Ellie Went From a Low C to a High B – But That’s Not All!

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY ELLIE’S MUM – JEM 

One Term of English Tutoring and Ellie Went from a Low C to a High B

We are so happy we chose A Team Tuition.  In one term Ellie’s English grade went from a low C to a high B and we are confident that this is just the beginning.  Her grades in Science and Religion also improved in the same term – especially impressive was clawing her way back to a C+ after a fail disaster in Science where Ellie simply could not adequately paraphrase and express the relevant information in her reports.  

Ellie is not neurotypical.  She was diagnosed in Year 7 as having ADHD and Asperger’s (or ASD Level 1).  For our family, this diagnosis put a name to the behaviours like Ellie’s propensity to become obsessive or fixated about topics or activities that interest her, the complete inability to focus or “cope” in certain situations and Ellie’s frequent compulsion for repetitive movement when concentrating.  Ellie likes her own company and is a prolific reader – if you are looking for Ellie, you will inevitably find her squirrelled away with a book, Kindle or (her recent obsession) reading Harry Potter fan fiction online. 

Ellie is in Year 10 and, despite being an avid reader, has always struggled with English.  Specifically, the ability to put the ideas in her head on paper in a coherent and orderly way and use her extensive vocabulary to its best advantage.  Over the years, Ellie’s poor performance in English had been dismissed by various teachers with comments like “It’s only primary school, she will get there” or “I’m sure she will pick it up by the end of this year.” By the end of Year 9, it never “picked up” and it became very evident that we had left our run late – this problem was impacting her grades across the board.  Time to engage a tutor.  Not just any tutor though, someone who could reach Ellie on her level. 

How did A Team Tuition help Ellie?

A Team Tuition matched Ellie up with Sebastian Vowels.  Sebastian has Bachelor of Psychology and is currently studying a Diploma in Software Development to complement his passion for programming – with a view to developing software that helps people.  He is also into reading and watching movies – a huge bonus with Ellie.  With Sebastian’s background in psychology, I felt that A Team Tuition picked an ideal fit for Ellie and her complex learning needs. 

From the times I’ve been loitering in the background doing my own thing, I have noticed these things: 

• Tutoring isn’t about doing Ellie’s assignments for her – Sebastian encourages Ellie to run with her own ideas while still training her on the elements she struggles with like structure, depth, and revising and refining her own work; 
• Sebastian is able to engage Ellie in exploring English fundamentals by connecting over her Harry Potter fan fiction obsession; 
• There is constant positive reinforcement while still pushing Ellie to develop better skills; 
• If Ellie doesn’t have an assignment to work with, Sebastian has a variety of activities that he uses to target the areas that Ellie needs help with; 
• Every tutoring session has been a positive experience for Ellie. 

Onward and upwards for the Senior years

There is absolutely no doubt in our minds that without A Team Tuition’s help, Ellie would be in a precarious position for her final years of high school.  It has only been one term, and yet tutoring Ellie in English for just that one term has positively impacted her performance across multiple subjects.  We could not be happier with the results achieved in such a short amount of time.