Supporting families near and far
TESTIMONIALS
“Thank you for everything you have done. We've loved some of your imaginative teaching ideas.”
Mr & Mrs D., 2012
“Julie really is a brilliant tutor, whether a student is struggling with basic maths or aiming for top marks.”
Mrs A., 2026
Mr M., 2021
“He really enjoyed the session, by the way, and ranks you way above his school teacher.”
Online learning
Video calling is available using Teams, Zoom, Facetime or WhatsApp. For English, we use an online word processing document, which allows us both to type on the same piece of work simultaneously. For Maths, we use the whiteboard on Zoom to communicate ideas and workings. It is helpful if you have a tablet for this because the touchscreen is invaluable. Often pupils have two devices running in parallel to get the best tutoring experience! Prior to our first session, we can have a free training session to get used to the technology and how it works.
Resources needed and how it works
During the COVID pandemic, all lessons were forced online. Like many businesses, we found the online method worked unexpectedly well. Now, online learning is here to stay, allowing parents the choice of face-to-face or computer-based learning. It also means that I have tutored families as far away as Kent!
Communication is key
A day or two before the lesson, I will send through any resources needed for the lesson via email. This allows you time to print out anything needed and to check you can open the documents appropriately. Many parents ask me to cc the child in too, so they can access links and resources directly themselves. Payments are made online in advance on a monthly or half-termly basis.
When we begin the session, some parents like to stay around for the first couple of minutes to check the pupil has everything and all the technology is working well. After that, just keep your phone nearby and I'll text you if there's a problem.
After the session, some parents like to come to the screen to get some feedback. If not, I can send you an email or a text to update you with how things went.
Some benefits of online learning
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Children learn new skills such as touch typing.
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Children learn to communicate better orally because they sometimes need to describe what they are doing or where they are up to.
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If children are receiving the emails, I find they take more ownership over their learning and print out resources themselves etc. In fact, I get emails back from some pupils where they feedback on what we did, show me completed work or ask for a particular topic for next time. They are really increasing their independence.
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By looking at and working on the same document, both when writing and doing maths on the whiteboard, we can work quickly and efficiently - far better than passing books and bits of paper to each other.
Some things to be aware of
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If internet connection is unstable, we may have to revert to a phone call for the audio but the online documents tend to keep on working. I rarely get to this stage but it has happened.
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I sometimes ask pupils to keep their phones with them because sending WhatsApp photos of work (particularly graphs and diagrams) can be really helpful. However, I have seen some pupils get distracted by their phones, so if we don't specifically need them, it's best to leave them in another room!
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When flicking between Teams and webpages, some children struggle if there are lots of other windows open. It really helps if you can keep the number of windows to a minimum.