Carolyn's Tutoring

Carolyn's Tutoring I offer primary age tuition in maths, english and foundation subjects. 1:1 face to face or online. Hello, I am Carolyn and welcome to my page.

I am a mum of 2 and a qualified primary school teacher with 10 years experience. I am a career change teacher and previous to going into the classroom I was an interior architect and designer. As a tutor I am available for the following:

🍎 1:1 face to face and online sessions
🍎 tuition in maths, english and foundation subjects
🍎 after school and day time availability

Please do get in touch if you are interested in tutoring for you child. I look forward to hearing from you.😊

Time Tables Rockstars (TTRS). I am now on the parent side of TTRS and the first thing I noticed was the reliance on a sc...
13/03/2026

Time Tables Rockstars (TTRS). I am now on the parent side of TTRS and the first thing I noticed was the reliance on a screen for home work and the panic that set in when playing the times games.

The panic of the timer made him not want to play and get really upset, obviously not the aim or helpful.

So we always start the session in the 'Jamming' part of the game, which has no timer. I then encourage a game in the 'Garage' (this does have a timer), but there is no expectation to complete this. What has helped is that within the 'Garage' is a heatmap. This shows the children which ones they are stronger at and which ones they are finding tricky. This has helped to spur him on. I am also going to use that to play some games that target tech the ones he is finding most difficult.

Does your child use TTRS? How has your reacted to it? Do they enjoy it or has it put them off?

Well, this was a lovely surprise. ☺️Do I miss being in the classroom? Yes, there are so many bits I miss about being in...
15/05/2025

Well, this was a lovely surprise. ☺️

Do I miss being in the classroom? Yes, there are so many bits I miss about being in a school. However, the feeling of not being able to help the children as much as I want to is not one of those.
Tutoring has given back the things that were missing in the classroom. One of those is feeling like I can help the children, giving them exactly what they need. Being able to pinpoint and focus on specific areas they are struggling with and help to build their knowledge and confidence.

Little things like this are the icing on the cake. They give me the confidence I needed, to know I made a good choice to start tutoring. ☺️

*AVAILABILITY*I currently have availability for day time tutoring on a Monday and Thursday (between 9:30 - 2:30). I can ...
23/04/2025

*AVAILABILITY*
I currently have availability for day time tutoring on a Monday and Thursday (between 9:30 - 2:30).

I can support ages 4-11 covering maths, english and phonics as well as other areas such as history, geography, science and art.

My sessions with 'A' keep me on my toes 😃. Most sessions with him involve lots of movement. If he is moving...he is enga...
23/04/2025

My sessions with 'A' keep me on my toes 😃. Most sessions with him involve lots of movement. If he is moving...he is engaged in whatever task I have.

We have a 30 minute session. This week we started with kicking a football, whichever piece of paper it landed on he read the tricky word (he asked me what it was if needed). He had 10 words to read.

We then tried to sit at a table and do a little bit of writing, some weeks this works...others it does not. This week it didn't. So we got to a point and then I changed tactic. We moved to the floor and rolled a dice. 'A' then read the word that corresponded with the number he rolled.

Who knew rolling a small dice on the kitchen floor could involve so much movement 🤣🙈...but it worked. He read all of the words. Infact he didn't want to stop 🙌

The spiderman blanket was his choice, if it helps him to read I am all for it 👍.

It just goes to show that small little things help a child feel more comfortable and confident, annoyingly these things aren't always possible in a classroom setting. It's such a privilege to support children in a way that is more comfortable for them.

Learning is everywhere...children are massive sponges. I had two small learning wins yesterday (there was probably more,...
10/04/2025

Learning is everywhere...children are massive sponges.

I had two small learning wins yesterday (there was probably more, but these are the two that stood out).

🚶🐑 We went to yesterday to do the Shaun the Sheep trail. While we were there Jack took an interest in the large map and the symbols on it. I explained what a 'key' was and how we could work out what the symbols mean. He then spent a few minutes looking at and reading all the symbols (got his daily dose of reading in too 👍). Next time we go somewhere I will ask him to find something for me on a map.

🎂 We also did some baking yesterday. Jack laid out the cupcake cases. While he did this he said...3+3+3+3 = 12. We had a chat and I said that it also means 3x4=12. He asked what times meant and we discussed that it means 'groups of'. He said OK and went on with what he was doing. He is still very young and I didn't expect him to fully understand...but I dripped it in there, so next time he hears it (at home or school) he will probably think back to that moment.

These small chats can really help to link what they learn in school to real life. Having been a classroom teacher and being a mum, I can sometimes see a disconnect between classroom learning and what happens outside of the classroom. Children can seen them as two completely separate things...these little conversations can help them be less separate.


Sun's out...moved our phonics session outside. ☀ Made a really easy game...roll a dice, jump to the correct number, pick...
18/03/2025

Sun's out...moved our phonics session outside. ☀

Made a really easy game...roll a dice, jump to the correct number, pick up the word/caption hiding underneath and then read it. Repeat until they have all be read.

There is movement, reading and counting 👍

Shut the Box. Currently obsessed with this game. It is so good for quick recall counting, and it's incredibly addictive....
10/02/2025

Shut the Box. Currently obsessed with this game. It is so good for quick recall counting, and it's incredibly addictive.

I am using this at the start of all my maths sessions, just to help warm the brain (I have also been using it as part of my phonics games).

It is a great way to assess the child's ability to subitise and add two numbers together quickly.

Today, 'E' was not feeling it. She was not to keen to join in or talk to me. After a few minutes she told me what was wr...
22/01/2025

Today, 'E' was not feeling it. She was not to keen to join in or talk to me. After a few minutes she told me what was wrong and we had a chat about it. 😊

I then gave her options as to what she wanted to use, (playdough or post-it notes) this is great for 'E' as she engages much more if she has the choice...she went with playdough, obviously. Definitely the favourite resource amongst the children I work with.

She then picked a sound and we worked together to think of a word with that sound. 'E' then sounded out and stamped the word into the playdough. She chose to work with the capital letters today (totally fine, it's still the same outcome of sounding out and blending the word together).

After that she asked me to give her a short word and then a long word to sound out and spell. After a bit of a wobbly start, she was smiling and laughing at the end, asking me to give her more words to spell.

As I left, mum told me that 'E' won an award last week for her work in literacy and reading 😃. With this lovely little girl a big part of my support is about her confidence and helping her to believe she is capable, so the fact won an award for her progress was such a huge boost and I am very proud of her. 😊

When you only have tens and ones in your deines set, we had to improvise...we used jenga blocks for the hundreds 👍✏️I ne...
17/01/2025

When you only have tens and ones in your deines set, we had to improvise...we used jenga blocks for the hundreds 👍

✏️I never worry about having all the exact and perfect resources. We can use what we have or find an alternative. It helps to show the children that we can be resourceful and we can learn using lots of different things.

📊 Out of all the tutoring I do, I only have 2 maths sessions a week. I wonder if this is the case for most tutors? English always seems to be the subject that children find more tricky. I found this when I was teaching in school too.

What subject does your child find more trick, maths or english? Vote below 👇


This week with 'A', we worked on sound recognition and knowing the lowercase letter that matches the capital. He selecte...
16/01/2025

This week with 'A', we worked on sound recognition and knowing the lowercase letter that matches the capital.

He selected a letter, we discussed the letter names and sound and then we had a race to see who could form the lowercase letter the quickest. He won 6-2 🙈 !

After we had formed the letter, we then both had to come up with a word that had that sound in. He found this a little tricky, so I will take that into our session next week.

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