maths support are percentages, number work, and geometry and angles. These topics build on each other — a shaky grasp of percentages often leads to problems with ratio and proportion later on. The educators we work with identify exactly where the chain broke and work forward from there. For GCSEs students, we also focus heavily on test-taking ability: showing working, time management, and understanding how marks are allocated on AQA papers.