Every student has their own story

When he first arrived for tuition, Student A was articulate, curious, and a strong reader, but put a blank page in front of him and the words dried up. He'd believed for years that he couldn't write. His despairing mother asked me to try and help him get a Grade 5.

We started by talking. No worksheets, no timed essays, just conversations about what he thought, felt, and noticed in the texts he was reading. I began by listening to him, writing down what he said, feeding it back to him and getting him to write down his own words. After a few weeks, we would talk, then he would write. Together, we devised strategies for answering the exam questions which he could relate to.

By the time he sat his GCSE, he was producing confident, precise analytical writing. Predicted a 5, he walked out with a Grade 8. But the real result was the shift in how he saw himself, no longer “a student who can't write,” but a writer.

Student C was bright but quite reserved so the speaking task was daunting for him.

Rather than start with the assessment criteria, we started with what he loved, his passion for a sport which he practised himself. We built a talk around that

It was essential his passion and enthusiasm came across. His audience would be his class, so I got him to think about what his young audience would find interesting, funny, and relatable. He found pictures to use which would entertain and inform.

He walked into the assessment nervous but ready. His teacher's comment: 'The secret to this task is preparation. That's how it's done'. The result? A Distinction.