Online tutoring in Wales

Wales is not a smaller version of the English school system — it is a different system. There is no 11+, there are no state grammar schools, and there is no academic selection at the end of primary school. Children move into a non-selective comprehensive secondary, and the qualifications they eventually sit are set and graded under arrangements that belong to Wales. For families, that means generic England-focused tutoring advice often misses the mark. Good tutoring in Wales starts from what Welsh learners actually study and are assessed against.

A comprehensive, non-selective system

The defining feature of state education in Wales is that it is comprehensive. There is no entry test to pass for a mainstream secondary place, and no equivalent of the 11+ used in parts of England or in Northern Ireland. That removes one familiar source of pressure, but it does not remove the need for support — it simply changes where that support is best aimed.

In practice, the milestones that matter for most families are the qualifications taken in the later secondary years: GCSEs, then A levels or vocational routes, alongside the Welsh Baccalaureate. Because there is no selective gateway earlier on, tutoring in Wales tends to focus on building secure subject foundations and on doing justice to those qualifications when they arrive, rather than on coaching for a single high-stakes entrance test.

Who sets and regulates Welsh qualifications

The main awarding body for Welsh schools is WJEC, known in Welsh as CBAC. For state-funded schools and colleges, WJEC is the sole awarding body across most GCSE and AS/A level subjects, and it offers its qualifications bilingually. The same organisation runs the Eduqas brand in England, but in Wales it is WJEC papers that the great majority of pupils sit. WJEC is a long-established registered charity with more than 75 years’ history of serving Welsh schools.

Sitting above the awarding body is Qualifications Wales, the independent regulator. It oversees the awarding of GCSEs, AS and A levels, vocational qualifications and the Welsh Baccalaureate, and is responsible for the standards those qualifications uphold. A tutor working with a child in Wales should be planning around WJEC specifications and the standards Qualifications Wales maintains — not the specifications of an England-only board.

Welsh GCSEs are graded A* to G

One of the clearest differences from England is grading. GCSEs in Wales are graded on the A* to G scale, whereas England moved its GCSEs to a 9 to 1 numbered scale. Within the Welsh framework, grades A* to C sit at Level 2 and grades D to G at Level 1. This is not a cosmetic difference: it shapes how progress is described in reports, how targets are set, and how families should read past-paper marks and grade boundaries. A tutor familiar with the Welsh system will frame goals in the grades your child’s school actually uses.

The Curriculum for Wales

Alongside the qualifications, Wales has been moving to the Curriculum for Wales. Its roll-out in secondary schools began from September 2022, starting with Year 7 in the first schools and extending year by year as cohorts progressed, with the first qualifications reflecting the new curriculum due to be awarded in 2027. The curriculum is organised around broad areas of learning and a set of cross-cutting skills rather than a long list of separate subjects, which changes how learning is sequenced in the earlier secondary years.

For tutoring, this matters in two ways. First, a tutor needs to meet a child where their school actually is in the transition rather than assuming an England-style scheme of work. Second, the emphasis on skills such as literacy, numeracy and independent thinking lends itself well to one-to-one work, where a tutor can build those capabilities deliberately rather than hoping they emerge.

The Welsh Baccalaureate is changing

Many learners in Wales have worked towards the Welsh Baccalaureate, awarded by WJEC around a central Skills Challenge Certificate that asks students to apply skills through projects and challenges rather than only through written exams. This qualification is now in transition: the National/Foundation Welsh Bacc as a combined award is being made for the last time in summer 2026, and the Skills Challenge Certificate continues afterwards as a standalone qualification for learners starting Year 10 in 2025 and 2026 before it is itself replaced by a new Skills Suite from 2027. At post-16, the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate was already replaced by the Advanced Skills Baccalaureate Wales in September 2023. In practice, this means the exact qualification your child works towards depends on which year they started secondary school — check with the school directly for what applies to your child’s cohort. Tutoring here is less about cramming content and more about coaching planning, research and self-management — the kind of structured, individual feedback that one-to-one sessions are well suited to provide, whichever version of the qualification your child is on.

Welsh-medium and English-medium learning

Wales offers both Welsh-medium and English-medium education, and many families choose schooling through the medium of Welsh. This sits within the Welsh Government’s Cymraeg 2050 strategy, which aims for one million Welsh speakers by 2050 with education central to reaching that goal. For tutoring, the practical point is that a child may be studying some or all of their subjects in Welsh, and support should respect that. The form asks whether your child studies in Welsh or English.

How online tutoring helps in Wales

Online one-to-one tutoring fits the Welsh system well. Lessons happen from home on a shared whiteboard, the tutor sees your child’s working in real time, and sessions target exactly the topics that are holding them back rather than re-covering what they already know. Because Wales has its own awarding body and curriculum, the most useful tutor is one who plans around WJEC specifications, the Curriculum for Wales and the A* to G grades your child’s school uses — not a generic, England-shaped approach.

Tell us your child’s year group, the subjects they need help with, and whether they are studying in Welsh or English. We read every enquiry ourselves and send it to one tutoring partner from our vetted network; their team gets in touch by WhatsApp, text or email to suggest tutors. There are no placement fees, lessons are pay-as-you-go, and there is no obligation if it is not the right fit.