Frequently Asked Questions

I am a fully qualified teacher with over 20 years of experience teaching across the maintained and independent sector in co-education, all-girls’ and all-boys’ schools. I have taught A levels throughout this time. Since 2011, I have tutored Key Stage 2 children aged 8 and up, helping them master English Language and Literature and get ahead in the increasingly intensive 10+ entrance exams preparation. I am an experienced and enthusiastic teacher, able to tutor anyone from age 8 to 18. Please note that I do not coach very young children under the age of 7.

I am home-based, on Hanworth Road, close to Hampton School. I have a specially designed teaching area offering good desk space, a wide range of texts, audio-visual resources and fast access to the internet. It is a very quiet location, yet I am also conveniently located next to the R70 Hampton -Richmond, 111 Hampton-Kingston and 285 Hampton-Teddington and Hampton-Kingston bus routes. I am also a short drive from Sunbury-Upon-Thames, Hampton Village, Hampton Hill, Hampton Court, Hampton Wick, Thames Ditton, Feltham, Teddington and Twickenham. The A316 link road to the M3 is also close by. The nearest senior schools to me are Hampton, LEH seniors, Hampton High, Teddington and Orleans Park. Neighboring primary schools include: The Mall, Newland House, Jack and Jill, Buckingham, Hampton Hill Junior, Hampton Junior, LEH juniors, Twickenham Prep, St James’s Juniors and Clarence House. I tutor students from a range of these locations.

Most slots are usually hourly, but I can offer 90-minute and 120-minute slots, depending upon availability. I do not work on Sundays. I also have availability for longer daytime sessions over all half term, Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays. Sessions are payable in 10-hour advance bookings. The fee can be discussed with me via email or telephone, and is very reasonable for experiened one to one. It includes intensive coaching with a fully qualified teacher and examiner, all learning materials, books, all marking and all preparation. When required, it also covers extra time spent on the child’s behalf such as putting parents in touch with educational psychologists, discussing student progress with students and parents, plus researching possible target schools. When needed, this can take many hours of research.My priority is to ensure that all my students do well.

Please email me for precise current details as slots change every 10 weeks. If you are keen to secure a particular slot, it is best to plan in advance. This is especially important if your target is for your child to pass the 11+. Ideally, an aspirational 11+ student will begin tuition in year 5 or, at the latest, early in year 6. Many students join me in the Summer before they enter year 6, then pick up a weekday tuition slot in the September, after GCSE and A level students complete their sessions with me.

Yes! I offer a range of practice exam papers, geared mostly towards entrance exams at the 10+, 11+, 12+ and 13+ stages. As I have worked in or have contacts in many top destination schools, I am lucky to know the examination and interview styles and formats of many of the top local day, grammar and boarding schools. Each practice paper varies according to the target schools students are aiming towards. For example, my ‘Hampton School-style’ practice English papers are ideal resources for students aiming for Hampton, Kingston Grammar and King’s College School Wimbledon, as well as all other top HMC and GSA day schools such as St Paul’s Girls’, LEH, Ibstock Place, Wimbledon Girls’ High, Surbiton High, Putney High, The Abbey, and Wycombe Abbey. They are of course, especially useful for prospective Hampton applicants! Please note that there are key differences between the Hampton-style 10+ practice paper and its 11+ and 12+ counterparts. My 'Hampton-style' 10+ English exam is structured very differently from its 11+ counterpart. My resources are ideal for any prospective 10+ Advanced Place exam candidates. (Hampton is a very oversubscribed school and does not produce sample papers for their own entrance exams, preferring to judge each boy on his individual merits alongside expecting a high level of academic abiity.) My Common Entrance practice papers follow the typical format familiar to preparatory school students, challenging them with exciting comprehension texts and offering them a range of writing tasks.

My ‘Tiffin-style’ practice papers are useful preparation for all 11+ students, but are especially useful for Tiffin Boys’ and Girls’ School applicants. These papers consist of: multiple choice comprehensions based on unseen poems or prose extracts, unseen prose cloze sections, spelling and punctuation cloze tasks, verbal reasoning tasks and idioms definitions. The demanding comprehension sections are also useful for prospective 11+ Hampton applicants, as Hampton has now moved over to multiple choice question formats for their English comprehension questions. Hampton tends to set fewer questions on comprehensions as it is a shorter English exam followed by a separate VR exam. However, for revision, both sets of papers are useful.

I also offer a range of non-age banded ‘vocabulary primer pages’, aimed at all students ages 10-15 who need to broaden their vocabulary in order to write more effective descriptive/narrative exam compositions. These vocabulary sheets, along with the practice papers, are thematically linked, because many entrance exams still ask students to continue the comprehension’s ideas for the subsequent timed composition task. Students with English as an additional language benefit greatly from these sheets, which contain a mixture of thematically linked words and phrases to help them write interesting compositions. However, in order to excel, there is no subsitute for the student's own programme of reading and vocabulary acquisition.

I am able to help students discuss, plan, structure and proof-check their own work. However, I won’t write it for them! This structuring service has been invaluable to A level and GCSE students.

Yes, I teach a range of students with a variety of educational needs.

I am a very experienced teacher and really enjoy working with students with English as their additional language, I can help them master their grammar and vocabulary and ensure they are familiar with English spelling, punctuation, syntax, vocabulary, synonyms and idioms.

Dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyspraxia: I have considerable experience of teaching dyslexic, dysgraphic and dyspraxic students. I am currently helping a very able dysgraphic student learn how to touch type with confidence.

My dyslexic students benefit from my one-to one help with planning, structuring writing, sequencing ideas, proofing and generally organising their learning. This is especially helpful for my exam year students.

ADD (attention deficit disorder) students benefit a great deal from one-to-one tuition in a quiet environment.

Moreover, I have links to a good network of educational psychologists. This has really helped a number of students who have ‘fallen through the net’ at school, been overlooked for SEN interventions or have not yet been diagnosed as having a special educational need. Extra exam time is not allocated by a school without full evidence of a child’s specific learning needs, supported by professional documentation from a qualified educational psychologist.

I strongly advise parents of any students I tutor who have a suspected learning need to getting a private assessment done early, ideally before year 7 and the all-important entrance exams, to increase the chance of full diagnosis and possible extra exam time allocation to be allocated. These psychologists have helped to diagnose some of my students, some as late as year 11. Other, younger students have benefitted from faster, earlier diagnosis, which in turn helps me improve the way I tutor them and meet their learning needs. I work hard to ensure that every child has a fair chance

Yes, I have been routinely DBS checked throughout my working life. The house is shared by my husband, a fully qualified GP, also DBS checked. However, the bulk of the tuition sessions are after-school when my husband is at work. (I am currently working on getting DBS clearance for my ginger cat).

Unfortunately, it is not. I own a friendly and very domesticated ginger tomcat. He likes to greet all my students, so if your child has a pet allergy, the tuition will not work! I do not accept any liability for allergies or illnesses caused by exposure to my cat. If you’re allergic to or scared of cats, I’m afraid this is not the tuition centre for you - sorry.

Yes, I can do this. I have several students who ‘top up’ their English over the long school holidays. Please note the Summer and Christmas holidays offer the most flexibility as Easter is often pre-boked by my regular year 11 GCSE students. Availability does vary, so if you are interested in a short course, do please email me as early as possible, so I can help construct a programme of study. Every school has different holiday dates, so do please give me precise dates of availability for me to work with.