The diagnostic is the first conversation. It is a phone or WhatsApp call of about 20 minutes. It is not a lesson, and it is not invoiced.
What the call is for
Parents write because a chapter has stalled, a test is close, or the course name on the book does not match what a relative remembers from another school. The call is how we find out which of those is true before anyone pays.
We ask for the school, the grade or year, the subject, and one topic. If you have a photo of the book cover or of the last marked paper, send it. The cover tells us the course. The paper tells us the kind of question the student is meeting. We do not need a code, and we do not need the whole file of the year.
What to have in front of you
Have the student nearby if they are happy to say one sentence about what feels hard. Some families prefer to talk without the student on the first call. Either is fine. What we cannot do is guess the course from the city alone. Two children in the same building in Dubai can be on different books.
Write the time you want in your own city's clock. Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Muscat use UTC+4. Riyadh, Manama, Doha and Kuwait City use UTC+3. Jakarta and Surabaya use WIB (UTC+7). Bali uses WITA (UTC+8). We repeat the hour back in that same clock before anything is booked.
What we decide on the call
By the end of the call we should know three things. First, whether the subject is one we teach. Maths and Physics are the Head of Academy's own subjects. Chemistry, Biology and English are confirmed on the call if a teacher is free. We say so before a paid lesson. Second, which price applies: AED 50 for an expert teacher, or AED 99 for the Head of Academy, or the same two lessons in the currency on the pricing page. Third, a possible hour after school.
If the course is not one we teach, we say that on the call. There is nothing to invoice.
What happens next
If you want to continue, we send the invoice before the paid lesson is placed on the calendar. The lesson is a live video call, in English, one student at a time. We do not come to the house. The website can be read in Arabic or Bahasa Indonesia. The lesson and the WhatsApp reply stay in English.
After a paid lesson you get a short note on the same thread: what was taught, whether the short practice was done, and the next step. That note is a family record. It is not a report from the school.
What the call does not do
It does not enrol the student with an exam board. It does not replace a parent meeting at school. It does not choose Core or Extended, or standard or higher level, if the school has not already entered one. Bring what the school entered. If you are not sure, say so, and we will wait for the book rather than pick a neighbouring course.
Middle school, from Grade 6, is a different page from IGCSE, O Level, A Level and the IB Diploma. Those exam courses follow the year the student is actually in. They are not taught as if they started in Grade 6. In a British school, Grade 6 usually lines up with Year 7, not Year 6.
If the first call shows a gap underneath the chapter
Sometimes the chapter on the timetable is graphs, and the difficulty is the earlier arithmetic the graph needs. We say that on the call. The first paid lessons then spend their time on that earlier idea, with one question that returns to the chapter the class is on, so the student can see why the detour matters. We do not silently replace the school topic with a different course.
If an exam is inside the next few weeks, say the date you were given. We will not invent a date the board has not published. The call can still agree a short run of lessons on the paper style the student will sit, using questions of that kind, and leave the longer repair of older topics for after the paper if you want both.
A simple way to write the first message
You can copy this shape: school, grade or year, subject, the chapter, the city, and the hour you want. Add a photo if you have one. Open the booking page and the same details go into the WhatsApp draft. If WhatsApp does not open, the contact page has the email addresses.