The Tutoring Centre Situation in Woking, Surrey

Several names come up for the Google search: "tutoring centres in woking". Explore Learning & KUMON are the obvious heavyweights that pop up. Then there is First Class Learning, a relatively smaller chain of study centres.

We all know how well-established KUMON, Expore Learning, & First Class Learning are...for years they have been the go-to centres for concerned parents. About 6 months ago, during my time teaching at a local school in Woking, I came across a few parents who asked me to recommend a tuition centre. I obviously named the three mentioned above but was informed that they have been tried, tested, and rejected. Sure, some parents are quick to criticize teachers or tutors for their children's failures but the reasons given to me seemed quite legitimate: crowded classes, random worksheets/tasks, and most importantly, the lack of qualified teachers present at any given centre. Some centres market their so-called 'independent learning skills', which sounds nice and definitely should be an option. But to some parents, it is simply saying "we will give your child a couple of sheets and let him/her figure them out." Astronomical fees associated with such services don't exactly help either.

6 months after that parents' evening, here we are: an affordable tuition centre with small class sizes & qualified staff. The name itself (Licensed Tutors) was inspired from the fact that we are the only tutoring service around for miles that guarantee licensed educational practitioners with CRB/DBS background checks. All teachers and TAs are currently employed by state or independent schools in the UK; getting such staff was the primary challenge when starting this service. Another distinguishing feature of the learning centre is that it provides monthly reports and communicates intimately with school teachers regarding pupils' deficiencies so that tutoring is always hitting the mark, along with being relevant to classroom learning in school. One-on-one service is available at a premium rate but a 1:4 ratio for classes has been received quite well by parents. At the moment, we only run on Saturdays from 1:15pm to 3:15pm but increasing demand is prompting us to extend the hours. Let's see where we are in another 6 months!