Our 5-step process · In plain English

How we work — every step, in plain English.

Five steps from your first message to a tutor who actually moves your child's grade. No sales calls dressed up as discovery, no surprise charges, no chasing. Here's exactly what happens, in what order, and why.

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  1. Step 01

    Free Trial Lesson

    A real, 30-minute 1-to-1 lesson with a matched specialist tutor — not a sales call dressed up as a trial.

    We start every Legacy relationship with a 30-minute lesson, not a discovery call. Your child meets the matched tutor, works on a real piece of GCSE material from their actual exam board, and you feel the difference between someone reading a script and someone who genuinely understands the subject. No card, no commitment, and no salesperson on a follow-up call trying to close you.

    Before the lesson we ask three things: the subject, the exam board, and a one-line description of where they're stuck ("can't get past a 6 in English Q3", "forgets every required practical the second the topic ends"). The tutor uses that to pick the trial topic — so 30 minutes in, you can already see whether the chemistry, the pace, and the explanation style work.

    What we look for is harder to put on a tick-list: how your child responds to being challenged, whether they switch off when something doesn't click, the techniques they're already leaning on, and where their confidence drops. That's the read we hand back in a short written summary within 24 hours — and the read that shapes everything from Step 2 onwards.

    • 30 minutes, 1-to-1, real GCSE material — not a generic level test.
    • No card needed. No follow-up sales call. No pressure to commit.
    • Written tutor summary within 24 hours of the lesson.
  2. Step 02

    Diagnostic Assessment

    An optional £97 deeper-dive: a written cross-subject report, a 60-minute specialist session, and a 30-minute parent call.

    About a third of parents add the diagnostic at booking. The rest add it after the trial, once they want a fuller picture before committing to weekly lessons. Both routes are fine — the diagnostic is an upgrade, not a gate. The £97 is a flat fee, not a subscription.

    The written diagnostic is the part most parents have never seen before. It's a topic-by-topic gap analysis across the five core GCSE subjects — Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics — showing which specification points your child has internalised, which they can fake, and which are properly missing. It also names the grade they're realistically working at right now (often a grade or two below school's predicted grade), and a recommended pace to close the gap.

    The 60-minute specialist session sits alongside the report — a live 1-to-1 focused on how your child learns: how quickly they absorb new information, which study techniques stick vs. which just feel productive, and what's been quietly burning their revision hours. We end with a 30-minute founder call to walk through findings, target grade and recommended plan — so nothing about Step 3 is a black box.

    Placeholder thumbnail for the sample diagnostic report — final asset pending.Sample coming soon
    Sample diagnostic report — preview pending founder asset delivery.
    • Written gap analysis across Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics.
    • 60-minute specialist 1-to-1 on how your child learns.
    • 30-minute founder call to walk you through the plan.
    See the full diagnostic page →
  3. Step 03

    Personalised Learning Plan

    We pair your child with the right tutor for the long haul — and put the gaps from the diagnostic into a concrete weekly plan.

    The matching is the part most platforms get wrong. We match on subject, exam board, personality, pace tolerance, and the teaching style that will work for your child. A Year 11 aiming for grade 9s in Chemistry needs a different tutor profile to a Year 10 who's quietly given up on Maths — we won't pretend the same person fits both.

    Once the match is made, we build a written plan: which topics get attacked first, in what order, with what exam-technique drills attached. Where the diagnostic exists, that plan is built directly off the gap analysis. Where it doesn't, the plan starts with the trial-lesson notes and gets sharper over the first few weeks as your tutor builds a working picture.

    If the chemistry isn't right after a couple of lessons we swap the tutor — no cost, no awkwardness, no pushback. Roughly 1 in 12 matches goes through a swap in the first month; we'd rather get the pairing right than pretend a marginal one is fine.

    • Matched on subject, exam board, personality and pace — not just availability.
    • Written learning plan tied to the diagnostic gaps (or trial-lesson notes).
    • Free tutor swap if the chemistry isn't right — no awkward conversation.
  4. Step 04

    Parent Feedback Call

    Before any money changes hands for weekly tutoring, we walk you through the plan together — on a real call.

    This step exists because too many parents have been burned by tutoring services that take a deposit, deliver a few generic sessions, and quietly fade away when results don't materialise. Our parent feedback call is the thing that makes the next step a fully informed yes — or, just as legitimately, a no.

    On the call our founder walks you through what we've found, the recommended weekly cadence, the target grade and the realistic timeline to get there. You'll hear plain answers to the awkward questions — is the predicted grade your school's giving you actually defensible? what's the honest probability of moving from a 5 to a 7 by the summer? is weekly tutoring the right intervention for your child right now, or is it actually a focus problem we can't fix?

    If the answer is yes, we lock in a recurring slot and Step 5 starts the following week. If the answer is no, or not yet, we'll say so — and we won't keep emailing you trying to change your mind.

    • Recommended weekly cadence and a realistic target grade.
    • Honest answer on whether weekly tutoring is the right intervention.
    • No pressure-close, no "limited slots remaining" tactics.
  5. Step 05

    Weekly Lessons + 24/7 Support

    Structured weekly 1-to-1 lessons, a shared whiteboard, async messaging between sessions, and a written progress review every six weeks.

    A typical lesson is one hour, 1-to-1, in a fixed weekly slot with the same tutor. Online lessons run inside a shared interactive whiteboard so your child can work problems alongside the tutor in real time — not just watch a screen. In-person lessons follow the same lesson structure where the tutor's geography allows it.

    Between lessons your child has direct messaging access to the tutor for stuck-on-a-question moments. We don't promise instant replies, but realistically most questions get a response within a few hours during the day. Parents have direct access to our founder if anything feels off — pace, fit, or progress.

    Every six weeks the tutor writes a progress review: what's moved, what hasn't, what's planned for the next half-term. That's also the rhythm at which we have an honest "are we on track?" conversation with you. If progress has stalled, we'll tell you and recommend a change — a different tutor, a tighter focus, sometimes a pause. We work to grades, not hours.

    Placeholder thumbnail for the sample tutor lesson plan — final asset pending.Sample coming soon
    Sample tutor lesson plan — preview pending founder asset delivery.
    • Same tutor every week, shared interactive whiteboard, fixed slot.
    • Direct tutor messaging between lessons; founder access for parents.
    • Six-weekly written progress review and an honest "are we on track?" check.
What we don't do

Just as important — the things this process leaves out, on purpose.

  • No canned scripts. Every tutor builds their own lesson off the actual gaps in your child's work, not a one-size-fits-all syllabus crawl.
  • No sales call disguised as a trial. The free trial is a real lesson with the real tutor — not 30 minutes of "let me tell you about our packages".
  • No surprise charges. Weekly tutoring is one transparent fee per lesson; the diagnostic is a flat £97; nothing is auto-renewed without a clear opt-in.
  • No lock-in contracts. Pause or stop with one week's notice. If we have to keep you trapped to keep you, we don't deserve you.
  • No pretending things are going fine when they aren't. The six-weekly review tells you the truth, even when the truth is "we need to change something".

Common questions about the process.

How long does the whole process take to get going?

Most families go from booking the trial to starting weekly lessons within 7–10 days. The trial is delivered within 48 hours, the diagnostic (if added) within a further 72 hours, and weekly lessons start the following week once the parent feedback call is done.

Do we have to do every step in order?

No. The trial lesson is the only essential entry point. Some parents skip the diagnostic and move straight to weekly lessons. Others take the diagnostic but want a few weeks before committing to weekly tutoring. The order above is the most common path, not a fixed pipeline.

What if we don't click with the matched tutor?

Free tutor swap, no awkward conversation. We'd rather rematch in week 2 than have your child sit through six months of lessons with a tutor who doesn't fit. Roughly 1 in 12 matches goes through a swap in the first month — that's the system working as intended, not a failure.

Is the diagnostic compulsory before weekly lessons?

No. About a third of parents add it at booking, a third add it after the trial, and a third skip it entirely and go straight to weekly tutoring. The diagnostic is a depth tool, not a gate.

How are tutors actually matched to my child?

On four things: the subject and exam board, the grade band your child is currently in (which determines pacing and depth), schedule fit, and personality / teaching-style fit based on what we observed in the trial brief. The match is made by our founder, not by an algorithm.

What if progress stalls after a few months?

We tell you, in writing, in the six-weekly review. We then recommend the change — a different tutor, a tighter topic focus, sometimes a temporary pause. Honest is the only mode that actually moves grades; pretending things are going fine when they aren't is how parents end up spending £2,000 on tutoring with no result.

Can we pause or cancel?

Yes. One week's notice, no exit fees, no lock-in. Pause for half-term, pause through a school exam period, or stop entirely — all fine. We'd rather you pause and come back than feel trapped.

Read on

Now you know how it works — let's start.

The whole thing starts with a 30-minute trial lesson. No card, no commitment, no sales follow-up. You'll know within those 30 minutes whether this is the right move for your child.