“...and so I thought her difficulties with writing and spelling would resolve themselves but by the end of year 5 I could see that she probably had some kind of specific learning difficulty, and her teacher was saying the same. She was assessed and found to have elements of dyslexia and dyspraxia. I spent a couple of days being quite upset about this but then just decided to get on with dealing with it. While my daughter had some help at school, the sessions she has had with Sarah have been invaluable in helping her find strategies to improve her spelling, handwriting and structuring of written work. She worked with Sarah in year 6 and at the beginning of secondary school. Because my daughter kept asking to go to back to Sarah’s she went again while she was doing her GCSEs.

As an ex-teacher myself I could tell that Sarah really understood my daughter’s difficulties; she was great at helping her while also building up her confidence and not losing sight of the enjoyment of reading and writing stories. I think we were really lucky to find someone with Sarah’s combination of primary and secondary teaching experience, dyslexia qualifications and GCSE examining experience. My daughter was so pleased to pass her two English exams first time (both grade 7s) and I’m sure that would not have been possible without Sarah’s support.”

“...she had received “below target” results for English at the end of Y5 and was losing confidence in her capabilities. Sarah did a thorough assessment of her needs, including review of school reports and current work, and a meeting with me to get a clear brief. Working weekly with my daughter she slowly increased her confidence and technical capabilities in those areas that had been proving tricky. My daughter was always happy to go to Sarah and enjoyed the sessions which were an excellent mix of work and games (that my daughter didn’t realise were also work!).

Sarah’s holistic approach was calm, clear and thorough with regular feedback and I was delighted by the progress that my daughter showed during the year, ending in a good pass for her Y6 SATS results.

Separately Sarah supported my daughter through her entrance exams for her new secondary school and in particular worked hard to ensure she was familiar with the verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests and expectations, taking all the stress and worry away from this process. Thank you so much Sarah! ”

“...I would wholeheartedly recommend Sarah Jackson for English tutoring support at all levels.
Sarah worked with my son from Year 4 and was his sole English tutor from Year 8 when he became homeschooled. Building both his core skills and confidence in his abilities, she encouraged him to aspire to higher goals which resulted in him getting good passes in both English Language and English Literature GCSE (June 2019).

This was a fantastic achievement for him and a real testament to Sarah’s personalised, creative approach to learning which was clearly both motivating and enjoyable. It was inspiring to see her determinedly working to find the right style to suit him as an individual, producing a structured programme to help overcome his learning challenges and build belief in himself. I’m delighted he has ultimately achieved much success thanks to Sarah’s brilliant teaching support. ”

“...and viewed himself as a failure in school, thinking himself to be stupid.  Sarah worked sensitively with him to overcome his confidence issues and supported him to develop strategies to make the most of his strengths.  She developed his key skills in English Language, employing her specialist dyslexia knowledge to identify his specific needs and develop an individual programme of learning for him.  In yr 10 work he had been ungraded in English tests, in the mocks (November of yr11) he was graded as 2 for both.  By June of year 11 he achieved a grade 6 (Lit) and grade 4 (Lang), due to the intensive support from Sarah.  More importantly he recognised that he has a lot of skills and is not stupid. 

His confidence has soared since, and his mental health has blossomed.  I can’t thank Sarah enough for what she did for my son ”