Free parent sessions this October: four 15-minute Tuesdays at 8pm with Julian Dance.Book your spotA small number of Founding Family places are open, for families who want to help shape SideCog.
    SideCog learning platform logo

    SideCog works out what your child actually understands, then teaches from there.

    Personalised teaching for 11 to 16 year olds, built by teachers and aligned to the UK curriculum and GCSE exam boards.

    Start the free 5-minute diagnostic

    No card and no account needed to start. You will see what it finds.

    You think the current in the circuit gets used up. Let's look at that.
    Cogsy, SideCog's learning companion
    I'm not going to hand you the answer. You're closer than you think.
    For learners aged 11 to 16Aligned to the National Curriculum and the main exam boardsBuilt by teachers

    “He works so hard. Why isn't it showing?”

    Most parents can tell when something is not right. Far fewer can tell what it is.

    A report says working hard. A revision guide gets bought. The hours go in, the grades stay where they were, and nobody can say why.

    The reason is usually specific, and usually invisible from the outside. A missing idea from two years ago. A misunderstanding that quietly took hold. Or a child who has stopped believing they are any good at it.

    Grade
    Hours of revision

    A wrong answer is not one thing.

    The same mistake can mean four different things, and each one needs a different response.

    A gap.

    Something was never learned properly in the first place.

    A misconception.

    Something was learned, and learned wrongly.

    Low confidence.

    The understanding is there. The willingness to use it is not.

    Rushing.

    The knowledge was fine. The reading of the question was not.

    SideCog works out which it is, and teaches accordingly.

    A class has to move on. This does not.

    In a room of thirty, a lesson has a timetable to keep. That is where most gaps start.

    Here, a wrong answer does not reveal the answer and does not move on. Your child gets a nudge towards the thinking, then the specific step, then the method, and does the work themselves at every stage.

    If it still is not right, it comes back. Not once, but on a schedule, until they get it right in a form they have not seen before.

    And nobody watches them get it wrong. In a class of thirty, being wrong is a public event. Here it is not.

    SideCog lesson showing a light nudge, a strategy shift, and the retry and next hint buttons

    A chatbot waits to be asked.

    Your child has to know what they do not understand in order to ask about it. The ones who need help most are exactly the ones who cannot.

    A chatbot

    Waits to be asked.

    Answers whatever is put in front of it.

    Knows nothing about your child, their exam board, or what they got wrong last time.

    SideCog

    Decides what comes next.

    Knows what they are studying, and what they got wrong last time.

    Works inside a closed environment with no access to the open internet, so every conversation stays on the learning.

    An answer finishes the homework. Understanding finishes the exam.

    How it works

    1

    The diagnostic. Eight questions, five minutes, written by qualified teachers. No account needed to start.

    2

    The report. Where the gaps are, what caused them, and what they will affect next.

    3

    The teaching. Cogsy, your child's learning companion, teaches what comes next and adapts as they work.

    4

    Your dashboard. What has been understood, what has not, and what is being done about it.

    Cogsy accompanying the four SideCog steps

    You will know more than “he's doing fine.”

    Your dashboard shows the topics your child has understood, the gaps still open and which of them matter most, and what SideCog is doing about each one.

    It is not a transcript of every wrong answer and it is not another grade. It is the specific thing to ask them about on the way home.

    Look around the parent dashboard
    Example of the SideCog parent dashboard

    Built by teachers who spent twenty years watching this happen.

    20 years

    in the classroom

    Julian Dance, co-founder and Head of Big Ideas

    Taught secondary science before building SideCog, after seeing too many students give a right answer for the wrong reason and carry the gap into their GCSEs.

    30 years

    in education

    Gareth Moores, Educational Lead

    Teaching, school leadership and teacher training, including work with vulnerable learners and in specialist settings.

    SideCog is not a technology company that hired an education adviser. The teaching came first.

    Meet the team

    7 days

    Free. Everything included.

    Every subjectUp to two childrenNo card
    Start the free 7-day trial

    After that, keep a free account with five minutes of learning a day, or go unlimited for £39.99 a month including VAT. Cancel whenever you like.

    See everything that is included
    Cogsy running

    We are also keeping a small number of Founding Family places open, for families who want to help shape SideCog as we grow. £9.99 a month for three months, then £19.99 for as long as you stay, including VAT.

    See what Founding Families get

    Find out what is actually going on, in five minutes.

    Start the free 5-minute diagnostic

    No card and no account needed to start.

    Latest from the SideCog blog

    Teaching, revision and exam guidance written by the teachers behind SideCog.

    Read the SideCog blog

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