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Hope Learning offers expert, high-quality tuition in English and Maths to students globally. Our experienced tutors offer personalised online tutoring sessions that cater to the individual learning needs of each student. We aim to enhance academic performance, boost confidence, and nurture a love for learning in every student we work with.

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Traffic Jam Tutor is back! 🚗 🚙 🚐 🚛

As I sit on the gridlock of Greater Manchester’s roads, I’m reflecting on my week in tuition ahead of Year 11 mocks.

#tuition #englishtutor #exam #advice #parents

🚩 Have you ever been let down by someone you trusted even though you spotted a few ‘red flags’ that signalled they might not have been trustworthy?🚩

🧠 Neuroscience research* shows that our brains are hard-wired to trust others - it’s part of human nature - a social survival instinct for our species. 🙏🏼

💔 However, a betrayal of trust can short-circuit our neurobiology and make it difficult to trust again.

With such high stakes, it’s perhaps not surprising to realise that trust is central in the tutor-student relationship.

When trusting someone, two specific regions of the brain are activated; these areas are associated with positive social value and reward. 🏆

So, get trust right and more of the brain is fired up for learning. ✨

When trust is established and embedded in my lessons, these are the effects I notice in my students:

✅ Confidence soars - the confidence to ask questions, the confidence to take risks, the confidence to make mistakes; all, ultimately, create curious and successful learners.

✅ Reciprocal Respect - a mature and mutually respectful relationship develops that only improves learning further.

✅ A trusted adult in your corner - students gain the presence of an(other) empathetic adult in their lives to guide them.

I could go on, but the cornerstone of any educator - student relationship has to be TRUST. 😇

Make sure any tutor you choose has a pathway of trust embedded in their approach: no red flags here. 🚩🚩🚩🚩

A good lesson in life as well as in learning, wouldn’t you agree? 🤔

#trust #learning #tuition #relationships

*Psychology Today - 2015

#tuition #trust #safeguard #safeguarding #protection #relationships #progress #outcomes #redflags #greenflags #learning #support #pathways #trusting #onlinelearning #tutor #tutoringbusiness #tutoringservices #englishtutor #englishtutoring #parentsofteens #parentsupport #parents

Traffic Jam Tutor! Musings from my week in tuition whilst stuck in traffic. 🚗 🚙 🚐

Tired of only getting vague feedback from your child’s learning?

Get clear, detailed feedback school can’t provide with my tuition.

As a parent, you invest in tutoring for a reason:

You need more than the school can offer. You want your child to succeed, but you’re often left waiting months for a vague report or feeling rushed at Parents’ Evening.

Stop settling for guesswork.

Based on candid conversations with parents just like you, I’ve created the BRONZE, SILVER, and GOLD Value-Added Packages to bridge that communication gap and ensure every tutoring hour translates into sustained progress.

These packages aren’t just ‘add-ons’—they’re the essential tools for a transparent, results-focused partnership.

For a small supplementary fee, you can move beyond the traditional once-a-week session and gain unprecedented insight into your child’s learning.

What you get:

Clarity - Detailed Monthly Progress Report.
Stop waiting for school reports. Get a clear, actionable breakdown of strengths and specific targets every single month.

Commitment - Curated Revision Resources.
Encourages your child to commit to their learning between sessions, making our weekly time far more effective.

Focus - Extended, Deep-Dive Assessments
Identifies the true, subtle knowledge gaps that standard testing often misses, so we know exactly what to fix.

What Parents Are Saying After One Month:

⭐️ “We have more information from this than all the school reports and parents evenings from school!”
⭐️ “This is a great report and gives us a good idea about where our daughter is.”
⭐️ “I think this feedback will engage my daughter more meaningfully in her work.”
The result? Your child becomes more accountable, and you stop worrying.

While schools are understandably overwhelmed, your investment in tuition deserves a higher standard of communication. My commitment to providing you with this detailed feedback encourages me to teach with more focus, ensuring the content of every session is precise.

Ready to trade vague grades for clear progress?

Ask me about which Bronze, Silver or Gold package is right for your child and join a tutoring service that provides more.

Autumn has arrived with a bang. 🍂

Now the back-to-school routine is in place (we hope!) and September is whizzing by, I thought I’d stop and look at my goals for this term.

It’s a useful task to take stock of where I am in my teaching and training, and where I want to be by Christmas and beyond. I find breaking my goals into months and weeks with end of month deadlines, helps me to position what I need to do .

But then comes the ‘HOW’ I am going to achieve these goals?

Whilst I am pleased with the focus and organisation from making sense of my goals, when I think about the ‘how’ I am going to achieve them, I begin to feel overwhelmed by what lies ahead.

I think this feeling is similar for my students.

Often they know the grade they desire or are predicted, but less sure about how to reach their goal.

How can we reduce the rudderless overwhelm that can cause such anxiety in young people?

Reaching the end of GCSEs is a little like crossing a crevasse - it cannot be achieved in one jump. Instead, it must be approached with care, taking slow and careful steps along the rungs of a ladder.

Rather than focusing on reaching the other side, mountaineers manage their careful progress, one rung at a time.

I call this my ‘+1’: what is the ‘one thing’ I can do to help my reach my goal?

And so, with that bite-size approach, my first ‘+1’ came to me. I forgot about the ‘crevasse of failure’ from not reaching the other side; I decided to just edge forward, one rung at a time.

Maybe young people should focus more on reaching a rung of the ladder rather than the end of their goal. Before they know it, they will find themselves on the other side and far more prepared for their next ‘climb’.

What do you think your child’s ‘+1’ could be now and perhaps each week to help them on their journey to GCSE success?

Follow me for more advice for parents and students with English tuition and approaches to studying.

#motivation #overwhelm #teacheradvice #study #students #onlinelearning #success #exam #GCSE #mathstuition #englishtuition

🙋🏼‍♀️ How can I support my child….

…to make better class and revision notes❓

My son begins his GCSE journey this year and although I have guided thousands of teenagers through their GCSE courses over the past 20 years, it is different gravy when it comes to doing so as a parent!

🤞🏼I’m fortunate; my son is a mature, responsible and (fairly!) well-organised 15-year-old, but seeing the vast amount of material he has to keep, learn and remember got me thinking: how is he (and millions of others like him) expected to retain and then apply this information successfully in school assessments and examinations? How can I help him as a parent, rather than a teacher?

⭐️ Today I’m introducing CORNELL NOTE-TAKING ⭐️

👨‍🏫 Created by Professor Walter Pauk in the 1950s at Cornell University in the US, the Cornell method has endured as a useful strategy for students who want to create an organised system of note-taking, reference and summary.

Like all of the best ‘life hacks’, its beauty lies in its simplicity. All students have to do is set out their books in exactly the same way for each lesson. It requires little effort but the benefits are huge:

✅ Prevents forgetting - our short-term memory fades quickly
✅ Encourages concentration - more of our brains are active and thinking about different areas of the page.
✅ Records testable material more clearly.
✅ Key vocabulary, ideas and questions can be identified more efficiently.
✅ Links to prior learning can be made more easily.

💭Perhaps next time your child comes home from school overwhelmed or worried, encourage them to set up their books in an organised way. This will reduce their cognitive load and make the process of learning more active and memorable.

For more information on how CORNELL NOTE-TAKING might work for your teenager, check out the video in the comments ⬇️

#studymotivation #studynotes #notetaking #academicsuccess #learning #gcse #revision #alevels #tuition #tutoring #onlineclasses #onlinelearning

A FLOOD OF EXPERTISE THAT ONLY COMES FROM A QUALIFIED TUTOR

Who has read the novel ‘Still Life’ by Sarah Winman?🙋🏼‍♀️

It’s a masterful story about an immortal parrot, irrepressible old art enthusiast, her chance meeting with a World War II soldier and a bunch of Cockneys in Florence.

They all collide in an epic ride through twentieth century Britain and Italy. 🦜

I loved reading this book, and with my teaching hat on, (of over twenty years now so I think it’s welded to my head!) I was instantly bookmarking pages to use with students for GCSE English Language reading and writing.

Now, any literature graduate or enthusiastic tutor could do this, but it is a thorough knowledge of HOW to teach authorial STYLE to a 15 year old that reveals an experienced tutor’s expertise.

In my lesson today, a home educated student was exploring how to create a rainy setting to use in her descriptive writing exam. ⛈️

As an A level English Language specialist, I have taught STYLISTICS as a way of developing writing for years.

So, by taking an exhilarating description of Florence’s 1966 flood (used in the story), I was able to highlight stylistic lexis and grammar features Winman uses in her writing and teach how my student could use them in her own descriptions.

Also, with a thorough knowledge of the reading section of the GCSE Language paper, I was able to link stylistic language features in the extract to analysis of language explored in the reading questions of the exam.

Not only did my student produce a description of a storm that would keep me up at night (!) 👆🏼- I also created reading questions for the Language exam that we can use next lesson to create more indepth knowledge, retention and appreciation of literature styles.

Read the book! 📖And let me know what you think…

Want a 🆓 AI prompt and link to the extract to help you explore stylistics? Just comment ‘FLOOD’ and I’ll send you the prompt.

🔗 Follow me for more expert English tuition!

#writing #expert #tutor #englishtutor #onlinetuition #creativewriting

I’m just back from an exhausting and exhilarating weekend in Paris for my daughter’s 18th birthday; it was wonderful to see the city through her eyes, but less heart-warming to face my bank balance through mine! 💸💸💸

My 15 year old son stayed with his Nana and Grandpa for the weekend and was in charge of making sure he had all of his kit for his first day back at school as a Y11. (Yes, I think we can agree this was a risk!) 😳

Unsurprisingly perhaps, something was forgotten; however, he is almost 16 years old and I am not micro-managing his life. The outcome though was a humorous example of ‘social karma’ that Hanlon’s Razor would see as just desserts for teenage stupidity. 🤪

Fast forward a couple of days to the first day back:

“Got everything?” I check via a text - whilst enjoying another glass of rosé with my daughter.
“ Yep, Mum. Stop fussing.”

Turns out, he was rather optimistic. 🤷🏼

He had forgotten his new school shoes.🤦🏼‍♂️

Rather than get angry at him potentially stressing me and his grandparents out, I realised he was just being forgetful, distracted and still in holiday mode.

Grandpa came to the rescue….

…with his size 9 ‘church shoes’. 👞👞

This was ‘social karma’ at its best, and struggling to play football at lunch in Grandpa’s church shoes meant he shouldn’t forget his kit for school again in a hurry! ⚽️

Hopefully…

There’s a lesson here for how we approach the new term with our teenagers - my son’s story is an amusing one, but his lack of readiness for school was not deliberate- just a teenage boy being daft.

The new school year can be overwhelming for both children and parents. Let’s try and support with kindness and a good dose of humour and understanding to get us all through with our sanity intact. 💪🏼

#tuition #parenting #writing #support #teenagers #students #englishtutor

💄Who’d have thought a famous fashionista’s advice would echo in the ears of my English students…?

Young people are often taught to write according to a ‘checklist’ of structural and linguistic techniques.

This can often lead to a hotpot of thrown-together ingredients which can overcook students’ writing.

Look at these two examples:

1️⃣ Sitting proudly, straight-backed, Coco Chanel looked pensive yet elegant.

2️⃣ Sitting proudly, draped in weighty pearled regalia, the eponymous fashionista oozed sophistication and elegance.

❓Which is the best description ❓

When posed with examples like this, 9/10 of my students invariably vote for option 2️⃣.

Yet, I think the tautological descriptions used in the second example offer competing vocabulary and images that serve only to bamboozle the reader.

Instead, I encourage students to write with more CONTROL and challenge their habits of producing overcooked creations.

When revising students’ writing then, I find Coco Chanel’s advice a useful soundbite for writing as much as our wardrobes.

✍🏼 Don’t overdress your writing; look for ways to reduce rather than add to your style. Like any great outfit, what you produce will stand out in all the right places.

#BEMORECHANEL

Like this idea? Follow me or join my tuition classes for more simple and engaging ways of improving your writing.

Are you gearing up for GCSE study as September approaches?

My tuition sessions are beginning again now and most of my students (either starting Y10 or Y11) struggle with the overwhelm associated with planning, writing and editing their creative writing under exam pressure.

🤯 Writing is one of the most cognitively complex skills humans learn, yet to become competent in writing does not necessarily have to be as overwhelming as it may seem.

⭐️The key to confident writing is PRACTICE and CONSISTENCY.⭐️

Frustratingly, there is often not enough time in the packed English curriculum at school to devote to consistent writing practice, but that doesn’t mean you can’t overcome writing overwhelm yourself (and hopefully find a cathartic joy in writing at the same time!).

🔟 I advise my students to try short bursts of 10 MINUTES of writing a day. You can reduce overwhelm by not thinking too much about the ‘big skills’ associated with writing and try the following:

🤳Pick an image on your phone and simply write about it for 10 minutes. This could be any emotions, memories, small details or objects associated with the image.

🎧 Listen to your favourite song or playlist. Note down any interesting lyrics (many songwriters are incredibly poetic and clever with their use of language) and use them as a springboard for your own writing.
“...fierce in my dreams, seizing my guts; he floods me with dread…” (Amy Winehouse) 💕

📲 Choose a sentence from a post whilst you’re scrolling online and continue writing from it for 10 minutes.

“Watching today’s Lionesses gave me hope…” ⚽️

Writing is best attempted when it is relatable, accessible and unpressured.

Get used to short bursts of easy writing and when the big task of exam preparation comes along, it will become much easier.

📲 Follow me for more GCSE English study tips and tuition classes.

#englishtutor #tuition #englishlanguage #englishtutoring #privatetuition #onlineclasses #onlinelearning #gcse #writing #writingtips #englishgcse #study #success #englishteacher #englishtutor #englishteachersofinstagram #examstrategy #exams #examtechnique #revision #success #expert

The poem that inspired the name of my education business. 🪶 💚

A level results are in and Hope students have performed brilliantly in the main. Now the lens shifts to GCSEs next week.

If the weather is sunny or tumultuous for your results, remember the small voice of Hope that asks nothing of you, merely to keep going.

Your life will, no doubt, still unfold as it should. 👌🏻

#hope #tuition #learning #exams #success #humility #future #tutoring #newbeginnings

😰Results day is always a mixture of apprehension and excitement for teachers and tutors as well as students!

This year I was more anxious than usual because I had twice as many A level students as last year!

Unlike GCSE - where most students usually follow one or two exam boards - I was teaching two different exam boards for English Language and three different boards for English Literature! 🤯

The planning and examination knowledge is biblical for this range of texts and exam boards!

But…they did it! I did it and I’m thrilled for their next steps! 🥳

Well done to all students and who have received exam results today. 👏🏻

🥺 If your results haven’t gone your way then don’t despair and don’t go home. Stay at college where your teachers can advise you of next steps and even help with Clearing calls for university.

🤞🏼 Here’s hoping the GCSE results pack as big a punch for Hope Tuition next week!

Time to celebrate after a job well done.💃🏼

#englishtutor #tuition #alevel #aleveltuition #englishlanguage #englishtutoring #privatetuition #onlineclasses #onlinelearning #gcse #writing #writingtips #englishgcse #study #success #englishteacher #englishtutor #englishteachersofinstagram #examstrategy #exams #examtechnique

Forgetting is part of learning 😳

Contradictory but true!

If we accept this aspect of our brains, then we can plan our learning accordingly.

Forgetting has been a key theme in my tutor training for the English Tutors’ Hive over the summer and I saw an infographic (from @sketchplanations) that helps to illustrate how we can work with forgetting to help our memory.

I was struck by the idea of ISOLATING important information to improve our memory.

Like a feature wall in a room, salient information should stand out to aid retention against a backdrop of less important features.

By muting the presentation of other pieces of information in a list or diagram, you can improve ATTENTION and MEMORY of important information. 🧠

This sort of direction of attention is all around us… 👀

From web design, online notification bubbles and Calls To Action (CTA) in contrasting colours, we are subtly directed to remember and act on important information that others want us the know.

We can use the ISOLATION EFFECT as educators to aid the revision of key information for students’ learning, as shown in the GCSE English Literature examples in the image. The best way to aid memory is to keep it simple and ISOLATE information you think is most important. ⚠️

Next time you are scrolling online, note how and where your attention is placed - how can you 🫵🏼 replicate this in your own learning aids to help the retention of important information needed for exams❓

#memory #student #revision #studytips #gcse #englishtutor #tuition #privatetuition #onlinelearning #retention #standout #isolationeffect #forgetting #tutoring #mathstutor #tutoringservice #onlineclasses #forgetting #scienceoflearning

Did you know that students have to write 5 full English Literature essays for their GCSE examinations? 😮

Yet, the majority of students I teach admit not knowing how to plan and write an essay successfully. 🥴

The reasons for this could be any of the following:

👉🏼The school GCSE English curriculum content is so packed that teachers are pressed to cover the content of the course rather than the skills associated with exam success.
👉🏼The cognitive demands of writing an essay are so large that teaching and learning of them is not adequately broken down and practised so students can gain confidence and progress in their writing.
👉🏼Students don’t like writing! Many shy away from writing essays as part of revision and instead prefer to revise content for exams rather than practising ‘running the race’ beforehand.

⭐Fortunately, quality tuition and assessment expertise can plug this gap. ⭐

I have been working with a student recently who has fallen into the traps above. Poor feedback and teaching of essay writing has led a very able student to underperform in her end of Y10 exams.

She came to me with little knowledge of what a successful essay looks like so we have tackled the cognitive load of essay writing and broken it down into sections so she can practise and understand how she can improve.

The paragraph in the picture about duality in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ was a stellar improvement from one she had previously written for me.

Rather than offer generic responses linked to exam assessment objectives, I have micro-assessed the paragraph in a way teachers often do not have the time to do (trust me, I have been there with the reams of essay marking teachers have to do!). Skills linked to assessment objectives are highlighted and commented on with specific top grade skills encouraged.

However, it is not enough to simply offer a forensic assessment of student writing. The student herself MUST be able to identify and reflect on WHAT, HOW and WHY they have improved. Learning rarely happens without reflection.

This student is now flying from lesson to lesson and learning working hard between sessions to make sure her Y11 is a successful one.

This has been my busiest August ever! 🙌🏻

You may note the surprise and incredulity in that statement as a tutor.

August is usually a welcome quiet time for tutors to regroup, reflect and set goals for the year ahead - yet it also marks a dreaded dip in income that tutors have to plan for.

Whilst I could put my pleasant surprise at being busy down to luck, I’ve been reflecting on the fruits of more concerted effort and focus in my business.

I’ve created more promotional snippets of my lessons, more video presence on social media (yep, still hate it! 🤪) and more consistency with posts. It’s paid off : more parents have committed to student summer tuition to improve GCSE English skills before the onslaught of Year 11. And, I’m almost full for next academic year already!!

I’m far from as polished as many tutors out there - as a single mum to two teenagers and a naughty dog - my focus, time and money is often spread very thinly.

However, one thing I’ve learnt in this busy world of being ‘Stretch Armstrong’ to everyone is to keep hold of what you enjoy in your life, what you’re good at and what can help people. #ikagai

Get in touch with if you’d like high-quality successful tuition for your child in English and Maths this September.

#tuition #tutoring #onlinelearning #onlinetutoring #englishtutor #mathstutor #success #gcse #alevel #improvement #study #education #englishlanguageteaching #englishliterature #privatetutor #onlineclasses #

Welcome new followers! 🥳

Here’s a little about the face and family behind Hope Learning!

Get in touch if you’d like expert tuition for your child or are a tutor wanting sharpen your practice through my bespoke tutor training

#tuition #englishtutor #onlinelearning #gcse #exams #mathstutor #mathstutoring #alevel #training #professionaldevelopment

Ooof - I’ve enjoyed putting this #training session together for the 🐝 English Tutors’ Hive 🐝 next week!

The best part about delivering training is I have to reflect on and refine my own #planning and #teaching decisions before supporting others with theirs.

I have been meaning to put my shoulder to the wheel of refining my group class planning for a while and I know, after Tuesdays’s session, that tutors are going to be galvanised to plan razor sharp sequences of #lessons ready for the new term.

Group classes are often seen as the ‘holy grail’ of #tuition. Both potentially lucrative and enjoyable.

However, they take a very different kind of planning and teaching approach than 1:1 sessions.

So, if we are going to offer them and want bums on virtual seats, we HAVE to get it right.

Buzzzzzing to join the Hive this week? 🐝

There’s still time to book your slot for this valuable training as part #2 of my English Tutors’ Hive summer sessions.

Drop me a message or book on below. 👇🏼

https://hopetuitionclinic.wixsite.com/my-site Hope Tuition Clinic | English Tutor

See you on Tuesday 22nd July at 9:30am BST.

Bring your ☕️ and 🐝 minds!

Get the discussion started early: what are your current approaches to designing sequences of lessons for your students?

Andrea. 💫

The results are in!

As the end of term FINALLY arrives, many Year 10 and Year 12 students are receiving end of year and mock reports. The results are mixed.🥴

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been supporting my parents with interpreting exam feedback, plans for summer support and looking towards the new term in Year 11.

[The next round of mock exams are never far away! 😣]

Being a tutor is more than just planning and teaching hour-long academic sessions. Often I am also:

🪄Student counsellor
🪄Revision resource provider
🪄Exam feedback master
🪄Parent counsellor and friend

Being responsive to parents is a big part of my service - and I’ve found my agile and advisory approach calms and reassures parents when the data and feedback from schools can be frustratingly limited.

Whatever the end of term report brings in Y10 or Y12, we are only half way through the course. There is still a long way to go to improve and see progress in all subjects.

We’ve got this.🤝

I hope all parents, teachers, tutors and students enjoy a well deserved break and return energised to tackle whatever the new term throws at us.

Get in touch if you would like support bridging the gap before Y11 or Y13. I have a few slots available over the summer break and into next term to get on the front foot for the new school year.

#education #parentsupport #parentlife #students #mockexam #results #english #englishtuition #maths #mathstuition #onlinelearning #exams #gcse #alevel

A little #writinginspiration from my weekend walk. #englishtutor

What are you doing to keep engaged and stretched in your English Literature texts at the end of term? 🤔

Parents and students are looking forward to the end of another school year, but for those in between examination courses, keeping momentum and focus can be tricky.

In my Year 10 group today it was joyous to stretch my students with a wider look at themes and motifs in An Inspector Calls, and the mind- bending influence of TIME on the playwright in this clever play. 🕰️

A good tutor needs a wide range of knowledge about all of the texts they teach to be able to keep students engaged, but also challenged beyond the stress of just knowing ‘quotes’. 🧠

I’ve taught most of the texts in GCSE English Literature in some form for nearly 20 years now 👵🏼 and love enlightening students in new ways to give them a deeper understanding of the texts they study.

Get in touch if you would like to be challenged, engaged and motivated to improve in English Literature next academic year. 💪🏼

There are limited spaces in my GCSE group classes and my day time 1:1 availability is almost full!

Will you be able to find the TIME to predict success in your future? 🕰️

#gcse #englishliterature #victorianliterature #19thcentury #macbeth #shakespeare #poetry #writing #writingtips #englishgcse #study #success #literaturelovers #englishteacher #englishtutor #englishteachersofinstagram
#tuition #englishlanguage #englishtutoring #privatetuition #onlineclasses #onlinelearning #gcse #writing #writingtips #englishgcse #study #success #englishteacher #englishtutor #englishteachersofinstagram #examstrategy #exams #examtechnique #aninspectorcalls #stretch #challenge #expert

Would you like access to an #elite pool of #tutors who all have decades of experience and are #alevel and #gcse specialists? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Well, the ONLINE TUTOR COLLECTIVE offers just that!

⭐️’’We are a group of high calibre tutors who are all highly qualified A-level teachers with many years of subject and online teaching/tutoring expertise.

All of us are part of the Online Tutor Collective and whilst we each have our own independent tutoring businesses we agree to a set of common quality standards.

We recommend each other. I choose to promote my fellow tutors in other subjects as it provides both my clients and potential clients with options to consider that might better meet their needs.’’ ⭐️

The tuition landscape is vast and increasingly crowded. I am proud to collaborate with a super range of tutors who all offer the highest level of expertise, safeguarding assurances and robust Ts&Cs to protect and serve your child with care.

As an introduction to the collective, we are offering 🆓 A level taster sessions in a range of academic subjects on WEDNESDAY 9TH JULY from 11am-1pm and then again at 6.30 - 8pm (BST).

If you’re interested in attending this FREE session the just DM 🤩 Free Alevel Tuition 🤩below and I’ll send you the Google link! 👇🏼

Places are filling fast so if you’re in Y10 or Y11 and still uncertain of which A levels might be for you, come along and get a taste of quality tuition for FREE!

#tuition #alevels #englishlanguage #englishliterature #spanish #french #economics #business #geography #politics #law #philosophy #biology #chemistry #onlinetuition #tutoring #onlinelearning #education #parents #students

“Lost in his experiments, he was labelled by teachers as ‘too stupid to learn anything’ and failed over 10,000 times to create an economical lightbulb”

This man was Thomas Edison.

Everyone reading this right now has experienced failure at some point in their lives. And we all know what that feels like: crushing disappointment. The word used to describe ourselves at that point? Perhaps, ‘Loser’ 😢

Success appears elusive and then ‘overnight’ if you believe the Insta-world of ‘influencers’; yet, as parents and teachers, we all know that a walk through hell is almost a hand-held companion to success.

So, why is our education system set up only to reward success? And by that, I mean high-stakes, artificial, examinations success.

If you measure learning by performance only then surely this is setting up young people to fail in life from a very early age. Life is about problem solving and failure as much as it is about success. In fact, the first two dominate life more than the latter.

So, with high-stakes performance measured at age 11, 16, 18 and many stop-off points in between - what is education actually preparing our children for? It is a stressful, repetitive, rote-learning experience for many, with performance as the end game, not valuable learning. Surely, this is counter-intuitive to what education and learning represents?

Applying a range of tools, and thinking your way out of a problem using trial, error and reflection is not rewarded by our current education system. Yet, the fast moving world our children will move into demands it.

Perhaps we would all be sitting in the dark right now, unable to navigate the world as we know it, if Thomas Edison had been schooled to believe that performance was the only pathway to success.

Let’s make failure a central part of how we educate our children.

How have your failures shaped you?

#failure #success #endofterm #reflections #englishtutor #tuition #englishlanguage #englishliterature #gcse #parents #study #onlinelearning

Scaffolding student responses in English is what self-raising flour is to baking 🎂 : include the right amount and a student’s writing will rise in front of you; forget to include it and - like the cake you’re trying to bake - student writing can fall flat.

As part of my end of year tutor reflections, I have noticed improvements in both the clarity and confidence of scaffolds in my teaching. This has been down to two main approaches:

⭐️Widening my knowledge of different scaffolding approaches through professional development reading.

⭐️Revisiting writing full examination responses myself and reverse planning how I ‘got there’; then simplifying my answers into a coherent scaffold for students.

In my experience of training teachers and tutors over the years, I am always surprised by how many educators lack confidence in writing examination responses, yet are in the business of helping students improve exam performance!

My tuition is littered with model answers, live writing and scaffolds. This is the kind of learning material students are hungry for, and the clarity that comes from seeing their tutor actively attempt and then break down a response lessens cognitive load and is proven to lead to success.

Whether a tutor has a teaching qualification or not - what they should possess is a desire to improve their own knowledge and skill in understanding how students learn and the evidence-based methods that bring the greatest chances of success in examinations.

English is a notoriously ‘heavy’ subject in terms of how much skill and knowledge is required in an exam response; so - to help students progress - tutors must weigh their ingredients carefully, through small guided steps: student writing will then rise in the same way a yummy cake should.

🔗 Get in touch if you would like evidence-based, high -quality teaching and learning approaches to support your child with exam success.

#tuition #pedagogy #privatetutor #tutors #tutorsofinstagram #onlinetutors #onlinelearning #improvement #englishtuition #englishtutor #expert #learningonline #teaching #teaching_english #teachingandlearning #improvement

Q How can you offer individual support in a small group setting?

A I adapt!

My Year 10 class is halfway through a unit on unseen poetry this half term. Students are enjoying unpicking a variety of different poems each week and it’s a refreshing way to end a long academic year yet still covers much needed analytical skills for the GCSE Literature exam.

However, many Year 10 students have end of year exams once the Year 11s have finished and so this week one student said:

🔴’I have my A Christmas Carol exam on Monday, can you help me prepare for it?’ whilst another said:

🔵’ I’ve got English Language Paper 1 on Friday, can I do something on that please?’

The need to adapt quickly to teach and monitor three different topics is crucial here so no time is wasted and each student receives the support they need.

I am grateful when 20 years of experience and well-planned resources are only a click away.

🤹‍♀️ Tonight, I successfully taught one student about the contrasting themes in A Christmas Carol and helped him to find quotations to support his understanding of the themes.

🤹‍♀️Another student was guided through a pre-planned scaffold on how to approach Question 4 in English Language paper 1.

🤹‍♀️ And my other students practised writing concise introductions for an essay about an unseen poem.

Quite the juggler!! 🤯

Once students were directed to each of their resources, I could move seamlessly between them online, guide and track their responses to the activities I gave them.

The result at the end of the session?

The two students preparing for exams were left with a range of resources to use for revision and an activity booklet.

My other students successfully planned an essay about an unseen poem.

And I still managed to drink my cuppa! ☕️ 🥳

🔴Do you want targeted and expert support for your child in just one click?

🔵Join the waitlist for my Y9, Y10 or Y11 group classes for September.

From just £27 per session, there’s never more than 6 students in a group and whatever your child needs, this juggler has it covered! 🤹‍♀️

#groupclasses #onlinelearning #onlinetuition #gcse #gcseenglish #expert #education #parents #students #englishtutor

As well as tutoring and teaching, I have spent a lot of my career mentoring educators themselves.

I love the connection, commitment to betterment and enthusiasm that comes from sharing expertise and asking the right questions to unlock improvement.🔓

From ECTs and tutors, to career teachers and curriculum leaders in school, I love being given the opportunity to support development in education.

Early in my teaching career I had some wonderful mentors and I honestly don’t think I would be the educator I am today without that invaluable guidance.

It’s truly a privilege to support other educators on the their journey and to have ringing endorsements like this one is makes it all worthwhile.

Together with the WhatsApp group for tutors and the English Tutors’ Hive, 1:1 coaching support creates a holy trinity of super development I can offer tutors.

Get in touch if you’d like some bespoke coaching or join the English Tutors’ Hive and Pedagogical WhatsApp group below.👇🏼

Join the Hive 🐝 https://lnkd.in/e8-HnjhN Hope Tuition Clinic | English Tutor

Join 340 other tutors in the Tutoring WhatsApp group 🙌🏻 https://lnkd.in/e_Mbv-3J

#onlinelearning #education #coaching #mentor #mentoring #coach #professional #development #cpd #expert #improvement #tutor #training #tuition #englishtutor #pedagogy

Parents, did you know…

…writing essays as a way of analysing texts only became the norm in the early 20th century? 🤯

Before that students would critically examine and show their understanding of a text through the following:

✏️ Re-writing a text either from verse to prose - what we now might call a ‘recreative’ task.
✏️ Restructuring and rewriting a short portion of a text in different ways, many times
✏️ Imitation: copying the style of an author - what we today call ‘stylistics’
✏️ Writing ideas from a text in another style: e.g. ode, dialogue, haiku, short rhymes - playful writing.

In brief, you demonstrated your understanding of literature not so much by writing about it, as by actually writing it. And in doing so, you also developed as a writer. Critical appreciation of a novel or poem came through writing imaginatively.

By exploring the form and language of texts creatively and repetitively, students become aware of the craft of writing. It doesn’t happen by accident - it is a deeply iterative and structured as well as imaginative endeavour. To understand that every detail, every line and shift in tone has been placed for a reason is to unlock analytical appreciation on a scale beyond the superficial taught in schools. 💡

And guess what? This type of ‘creative reading’ is far more fun than simply writing an essay.

With the performative and oppressed wasteland of social media, it is no wonder that the light of imaginative writing as a focused and tenacious process becomes alien to young people. A pen and paper was never a safer and more needed place to express oneself and explore the emotions lurking at the heart of a young person than it is now. 📵

Essays are not a one-size fits all method for assessment in English (despite the pressure to write close to 5 of them in the GCSE English Literature examinations!) Tuition can bring more balance into student understanding of literature through creative reading and writing as well as essays.

I - for one- will start the new academic year with a more varied and enjoyable barrel of learning activities for my students.

Who wants to join me? 🙋🏼‍♀️

🙋🏼‍♀️ How can tutoring benefit my child? And why choose Hope Tuition Clinic?

I could answer these questions by listing my experience or student grade improvements, yet nothing reveals how valuable a service is like a successful student story. ❤️

So…meet Ellie. 👧🏼 Ellie’s mum came to me with her friend to start 1:2 tuition at the beginning of Year 10 last year.

Ellie and Olivia both had busy netball schedules, playing at an elite level. Sessions had to fit in between them catching and throwing balls on a court several times a week!

Year 10 saw Ellie’s confidence and knowledge of English texts slowly improve but her grades at school were still not moving and Year 11 mocks revealed a blow to Ellie’s perceived progress.

So, we shifted gears and I offered extra 1:1 for Ellie to catch up on curriculum content the school was struggling to cover in depth.

I could sense Ellie was improving in confidence and focus. So when Easter of Year 11 arrived, I invited Ellie for more 1:1 sessions and focused just on essay planning, writing and analytical writing scaffolds. We practised and repeated this exam-ready strategy over the holiday period. Ellie showed up and committed by writing essays following the planning structure taught and I awarded two Grade 6 results for her timed responses. This was 2 grades higher than Ellie’s mocks in December: we both sensed a breakthrough!

The reason?

Focused and repetitive essay planning, scaffolded learning and repeated writing - all built on a foundation of over a year of tuition.

My guidance saw Ellie confident and ready for her exams. She was armed with my essay planning and writing scaffolds that had been learnt to automaticity. For Ellie to move from a Grade 4 to comfortably writing Grade 6 essays is testament to her tenacity. And regardless of her results in August, to see Ellie grow from an overwhelmed and unconfident English student to one who actively enjoys and listens to my teaching each session makes a successful student story in my book.🫡

Get in touch if you’d like to become my next success story! Tuition really does change more than just academic outcomes.

#success #englishtuition #onlinelearning

Do you want to see expert teaching in action online?

The pace doesn’t slow down for my Y9 Group class. Only 6 weeks away from Y10 and with writing skills often under taught at schools due to squeezed curriculum time, as a ‘teacher tutor’ I have the knowledge and skill to anticipate gaps in knowledge and build sessions around much needed granular writing skills. ✍🏼

All sessions with me include:

✅ Clear learning goals that are part of a longer sequence of learning.

✅ Expert subject knowledge based on 20 years teaching experience.

✅ Modelled writing that showcase the skills students need to use.

✅ Real examination extracts used to keep student learning tightly linked to the exam.

✅ Granular focus on all English skills to avoid cognitive overload and assure learning sticks.

Do you want to get ahead and book one for my few remaining spots for September?

Get in touch for a trial session or to join one of my successful group classes for September.

#onlinelearning #students #parents #englishtutor #tuition #onlinetutoring #writing #writingtips #englishlanguage #expert #creativewriting #gcse #gcseenglish #success #exam

I’m using this supportive ‘no opt out’ approach immediately in my sessions next week. 💪🏼

‘I don’t know’ is the gateway to even better #learning. And I am actually pleased my students feel comfortable enough to be #vulnerable with me about the limits of their knowledge.

There’s still ‘no opt out’ in my learning though. Doug Lemov encourages #highexpectations of student #engagement through his no opt out’ approach and, as educators, we should guide students to build paths through uncertainty to understanding, not make it easy for them.

How do you promote ‘no opt out’ with your students in a #supportive and none-threatening way?

#tuition #onlinetuition #onlinelearning #onlineclasses #englishtutor #englishtutoring #gcsetutor #englisgcse #learning #alwayslearning #pedagogy #questioning #vulnerabilityisstrength #privatetuition #englishteacher #englishteachersofinstagram #teachers #teachersfollowteachers #approach

Small group tuition classes have more benefits for student learning than you think. 🤔

With one of my group classes already full for September - and others with only a couple of spots left - many students and parents are seeing the financial and academic benefits of attending one of my private group classes.

Only 6 get in. Will your child secure a place? 🙋🏼‍♀️

💬 Get in touch for more information or to be added to the waitlist for KS3/ GCSE for September.

#onlinelearning #grouptuition #tutoring #tuitionclass #onlinetuition #englishtutor #mathstutor #groupclasses #english #maths #gcsemaths #gcseenglish

I’m not crying, you are! 🥹

I must admit, I was a little overwhelmed by this review. ❤️

As home educated, I have taught this student three times a week and so fully responsibility for her understanding, skill and exam readiness for GCSE English Literature and Language.

She is an actor and performer, so it was not difficult to enthuse a love for Blood Brothers and Macbeth, however it is always up to the student to build the time in between sessions when home educated, to find the motivation and drive to work on skills and knowledge taught in lessons.

This student did that in spades.

Each week she showed up, worked hard, committed to mock exams I set and enjoyed learning about themes, character and structure of texts from a variety of interpretations.

Mum always maintained that grades were secondary to enjoyment and we are now discussing ways to continue with Lit at A level!

Tuition can improve far more than grades and this is a lovely endorsement of my efforts and expertise as well as the enthusing of a love of literature for years to come.

Get in touch if you want sessions with the ‘Queen of English’ 😜

#englishtutor #homeeducation #tuition #onlinetutoring #englishlearning #englishliterature #englishlanguage #macbeth #shakespeare #gcseenglish #success #expert #impact

20 years of teaching and learning GCSE English have gone into tonight’s final revision session.

40 minutes of exam strategy, essay planning guidance and support are available before the longest written exam of the GCSE season!

There’s still a couple of spaces so DM ‘Lit Paper 2 Help’ for an access link before 7.30pm.

You’ve got this! 💪🏼

#englishliterature #poetry #aninspectorcalls #powerandconflictpoetry #unseen #essaywriting #support #success #examseason #exams #examtechnique #tuition #englishtutor #expert

⭐️ NEW SCHEDULE JUST RELEASED⭐️

✅ Do you want your child to get ahead for September?

✅ Have Year 10 or Year 12 mock results not been as encouraging as you’d hoped?

✅ Could your child benefit from early support at in Y8 or Y9 to prepare them for the heavy content of GCSE?

Then joining one of my 1:1 or small group classes may be just the support and accountability your child needs.

With 5* reviews on Facebook and Instagram and 20 years of teaching, examination and curriculum leadership experience, myself and my small team of super tutors can help your child achieve the result they need: whether that be confidence, exam results or a better understanding of their subject.

✨Hope Tuition delivers it all.

📣 Get in touch to secure an early bird spot for September. For the past 3 years I have been full by the end of September so early booking is advised.

Let’s have a 🆓 15 minute discovery chat about your child’s needs and go from there.

It’s sad waving goodbye to super students, but always exciting to welcome new ones to the Hope family! Will your review be on my advert for next year?

#englishtutor #tuition #englishlanguage #englishtutoring #privatetuition #onlineclasses #onlinelearning #gcse #writing #writingtips #englishgcse #study #success #englishteacher #englishtutor #parents #examstrategy #exams #examtechnique #expert #academicsuccess

Are you ready for tomorrow?

The first 10 minutes are crucial in an exam. Join my 45 minute guide for exam success for tomorrow’s English Literature exam.

You’ve got this. 💪🏼

It’s the business end of the school year!

Exams are almost here and many students are busy revising. ✍🏼

However, revision of content only gets students so far.

They need expert guidance on how to structure exam responses. This is where experienced tutors and teachers can really make a difference in these final weeks.

Here is a successful lesson I prepared for a Year 13 A level English Language student who needed clarity on how to prepare an exam answer for a thorny comparison question.

✅ I offered example responses of different grade levels.

✅ I broke down what a good response looks like using a scaffold.

✅ I then helped craft a response with a student and feedback immediately.

✅ I demystified the mark scheme and assessment objectives so the student knew exactly what skills are needed.

This is neither easy nor simple to do. I have 20 years of teaching, examination and curriculum leadership experience that help students successfully cross the line every year.

Get in touch if you would like some last minute support with your examination prep. I have just a couple of spaces left in my GCSE revision workshops over the Easter break.

You’re nearly there!! 💪🏼

#onlinelearning #onlineclasses #revision #gcse #englishliterature #englishlanguage #tuition #englishtutor #expert #exams #alevels #education #teacher #examtechnique #study #onlinetutor #tutoring #tutoringbusiness

My second release of #GCSE #englishliterature #revision sessions are now available to book.

Previously hugely successful, grab some accountability and guidance during the Easter break with your final push towards exams.

Remember: English Lit P1 is on 12th May. It’s early this year!

#gcse #englishliterature #victorianliterature #19thcentury #macbeth #shakespeare #poetry #writing #writingtips #englishgcse #study #success #literaturelovers #englishteacher #englishtutor #englishteachersofinstagram #onlinetutoring #onlinelearning #education

Common view: Group tuition can’t offer the same personalised focus as 1:1 tuition.

Me: I had a super lesson last night with my Y9 ‘Get GCSE Ready’ group that tailored all of the lesson content to the skills and texts each student is currently studying at school.

✅ Each student was giving an extract from the text they are studying at school and then asked to annotate it based on a wider question.

✅ Next, students had to either write a paragraph analysing meaning from the extract or complete a grid of evidence and skills - based on their confidence and experience with writing analytically.

⭐️ Both the extracts and writing task were tailored to where each of my students is in terms of their literature writing skills.

✅ Then we shared what had been completed so students could read and learn from each other’s writing.

Learning from each other and applying it to their own knowledge and skill level is a fundamental part of my group tuition. It works wonders as students can feel proud of their writing following feedback from others.

💰 And students receive all of this for only a fraction of the price of 1:1 sessions, in groups no larger than six students.

🗣️ Get in touch if you would like to join my Monday after school Y9 group class or my Y10 class from as little as £25 per hour.

🗣️ Dates for intensive GCSE group sessions during the Easter holidays will be released soon. Get in touch to secure your place! 🐣

#education #tutoring #englishtutor #onlinetutoring #onlinelearning #groupclasses #englishliterature #englishlanguage #experttutors #planning #students #success #study #tutoringservices #edupreneur #onlinetuition

Revision! Year 11 students feel like they are wading through it…😩

…and it’s only going to get more intense as exams creep up.

Students are more informed than ever before in how to revise: with techniques like ‘flashcards’, ‘sketchnoting’, and ‘spaced retrieval of knowledge’ etc, all increasingly baked into school based revision. However, HOW to approach and organise the content that needs revising is often the trickiest part for students and this confusion is the main reason I receive panicked voice notes from students wondering if they are revising the right things. 🫨

⭐️ My solution? Start them early. ⭐️

1. In my Year 10 GCSE group class this evening, students were demonstrating their understanding of themes in Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet.

⬇️

2. Then they were asked to identify where they saw the same theme evident in another text they have studied and explain how similarly or differently the theme is explored.

The result?

👏🏻 Retrieval of texts previously studied from long term memory awakens knowledge and embeds it further.

👏🏻A deeper understanding of abstract concepts like guilt, greed and love encourage a more sophisticated interpretation across multiple texts.

⭐️Our brains learn best when we are connecting information, not separating it! ⭐️

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want high quality, experienced and research-informed tuition across English, Maths and Science, get in touch. I have one space in the Year 10 class I teach on Wednesdays and a growing team of experienced teacher tutors who offer superb support across a range of subjects.

📲 Follow us for ‘exam ready’ revision sessions coming soon!

This is the face of ‘active relaxation’ - the best way I can describe a skiing holiday! ⛷️

Mindful, yet active, with the outdoors as indoors for most of the week, the sole focus of getting down a mountain safely and enjoying forced retreat on chairlifts with the roof of the world as your view does nothing but good for the body and soul. 💙

As a solo business owner and single mum, the hours are long and the mind often crowded; this week, I had time to leave the list of jobs at home and enjoyed seeing my children zoom down mountains and feel thoroughly grateful for their experience.

I have returned refreshed (if a little bruised!) and reminded of how important breaks in scenery and mind are for us to remain productive and inspired.

Lots of poetry and writing prompts about the mountains are coming in my sessions over the next couple of weeks to keep the snow-drenched dream alive. 🏔️

How have you switched off from a screen and the world during half term?

#mindfulness #businessbreak #family #recovery #tuition #education #englishtutor #englishtuition #gcseenglish #onlineeducation

3️⃣ of my favourite and most effective teaching approaches at A level (and any level!)…

1. What are the ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES for an exam question? (A level examinations are very much led by the AO skills in their mark schemes)

2. How can that knowledge be SCAFFOLDED into an exam response? (Quite the leap to make!)

3. What does a MODEL response look like? (Provides real-life clarity from the scaffold)

These teaching strategies are proven to reduce COGNITIVE LOAD (overwhelm) in students and help them gain clarity and confidence for exam performance.

Get in touch if you would like to benefit from high-quality and research-based teaching in English, Maths and Science!

I’m waiting for an update on how my student in this lesson does in their A level mocks this week! 🤞🏼

#englishtutor #tuition #englishlanguage #englishtutoring #privatetuition #onlineclasses #onlinelearning #gcse #writing #writingtips #englishgcse #study #success #englishteacher #englishtutor #englishteachersofinstagram #examstrategy #exams #examtechnique #alevel #scaffolding #models #cognitiveload #

‘I’m so glad I got in touch! You’ve made me feel much better!’

Not a student this time, but a parent. 🥰

Tutors are in the world of improving confidence and outcomes for your people.

However, in reality, we really have two clients: students AND parents.

Making parents feel at ease and listened to is as important as supporting their children.

The lovely end of conversation comment above came following an enquiry from a parent of a home educated student.

Many parents who home educate are fantastic educators for their children when they are younger but the demands of GCSE study means they need honest and professional support from qualified subject experts. The sudden change from being the source of a child’s education to needing outside support can cause some anxiety so I try to offer the following during my first communication with parents:

✅ Advice on the best routes for home educated students for exams- demystifying the range of qualifications and options available and making sure students pick the best option for them.

✅ Flexible times and assessment options as part of my tuition packages.

✅ Support with advice for other subjects, whether that be through own my own team of super English, Maths and Science tutors or my wider professional network of educators.

✅ Bespoke resources and self-published work books to help students progress independently outside of sessions with me.

On this occasion, I found my knowledge of English Language options for home educated students and my willingness to investigate support for other subjects helped the parent I was talking to so much that I could hear the relief in her voice when I told her the support I could find for her.

Home education parents are absolute warriors, treading a path with their children that can be relentless but also rewarding. An informed, experienced and professional ear can be just the support they need as their children move towards external examinations.

👩🏼‍💻Get in touch if you would like a 🆓 20 minute discovery call about the range of expert tuition Hope Tuition Clinic can offer your child in English, Maths and Science.

#englishtutor #sciencetutor #mathstutor

🎵 Don’t write words. Write music 🎵

This is a well known template that I use with students when teaching them about the power and impact of sentence variety.

I’m a fan of the highlighter 🖍️as a way of tracking sentence types used in writing. This template serves as an extreme example of why we vary sentences and - more importantly - how AWARE students need to be as writers of their sentence structure and its effects.

Often students are too concerned with over stuffing too-long sentences with inaccurate multi-clause descriptions that are founded on clumsy adjectives and imagery.

Get the basics right. True writing is not Dickensian in scope these days, but controlled and with spots of flair.

Try it. How aware are you of the sentences you write?

#writingtips #englishlanguage #creativewriting #writing #sentencestructure #poetry #prose #flair #tuition #privatetutor #englishtutor #onlinelearning #onlinetuition #expert #studentsuccess #parents #education #learning #teaching #elearning #exams #tuitioncentre #studymotivation #tuitionclasses #gcseenglish

🗣️ Parents

💡How often does your teen struggle with #writing quality analytical paragraphs in #English?

💡How often do they see models prepared by #teachers and/or #tutors and dissect them so they can improve their own #exam responses?

💡How often does your teen hear their teacher or tutor live-write models for them and talk them through their thought processes?

Both #modelling and thinking aloud are important tools in making #skills visible for #students, and when it comes to a skill as cognitively challenging as #essay writing, giving students access to #models and expert thinking demystifies essay writing and lessens the cognitive load associated with writing.

The example in this post is a slide taken from a lesson I led for two students pushing for a Grade 9 (hopefully) this summer. Thinking of the questions posed at the top of the article, I decided:

💡To show a typical English Language and English Literature paragraph side-by-side to address misconceptions many students (and teachers!) make regarding analytical writing in these two strands of English study.

💡I deliberately wrote a non-language focused literature response to guide students away from the Language Paper ‘word-level’ analysis that students erroneously apply throughout Literature exam responses.

Instead, we unpicked the differences between the two paragraphs and what made the literature response successful.

💡The activity was illuminating as I could talk through my own thought process as well, and guide my students on how to critically engage with an essay question and its range of interpretations.

Practice makes Perfect: and my students came away from our session with clarity about how to move away from Language-style responses and to elevate their own interpretations and engagement with the range of writers’ methods used in texts studied in English Literature.

👩🏼‍💻 Get in touch if you would like bespoke, #expert examination preparation for #GCSE success in English, #Maths and #Science. All our tutors are #experienced #qualified classroom practitioners with #examiner experience. We bring the best of our #knowledge to improve student #confidence and attainment.

🗡️ What does it mean to be a good leader?🗡️

This is a timely question circling many minds amid the vapour trail of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

As always, Shakespeare’s wisdom reaches us across the centuries on this subject, and no more so than in the timeless #GCSE play, ‘Macbeth’.

Many of us know the story about a ‘tyrant whose name blisters our tongues’, but it was only when I was #teaching a scene in the middle of the play - where the characters of Malcolm and Macduff discuss the ‘stanchless avarice’ that often accompanies being a king - that I found uncomfortable echoes of this week’s oligarchic circus in Washington.

Linking texts studied to the wider world is an important teaching approach to secure #engagement and #comprehension among #students. My home-educated tutee was left rooted in a scene often overlooked in teaching because of its lack of obvious action compared to others.

In the play, descriptions of Scotland suffering ‘new sorrows’ that ‘yelled out like a syllable of dolor’ seemed to encapsulate what many are feeling in America (and spoken by the brave Bishop of Washington during her sermon to Trump.)

As my tutee and I read Act 4 Scene 3 and found evidence of the ‘tyrant’ king being described, the parallels with Trump were both frightening and illuminating:

‘Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin that has a name’. 😳

Despite the discomfort of potential parallels between medieval Scotland and the USA in 2025, the relevance of English Literature to engage, educate and speak of the human condition shone through for my student.

#Education is a tool and a universal right. #Educators can view their role now with more urgency and importance than ever before. We cannot ignore or protect our children from the world unravelling before us. Instead, we can do what we are good at: educating young people - through the subjects we teach - to understand the world around them and make better choices.

Get in touch if you would like intelligent and thought-provoking approaches to #englishliterature #learning. It is a subject way more important than just an exam to pass.

#tuition #onlinelearning

Sausage rolls + Maths + Literacy = improved learning!

What a combo!

Today I crossed the tutoring subject divide and spoke to a selection of Maths tutors in @osmondeducation ‘s Maths Hub about how they can improve their own literacy understanding and teaching strategies to boost student understanding in Maths.

Many students (me included back in the day!) struggle with the layers of instructions and ‘scenarios’ placed with Maths questions that can obscure the real Maths behind the questions.

I offered practical strategies for unpicking the language behind Maths through approaches such as:

🧮 STORYTELLING to introduce scenarios and get students engaged in the subject
🧮 PRE-TEACHING Tier 3 and Tier 2 vocabulary through synonyms, etymology and summarising.
🧮 WORD LEVEL conjunction use to explore causality and sequencing in answering questions.

As usual, I over delivered and in the words of one participant: ‘my mind is blown’ 🤯

Get in touch if you would like support with disciplinary literacy as a tutor or teacher. It really is a game changer to improve learning in non-literacy based subjects.

#maths #literacy #professionaldevelopment #bebetter #community #tuition #tutortraining #education #bebetter #literacymatters #disciplinaryliteracy #expert #learning #onlinelearning #cpd

📣 Parents: mock results are in! 📣

How have your children fared?

Mocks come with a mixture of disappointment for some and affirmation of hard work and improving performance for others.

However, they are just that: a mock. They are not a result; they often only examine half of the exam specification. This can be humbling and hopeful for all concerned.

Whatever the results, your children have a choice: to be galvanised and push forward with concrete feedback and areas for improvement, or be resigned with poor performance, dogged with doubt and disengagement.

Tuition can help to scoop up and support students to avoid disengagement. As part of my tuition service as an experienced teacher and ex-examiner, I offer my students a mock ‘post mortem’: a personalised review of mock papers with bespoke targets for improvement and sessions tailored to focus on results in areas needed the most.

What inevitably comes out of such evaluations is the need for more planning, structure and disciplined approaches to managing time and ideas in exams.

So much of my time in tuition this term will be teaching the above repeatedly to students.

If your child needs support for that final push towards exams this year, get in touch. We can offer bespoke English 📕 Maths 🧮 and Science 🧪 tuition to support student responses with more clarity and direction.

With over 80 years of combined teaching experience in my growing team, let’s make sure your child is galvanised for the run up to Easter and have a clear strategy for improvement. 💪🏼

#tuition #englishtutor #mathstutor #sciencetutor #gcse #mocks #exams #improvement #revision #onlinelearning #onlineclasses

January’s English Tutors’ Hive is here. 🐝

In this month’s session we will be discussing how to teach #STRUCTURE in GCSE English examination responses.

#Planning and structuring responses is often the least taught, yet the most impactful #strategy #students can use to support disciplined #writing in #examination conditions.

School #curricula are so packed that skills and content are prioritised whilst scaffolds for structural approaches to exam questions are often under taught.

This is where YOU 🫵🏼 as a #tutor can make a difference: by filling the gaps often not taught in schools.

In all my years of teaching, tutoring and examining, I’ve learnt that precise and focused planning within a robust and easy to learn structure leads to improved #performance in #exams.

Join us and share your new year English development priorities, share ideas that work in teaching structure and learn how to formulate a structure of your own to improve student #attainment in examinations.

Join (with FREE recording and teaching resources) for just £10 via the link below 👇🏼

https://lnkd.in/ef937Cbt

🐝 See you on Wednesday 22nd January at 12.30pm GMT 🐝

#tuition #professionaldevelopment #community #tutors #tutorsofinstagram #collaboration #sharing #goodpractice #bebetter #englishtutors #englishteacher #englishtutor #tutordevelopment #englishlanguage #englishliterature

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