Valerie

An excellent, creative, fun, and engaging tutor! Valerie tutored our son for 5 months in both English and Maths to help him both close some of his learning gaps as well as increase his knowledge and skills in both subjects so that he was better able to pass the GCSE national exams, in due course. Our son is severely sight impaired (a Braillist) and this didn't scare her off, but rather it excited her to be able to teach in a different way. From the start, Valerie was immediately open to seeing the world through his eyes by not only learning about how he learned best (i.e.providing vivid descriptions), but also by teaching him a myriad of different tools and strategies to further embed specific concepts. Valerie was adaptable, flexible, and friendly as noted by her promptly changing her normal work schedule to accomodate his and by making an intentional choice of wearing bright colours during each session so he had a better chance of seeing her. She was very engaging, curious (aka 'always searching), had an infectious laugh and bucketloads of funny stories, which my son came to appreciate over time. Post-lesson, he would comment on how "funny Valerie was" and stated that he learned a lot from her and would apply what's he learned at school in the future. Valerie genourously shared different types of teaching resources to help our son practice outside of the lessons and both challenged and encouraged him. Although Valerie initially provided written progress notes, over time, she involved me in lessons to make sure we were all on the same page as well as ensure that the continuity of work and practice between the tutoring sessions and home occurred. Most importantly, Valerie was kind and did not treat our son any differently than any other pupil and because of this, gave him more confidence in himself and his abilities. We will miss her but my son and I would highly recommend Valerie to any one at any time.

Valerie is a fantastic tutor!!! Ive always struggled with the french language, and she has really helped break our lessons down into understandable chunks that force me to stretch my abilities. She has presented her lessons in a methodical way so that i can focus and feel confident on one tense / subject area before we move onto the next, and will always circle back to ensure ive retained the information. She is imaginative in her assignments and. Will have me attempt to read a passage, learn the vocab and then attempt to translate and answer the questions provided. She approaches her teaching with a great deal of warmth and humour and will appropriately challenge and focus me if ive made an error or if i get off topic (which can happen a lot ). Anecdotally, prior to my sessions with Valerie, i could only remember basic conjugation of verbs in the present tense and was limited in my abilty to translate my thoughts into french. After only a period of 3 months, ive been able to expand on this by using reflexive verbs, the past and imperfect tense to greatly express myself. I would strongly recommend Valerie as a tutor! Thanks for everything!!

I could easily recommend Valerie, my daughter have math difficulties and do extra lessons with her for a couple of years now, and it’s help her a lot, Valérie always find and adapt learning approach to her needs

Valerie is an amazing teacher! I deeply recommend her.
She has been teaching my home-schooled son maths and french for more than a year.
In maths, my son was lacking confidence and didn't like this subject at all. After a few months, he has started to love maths and he regains his confidence!! She found so many ways of teaching him, making the lessons fun and interesting, always finding the best teaching solution for him!
In french, my son has now started to read fluently and even write! Valerie always finds subjects that interest him.
My son loves going to Valerie's lessons, he has built up his confidence and likes learning about maths and french now!

Valerie is a lovely teacher who responded carefully and helpfully to our need to learn a few simple phrases and expressions quickly - one week before going to France for the first time. We had three lessons with Valerie all of which were useful and confidence-building when beginning to speak a new language.