We don't know which exam board our child sits — where do I check?

Easiest route: ask the school's English department, or look at the front of any mock paper — the board (AQA, Edexcel, OCR or Eduqas) is printed across the top. Once you tell us, every past paper and mark scheme we use is the right one for that board. Until then we plan against AQA by default because it's the most common in England.

My child is good at reading but loses marks on the analysis questions — why?

Most common gap we see in GCSE English, and it's almost never about reading ability. The analysis questions reward a precise structure — quotation, technique, effect, link to the wider text — and most students lose marks because they're paraphrasing instead of analysing. We teach that structure explicitly, then drill it on past-paper extracts until it's automatic.

Will the same tutor cover both Language and Literature?

Yes — by default the same English specialist teaches both papers across the week, because the underlying skills (close reading, essay structure, terminology, timed writing) overlap heavily and continuity matters. If a particular text demands deeper subject expertise (e.g. a specialist on a specific Shakespeare or modern text), we'll flag that on the trial-lesson summary and pair accordingly.

How do you mark a practice essay?

To the actual board's mark scheme — not a generic 'looks good' tick. The tutor reads against AO1–AO4, gives a working level with the band descriptor, and writes targeted feedback: which paragraph earned the mark, which one stalled, and the single specific thing to fix. The next lesson opens by re-drafting that paragraph live, so the feedback actually lands.

What if my child hates reading?

Honest answer: it's a real obstacle. We separate two problems — does your child dislike the set texts, or reading in general? For the first, we use targeted summaries, scene-by-scene rebuilds and high-quality audio versions. For the second, we lean harder on the unseen-extract questions on Paper 1, where strong technique can earn a real grade even from a reluctant reader.

Do you cover the poetry anthology?

Yes — fully. The anthology (AQA's Power and Conflict or Love and Relationships, Edexcel's clusters, Eduqas's poetry) is high-leverage because the format is predictable and the mark scheme rewards a specific kind of comparative analysis. We teach a repeatable comparison structure and build a personal short-list of go-to quotations your child can deploy under exam pressure.

GCSE English · Language & Literature · Years 9–11 · Online or in person

GCSE English tutor — essay technique built from scratch.

A matched English specialist who teaches both Language and Literature, marks to the actual mark scheme rather than a generic tick, and tells you honestly which paragraph in your child's essay is costing the grade.

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Related subjects

What your child gets — every week.

Three things that don't show up in generic online English tutoring. Every weekly English student at Legacy gets all three by default — not as a paid upgrade, not as a 'premium tier'.

An English specialist — Language and Literature.

GCSE English isn't one subject, it's two papers each in two subjects. The tutor we match teaches both Language and Literature week in, week out — they know the recurring traps in Paper 1 unseen extracts, the comparison structure the anthology rewards, and the way each board phrases its 19th-century-text questions.

Mark-scheme marking, not a generic tick.

Every practice essay is marked against the actual board's AO1–AO4 descriptors with a working grade band and a single specific thing to fix next. The next lesson opens by re-drafting that paragraph live — so feedback turns into a higher mark, not a filed PDF.

A six-weekly written progress review.

Every six weeks the tutor sends a short written report: what's been covered, which mark-scheme bands have shifted, what's still wobbly, and the recommended focus for the next half-term. You see the trajectory in writing, not just 'the lesson went well'.

Language vs Literature, in plain English

The two subjects, the two papers each, and why the distinction matters.

GCSE English Language and GCSE English Literature are two separate qualifications, sat as two separate sets of papers, and almost every UK English student sits both. Most parents come to us asking about 'GCSE English' — that's normal, and we untangle which subject is causing the worry inside the trial lesson.

English Language tests your child's own writing and their ability to read an unseen text — usually fiction or non-fiction prose — and analyse how the writer makes it work. There are no set books to memorise. The skill being tested is the skill itself: close reading on the spot, structured analysis, and a controlled piece of original writing under timed conditions.

English Literature is about a fixed set of texts: a Shakespeare play, a 19th-century novel, a modern text, and a poetry anthology (with one or two unseen poems on top). The skill being tested is analytical writing about texts your child has studied for a year or more — quotation, context, technique, comparison.

The two subjects share a common spine — close reading, essay technique, terminology, timed writing — which is why one specialist tutor covers both. But the surface differs sharply, and a tutor who treats them as the same subject will leave marks on the table.

Paper 1 / Paper 2 framing

What the four papers actually look like — at a glance.

Across all four major boards the structure is broadly the same: two Language papers and two Literature papers, sat over a roughly three-week window in May and June. Mark splits vary, but the shape is consistent enough to talk about generically before pulling up your child's specific board.

Language Paper 1 is the unseen-fiction paper: a short prose extract followed by a sequence of questions of increasing difficulty, ending with a long original-writing task. Language Paper 2 is the non-fiction paper: usually two contrasting sources from different time periods, with a comparison question and a longer transactional or persuasive writing task.

Literature Paper 1 typically covers Shakespeare and the 19th-century novel, one essay each. Literature Paper 2 covers the modern text, the poetry anthology and the unseen poems. Closed-book conditions apply on most boards, which means the quotation work has to be locked into memory — not improvised on the day. We build that quotation bank explicitly across the year.

Sample-text deconstruction

What an unseen-extract lesson actually looks like in practice.

The most-feared question on GCSE English is the long Language Q3 (or its equivalent on each board): an unseen extract, twenty minutes on the clock, and a question about how the writer has structured the text to interest the reader. Students freeze on it because they've never been taught a repeatable approach — they've been told to 'analyse the structure' without being shown what that means.

Here's how the tutor breaks one down. Read once at full speed, no pen. Read again marking three places where the writer has shifted something: time, focus, narrator distance. Pick two shifts. For each, write a single sentence that names the shift, quotes accurately, and explains the effect in concrete terms — not 'it makes the reader want to read on' but 'it forces the reader to re-evaluate the narrator's reliability now that her account contradicts the earlier paragraph'.

Then we draft a four-paragraph answer live, marked against the real AO2 descriptors as we go. Your child watches the technique build, then drills it on a second extract solo while the tutor watches. By the third lesson on Q3 they have a structure they can deploy under pressure — not a memorised script, a real method.

Coursework vs exam-only

A quick note on controlled assessment — and why it almost certainly doesn't apply.

Worth saying plainly: GCSE English Language and Literature are exam-only across AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas. The old controlled-assessment / coursework component was removed in the 2015 reform and hasn't returned. If your child's school is asking for 'coursework' it'll be either a non-assessed school task (useful but not counted) or the Spoken Language endorsement, which is reported separately on the certificate and doesn't affect the headline grade. We're happy to prep for the endorsement if your child wants — it's a confidence builder rather than a grade lever.

The founder principle

How we build essay technique from scratch — starting with a single paragraph.

Most English tutoring fails for the same reason maths tutoring fails: it covers the syllabus instead of the gap. Your child writes a full essay, the tutor returns a list of comments, your child reads them and writes the next essay with the same problems. Nothing changes because the feedback was too broad to act on.

We start with a single paragraph. Lesson one, the tutor asks your child to write one paragraph of analysis on a passage of the tutor's choosing, then walks through it line by line. Where does it open with a clear point? Where does the quotation slot in cleanly? Where does the analysis name a technique and tie it to the reader's experience? Where does it drift into paraphrase? Your child leaves having rewritten that paragraph three times.

From there we widen out — two paragraphs, then a three-paragraph response, then a timed essay — but the foundation is the paragraph and never gets skipped. By the time your child sits a mock, the technique is automatic.

Pricing snapshot

What it costs — straight numbers, no 'request a quote'.

The free trial lesson is free, no card needed. The optional Legacy Diagnostic is £97 — a written cross-subject audit plus a 60-minute specialist deep-dive. Weekly 1-to-1 English tuition starts from £100 per month with the same specialist tutor every week. No hidden onboarding fees, no platform charges, no minimum-term contracts. Pause or cancel with one week's notice. If progress stalls in the first month, the conversation is with our founder directly — not a customer-service queue.

Free 30-minute trial lesson — no card, no commitment.
£97 optional diagnostic — written report + 60-minute specialist session + 30-minute parent call.
Weekly tutoring — from £100/month, same specialist tutor every week.
No lock-in. Pause or cancel with one week's notice.

GCSE English tutoring — frequently asked.

Ready to see what a specialist English tutor changes?

Thirty minutes, 1-to-1, online. No card needed. You'll know within one lesson whether this is the kind of tutoring that's going to move your child's grade in Language, Literature, or both.

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