Private Tutors in Nottingham
No grammar schools — so the pressure lands elsewhere
Nottingham is the city most national tutoring sites get wrong, because they assume an 11+ that does not exist. There are no state grammar schools in Nottingham or anywhere in Nottinghamshire. Selection has not disappeared, though — it has moved. It sits in the entrance papers of a small group of independent schools, and in the catchment boundaries of a handful of very good comprehensives, which is why a West Bridgford postcode carries a price premium that has nothing to do with the house.
None in the county
State grammars
Independent 11+
Selection happens at
2 major
Universities
£28–42/hr
Typical GCSE rate
Local knowledge
What you are actually preparing for in Nottingham
Independent-school entrance at 11+
Nottingham High School — co-educational throughout since 2015 — and Nottingham Girls’ High School, part of the Girls’ Day School Trust, are the two dominant academic independents, each setting its own 11+ papers in maths and English with an interview alongside. Trent College at Long Eaton draws from the western suburbs and into Derbyshire. Because each school writes its own paper there is no single syllabus to work to, which makes past papers and a school-by-school plan far more valuable here than generic 11+ workbooks.
Catchment, which is the real selection
With no grammars, admission to the most sought-after state schools is decided largely by distance, and families organise their lives around it. West Bridgford School and Rushcliffe School in Rushcliffe, The Becket School, Nottingham Emmanuel, Fernwood and Toot Hill at Bingham are the names that come up again and again. The tuition that matters in these schools is not entrance preparation at all — it is keeping up inside a high-attaining cohort, where a child who would be comfortably above average nationally can feel like they are struggling.
Two universities, and what that gives you
The University of Nottingham at University Park and Nottingham Trent University between them host one of the largest student populations in the UK. For tutoring that means an unusually deep bench of specialists in exactly the subjects that are hardest to staff — further maths, physics, medicine and pharmacy for UCAT candidates, and law for the LNAT. It also means a city genuinely used to academic work, which changes the conversation with a teenager.
Where Nottingham quietly needs the most help
Attainment across the city is uneven in a way the headline school rankings hide. In Bulwell, Aspley, St Ann’s and Clifton the useful work is rarely entrance preparation — it is GCSE maths and English at grade 4, the threshold that decides whether a sixth-form or college route opens at all. That work is less glamorous than an 11+ pass and it changes more.
Schools named here are for orientation — we are not affiliated with any of them, and we do not claim results at them. Admissions criteria and test dates change every cycle, so always confirm the current year directly with the school or the local authority.
Coverage
59 areas across Nottingham
Grouped the way Nottingham actually works rather than alphabetically, because the reason an area is on this list matters more than the name. Each group says what families there are usually preparing for.
West Bridgford & Rushcliffe
11 areasThe most tuition-dense part of the county, and not because of an 11+. Families here are inside strong, high-attaining schools and want their child holding position in a top set — plus the Nottingham High and NGHS entrance papers.
West Nottingham & Beeston
11 areasUniversity Park sits on the doorstep, so this is the easiest part of the city to staff with genuine subject specialists. Wollaton and The Park Estate lean independent; Beeston and Chilwell are a mix of both routes.
North & east Nottingham
11 areasMapperley Park is quietly one of the city’s most academic postcodes and feeds Nottingham High steadily. Carlton, Gedling and Arnold are predominantly GCSE and A Level work in large comprehensives.
Inner city
9 areasWhere a good tutor changes the most. The brief here is overwhelmingly grade 4 in GCSE maths and English — the pass that decides whether college is even an option — and confidence rebuilding after a difficult couple of years.
North-west & outer
11 areasBulwell, Aspley and Bilborough have the largest attainment gaps in the city and the fewest tutors working in them. Hucknall and Kimberley reach north into the old coalfield towns.
South Nottingham
6 areasClifton is one of the largest estates in Europe and sits right next to NTU’s Clifton campus — a rare case where tutor supply and need are within walking distance of each other.
Not on the list? It makes no difference to whether we can teach your child — lessons are online, so there is no radius and no travel time to work around. These areas are here because what a family is preparing for genuinely changes between them, not because one is in reach and the next is not.
What Nottingham asks us for most
- Nottingham High and NGHS 11+ entrance papers
- GCSE maths and English at the grade 4 threshold
- Top-set consolidation in Rushcliffe schools
- A Level further maths, physics and chemistry
- UCAT and medicine applications
- Year 6 to Year 7 transition, especially in maths
The dates that actually matter
Autumn, Year 5
Registration for independent-school 11+ assessments. Each school runs its own dates — check every one you are applying to.
January, Year 6
Nottingham High School and NGHS entrance papers and interviews.
31 October
National secondary school application deadline — the one that matters for catchment places.
1 March
National Offer Day. Distance-based allocations are decided here.
May–June
GCSE and A Level examination series.
Typical rates in Nottingham
What families in Nottingham are usually quoted, per hour, for one-to-one lessons. Your own rate is confirmed in writing before a first lesson — no joining fee, no compulsory package, no tie-in.
Boards & stages
Tell us which board the school entered your child for — it changes the set texts, the required practicals and the command words.
Every tutor in Nottingham clears the same checks
Nobody comes to your home
Every UK lesson is online. No adult we introduce you to is ever in the same room as your child, and no address of yours is ever given to a tutor. That is the single biggest thing that changes the risk, and it is worth being plain about rather than burying it.
A lesson you can walk into at any moment
Lessons are held on a link the parent holds too. You can join, sit in, or watch any lesson unannounced, from the first one to the last, and you never have to explain why.
No private channel to your child
Tutors do not get your child’s number, email or socials. Scheduling, rescheduling and progress notes all run through you — so there is no route by which an adult ends up in a one-to-one conversation with a child outside a lesson.
Nottingham families
Tell us the year group and we will tell you straight
Lessons are online and running now, so a person reads this and answers it properly: whether we have a teacher who genuinely covers your child's subject and exam board, or that we do not. Your area in Nottingham does not come into it.
Useful to include: the school, the exam board where you know it, and what the last report actually said. It is the difference between a good match and a guess.
Or email uk@thehometuitions.com.
Nottingham — questions parents ask
Is there really no 11+ in Nottingham?
There are no state grammar schools in Nottingham or in Nottinghamshire, so there is no local authority 11+ selection test. There is still an 11+ in the sense that matters to parents: the independent schools each set their own entrance papers. If a site offers you “Nottinghamshire 11+ grammar preparation”, it does not know the county.
So how do we get into a good state school here?
Largely by where you live, which is why catchment maps and published admission distances are worth more than league tables in Nottingham. Check the actual cut-off distance a school used in recent years, not just its catchment area, and read its oversubscription criteria in order — they differ between community schools, church schools and academies.
Can you help with Nottingham High School entrance?
Yes. Because the school writes its own papers, the work is specific: its past papers, the maths topics it reaches into beyond the Year 6 curriculum, written composition under timed conditions, and honest interview practice. That is a different job from generic 11+ reasoning drill, and preparing for the wrong one is the usual mistake.
Do you cover Beeston, Long Eaton and the Derbyshire border?
Yes — and Long Eaton is in Derbyshire, which matters more than it sounds. It is a different local authority with its own admissions timetable and criteria, so a family on that border is working to two sets of rules. We will tell you which one applies to you.
