The small-group maths trick: explain it to someone else.

Ask a student whether they understand simultaneous equations and they will say yes. Ask them to explain simultaneous equations to the person next to them and you will find out. This is the whole argument for small-group learning in one move, and it is why our sessions of three or four learners are built around it.

How it runs

A method is introduced through a problem, not a rule — something real enough that the students want the answer. One learner works it with support. Then, before anyone practises, that learner explains the method to the others, in their own words, while the tutor stays quiet. The explanation is nearly always imperfect. That's the useful part. The gaps in the explanation are the gaps in the understanding, and now everyone can see them.

• The explainer learns most: you cannot describe a step you haven't understood.
• The listeners learn differently: a peer's explanation uses the words they'd use themselves.
• The tutor learns what to teach next, with no test required.

Why this is hard to do 1:1

One-to-one learning is excellent for specific gaps and exam deadlines; we say so often. But a single learner has no one to teach except the tutor, who already knows the answer, and both of them know it. Peer explanation needs a peer. That is the one thing a small group has that 1:1 can't replicate — and it is why the lower price per learner isn't the only reason to choose it.

Parents sometimes worry that a group means less attention. In practice it means a different kind: instead of watching a student work, we watch them think out loud. For most learners between eleven and sixteen, that is where the confidence comes from.