Decide which of four jobs you are hiring for before you look: repairing a weakness, teaching reasoning, imposing a routine or rehearsing the test. Atom Learning publishes a Birmingham band of forty to sixty pounds an hour. Ask five questions first, and check the free routes.
Decide what the tutor is for before you look for one
Most families start by asking who is good. It is the wrong first question, because without a job to do an hour a week can end up repeating what the child could already do, and neither you nor the tutor will have a way of noticing.
There are only four jobs a tutor is usually being hired to do, and they need different people.
- Repair a specific weakness.Fractions have never made sense; comprehension answers are guesses. This is teaching, it is finite, and it often takes six sessions rather than a year.
- Teach an area nobody teaches.Verbal and non-verbal reasoning are not on the school timetable, so somebody has to introduce the formats. Cheap to fix and easy to do badly.
- Impose a routine.The work is understood and it is not happening. A tutor here is buying accountability, which is real, and expensive per unit of accountability.
- Rehearse the test.Pacing, section timings, answer sheets, stamina across two papers. A tutor can do this and many do not, because it is not what an hour of conversation is naturally for.
Write down which of the four you are buying before you contact anybody. It changes who you should hire, how long for, and whether you need one at all.
What should you ask an 11 plus tutor in Birmingham?
Five questions, and the answers to the last two matter most.
Which test, in what format. A tutor preparing children for a paper-based, multiple-choice test with a separate answer sheet is preparing for the arrangement this region sits. One who talks only about reasoning, or about assessments taken on a screen, may be describing a different system. Our page on the difference between the two sets out why that matters.
The DBS certificate. Ask to see it, and be aware of what the system does and does not do for a self-employed person. GOV.UK states that a criminal record check can be requested by “an employer, a voluntary organisation, a third-party organisation acting on behalf of an employer or voluntary organisation to manage DBS applications and checks”. Source: GOV.UK, criminal record checks for applicants, checked 6 September 2026. A tutor working through an agency will usually have one arranged that way; an independent tutor may hold a certificate from previous employment. Either way, seeing the certificate is the check, not being told it exists.
What changed in 2026. The Department for Education’s safeguarding guidance for after-school clubs, community activities and tuition, published in February 2026, states that “following regulatory changes in 2026, individuals who are self-employed and undertaking regulated activity, can now apply for an Enhanced with Barred Lists DBS check on their own behalf”. A weekly tutor sits inside that document’s own description of regulated activity. The same guidance adds that checks “should be regarded as a snapshot of a person’s criminal or police record, and/or barred list status, at a particular point in time”, so the date on the certificate matters as much as the certificate. Source: Department for Education, safeguarding guidance for providers, checked 19 September 2026. 11 plus tutor near me takes that check, and evidencing qualified teacher status, question by question.
Whose material, checked by whom. Photocopies of a workbook from a decade ago are common. So is excellent material written by the tutor. Ask, and look at a page of it.
What you will be told. Ask what you will receive and how often, and agree it before the first session. A verbal “she did well today” at the door is easy to give and hard to act on, so ask for something you can compare from one month to the next.
When to stop. A tutor who can describe the point at which your child would no longer need them is a tutor thinking about your child. One who cannot is describing an open-ended arrangement.
What are the warning signs?
None of these makes somebody a bad teacher. All of them are worth a second question.
- A guarantee of a place. Nobody can offer one. Places are decided by standardised scores against a cohort and by oversubscription criteria set by schools, and no tutor controls either.
- Past papers for this test. None is published for the shared West Midlands arrangement, so anything offered as one is a reconstruction. That is fine if it is described honestly and a problem if it is not.
- A conversion from a practice percentage to a standardised score. There is no cohort behind a home paper, so there is no conversion. It cannot be done.
- Group sessions described as one-to-one pricing. Ask how many children are in the room. Both formats are legitimate; the price should differ.
- Two hours a week with no assessment first, whatever the year. A tutor who has not found out what your child can already do is selling hours rather than teaching.
- Pressure about how late you have left it. Urgency is a sales tool. It is also, occasionally, true, which is what makes it effective.
What do 11 plus tutors in Birmingham charge?
One public source publishes a Birmingham band, and it is the one below. The figures are what was published on 6 September 2026, which is the cycle a family aiming at 2027 entry is budgeting against. A second set of bands used to sit here, attributed to a tutoring marketplace; that article is no longer at the address this page cited, so the figures have been removed rather than left standing on a page nobody can now read.
Atom Learning, in its own article on the cost of 11 plus tutoring published on 27 August 2026, states that private tutors in the UK charge “between £40 and £80 per hour” for one-to-one sessions, gives “£40-60/hr” for the Birmingham, Trafford and Lincolnshire band, and puts the annual cost in the Birmingham area at “£2,000-3,000”. The same article gives a national twelve-month figure of “approximately £2,750” for about fifty weekly sessions at around £55 an hour, and describes “a realistic all-in cost for a tutor-led preparation programme for one child” as “£3,000-5,000”. Source: Atom Learning, the cost of 11 plus tutoring, checked 6 September 2026.
Free account with a free Starting Assessment. Full version £24.99 a month for a limited time, usually £49, locked in for as long as you stay a member.
| What is priced | Published figure | Published by |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-one, across the UK | “between £40 and £80 per hour” | Atom Learning, 27 August 2026 |
| The Birmingham band | “£40-60/hr” | Atom Learning, 27 August 2026 |
| A year of weekly sessions, Birmingham area | “£2,000-3,000” | Atom Learning, 27 August 2026 |
| A tutor-led programme, all in | “£3,000-5,000” | Atom Learning, 27 August 2026 |
Tax-Free Childcare can take a fifth off a registered provider’s fee. GOV.UK states that “for every £8 you pay into the account, the government will top it up by £2”, capped at “£500 every 3 months (up to £2,000 a year)” and at “£1,000 every 3 months if your child is disabled (up to £4,000 a year)”. The same page says a parent will “usually need to be working” and that the child must be “11 or younger”, and that “your childcare provider must be signed up to the Tax-Free Childcare scheme”. An independent tutor normally is not, so it is a question to ask rather than an assumption to make. At least one Birmingham tuition centre already prices for it. Source: GOV.UK, Tax-Free Childcare, checked 19 September 2026. The remaining conditions are on that page and are not summarised here. 11 plus tutor near me sets out which kinds of local provider publish a figure for it.
The fuller breakdown, including what drives the price and the cheaper routes, is on our 11 plus tuition cost page.
Want a daily plan and a parent view while you decide? Create a free account, and the Starting Assessment gives you a level to brief a tutor with if you hire one.
- Two complete papers in the published format
- Answer sheets and worked answers
- Sent to your inbox in a minute
Sit one before you hire anybody. A tutor briefed with a real result is a tutor who starts in the right place.
Check your inbox
We have sent a confirmation link to the address you gave. Your practice paper pack arrives as soon as you confirm.
Not there in a minute? Check spam/promotions. If it still has not arrived, email info@pathwayeleven.co.uk and we will send it again.
Check your inbox
Your practice paper pack is on its way to the address you gave. It arrives as a link, so you can open it on whichever device you would rather print from.
Not there in a minute? Check spam/promotions. If it still has not arrived, email info@pathwayeleven.co.uk and we will send it again.
Written and reviewed by a qualified teacher, for the West Midlands exam.
Your first name and address are used only for these emails. Privacy Notice.
Does searching for an 11 plus tutor near me in Birmingham narrow the field?
Less than it did, and more than families expect for one specific reason.
Harborne, Edgbaston, Sutton Coldfield and Solihull carry most of the demand, and our impression is that this shows up as availability rather than quality, with the better-known tutors in those areas booked further ahead than a family expects. We have no published figure for that and would rather say so than dress an impression as a market fact. If you intend to use a tutor, ask about availability early, and treat any pressure about how late you have left it as a sales line until it is evidenced.
It is also worth being clear about what the tutoring is aimed at. Most families using a Birmingham tutor are preparing for the King Edward VI grammar schools: Five Ways, Camp Hill Boys, Camp Hill Girls, Aston, Handsworth and Handsworth Wood Girls, together with Sutton Coldfield and the Bishop Vesey and Queen Mary schools nearby. They all take the one shared test, so a tutor preparing for that format is preparing for all of them at once. The Birmingham 11 plus sets out the schools and how the places are allocated.
Online tuition removes the travel and widens the field, at the cost of the thing an in-person session does best, which is noticing that a child has stopped concentrating. Whichever you choose, remember that the test itself is sat at an allocated centre: the King Edward VI Foundation states that “you will not have the option of choosing where your child sits the entrance test”, so proximity to a school buys nothing on the day. Source: King Edward VI Foundation, entrance test information, checked 6 September 2026.
One route worth knowing about before you spend anything: Bishop Vesey's Grammar School publishes an offer of free 11 plus preparation and key stage 2 support for pupil premium pupils on its Year 7 admissions page, and links from there to its own page about the scheme. Source: Bishop Vesey's Grammar School, Year 7 admissions, checked 6 September 2026. If your family is eligible, that is worth reading before any paid arrangement.
Searching from outside the city changes the answer again. 11 plus tutor near me covers the five kinds of result a local search returns, what each one publishes, and the point at which near me quietly becomes online.
Where Pathway Eleven fits beside a tutor
Honestly: for some children it replaces the tutor, and for others it makes the tutor cheaper. Both are fine outcomes and we would rather say which is which.
Pathway Eleven gives each child a personalised daily plan of revision, guided teaching and timed practice, built from a Starting Assessment across the four areas the consortium names, with every question reviewed and approved by a qualified teacher before it is released. Full mock rehearsals are part of the full plan rather than the free account, and they unlock from Year 4. It runs from Year 3 to the test, and the account and the Starting Assessment are free.
Against the published Birmingham rate of £40 to £60 an hour, one hour a week is roughly £170 to £260 in four weeks before materials. So the comparison is not close on price. What a tutor gives that we do not is a person in the room: judgement in the moment, a relationship, and somebody a child will work for on a bad evening. That is worth paying for, and it is worth paying for on purpose rather than by default.
The arrangement we see working most often is both, with the tutor's hour spent on the one thing the daily plan has flagged rather than on whatever was next in the workbook. Our fuller comparison sets the two side by side, and preparing without a tutor makes the case for going it alone where that is the right answer.
Questions parents ask about 11 plus tutors
How much does an 11 plus tutor cost in Birmingham?+
Atom Learning publishes a Birmingham band of forty to sixty pounds an hour, a UK one-to-one range of forty to eighty, and a year of weekly sessions in the Birmingham area at two to three thousand pounds. A second publisher’s bands used to sit here; the article they came from is no longer at the address this page cited, so they have been removed rather than left standing. Every published figure we could find, with the annual totals, is set out on our 11 plus tuition cost page.
When should we start looking for a tutor?+
Earlier than most families do, if you intend to use one at all. Our impression is that demand in Harborne, Edgbaston, Sutton Coldfield and Solihull runs ahead of supply, though we have no published figure for it. Ask about availability when you first make contact rather than assuming a place will be there.
Do we need a tutor to pass the 11 plus?+
No, and plenty of children are offered places without one. What every child does need is the reasoning formats introduced, the mathematics that school has not reached yet met early, and enough timed practice that the format is not new. A tutor is one way to arrange that and not the only one.
Should the tutor be DBS checked?+
Ask to see the certificate rather than asking whether one exists. GOV.UK sets out that a check is requested by an employer, a voluntary organisation or a third party acting for one, so a certificate may come from an agency or from previous employment. Since the 2026 regulatory changes, a self-employed tutor in regulated activity can also apply for an enhanced check with the barred lists on their own behalf, so ask for the certificate and look at its date.
Is online tuition as good as in person?+
It depends on the child rather than on the format. Online widens the field and removes the travel; in person is better at noticing when a ten-year-old has quietly stopped concentrating. The test venue is allocated rather than chosen, so being near a particular school buys nothing on the day.
What does a search for an 11 plus tutor near me in Birmingham return?+
Five different kinds of result, and each one prices in a different unit: individual tutors on a marketplace, agencies, tuition centres running group classes, online-only platforms, and the free routes a school or a charity publishes. None of them tells you from the listing which is teaching this region’s paper-based, multiple-choice format, which is the thing worth asking first.
Can we use Pathway Eleven and a tutor together?+
That is the arrangement we see working most often. The daily plan and its parent view show what to work on, so the tutor's hour is spent on the one thing that needs a person rather than on whatever came next in a workbook.
Where to go next
- 11 plus tutor or an online course?, what each one really buys before you hire anybody.
- 11 plus tuition cost, the published figures and what drives them.
- Pathway Eleven or an 11 plus tutor?, the six decisions a parent is really making.
- 11 plus preparation without a tutor, what a parent can do well at home.
- 11 plus mock exams in Birmingham, centres against timed mocks at home.
- The Birmingham 11 plus, the schools, the test and the dates.
- Birmingham 11 plus standardised scores, the published thresholds.
- Two full papers with their mark schemes, and a short sample paper, all free to the email address you give.
- What Pathway Eleven costs, one plan, every subject.
A Starting Assessment tells you what a tutor would spend the first month finding out. See the plan and its price inside your free account.
Where each Birmingham figure was read, and when
Every outside figure and quotation on this page was read at its own published address on 6 September 2026, except the Department for Education guidance and the Tax-Free Childcare page below, which were read on 19 September 2026. We do not recommend any tutor or tutoring business: where a page of ours names one, it is the source of a published figure and nothing more.
- Atom Learning, the cost of 11 plus tutoring, published 27 August 2026, the UK hourly range, the Birmingham band, the annual figures and the all-in range. Checked 6 September 2026.
- GOV.UK, criminal record checks for applicants, who may request a check. Checked 6 September 2026.
- Department for Education, after-school clubs, community activities and tuition: safeguarding guidance for providers, February 2026, the 2026 self-employed enhanced check and the snapshot caveat. Checked 19 September 2026.
- GOV.UK, Tax-Free Childcare, the top-up, the quarterly caps, the working and age conditions and the provider sign-up rule. Checked 19 September 2026.
- King Edward VI Foundation, entrance test information, that families do not choose the test venue. Checked 6 September 2026.
- Bishop Vesey's Grammar School, Year 7 admissions, free 11 plus preparation and key stage 2 support for pupil premium pupils. Checked 6 September 2026.