The Chimney-Corner: Specialist Tuition

This page is about what tuition with me looks like in practice.

Special interests

Sometimes a child's special interest comes into the lesson content directly. Harry Potter is a good one for morphology - we look at 'ex' meaning 'out' and 'specto' meaning 'look at' in the verb 'expecto' - literally 'to look out for' or 'await' - and 'patronum' meaning 'protector', from Latin 'pater' for father, or why Rowling chose the names she did for particular characters. One student who loved polar bears did lessons on the morphemes 'arct' (from the Greek for bear, which is also where the Arctic gets its name) and 'urs' (the Latin equivalent, from 'ursus'), and when it came to reading comprehension we read 'The Last Bear' by Hannah Gold.

More often the special interest slips in via a lesson break. We look at images associated with what the child's into - it helps with processing and gives them a small pause. For one student that meant chubby animals - walruses were a favourite. Before that he'd wanted to look at toilets with a view (I learnt that toilets in Scandinavia often have windows out to the landscape), so chubby animals were easier to source.

First lessons

For a child who's found learning hard before, I establish trust by starting easy - work that's below what they can manage, on purpose. Sometimes the first lesson is mostly conversation - what they're interested in, favourite TV programmes and games, teachers they've liked and what those teachers did that helped. Some children want to try a bit of reading or spelling at that point. Some don't have the energy. Some prefer to start a normal lesson straight away, based on what you've sent me beforehand. If a child looks overwhelmed, you and I might just chat while they take stock.

Reading aloud is something I never ask a child to do until they volunteer. Some children do at some point; some don't for months; some never do, and we work around it in a different way. Parents have told me they didn't think their child would read aloud in a lesson, and were surprised - sometimes moved - when it happened.

Reading the room

Sometimes a child looks disengaged - flat, uninterested, not visibly following - and it turns out they're taking more in than the surface suggests. I've had two occasions where I've suggested to a parent that we might stop, or the parent's raised it themselves, and the child has said no, they want to keep going. So a session that looks like nothing is happening isn't always what it looks like.

If a child arrives at the lesson already worn out, or something's happened just before, we can shift what we do in the session. It's important your child has a positive experience of the lesson.

The lesson can go where the learner takes it. One student and I were doing Japanese myths and switched to Spanish mid-lesson because something in a story caught her, and we've been learning Spanish concurrently ever since - not from me teaching her, but the two of us learning together. Cities, geography, history, culture, with the language woven through as we go. I enjoy her lessons - I never know quite what's going to happen.

After-school sessions

After-school sessions have their own character. For a child who's been at school all day, the last thing they need is more school. What they often want is a chance to learn something in a completely different way to how they learn at school - something they have autonomy over. A chance to talk through what happened in the school day. A chance to ask specific questions about their diagnosis inside a lesson I've planned. Focused, but not more of the same.

Strands and handwriting

Learners don't stay in the same strand. Reading opens onto morphology; morphology opens onto comprehension; comprehension opens onto whatever the child is being asked to read in school or wants to read for themselves. One student I've worked with for seven years began with decoding through phonics, moved into morphology to fill vocabulary and comprehension gaps, and by GCSE we were pre-teaching the English Language and Literature texts so he could get more from his school lessons. Specialist support is an ongoing process rather than a fixed block.

I trained with Sue Smits in the Morrells handwriting method. Where many handwriting specialists work rapidly over six or so sessions, I take as long as a child needs and limit the work they do in their own time, to avoid dysregulation.

Parents in lessons

I follow the parent's lead. You know your child. If you tell me they're likely to freeze, I tread carefully. If you tell me they've had a hard week, we adjust. If you tell me they're on a good run, we push a bit.

You're welcome to be in the lesson - many parents are, especially where the child wants you there, or where the parent is learning alongside. One family I've worked with for four years, the parent originally sat in to make sure her son could hear everything I was saying. When that difficulty resolved, she carried on because we'd built a rhythm together. She plays against him in our games. She's a teacher herself, of a completely different subject, so she quite enjoys the morphology and English literature I teach him.

Parents often learn alongside too. When we're doing morphology, the material is genuinely interesting - most adults didn't meet root words, prefixes and suffixes properly at school.

You're the expert on your child. You know what they can do on a good day, what they find hard, what they've been through - that's information I can't get from anyone else. If your child would like you in the lesson, or you think it would help, you're welcome to be there. Where a parent isn't participating in the lesson, I ask that a parent or responsible adult is within earshot throughout.

Between sessions

The five minutes at the end of each session covers what we did and how it went. If we've been chatting and I mention a resource that might help, I'll send a link over WhatsApp before I forget.

You can message me informally during the week - WhatsApp works best. Send examples of work, ask a quick question, give me a heads up if your child's had a hard day or is feeling under the weather so I can adjust the lesson if needed. I reply within my working hours rather than within any set turnaround. I'm a parent to four children with additional needs of my own, so I understand the load - and I know that some questions can't wait until the next session.

Homework only helps if it gets done. I prepare it specifically for your child, and it takes time to put together. If you know it's likely to go undone, it's better not to request it. Add it when you and your child feel ready to add additional consolidation to your week.

Reports and assessment

What we work on depends on the child, and I start from what's already known.

If there are diagnostic reports, I work from what they recommend. Educational Psychologist reports, dyslexia assessments, OT reports, SaLT reports, SENCo summaries - whatever you've got, send it and I'll read it. Reports don't get filed away after the first lesson; I keep paper copies in a locked filing cabinet by my desk, and I often put a child's report out during the five minutes with the parent at the end, or mid-lesson when a child is reflecting on something so I can check their scores in a particular area.

If there's no report, I may do some light assessment in the first few lessons - reading and spelling - to get a picture. Where a child has been formally assessed, I don't reassess. I might get them to read and spell for 20 minutes so I can see it for myself. A diagnosis isn't needed to start, and where one doesn't exist, I work from what the lessons themselves show me - which for most children is enough.

My own view is that diagnosis is important for the individual. It gives a child the 'why' - the reason things are hard, or the reason they're different from other children. I've seen assessments radically change how a child sees themselves, and had a child leave one feeling less hard on themselves than they did going in. I'm neurodivergent myself, and I talk openly with my students about the things I find challenging and my own 'why'. But assessments are expensive, and families have their own reasons for the decisions they make. I'll respect whatever a family decides, and I'll only discuss assessment options if you ask me to.

Sometimes formal assessment isn't the right thing at all - the child is too worn out by school or too wary to be watched. In which case I'll ask you to send work samples, or videos of your child reading aloud at home, sometimes captured by stealth when a child clams up the moment they know they're being watched.

Tuition is set out in full on the tuition page.