⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Michael supported my year 10 daughter for the last 13 weeks of the school term. In this short time she saw her maths grade improve by a whole grade. Michael spent time in understanding how my daughter learnt which for her was essential. The results clearly indicated how well my daughter and Michael worked together.

Tanya K , Worcester 

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Michael tutored my Daughter this year for her GCSE Maths. She has just got her results and passed with flying colours achieving 2 grades above predicted! She found the tutoring time very helpful and fun. Michael also taught her strategies on exam technique and built up her confidence. Would definitely recommend.

Jayne E, Wadborough

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Michael is great tutor, very knowledgeable and always willing to help. Would recommend.

Antony B, Pershore 

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Really helpful and learned topics thoroughly within the hour whereas it took me several at school!

Minnie S, Worcester

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hi! Just to let you know, B**** really enjoyed her lesson. She said you made it fun by making her laugh and that it went really quick. I’m thrilled at this as she won’t ‘dread’ her lesson so thank you.

Julie N, Pershore

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Michael worked with my son twice a week while he was off school long-term. J**** really enjoyed the very practical approach. Michael even lent J*** a chromebook, so when he went back to school, he fitted back in immediately.

Frances D, Upton Snodsbury

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐I’d like to thank you for your work with T****. He really enjoyed your lessons and made wonderful progress. In particular, he loved your “grown up” approach and he felt respected.

Sarah P,  Drakes Broughton

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Thanks Michael. I got my Functional Skills maths. I could never have done it without you.

Karla M, Norton

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Are you a magician? K*** enjoyed a maths lesson. He told me it was the first time he’d understood it.

Tara M, Pinvin

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ B******* seemed very motivated again about Maths after his session with you this evening - thank you for all that you are doing to support and encourage him.

Shaun N, St Peters

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ B** says that he loves the way you teach and he really enjoys his sessions with you. Thank you again and best wishes.

Sally L, Pershore

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Michael came to assist my son in preparation for his maths gcse in 2023. My son had previously got a 6 in his PPEs and wanted to take maths for Alevel. With Michael’s help - practice past papers, going over any difficulties and devoting time and patience and self belief into my son's capabilities helped enormously. Michael was also very good at giving me feedback at how he felt my son was progressing.

My son got an 8 and is now taking A level maths and hoping to fulfil the next steps in his life.

My son and I will always be grateful to Michael and would recommend him to anyone who needs his help.

Rachel P, Drakes Broughton

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Michael provided maths tutoring for my son and daughter over several months in 2023 and 2024. They both found him supportive and easy to work with and good at identifying areas where they needed extra input. He was great at building confidence, knowledge and technique and has a patient and thorough approach. Would definitely recommend Michael.

Nicky T, Fladbury

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ My son has been using Michael’s tutoring services for about 6 months now. He finds him straight forward and easy to work with. He has described him as a person who listens and helps him exactly in the areas he needs. Highly recommend.

Kerry G, Drakes Broughton

Case Studies

These are just a few of the students I've worked with. As you read through them, you'll notice a theme developing: a little bit of motivation goes a long way.

N.B Names have been changed to protect identities.

Kat was a 52-year-old woman who worked in the care industry. She was highly thought of by her employers who wanted to promote her. The problem was that the HR policy was that supervisors needed a maths qualification that she didn’t have. No maths meant no supervisory role.

She came to me to help her with her Functional Skills maths course. She needed help with the basic arithmetic. Once she got to grips with it, she passed and got the promotion she’d wanted all her life.

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Archie came to me early in Y10 as a thoroughly disengaged young man. His mum (a teacher) knew that he was capable of more. We very quickly identified the root cause of the problem: the questions were meaningless to him. I taught him to “read with a pencil” and underline key words and investigate diagrams. I also showed him how to make helpful sketches and diagrams.

Once he got these ideas and understood that questions weren’t just words on a page, he really took off. We played a game called: “Defeat the Examiner.” In this game, the examiner gives you all the clues you need to solve a problem, but hides them in plain sight. It was Archie’s job to find the clues and solve the problem.

He got a 5 in Foundation which is the top grade available!

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Alison was an exceptionally bright girl who was hovering around the 5 and 6 mark and couldn’t understand why. We very quickly identified her problem. She half-read the questions and bolted into an answer. The result was that she gave excellent answers to the wrong question and so got low marks.

My job was to slow her down and get her to read the questions properly. It wasn’t easy for her! It took a full term before she got the idea, and then she answered every question perfectly.

We had to do a bit of topic teaching, but the rest was down to her brilliance.

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Tom came to me quite late in the year. He wanted to do A-level maths to get on to the degree course he wanted, but his teacher told him he probably couldn’t: he’d need at least a 7 at GCSE to be admitted; and he was currently a good solid 6.

After just a few weeks, he got it: he realised that he was being sloppy and missing out on easy marks. Once he got used to planning his answers and learning, “if you think it, write it down,” he got all the marks he was after.

In the end, he got an 8 and went on to his A-levels.

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Samira didn’t care for school, and got low marks in everything. But ever since she was a little girl, she had wanted to be a nurse. She’d need 5 GCSEs to get onto the course.

Mum and Dad were very supportive and hired me when she was in Y9 to help her out. Within weeks, she went from being a taciturn and disengaged little girl to sucking up new learning like a sponge. 

The difference was that I showed her new ways of learning. In particular, she loved making mind maps. I bought her an A4 artists pad and some coloured pencils and we made her first mind map together: it was about cells. The next week she brought the pad and showed me 5 new mind maps she’d made by herself.

When she got into Y10, her parents wanted to continue. But she said: “No. I don’t need Michael any more. I can learn all by myself.”

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Vikki was a delightful girl I worked with in Y9. She was sporty and loved drama. She’d done well in maths at primary school but was turned off by the formalism of high school.

I made maths fun for her. We told little stories about maths problems and made it come alive for her. One very memorable one was a question on perimeter and area: she made up a story about a fairy flower bed being edged with golden bricks and planted with magic flowers spaced 10 cm apart. Then she worked out how many bricks and how many flowers.

She giggled all the way through our tutorials … but more to the point, she generalised and learned to enjoy maths on her own terms. Come Y10 and 11, she didn't need me any more.

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Sally’s school had just given up on her. She was placed in the “sin bin” set and expected to sit in class and colour in triangles … anything just to keep the kids quiet. Her predicted grade was “U,” so they didn’t think that teaching would be of any benefit.

Sally’s mum wasn’t happy with this. To cut a long story short, Sally actually turned out to be as bright as a button! She picked things up immediately and ran with them. We worked our way through past papers and she excelled. She was a naturally neat young lady so her workings out and layout were some of the best I’ve ever seen.

We started working together in late January. She got a 4 in her GCSEs the following May/June.

She’s now at college and loving it.

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Henri was a tough girl. She’d been tough in school and was now tough in college - she was certainly tougher than any of her teachers and wouldn’t take any crap from them. If she didn’t walk out of class, she’d get thrown out. Too late, she realised that toughness wasn’t going to get her the hairdressing apprenticeship she dreamed of. 

Mum insisted that she had a tutor. It took a couple of weeks, but eventually Henri stayed quiet enough for 2 minutes to realise that I was on her side. Once she realised that, we worked together really well. We did a mixture of book work and Functional Skills past papers.

It took 2 goes, but she passed and she’s now on the apprenticeship she wanted.

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This is not so much a case study, but it's a story that shaped my teaching life:

I was at an Accelerated Learning seminar in London. During the break, I got chatting to a young lady. I asked her what she did and she told me she was on an MSc course in marine mechanical engineering. I said, “you must be good at maths, then,” and she laughed and said, "yes, but I wasn’t always.” Then she told me this story:

"I was at primary school and one day my teacher laughed at me and told me I wasn’t good at maths. Well, I believed her and carried that belief with me everywhere I went."

"One day, when I was in a bottom set Y10 maths class not understanding and not really caring about a particular question, the teacher came and sat down next to me. We talked about it and to my amazement, I got it. He said, “You know, you’re much brighter than you think you are.” But the point was that he said it through a big, genuine smile."

"I decided to believe him."

"My new belief got me rapidly promoted through the sets and into top set, then into A-levels and then into Brunel university. Now I’m at Imperial doing a sponsored MSc."

"That one sentence and new belief changed my entire life."

And the story she told me changed mine.

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