Isaac B

11+ Preparation

I helped with the exam preparation for a student and worked with him on maths, English, reasoning and interview technique for around 18 months in the run up to the 11+ exams. He was at Newington Green Primary School at the time. The student needed more support mainly in English and creative writing, as his strength was in maths. We still did maths, VR and NVR but most of the time was spent on his English studies. I have a reading list which I set him as well as a maths syllabus that I used to make sure that there were no gaps or areas of low confidence for him. I mainly used books (Schofield and Sims, Bond, GL Assessment) to set homework from but we also did some work via the ATOM platform as it takes a very similar format to a lot of the exams. I would also set him tasks that were specifically tailored to what we covered and weaknesses that he had. The student gained an edge and confidence and was able to perform at his very best. He gained places at Highgate, UCS and Forest school. He was due to have an interview at City Boys but they withdrew this application having already accepted a place at Highgate.

11+ Preparation

We worked together for a while and this student was initially quite weak in her maths, particularly problem solving and reasoning. Her comprehension was her strongest area but she still often missed key details in the texts we studied. Each lesson was 90 minutes and broken up in 40 minute chunks with short breaks in between sections where we played educational logic or puzzle games before we got back to work on the next topic area. We focused on all four areas of the 11+ syllabus and had two lessons per week. For this age group, short bursts is key to achieving the best results. In the end she excelled in her maths and actually was stronger in this area by the end of the course of study, which was two years. She gained access to Latymer Upper school, her first choice.

Latin 13+ Scholarship

I was asked to support this student who was feeling very unsure about his 13+ Latin Common Entrance Scholarship examination. He wanted to do the scholarship exam, but didn’t have any Latin due to his former school not offering it, and since it is a necessary part of the exam, I taught him from scratch. Fortunately, he was a very bright and hardworking student, and picked it up almost instantly. We had one hour lessons each week and I would set homework at the end of each session, based on what we looked at that day. Nearer the exam, we had an additional session online to supplement this weekly lesson. We worked together for 18 months. He went from having no Latin knowledge to doing extremely well and in the end scored very high marks. He went on to St Paul’s School as a scholar.

13+ ISEB

I worked with this student during the Summer holidays, helping him prepare for his 13+ ISEB exam. He was significantly behind and was struggling with the subject matter, which was exasperated by his dyslexia and dyscalculia. He needed support in all subjects with a particular focus on his English and Maths. After creating a revision program which involved 50 minute lessons with 10 minute breaks in between, I managed to create a schedule that worked for him but also allowed us to cover all of his gaps and weaknesses, as well as leaving time for consolidation at the end of each day. Due to his learning difficulties, I had to be very sensitive and mindful so as to keep him engaged whilst pushing him forward in the right direction. During my residential stay of four weeks of intensive tuition each morning and afternoon I managed to get him up to speed and he eventually secured his place at Harrow school.

13+ Westminster School

I was brought in to look at English with a student preparing for the 13+ Westminster exam. He was very bright and attended Westminster Under School, but wasn’t great at structuring his writing and making his pieces engaging for the reader. We did one hour lessons weekly and I set him two essays/creative writing assignments weekly. I split the tasks between narrative, descriptive and persuasive writing, coming up with various topics to keep the lessons engaging. I also set him specific reading lists so that he could get more ideas for his writing. He did well and secured his place at Westminster School.

Ancient Greek OCR GCSE

I worked for three years with a student, based in Greece, for his Ancient Greek GCSE. He was at an international school in Athens at the time but they did not offer Ancient Greek, and his mother asked me to teach him the language from scratch as he showed an interest in learning it. We had two or three sessions per week, all online, and he excelled quickly. I was proud when he achieved an 8 in his GCSE, which he sat at the end of year 9. He sat it early as his mother didn’t want to overburden him during his actual GCSE exams.

English Language and Literature GCSE

We worked together for 9 months towards AQA GCSE English Language and Literature. As we began work together, the student was averaging around a 6 in both exams and really struggled due to dyslexia and ADHD. Going into it, the student found the texts very hard to understand and struggled with writing clear answers, particularly for the longer form questions. We had weekly sessions of one hour as well as setting two homework assignments per week. Initially the workload (on top of other school work) was too much for him so we just did one written homework assignment with some additional reading weekly. Our lessons were focused on writing and exam technique as well as gaining a deeper understanding of the texts and exploring different critical responses to them. The student made some very significant progress during the course and managed to grasp the texts and the expectations of the exam board. He ended up receiving a Grade 8 in both papers which helped him gain access to Highgate School 6th form.

Hobbies