County Town Tutoring

County Town Tutoring Online tutoring with a qualified teacher:
*KS3 and KS4 English
*English Language GCSE resit
*KS4 history
*1:1 or small group tutoring

27/03/2026

It's finally the last day of term! I can't decide if this term has felt long, or if it's flown by.

My end of term email will be hitting your inboxes today with some important dates for May/June.

I am seeing ALL of my lovely year 11s next week for Easter holiday sessions - no rest for the wicked - but for all other "work related" bits, my out of office is on.

I am not taking on any new students now for next year, but thank you everyone who has been recommending me.

16/03/2026

Thank you everyone for booking your Easter holidays sessions - I will be seeing ALL of you in the first week of the holidays.

I've been going through all of your individual "road maps" today and checking which questions everyone still needs to cover. We've now all got roughly 10 sessions left (which means about 6 before exams start). We are smashing it!

I've also sent reminder emails for any outstanding work from the last few weeks - please make sure you complete any task I have set you so I can give you feedback and check that you are good to go on that question.

I am looking forward to seeing you all this week to continue our work on various language paper 2 questions - we are on questions 3, 4 and 5 this week. Then next week, some of you will be jumping back to paper 1 to mop up what is left there.

Term 2 of year 11 is nearly done. šŸ„¹

I really enjoyed my first week of my creative writing course last week. We were at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery and were ...
04/03/2026

I really enjoyed my first week of my creative writing course last week.

We were at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery and were asked to pick something from the Bronze Age displays to write about. We weren't allowed to read about it, we just had to pick it and be inspired by it. Then we were asked to write something creative. I picked a pot. I wrote down 3 questions:
* What has it seen?
* What is it now?
* What has it been?
I realised this rhymed so decided to write a 10 line poem.

Then we were sent back to our artefact to read about it and see if we could add to our story. All mine said was "hybrid urn, found Corfe Castle". Not much to go on. But there was a book nearby that mentioned some pots were for funeral urns, some for food. It mentioned that Homer mentions them in his writing and some have been found in the pyramids. So I wrote down "Homer, ditch, Eygpt, Corfe Castle, hybrid" and went off to write the 2nd stanza of my poem.

Here it is! I always feel awkward sharing my own work - although I know I make my students do it. I have always found writing rhyming poems comes naturally to me, especially limmericks!

I hope you enjoy it. (Please be kind!) I have attached a photo of the pot that inspired this too.

Tomorrow we have session 2 at Dorset History Centre.

THS year 11s - tomorrow your English department are holding an Unseen Poetry revision masterclass after school. Get your...
02/03/2026

THS year 11s - tomorrow your English department are holding an Unseen Poetry revision masterclass after school.

Get yourself "mock ready" and make sure you go to this one.

02/03/2026

I hope everyone had a great weekend - good luck for your mocks and GCSE Food exams this week everyone.

This week we are hitting the big numbers - we are all working on 40 mark questions, both on paper 1 and paper 2.

Thank you to everyone who got back to me about Easter holiday slots - you will all get an email today with your times, as requested. I am now full in the Easter holidays and won't be offering them outside of my current students.

Today I am the student! I have signed myself up to an 11 week Local History and Creative Writing course being taught by ...
26/02/2026

Today I am the student! I have signed myself up to an 11 week Local History and Creative Writing course being taught by local author Alex Blanchard (her book Wander Women is fantastic).

As you all know, I hold a dual degree in English and history and I am a history teacher as well as being a qualified secondary English teacher. I have taught history to years 6-11 and I love local history. I did a project on Dorchester Prison as part of my university degree, and spent a year of my degree doing conservation work in a local history centre in Yeovil. I absolutely loved it. I can't wait to get started on this.

Thomas Hardye Year 11s - don't forget to attend the fab revision sessions by your own English department.Tomorrow they a...
25/02/2026

Thomas Hardye Year 11s - don't forget to attend the fab revision sessions by your own English department.

Tomorrow they are covering Language paper 2.

We are back! I hope you all had a fab half term break - I did in freezing cold Poland! Mocks are now looming for year 11...
22/02/2026

We are back!

I hope you all had a fab half term break - I did in freezing cold Poland!

Mocks are now looming for year 11 - the final push before the summer exams. You've got this year 11!

We are all working on language paper 2 this week - and all of us are working on question 5, which is the big one!

Out of office is switched on - we made it to half term! The next half term is a nice short one (only 5 weeks), and hopef...
13/02/2026

Out of office is switched on - we made it to half term!

The next half term is a nice short one (only 5 weeks), and hopefully there will be some brighter and drier days.

I am away for the week visiting Poland with my husband and son, any emails sent will be answered on my return to the office on 23rd February.

Have a great week off!

The longlist for the Yoto Carnegie awards 2026 has been announced. If I have ever taught your child in school, they will...
12/02/2026

The longlist for the Yoto Carnegie awards 2026 has been announced. If I have ever taught your child in school, they will know how important and special this is to me - the only thing I miss from classroom teaching is talking about these books with the kids, running a shadowing group and the joy of watching the finals live and seeing if the book we picked has won.

There are some fab books in this longlist - Tia Fisher, Katya B***n and Kwame Alexander are writers I have really enjoyed over the last few years. There are books in this list suitable for ages 7+ right the way up to age 13+.

Have a look at the longlist here:
https://carnegies.co.uk/writing-longlist-2026/

And please consider ordering or buying from your local book shops - in Dorchester we have Teasel & Skylark, a fab independent book shop:
https://www.facebook.com/teaselandskylark/

12/02/2026

We've had another crazy busy week here. Thank goodness the half term holidays are in sight.

We have worked on a range of questions again this week from the two language papers. Year 11 are getting to grips with an easy to remember structure for any paper 2 question 5 and I have really enjoyed seeing their work on harsher prison sentences and how we treat the vulnerable in our society. I've also enjoyed chatting about the Industrial Revolution as we have been reading a C19th non-fiction text.

Have a great half term when it gets here - I know that some of you are heading off somewhere hot. And some are off to Florida on a school trip. I am not jealous.

Don't forget that THS are holding English revision sessions after school on a Tuesday - make the most of using your fant...
03/02/2026

Don't forget that THS are holding English revision sessions after school on a Tuesday - make the most of using your fantastic English department and their expertise.

Address

Dorchester

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when County Town Tutoring posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The School

Send a message to County Town Tutoring:

Shortcuts

Share

Category