What Polaris Is
For the student
Most math instruction is passive. Polaris is active. You work through problems with peers who are just as motivated, present your thinking out loud, and build the habit of figuring things out before reaching for help. The framework you develop here transfers to every hard problem you face, in math and beyond it.
For the parent
Research on peer effects in academic settings is consistent: the achievement norms of a student’s immediate peer group shape their own. Polaris curates that peer group intentionally. Six students of similar ability and motivation, working together weekly in a structured environment that makes ambition the standard. The result is a student who approaches hard problems with confidence rather than avoidance.
Polaris is not remediation. It is not test prep. It is a thinking community built for students who are ready to go further than their school takes them.
The Framework
Every problem in Polaris is approached the same way. Not because students are required to, because it is modeled every single session, and students absorb it until it becomes their own instinct.
What is this problem actually asking?
Before a student touches a number, they define, in plain language, exactly what they are looking for. Not a vague sense of the answer. A precise statement of what solving it means.
What do I have, and what does it mean?
Students write out what they are given and, crucially, what each piece means in the context of what they are trying to find. This step surfaces misunderstanding before it becomes a wrong answer.
What route gets me there?
Once Find and Given are clear, Solve becomes a question of mapping a path rather than executing a memorized procedure. Different students find different routes. That is exactly the point.
Students who internalize FGS stop asking “what formula do I use?” They start asking “what am I actually trying to find?” That is the shift.
Session Design
Every segment is designed. Every minute has a purpose.
One problem dropped in the chat. Students have 90 seconds to write their first instinct, simultaneously, so no one goes first alone. When answers are revealed, the differences between them become the session's first real question.
Your coach works through the cold open problem using FGS, without naming it. "What are we finding?" "What are we given?" "What routes do we have?" Students drive the answers. Multiple solution paths surface. The framework is absorbed, not assigned.
Students break into pairs. Each pair gets a different but related problem and a shared whiteboard. Twelve minutes to work it through together, then one student from each pair presents their thinking to the group. The thinking, not just the answer.
One problem above grade level. No student is expected to solve it. The frame is explicit: "I want to see how far you get." Students who make one step forward leave with a real win. Students who get stuck experience what it feels like to attempt something genuinely hard. That problem returns next week.
Each student says one sentence: what they figured out today, or what they are still thinking about. Then your coach names next week's arena challenge. Students leave with open loops, which is exactly what makes them want to come back.
The Parent Experience
Not enrichment for its own sake. Outcomes that change how a student approaches hard problems in math and beyond.
A transferable problem-solving framework
FGS (Find, Given, Solve) is not a math trick. It is a structured way to approach any unfamiliar problem: define what you need, map what you have, find the route. Students who internalize it apply it across subjects, standardized tests, and decisions long after the cohort ends.
Confidence with hard, unfamiliar problems
Every session includes a Stretch problem students are not expected to solve. That deliberate, structured exposure to difficulty without stakes builds the tolerance for challenge that separates students who persist from students who shut down when something is unfamiliar.
Stronger academic positioning
Students in honors tracks, competitive programs, or preparing for selective high schools need more than correct answers. They need to explain their reasoning, defend an approach, and adapt when a method fails. Polaris develops exactly that.
Connections to motivated peers
The cohort is curated. Six students of similar ability and drive, matched before the first session. For many students, Polaris is the first academic environment where the people around them take hard thinking seriously. That changes what feels normal.
Weekly post-session parent recap
After each session, parents receive a short written note: what the cohort worked on, who drove a key insight, and what the next challenge is. You stay informed without needing to be in the room.
Cohort Structure
Twelve weeks. Six students. One fixed point to aim toward.
Founding Cohort rate
$200/month
Cohort 3 pricing
$275/month
Spots per cohort
6 students
Every student begins with the Northbound Skills Audit: a diagnostic that maps current mathematical thinking, identifies specific gaps, and informs cohort placement. You receive a written report and a 15-minute live review. This step determines cohort fit, not just grade level.
Four 60-minute sessions per month via Zoom. Each follows the Cold Open, Breakdown, Arena, Stretch, and Send-Off structure. Cameras on. Shared whiteboards during pair work. Peer presentations every session.
Between sessions, one problem is sent to the cohort. No pressure, no grade. Just a question worth thinking about. Over twelve weeks, the students who engage with it (and eventually all of them do) are voluntarily working on mathematics outside of school.
After each session, parents receive a short written note: what the cohort worked on, who drove a key insight, and what next week's challenge is. Parents who know what happened in session ask better questions.
Get Started
Cohorts are small by design. Placement is reviewed individually.
Complete the brief application. Describe your child's current math course and what you are hoping Polaris does for them.
Your child completes a 20-minute diagnostic. Joshua reviews the results and schedules a 15-minute live review with you and your child. This determines cohort placement, and it is useful on its own.
If the fit is right, Joshua places your child in the next available cohort matched to their level. You receive session dates and a parent kickoff call before week one.
Questions
The ones parents ask before they send the intake form.
Still have a question? Email us at hello@northboundtutoring.com.