Before the Fire — Specialist Consultations
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another."
— Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend
Most parents who reach me have been told their child needs to try harder, or been given advice that assumes evenings are calm and homework is doable. A spelling programme that wants daily practice in a household where one child is melting down and another is regulating from a difficult day. A school that suggests "just half an hour of reading practice" without recognising that the child has spent the day holding it together and has nothing left. A curriculum or programme that didn't account for the particular child you have.
I'm a specialist teacher with twenty-three years of experience supporting children with dyslexia, working memory difficulties, slow processing, and the related profiles that make standard educational advice difficult to apply. Before specialising I taught secondary English in mainstream classrooms, including A-level. I completed my Master's in Inclusive Education while teaching full-time. For the last thirteen years I've worked one-to-one with learners across the age range — primary, secondary, and adults in further or higher education, including dyslexic undergraduates and postgraduates.
I'm also a parent of four neurodivergent children. The consultations on this page are for parents who want focused specialist input on their child's situation — by someone who knows what's possible at home and what isn't.
It's a conversation by the fire, with the time and attention to think things through properly — alongside someone who has done this work for many years, and who has also been the parent on the other side of that conversation.
Raking the Fire — focused specialist input
"Joe, taking up the poker, and settling himself to his usual occupation when he was thoughtful, of slowly raking the fire between the lower bars."
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 7
You've got something specific you'd like to think through — a decision, a concern, a piece of work that needs focused attention. We talk it through together. This is the call where you don't have to know what you think yet.
Who it's for: parents who want focused specialist input on something specific — a particular concern, decision, or piece of work.
What's included:
Pre-reading of any documents you send in advance
A 55-minute Zoom call
A plain-English written summary after the call
Who it's not for:
Parents in active legal proceedings — for free specialist legal advice on EHCPs and SEND appeals, IPSEA and SOS!SEN are the right starting points.
Parents needing a formal assessment — please contact a dyslexia specialist assessor or an Educational Psychologist.
Price: £110
Afore a Good Fire - Paperwork Review Consultation
"Give me, said Joe, a good book, or a good newspaper, and sit me down afore a good fire, and I ask no better."
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 10
You've been given a report or document about your child, and you want help understanding what it says before any decisions are made. The document might be an EP report, specialist teacher assessment, school assessment, NHS or private SALT/OT report, EHCP, or similar. We sit down with it together. I read it carefully in advance, then we work through it on the call — what the document is saying about your child, and how you can practically support them with what's there.
Who it's for: parents who have been given a report or document about their child and want help making sense of what it says. The work is translation.
What's included:
Pre-reading of the report by me in advance of the call (up to 30-40 pages, sent at least 3 working days before the call)
A 55-minute Zoom call
A plain-English written summary after the call covering what the report says and the questions it raises
Who it's not for:
Parents in active legal proceedings — for free specialist legal advice on EHCPs and SEND appeals, IPSEA and SOS!SEN are the right starting points.
Parents needing a formal assessment — please contact a dyslexia specialist assessor or an Educational Psychologist.
Parents needing help completing DLA forms, appeal paperwork, or formal complaints — Contact, Cerebra, Citizens Advice, Carers UK offer specialist help.
Parents with reports longer than approximately 40 pages — these may need bespoke arrangement; please contact me first.
Price: £150
Blow the Fire — Follow-up Consultation
"There was a song Joe used to hum fragments of at the forge, of which the burden was Old Clem... Blow the fire, blow the fire — Old Clem!"
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 12
You've worked with me before, and something specific has come up that you'd like to think through. Shared history gives us a starting point. You tell me what's changed.
Who it's for: this is for parents I've already worked with. You'll have had a Raking the Fire consultation, an Afore a Good Fire consultation, or tutoring sessions with me.
What's included:
A 55-minute Zoom call
A plain-English written summary after the call
Who it's not for:
Parents who haven't worked with me before — please book a Raking the Fire consultation.
Parents in active legal proceedings — IPSEA and SOS!SEN provide free specialist legal advice.
Price: £90
By Your Side — Body Doubling Consultation
He would sit and talk to me in the old confidence, and with the old simplicity, and in the old unassertive protecting way, so that I would half believe that all my life since the days of the old kitchen was one of the mental troubles of the fever that was gone.
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 57
Some tasks aren't hard because you don't know how to do them. They're hard because you can't face doing them alone - a form that's been sitting unfilled, an email you keep not writing, paperwork that needs sorting. By Your Side is a working session for exactly that. We get on with the task together, in real time: you do the doing, I keep you company and keep things moving.
You choose how we work. In parallel, we each get on quietly with cameras on - the way some people work better with someone else in the room. Or together, talking the task through as we go. You set the task and the mode when you book, so we start straight away rather than spending the call working out what the call is for.
If a SEND question comes up while we work, I'll answer it - I'm a specialist and a parent of four neurodivergent children myself. But if the session turns into needing advice rather than getting the task done, that's a consultation, and I'll say so - we'd pick it up as a Raking the Fire or Afore a Good Fire conversation instead.
Who it's for: anyone with a specific task they've been putting off and would find easier to do alongside someone.
What's included:
• A 55-minute Zoom call, working alongside me in real time
• Your choice of parallel (cameras on, each getting on quietly) or together (talking it through as we go)
• The task and the mode set when you book, so we begin straight away
Who it's not for:
• Parents who need advice or a document read properly - please book a Raking the Fire or Afore a Good Fire consultation.
• Parents in active legal proceedings - IPSEA and SOS!SEN provide free specialist legal advice.
To book: existing clients can book directly. If we haven't worked together before, please get in touch first. Longer sessions can be arranged by contact.
Price: £75
What to expect on the call
It's a conversation, not an interview. You don't need to have your notes organised in advance — many of the parents I work with are dyslexic themselves. We talk it through.
The call fits around what's happening at the time. If you'd like to bring your partner, you're welcome to; if it's just you, that's how it is. If you cry, or your child wanders in, we keep going.
After you book, I'll send a short form to capture what you'd like to discuss and what documents you have available. Don't worry if you're at the start of things and don't have anything formal to send — the form helps me prepare either way.
Anything you've sent me in advance, I will have read carefully before the call. You won't have to explain things from scratch.
Light messaging tier
Who it's for: parents who want a steady specialist contact, at a lower volume than the Plus tier.
What's included:
• Up to 2 substantive responses per week
• Each response up to 15 minutes of focused work - reading your question and any context you've shared, considering the relevant evidence and guidance, and replying with reasoning and suggested next steps
• A 30-minute Zoom check-in once per term, included in the subscription
• Choose your channel at sign-up: email or WhatsApp (one channel, not both)
Who it's not for: same as Plus tier - parents wanting in-depth document review, drafted correspondence, or detailed research.
Term-time only: pauses during all school holidays.
Price: £29 per week, inclusive of the per-term check-in. Invoiced half-termly. A typical 6-week half-term invoice is around £174.
To start: if we've not worked together before, we begin with a Raking the Fire consultation, and the messaging subscription starts from there - it's where I get to grips with your child's situation, so the messaging that follows is properly informed rather than starting cold. If you've had a consultation or tutoring with me before, just get in touch and we'll set the subscription up directly.
Plus messaging tier
Who it's for: parents who want a reliable specialist channel for the questions that arise week to week.
What's included:
• Up to 5 substantive responses per week
• Each response up to 15 minutes of focused work - reading your question and any context you've shared, considering the relevant evidence and guidance, and replying with reasoning and suggested next steps
• A 30-minute Zoom check-in once per term, included in the subscription - a chance to step back, look at the bigger picture, and flag if the messaging tier isn't fitting your needs
• Choose your channel at sign-up: email or WhatsApp (one channel, not both)
Who it's not for:
• Parents wanting in-depth document review - please book an Afore a Good Fire consultation.
• Parents wanting drafted correspondence - out of scope for messaging tiers.
• Parents wanting detailed research or analysis - please book a Raking the Fire consultation.
Term-time only: the subscription pauses during all school holidays. Each half-termly invoice covers term weeks only.
Price: £55 per week, inclusive of the per-term check-in. Invoiced half-termly. A typical 6-week half-term invoice is around £330 - slightly more for longer half-terms, slightly less for shorter ones. The first invoice is pro-rated if you start mid-half-term.
To start: if we've not worked together before, we begin with a Raking the Fire consultation, and the messaging subscription starts from there - it's where I get to grips with your child's situation, so the messaging that follows is properly informed rather than starting cold. If you've had a consultation or tutoring with me before, just get in touch and we'll set the subscription up directly.
How does this compare to tuition?
Weekly tuition is different from messaging support. In tuition I work directly with your child, week by week, on reading, spelling, morphology, or whichever specific area we’re focusing on. In messaging support I work with you — answering the questions that come up about your child’s situation or wider needs.
For comparison: weekly tuition at the new-client rate is £75 per 45-minute session. A typical 6-week half-term invoice runs to around £450.
Messaging tiers aren’t a cheaper version of tuition. They’re for parents who want professional input on their own thinking and decisions, alongside whatever support their child is getting elsewhere. Some parents have a child in tuition with me and also subscribe to a messaging tier — the conversations are about different things.
Tuition spots come up rarely, and when one does I choose from waiting families based on fit — age, what the child needs, how they’d slot into my teaching day. I’m more likely to offer a spot to a family I’m already working with through messaging than to a family I haven’t worked with before — I already know the child, the parents, and whether I’d be able to meet their child’s learning needs.
Verification of qualifications
If you’d like external verification of my qualifications, my PATOSS profile is available — you’ll need to create a PATOSS account and log in to view it. I’m also happy to show original certificates during a consultation.
Terms and conditions
The full terms for consultations and messaging support are here: Terms and Conditions for Consultancy