Welcome to my parents’, guardians’ and carers’ page

Here you will find set-up details for your child’s lesson. Please contact me, if you need any further information or help.

In-person lessons take place at my home in Hove. On-line lessons are also available.

Cancellation policy

Please give at least 24 hours’ notice, if you need to cancel. Less than 24 hours’ notice will result in a charge equal to 50% of the lesson fee. ‘No shows’ will be charged 100% of the fee.

I understand that sometimes late cancellations are unavoidable, for example, in the case of illness. In ‘exceptional circumstances’ I may waive the cancellation fee. Please be sure to send me a text as soon as possible if you need to cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice.

Payment

Lessons are paid for in advance via bank transfer.

Booking a set of 6 lessons

Parents, guardians and carers usually book sets of 6 lessons since this gives their child continuity, offers the best value and enables me to plan.

Every six lessons, there is the opportunity to schedule a call to discuss your child’s progress.

 Interactive online Lessons

I have been tutoring online since October 2020. Parents find the digital lessons very successful and pupils enjoy them. Some have said they prefer online learning for reasons of flexibility since it saves travel time and they have to listen even more carefully than usual. Further benefits include developing speaking and listening and writing skills since pupils participate by verbalising their thoughts as well as writing them.

Technical equipment for online lessons:

Googlemeet and bitpaper: register for accounts

We’ll be working with Googlemeet and bitpaper, an electronic whiteboard. Bitpaper’s site is https://bitpaper.io  Please register for a free student account before the lesson. Choose the first option and subscribe for free on https://www.bitpaper.io/pricing

Links for the first lesson

I’ll send links for the Googlemeet call and bitpaper via two emails about 5 minutes before the lesson.

You just click on the bitpaper link and it takes you straight to the whiteboard paper for the lesson. You don’t need to register for a free account. Pupils enjoy annotating texts online, and the writing tools for bitpaper work well.

It’s also possible to use an iPad and stylus or drawing tablet by using the same link, making it easier to write – although this isn’t necessary since you can use the keyboard to type.

A good wifi connection is very helpful. If for any reason, the wifi dips, just refresh the page to be able to interact with the bitpaper again.

Please also ensure your child has access to a phone and can call me if there are any audio problems that need resolving. Also, please ensure I have a number I can call to contact your child to help with technical assistance, if necessary.

A web camera

This is highly recommended: in my experience, pupils learn best when there are a few minutes of ‘facetime’ at the start and end of each lesson. It is also invaluable for developing your child’s speaking and listening skills - sets of 6 lessons can include making a speech as a unit of work, with activities to build confidence leading to the pupil’s giving a prepared talk to camera and answering questions from the audience, which could include parents and/or friends.

Reading material

The tech usually works well, but there can be the occasional glitch or delay so it’s good for pupils to have a book they’re reading to hand.

Reading is at the heart of learning, in my experience. We’ll often start a lesson by talking about the book your child is reading or by having a few minutes’ independent reading.

PDF available for revision

After each lesson, you can download a PDF copy of the lesson for revision. This also enables parents, guardians and carers to see the content of the lesson and feedback on written work.

Please note the lesson will be ‘locked’ at the end so that I can use slides from it to create follow-up lessons. The PDF will continue to be available for download.

Please note that the lesson’s PDF is for each pupil’s use only: please do not share it or the original PowerPoint with friends or publish it on the web or in print form.

Safeguarding

All lessons are recorded for reference and safeguarding.