Maths · Physics · Study skills — ages 11 to 18
One-to-one tuition
Taught line by line, until it actually clicks.
I teach maths and physics to one student at a time. We work on paper, out loud, and slowly enough that the reasoning sticks — not just the answer. Most families start with a quick conversation and a diagnostic lesson before committing to a weekly slot.
- Weekly slotsSame time each week, term-time
- Online or in personShared whiteboard or your kitchen table
- Written after every lessonA short note on what we covered
01 — What I teach
Subjects and levels
Four lanes, nothing outside them. If a request sits beyond what I teach well, I will say so in my reply rather than take the booking.
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Maths, lower secondary
Years 7–9
Rebuilding the arithmetic and algebra that later topics quietly depend on. This is where most long-term confidence problems start, and where they are cheapest to fix.
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GCSE maths
Foundation & higher
Topic repair plus exam technique: reading the question properly, showing method that earns marks, and knowing when to stop and move on. We work from past papers once the foundations hold.
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A-level maths
Year 12 & 13, pure and mechanics
Bridging the step up from GCSE, where the pace doubles and partial understanding stops working. Weekly sessions usually track the school scheme of work a few days behind.
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Physics
GCSE & AS level
Physics taught as a small set of ideas applied repeatedly, with the maths kept in plain sight. Good for students who can recite definitions but freeze on unfamiliar contexts.
02 — Process
How a term takes shape
Nothing here is a commitment until step three. The first two steps exist so that both of us can tell whether weekly tuition is the right spend.
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A short conversation
You send the enquiry form with the year group, subject and what is going wrong. I reply with what I would work on first, whether I have a suitable slot, and an honest note if I think you need something other than tuition.
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One diagnostic lesson
A full-length lesson spent finding the edge of what the student can do unaided. I set no homework after this one. Afterwards you get a written summary: the three things I would prioritise, and roughly how long each usually takes.
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A weekly slot and a plan
We fix a regular time for the term and work through the plan in order, with the school's current topic folded in whenever a test or deadline is close. Each lesson ends with one small piece of work — usually fifteen to twenty minutes.
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A review before each holiday
Once a term I write a longer note: what has moved, what has not, and whether to continue, reduce to fortnightly, or stop. Plenty of students finish after a term, and that is the intended outcome.
03 — In the room
From the notebook
What an hour actually looks like, in case you are deciding between tutors and every website sounds the same.
The first ten minutes are the student talking, not me. I ask them to walk through a question they got wrong last week, out loud, including the part where it went sideways. Almost always the error arrives earlier than anyone assumed — a sign dropped, a definition half-remembered.
Then we do the repair on paper, together, and I hand the pen over for the second example. If they can teach it back to me at the end, we are done. If not, it goes on next week's page.
Teaching note — September
- Method first, speed later. Fast wrong answers are a habit that takes weeks to unpick, so early lessons are deliberately slow.
- One page per lesson. Everything we write stays in a single running notebook the student keeps, so revision starts from their own handwriting.
- Homework stays small. Twenty focused minutes beats an untouched worksheet, and I would rather see two honest attempts than six copied lines.
- Mistakes get read aloud. Naming the error out loud is what stops it repeating in the exam hall.
- Exam papers come last. They measure progress; they do not create it.
Textbooks, past papers and specification copies for the main exam boards live on the shelf, so a lesson never stalls waiting for a resource.
04 — Formats
Formats and fees
All rates are per lesson and include the written summary afterwards. Invoiced monthly for the lessons already taught — nothing is paid up front.
| Format | Who it suits | Length | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic lesson | Who it suitsAnyone starting out. One session, no obligation to continue, written summary included. | Length60 minutes | Rate£40 |
| Weekly hour | Who it suitsThe standard arrangement. Same slot each week through the term, plan-led with school topics folded in. | Length60 minutes | Rate£45 |
| Extended session | Who it suitsA-level students covering two topics at once, or full past-paper work under timed conditions. | Length90 minutes | Rate£64 |
| Fortnightly check-in | Who it suitsStudents who are mostly independent and need steering rather than teaching. Often where a weekly student ends up. | Length60 minutes | Rate£45 |
| Sibling pair | Who it suitsTwo students in the same subject within one year group of each other, taught together at one table. | Length75 minutes | Rate£62 |
In-person lessons are taught within a short drive of the studio; anything further is taught online at the same rate. Online lessons use a shared whiteboard, so the student still writes by hand.
05 — Details
Questions parents ask
What happens if we need to cancel a lesson?
Tell me before the evening prior and the lesson simply drops off the invoice. Inside that window I charge for the slot, because it cannot realistically be refilled. Illness is always the exception, no questions asked.
Do you set homework, and who chases it?
Yes — one short task a week, usually fifteen to twenty minutes, written at the end of the lesson so the student knows exactly what is expected. I check it at the start of the next session and mention it in the lesson note. Chasing it is not your job; if it is repeatedly untouched, that tells us something useful and we talk about it.
Does it matter which exam board the school uses?
For teaching the mathematics, very little. For exam technique it matters a great deal, so I ask for the board and tier in the enquiry form and work from that specification and its past papers. If the school changes board mid-course, send me the new one and I will adjust the plan.
How will we know whether it is working?
You get a short note after every lesson and a longer written review each term covering what has moved and what has not. Between those, the honest early signal is not test scores but whether the student starts attempting questions they would previously have skipped.
What do we need for online lessons?
A laptop or tablet, headphones, paper and a pen. We share a whiteboard I write on and the student writes on too, so the session looks much like an in-person one. A phone screen is too small to work on comfortably, so I would suggest in person instead.
Can you teach two children in the same session?
If they are in the same subject and within a year of each other, yes — that is the sibling pair format, and sharing a table often works well. Different subjects or a wider gap means two separate slots; splitting attention helps neither student.
Is it too late to start mid-term, or in exam year?
No. Mid-term starts are common and the plan simply gets shorter and more targeted. Starting in the spring of an exam year means we prioritise the highest-value gaps and paper technique rather than working through everything, and I will tell you plainly what is realistic in the time left.
06 — Get in touch
Ask about a slot
A few lines is plenty. I answer every enquiry myself, usually within a couple of evenings.
What happens next
- I reply with what I would work on first and whether I have a slot that fits.
- If it looks like a good match, we book the single diagnostic lesson.
- You decide about a weekly slot after that lesson, not before.
Current openings: two weekday evenings from 6 October, plus one Saturday morning in exam season.