Hello and welcome to Rachel Briers English Services! Here are some common questions that I get asked after parents/students read my biography, with the hope that they answer some of yours. If not, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me!
Why is tutoring so expensive?
Whereas I appreciate that the hourly cost of tutoring seems very high, this is actually split over two, sometimes three hours behind the scenes.
For example, a £45 lesson is charged for the hour I tutor, but also the time that it takes me to plan the lesson beforehand, to provide/create homework for the student, and then the time that it takes to mark the homework and provide feedback. My hourly fee is also based heavily on my expertise and extensive experience in teaching English and Spanish.
For GCSE and A-level students especially, it can take me an hour and a half, sometimes two hours to mark essays that are around 2000 words+ and provide constructive feedback. I have two degrees (Bachelor's and Masters) that relate to English. Naturally, a portion of this fee also goes towards my student loan, and my self-employment tax and the fee also considers that self-employed individuals do not have any holiday or sickness pay.
For those of you that were introduced to my services via a third-party website, I have to also pay them a fee of 30-35% (out of the hourly fee you pay me) to use their platform.
What materials will you use?
Past exam papers
Quizzes
Online education games
Interactive whiteboards
Worksheets
Personally created PowerPoint presentations for each topic.
Exemplar candidate work
Why can’t both my children (twins, for example) have a lesson together?
In my earlier tutoring days, I did offer this, but from experience, I can now say that it is not a good idea to have two students (of any age) together in the same lesson (even twins). This is because one student will likely be more advanced than the other, meaning one never gets to answer, or one becomes even more shy and loses what little confidence they had.
My job is not only to provide a private education service but also to build confidence, and this (I’ve found) is difficult when there are two students in a lesson. One student always ends up following the other/relying on them, and one always ends up rarely participating (even when prompted). This means one always feels like they cannot ask questions lest they should feel they’ll look stupid in front of their friend/sibling.
What will you cover with me/my child?
For different age groups, the following will be used as standard, however, when we meet we will create a personalised learning plan for your so that we can address specific areas of concern.
KS1 (Key Stage 1 ages 5-7):
Phonics - to know all the 40+ phonemes (sounds) and know which letters or groups of letters correspond to them.
To read words with -s, -es, -ing, -ed, -er and -est endings and to understand verb tenses (the past, the present, and the future).
To confidently and fluently read a range of poems, stories, and non-fiction.
To be able to re-tell stories that they know. We will also cover reading aloud skills, spelling, composing a sentence out loud before writing it down, forming multiple sentences in a sequence in order to form short narratives, and re-reading what they have written to check for errors and that it makes grammatical sense.
We will perfect the use of capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, prefixes, suffixes, homonyms, and hypernyms. Handwriting (Cursive) sheets will also be used to make sure students start early and stick to writing on the line.
KS2 (ages 7-11)
These are your child’s SATS exams years, and we will cover a range of topics focusing on the three areas of the exam: spelling, writing skills, and comprehension for which I use past papers alongside my own teaching materials.
We will also cover prefixes, suffixes, all 14 types of punctuation, homophones and homonyms, synonyms and antonyms, adverbs, adjectives, nouns, verbs, main and subordinate clauses, and verb tenses. Fronted adverbials and simple, compound, and complex sentences are also covered.
We will cover modern and ancient myths and key periods of history from Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and the Vikings to the Victorians (usually in comprehension form.) A real focus will also be put on expanding their vocabulary that they can use in KS3.
KS3 (ages 11-14)
In KS3, we start to prepare students for their GCSE exams.
We cover a range of language techniques such as similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, pathetic fallacy, to onomatopoeias through fiction, non-fiction, and poetry extracts (both modern and Shakespearean sonnets).
A Shakespeare play of the School’s choosing (Usually ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ or ‘The Tempest.’
Essential punctuation, spelling, and grammar to ensure nothing was missed from KS2. We will also focus on expanding their vocabulary and replacing “boring” words with ones they will be able to use in their GCSE exams and gain marks for.
We will also begin to look at creative and persuasive writing.
Essay writing skills
KS4/GCSE (ages 14-16):
We cover all 32 essential language techniques and why they are used using past literature and language exam papers (some timed, some not),
Contexts for the exams: Victorian and Edwardian context, World Wars One and Two, Shakespeare’s Early Modern England.
We revise and learn essential quotes, character analysis and essay writing, and I provide spelling tests and punctuation to check that nothing was missed at KS2 and KS3.
We will also look at creative and persuasive writing techniques.
A-LEVEL (ages 16-18) For each text and poem, I will provide a large Word document for each one that covers the context, quotes, and essay discussion topics for us to go over together. I’ve also created a range of PowerPoint presentations for the students to use and keep for revision. We will also focus a lot on essay/exam techniques.
UNIVERSITY (Ages 18+) Lessons and materials will be guided by what you want help with, but I will provide advice sheets, and how-to sheets for things like referencing, reading secondary material, and exam techniques. I welcome any mature university students that would like to work with me.
ADULT – Once we have determined what you would like to improve upon, I will create specialised lessons for you with materials that focus on these topics/areas.
More questions
Why do you set homework?
Many students believe that teachers set homework as a form of punishment, but it’s not true! The reason for homework is not only to ensure that the information given in the lesson has been consolidated and retained but also to make sure that they revise the topic for the remainder of the week.
Of course, every student is different and for some students, homework will not be provided if the parent also believes it would not be suitable.
I will likely only see you or your child/ren for one hour per week, which is only 4 hours per month, and an hour goes quicker than you’d think! Tutoring must be a group effort between myself, the student, and the parent/s/guardian/s, otherwise, it will not work. Because I am not there for the rest of the week, with young children especially it is essential that the parents take an active role in ensuring their child/ren completes this homework and revise the materials that I cover and send each week.
Once I can see that there are no errors in the homework, I then know that the student is confident and competent with this topic, and we can move on to the next area of study. Homework allows me to track their progress and to report back to you which areas need extra work during the week.
Tutoring is a magical thing and, with me, has helped many students that need that 1:1 time to process information and ask questions to fully understand a topic, but it is not a quick process and progress relies on all three parties working together.
Sometimes, this process can be even slower if the student was taught something in a lower grade, but is still getting it wrong, meaning I must backtrack and fix that error before we can work on the age-appropriate material for their current year group.
If you are an A-level or adult student, the responsibility (and choice) is entirely yours to complete homework since independent study and adhering to deadlines is an essential skill that all of you will need either for University or the workplace.
What happens if my child doesn’t make progress?
If the student completes all of their homework on time and the parents take an active role in supporting their learning during the week, and the student is still not making any progress, I will ensure that we change tactics in lessons to pinpoint the issue/s. If the issues cannot be remedied (I’ve never had this happen yet in 5 years), then I will suggest we look at increasing their teaching hours or changing to another tutor.