New 11+ Tutoring Service

Cognita has set up a new tutoring service called Cognita Tutoring for children and parents who are about to tackle the 11+.

The 11+ entrance examination for secondary school, taken towards the end of Year 5 often sees students failing the exam through lack of preparation. Cognita Tutoring is aiming to provide a new 11+ service that will hone in on verbal and non-verbal reasoning – subjects not covered in the national curriculum, but essential for passing the 11+. 

Following a successful pilot during the summer, Cognita Tutoring is now launching fully and will set a new gold standard in online tuition, spear-heading a crucial transition for a previously unregulated industry.

From the UK’s largest independent schools group, Cognita Tutoring believes that fully qualified teachers make the best tutors to deliver truly inspiring online lessons.

These lessons are supplemented with an award-winning intelligent learning platform, CENTURY, which helps to assess every student from the outset and supports progress with personalised learning between sessions.

With a firm focus on working in partnership with parents, tutors keep parents informed every step of the way with regular feedback and online parents’ evenings.

Ian Thistlewood, General Manager for Cognita Tutoring, comments; “We spoke to lots of parents and existing tutors to understand what a gold standard tutoring service would look like for families from across the country. We discovered the tutoring market is like the wild west: it’s unregulated by government, anyone can set themselves up as a tutor regardless of qualifications or experience, and there are massive variances in quality.’

Parents and their children using the new service can be sure that every Cognita tutor is a qualified teacher, is fully background checked, and holds credentials that have been vetted by Cognita, the UK’s largest independent schools group. Each tutor is trained to deliver exceptional online lessons that inspire and engage, and which balance academic attainment with wellbeing and confidence building.  

How does Cognita Tutoring work? 

Each session is tailor-made and costs £55 per student for one-to-one sessions, which can be paid for as you go, however, an initial course of six sessions is recommended. 

The first session is a non-committal free consultation and provides the opportunity for the parent to meet the tutor and the tutor to meet the child.  Thereafter, video feedback is provided to the parent throughout the course, culminating with a mini parents’ evening at the end of the sixth session.

Cognita Tutoring allows parents greater involvement and understanding of their child’s academic skills and specific needs, inspiring the parent as well as their child. Currently, the subjects offered are English, Maths and Science for Year 3 through to Year 11.

Cognita Tutoring recognises the new service will be out of reach for many parents, specifically for deprived and low-income families, but plans are already afoot to create a giving programme in order to address this.