Zoe N

English 11+ (and beyond)

This student came to me in Year 6 when she was 10 years old. Her father wanted her to have help with comprehension, spelling and grammar for her 11+ entrance to an independent school in November, having failed a test for entrance into a grammar school. She was losing concentration, skipping pages, making careless and repeated mistakes and wasn’t remembering corrections. We focused on the entrance exams for Princethorphe School. The student was offered a place after we worked for a few months on past papers and improving her grammar and extended writing. I made my own worksheets for this student and I found that she engaged best when we marked them together. Three years on, I still tutor this student and her parents want me to continue with her until A Level. My tutorials with her still focus on English but have widened to incorporate critical thinking skills. We analyse news articles and discuss questions on Oxplore.

English Key Stage 2

This parent came to me with her 10 year old son who was in year 5 and wanted help with English. The mum explained that she wanted him to be in all the top sets in secondary school, but his English was behind his maths. She wanted her son to love English but he was getting bored in lessons. She made clear that she wanted me to focus on comprehension skills and work from the national curriculum. I taught this student using a powerpoint with photos and questions from comprehensions. I guided him to read aloud the comprehension extracts before we worked through the questions together. He began to enjoy English and really get into the extracts we were reading. I learned that he loved Greek myths therefore tried to collect comprehension extracts that focused on these. I set him creative writing homework on this theme as well. This meant that he felt that the sessions were for him and that he was being listened too, but it also meant that we improved his English enormously and he made a smooth transition to secondary school.

Age 7 to 13 English

Selected for a competitive six-week internship in Japan as one of only two interns chosen. During the programme, I taught English to three classes of twenty children between the ages of 7 and 13 in rural areas of Japan, creating curriculum materials and lesson content. When the other intern was ill, I independently taught a class of 15 children for a week, helping them develop their English-speaking skills by introducing themselves and discussing their hobbies. I also guided the students in preparing a ten-minute speech in English, which they successfully delivered to their parents at the end of the programme.

Oundle 13+ Preparation (with an art scholarship)

I tutored this student through the Oundle 13+ entrance exam for English. The student was at boarding school already therefore tutorials took place in the holidays and I set her extra work to do in the term-time. The student was bright and eager to learn so this worked well. After an assessment I found that we needed to target descriptive writing, correct grammatical errors and expand the student’s vocabulary. After a few weeks of practising sentences and grammatical activities, the student progressed to practising past paper questions. We built up to exam practise in timed conditions. The student felt confident for the June exam and received a place at the school. She successfully applied for an Art scholarship, which I mock interviewed her for (having been an art scholar myself at school!).

Winchester 13+ Preparation

I tutored this student in preparation for 13+ entrance examinations for Winchester. They will be starting at Winchester in September.  This was the student’s top choice although he also sat papers for other independent schools, including several scholarship exams which we looked at together. The mother initially had concerns about pressure of several upcoming exams worsening the student’s anxiety and hindering his performance on the day. We broke down exam papers into chunks and combined topics across sessions. It was important that I created sessions that were exam oriented but also worked on nerves and exam technique, bringing in my academic coaching experience to do this.

History GCSE (WJEC)

This student came to me as she was predicted an A but got a D in her mocks. The student struggled to remember names and facts in exams when the book was not in front of her. She told me that she wanted to ‘feel good’ going into exams. Based on this assessment, I introduced this student to a new revision technique each week. We focused on study skills for 15 minutes per session. We went through content and wrote answers, comparing them to model answers. We practised writing paragraphs and introductions in sessions (I would write these too!). The student told me after a few sessions that she felt more confident and really enjoyed our sessions. She went into her exam feeling confident and came out with a B in the end, an enormous improvement from the D that she started with.

English Language & English Literature GCSE (AQA)

This student came to me in year 11 and wanted help in both English Language and Literature. He was aiming for a grade 4 in his summer exams. I communicated with his mum who told me that her child had different learning needs because he had autism. Following her guidance, I spoke very slowly and gave the student regular breaks. At the start of each session, I gave the student the plan of the lesson first so he knew what to expect for the next hour. His mum sat in on lessons to make him more comfortable. We prepared for the exams by working through past papers to ensure that he would be as familiar as possible with the format of the exam. This meant that he could feel calm and collected in the exam hall. He achieved the grades he needed to progress onto the college of his choice.

Academic Coach (students with ADHD)

Last year I was an academic tutor for a 13 year old, female student with ADHD last year. She struggled with getting her homework done, organising what she had to do and keeping track of sheets/folders. Unfortunately, she often missed sessions because she struggled with time management and scheduling – something we did a lot of work on. She also had quite low confidence and was struggling with  friendship issues. Our first session was on the fundamentals of organisation, and then we moved to think about revision skills and setting up routines.

To accommodate the student’s ADHD, we did shorter sessions which took place more often. I wrote longer write-ups for her to refer back to. We focused on ‘RAG’-ing her subjects and topics within subjects (labelling them red, amber and green depending on how confident she felt about them). We made revision timetables, master to-do lists and spoke about how she could stay focused in lessons by asking herself questions about what the teacher was saying. Where possible, I kept things analogue rather than digital, knowing that having physical copies of things that could be put on walls would be important.

I also tutored a student with ADHD (and autism) for his GCSE History. To put him at ease, I always notified him of what we would be covering in advance and boiled each lesson down to one key takeaway. We took things at a slow, steady pace: an important approach for neurodivergent students.

History A Level (Edexcel)

This student came to me when he was on an A/B but wanted a chance at an A*. The student was clear that he wanted help with essay technique and said he did not need help with content. He also wanted more clear and specific feedback on class essays, which he did not feel he was getting from teachers. He found that the teacher was giving ‘group feedback’ to the whole class which was unhelpful for him personally, as it focused on content. Sometimes he was getting and A, sometimes a B, but he was not sure why. Taking this on board, I used tutorials to compare with him essays which were getting an A grade with essays that were getting a B grade. We compiled a list of similarities and differences. I showed the student the mark scheme and examiners reports, which he had not seen before. The student went into exams feeling like he had the best possible chance of achieving an A*. Moreover, he received a place to read History at his first choice university.

EPQ

This student was undertaking the EQP and requested support through the process: choosing a topic, timetabling/planning, the journal and presentation. The student was aiming for an A/A* and had a full schedule because of rowing commitments. She came to me in the early stages, feeling overwhelmed and confused. Sessions were spent brainstorming: the student found it helpful to talk through her ideas out loud and verbalise her thoughts. We set up mini-deadlines and I kept her accountable through regular check-ins via email alongside tutorials. In tutorials, we looked at some examples of good writing and the exam board’s criteria. I also suggested some reading for the student to guide her with her topic. The student submitted a high-quality EPQ, which we believe massively strengthened her application to university.

Oxbridge Preparation

This student was applying to Oxford for History and wanted support throughout the process. We went through the HAT past papers [the HAT is not running in 2025] over the summer holidays. I set her one past paper question per week which we went through in detail. I recommended supplementary reading so that she could develop a specialism to write about in her personal statement and speak about in interview. I gave the student three mock interviews and verbal feedback. I also advised on college choice and explained how the Oxford system works and what the tutors are looking for. My main task was to get the student to ‘think about history in the right way’ – I set up some more general tasks for us to work through in lessons, pushing the student out of her comfort zone. I wanted to improve her ability to construct an argument verbally under pressure and adapt her position based on new information. The Oxford interview is essentially an audition for a tutorial.

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