10 Week Courses
Lots of people miss out on learning the most essential foundational skills in English. There are many reasons for this, from dyslexia, to speaking another language at home, to having missed out during the pandemic, to being neuro-atypical in a way that makes it hard to thrive in a school environment, to simply having never had things explained in the right way.
Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to advance in any humanities subject without these foundational abilities. Even more unfortunately, they are rarely taught after P7. The result is that those students who leave primary school without these skills firmly in place often find themselves falling further and further behind as they progress through high school.
I have created these courses to be a swift, affordable way to give students the chance to pick up the skills that will allow them to flourish. Each course is 10 hours long, and I run them as weekly classes during term time, and intensive courses during the holidays. They cost £150 - just £15 a lesson - and classes have between three and six students. Lessons are online, so when you enroll, I will post you a study pack including all the handouts you will need, as well as a mini-whiteboard and pen so that you can participate fully.
FE1: Phonics
Learn the fundamental rules of English spelling, and how to make educated guesses when spelling the many words that are exceptions to those rules.
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In this course, we will learn about all the most common phonemes in English, and the conventions that govern how they are spelled.
We will cover the most common vowel sounds, and investigate the different ways they can be spelled.
By the end of the course, students will have a thorough grounding in how to guess at the most likely spellings of unfamiliar words, as well as a much larger list of words whose spellings they know.
With an understanding of the principles of English spelling, they are equipped with the tools to allow them to continue to progress independently.
Length: 10 hours
Cost: £150
FE2: Spelling
Learn advanced rules of English spelling.
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This course is designed for students who have already grasped the basic principles of English spelling, and now want to use that knowledge to help them spell unfamiliar words, and make educated guesses as to their pronunciation.
We learn about how to correctly add suffixes, cover the most commonly misspelt homophones, and use our knowledge of similar words to aid us in our spelling.
By the end of the course, students will be much more confident tackling unfamiliar words in both their reading and their writing.
Length: 10 hours
Cost: £150
FE3: Sentences
Learn what a sentence actually is, and how to make yours more interesting and expressive.
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In this course, students will learn what a sentence really is, and how it is structured. They will learn fundamental rules that will help them write accurate sentences, and then move on to learning to write more interesting, complex sentences. This will include the use of subordinate clauses, the different kinds of connective words, and the correct use of the comma.
In this course, the emphasis is firmly on teaching students to write in a more sophisticated way. By the end of it, they will be more confident in using sentences interestingly and intentionally.
Length: 10 hours
Cost: £150
FE4: Introduction to Analysis
Learn how to read between the lines and find the things the text is revealing to you without explicitly telling you.
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Analysis is without a doubt the most fundamental - and challenging - skill that is asked of you in this subject.
In this course, we will cover the basics of picking up clues in a text using the skills of inference and deduction. We will also look at how to visualise information in a text, how to begin to use what has already been said to predict what might come later, and how to connect with the narrative voice empathically.
By the end of the course, students will have a solid framework they can use to approach texts in order to do more than simply extract information from them.
Length: 10 hours
Cost: £150
FE4: Comprehension
Learn how to get information from a text when reading it for the first time.
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In this course, we will learn how to read a text for the first time, and extract the information you need from it.
We will cover skimming and scanning skills, with tips such as what questions to ask yourself when first approaching a text.
As the course progresses, we will move on to learning how to do close reading, particularly of more challenging texts.
The skills taught in this module are vital for the comprehension sections of the English exams, and an absolutely essential foundation for developing analytical skills.
By the end of the course, students will have a framework with which to approach reading a text in order to extract information from it.
Length: 10 hours
Cost: £150