The Chimney-Corner — Specialist Tuition
Many parents who get in touch are tired. Your child isn't picking up reading the way the phonics books and online guides suggest they should. Your child's said their friends can read better than them. The evening struggles over homework are wearing everyone out. Or you're fed up of repetitive school reading schemes and nothing's changed. Or the school's raised something and you're not sure what to do with it. Or you're home educating, everything else is working, but reading and spelling aren't. Or your child is reading at or above age but something about the learning isn't right - the effort, the exhaustion, the reluctance, a spiky profile you can see and school can't. Or your child is in secondary school or preparing for GCSEs, and needs support built around them as a neurodivergent learner. Or your teenager isn't picking up modern languages at school, and word origins might help them make sense of the vocabulary. Or you've been told 'just half an hour of reading practice' and you've done that for a year and nothing's changed. Or you've had none of that and you're just wondering whether one-to-one specialist tuition might help, and you're trying to work out what it is.
This is the page about my one-to-one tuition. It's online, by Zoom, for learners from age six to young adults in higher education. Some come during the school day - home educators, families on EOTAS packages, learners in different time zones. Some come after school. You don't need a diagnosis to start. Many of the children I work with don't have one.
If any of the above sounds like you, the first step is to fill in my waiting list form. I review the list periodically, and if I think I can help, I'll be in touch to arrange a free 15-minute meeting. Details on how the list works are further down.
For reference, the current rate is £65 per session (40 minutes of teaching plus 5 minutes of parent feedback). Full fees and terms are further down.
If tuition isn't what you're looking for, there are other GEE routes that might fit. Before the Fire is my paid consultation service for parents and carers - a one-off or occasional conversation rather than ongoing tuition. The Parent Carer Compendium is a growing library of articles on SEND, dyslexia, home education and related territory. The Forge stocks structured literacy resources you can use at home.
I'm a specialist tutor focused on making learning accessible to neurodivergent learners. I have twenty-three years of teaching experience. I started in secondary English classrooms, including A Level, and was Lead English Teacher for Gloucestershire LA. I moved into study skills work with undergraduates and postgraduates. I've been doing one-to-one specialist work since 2007, across primary through higher education.
My qualifications are M.Ed in Inclusive Education, AMBDA (the Associate Membership of the British Dyslexia Association, a Level 7 dyslexia qualification), SpLD APC (Assessment Practising Certificate for specific learning difficulties), Level 5 Dyscalculia Specialist, QTS, and PATOSS membership (the professional body for specialist teachers of learners with specific learning difficulties).
I'm also a parent to four children with additional needs, including autism, dyslexia, Williams Syndrome, and a twice-exceptional profile - the child who's clearly capable and clearly struggling at the same time.
This is the page about whether what I do as a tutor is the right fit for your child. Routes for verifying the professional detail above are at the foot of this page.
What follows is what tuition with me actually looks like in practice.
What a tuition session looks like
I work one-to-one with each learner, online via Zoom, in their own home. Sessions are 45 minutes - 40 minutes teaching plus 5 minutes of feedback to a parent or carer at the end.
The specific content of any given lesson is built around the learner's needs. The structure underneath stays consistent - phonics sequence, morphology, writing practice, comprehension work. The way we get there is whatever works.
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 doublet, 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.
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 another 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.
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.
I work with learners who have dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, autism (including PDA) and other learning profiles. Some have formal diagnoses; many don't. What counts more than the label is whether the approach fits the learner.
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 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.
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 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.
Areas I cover
Depending on the learner, sessions may include:
• Early Reading Mastery using a Linguistic Phonics approach
• Morphology - root words, prefixes, suffixes - to deepen vocabulary and spelling
• Reading Comprehension and critical thinking
• Handwriting - I trained with Sue Smits in the Morrells method and have adapted it for my neurodivergent learners and their families. 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
• Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation
• Creative and Academic Writing
• KS2 and KS3 English
• GCSE and A Level English Language, Literature and combined Language & Literature
• Mathematics - I offer maths up to KS2 and early KS3 content, whatever the age of the learner
• Study Skills and Exam Strategies
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.
How I work out what to focus on
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. Where a family later books an assessment and the assessor asks for my observations, I'm glad to contribute - brief observations without charge, a more extensive report at my hourly rate. Depending on where you are, I may be able to recommend an assessor I've worked with.
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'. That said, 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.
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 a report. 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.
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. Formal written progress reports are available on request, at additional cost. For families home educating, I'm happy to contribute to annual home education reports - typically about two pages of A4, chargeable at hourly rate, and you'll always see a draft before it goes anywhere.
The Parent Carer Compendium on this website grew out of the questions parents were asking me at the end of lessons. I was sending WhatsApp messages with different links to different families, sometimes the same links to the same families twice, and it made more sense to put it all in one place. If you'd like to start working on some things independently in the meantime, The Forge has structured literacy resources you can use at home.
If you'd like homework set between sessions, I can prepare targeted practice that reinforces what we've covered in the lesson. It's bespoke to your child, and I'll take on whatever you want included. Add it when you and your child feel ready to add additional consolidation to your week.
How I teach reading and spelling
If you want to understand exactly how reading and spelling are taught in my sessions, I've written a full explanation on a separate page. It's particularly useful if you're home educating and want the detail, or if you've been through an approach that hasn't worked and want to know what's different here. 'How I Teach Reading and Spelling' covers the structure of a typical lesson - phonics, decoding, sentence reading, spelling work - and how a parent can support what's been covered during the week between sessions.
How the waiting list works
The waiting list starts with a form on the waiting list page. It captures the essentials - parent details, your child's age and setting, learning needs, any diagnosis you'd like to mention, when you're generally free for tuition - so I can prepare for a meeting if we get to one. When a tuition spot comes up, I review the list. I choose from waiting families based on whether I think I can meet the child's needs well - their age, what they need, what I have the professional skills and bandwidth to offer at that moment. It isn't a simple queue. I won't take a student on just because it would increase my income - that's a failure of professional integrity, and children with complex needs aren't a factor in the wrong direction (they're often more straightforward to teach than families expect). What's usually the deciding factor is when the parent says the child is available and when I have a free slot. If it might be a fit, I get in touch by email to set up an initial meeting.
The first step is a free 15-minute meeting. It's for the parent - I don't ask to meet the child before the fit is confirmed, and there's no expectation of a pre-lesson assessment. The meeting works both ways: a chance to talk through what's happening for your child, and for both of us to see whether we'd work well together and whether my teaching matches what your child needs. If your child would like to say hello during the meeting, that's fine - but there's no pressure from my side for them to be there. If you're thinking about more than one child, tell me at the enquiry stage - I can hold that in mind when I'm working out fit and timing.
From there, if it's a fit, we set up lessons. The first few lessons are charged separately from the rest of the half-term we're in, at the standard rate, so there's a natural point to check things are working before settling into the term's rhythm. I've never refused a family at that point, but the two-lesson break is there so no one is locked into anything. If it isn't a fit, I'll say so, and I'll usually be able to suggest who or what might suit better - a Before the Fire consultation, a different practitioner, or a different service entirely.
Tuition runs half-term to half-term. To stop, let me know at least three full weeks before the last day of the current half-term and I won't invoice the next one. I use Buckinghamshire term dates. Later than that and the next half-term is payable, because the slot has been held for your child. Either of us can bring things to a close if the lessons are no longer helping - that's in the terms because it needs to be said, not because I expect it to happen often. Some families swap a sibling into the slot for a time, which is fine - tell me and we'll work it out.
If a family stops and later wants to come back, I'm glad to have you back. It's as a new enquiry - so whatever the current fee is, and there might be a wait for a slot that suits.
I don't teach at weekends. UK daytime slots go quickly to home-educating families, EOTAS placements, and learners in different time zones. After-school slots are for children in mainstream school.
For overseas families: the family needs to be able to move with the timetable when the clocks change here in spring and autumn - I can't shift other students around a UK-based schedule. Payment is by bank transfer via FreeAgent invoicing; Stripe is available with an additional charge to cover transaction fees.
For families whose provision is funded through EOTAS or another local authority route: most families I've worked with have paid directly from their personal budget and reclaimed. I have invoiced an LA directly once. My preference is for the parent to pay and reclaim - LAs work slightly differently and personal-budget reclamation is the cleaner route for everyone. I'm familiar with EHCP outcome frameworks (I've rewritten my son's annually for a decade) and I've recently filled in LA EOTAS annual review forms. Where an LA requires tutors to apply to their approved tutor list, I'll consider that where the family specifically requests my involvement.
I attend EHCP annual review meetings online where I'm not teaching or otherwise booked, chargeable at hourly rate. Additional report writing on request, also at hourly rate.
Fees
The current rate is £65 per session - 40 minutes of teaching plus 5 minutes of parent feedback at the end.
Fees are reviewed each year and may rise from time to time. I'll always give existing families notice before any change.
A couple of practical notes. Some sessions need physical materials at the learner's end - letter tiles, paper, pens. I'll let you know what's needed before each lesson.
My Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy are available to read.
Homework
If you'd like homework set between sessions, I can prepare targeted practice that reinforces what we've covered in the lesson - £15 per session.
A note worth making plainly: 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 sit untouched, it's better not to request it. Add it when you and your child feel ready to add additional consolidation to your week.
If you'd like to ask a question first
Before your first lesson, have a look at the setup page - it covers where your child works, what device works best, what materials to have ready, and what each kind of lesson needs.
If you've read this and want to ask something before joining a waiting list, you're welcome to email me. I usually reply within a few working days.
Before your first lesson, have a look at the setup page - it covers where your child works, what device works best, what materials to have read, and what each kind of lesson needs.
Verification of qualifications
For parents who want to verify professional credentials before committing to a waiting list:
The ‘About Me’ page has the longer biographical version of my training and teaching history
My qualifications are listed on the PATOSS professional directory, you'll need to create a PATOSS account and log in to view it.
Certificates are available to view in an initial conversation if neither of the above works for you
What lessons are like