Personal Tributes
Testimonials
Thanks so much to S6 Tutoring and the team – my son has just secured a place at KEGs. It has been hard work, not only for my son, but also for the whole family, but it has been worth it. We are now going through a similar programme for my daughter. S6 Tutoring does not just coach children to pass the 11+, but teaches them the basic concepts of each subject so that they have a better understanding to answer the questions appropriately. The 11+ club proved an effective way of familiarising my son with not only exam conditions but also an opportunity for him to meet with other children going through the same experience.
Mr & Mrs M – March 2013
Fiona was requested to sit with her teacher to talk about her maths (I think Fiona thought she had done something wrong!). The teacher explained to Fiona that on reviewing all the students maths workbooks, Fiona’s really stood out from the crowd. She is very impressed with Fiona’s progress in Maths since January, especially with her knowledge and understanding of fractions. Unbeknown to Fiona, her teacher had been setting her class assessments and she has done so well, Fiona has now been moved up two groups within the top set!). We cannot express enough our thanks to Tom and S6! Tom has really given Fiona self-confidence with her maths to the point that Fiona is once again really enthusiastic about her subject and thoroughly enjoying it! This has really boosted her self-esteem!
Mrs Smith – May 2013
‘Our son attended the exam sessions at s6 to supplement the work he was doing with a tutor and with us at home. The opportunity to practice test strategies under exam conditions was very valuable in helping him to cope with the potential stress of the real 11+, and the analysis we received after each mock allowed us to focus our efforts on his weaker areas. We will definitely use S6 again when the time comes for our younger son to sit the 11+.’
I decided to use s6 tutoring for my daughter, who had always found maths a constant struggle . I am delighted to say that after a couple of months tuition, my daughter is now in the top half of the class at her new school. I had used other tutors in the past but had found that nobody could give her the confidence boost that was needed. Thankyou s6!
Mr & Mrs O, Billericay – October 2012
“First of all I would like to say that it was a great honour to be asked to write this testimonial by the best tutors in the world – S6 Tutoring.
My children have been with Tom for 6 months to help them to understand English, Maths and increase their vocabulary. This is for preparation for the SAT,s 2012. The course has been designed specially for them, but suits many students with goals to increase all their subjects or to make them feel more confident.
Overall S6 Tutoring has been a great experience for my family. The lessons have been challenging for Maya and Frank, but they are grateful to be able to learn so much in such a short amount of time!
My Children were told by their junior school in July 2011 that they would be lucky to receive a 3C in theirs SAT’s 2012. Since having Tom my childrens’ learning levels have now increased and they are now achieving levels at 4C to 5C which has made us so so happy.
Thank you Tom and S6 Tutoring” – Kelly Cranfield
“For a child to have experience of exam conditions is essential.”
Mr & Mrs Burrows, Billericay
“The Informal setting is a must!! Next day results are great as we could work on the weak areas all week.”
Mrs Kahlon
“The 11+ club was great for preparing my son for exam conditions. The help and guidence we received from Stephanie was fantastic. We would recommend S6 tutoring academy to anyone wishing to take the 11+ ”
Mr & Mrs Franklin, Basildon
“It seems like a lot of hard work however it was worth it as I was accepted into my first choice of Grammer School.”
My 11+ Experience © Joseph Folley, Wyatts Green
“I loved working on the Online Platform as I could see who was in front of me and what I needed to do to be in the top 10.”
My 11+ Experience © Phoebe Allen, South Woodham Ferrers
“1-2-1 Tutoring made me more confident and this showed when I was moved up into the top sets in Literacy and Numeracy.”
My 11+ Experience © Madeleine Bean, Upminster
My daughter began preparing for her 11+ exam only 6 months prior to the exam, which I’ve later learnt is rather late. We hired a personal tutor by the name of Stephanie Williams and due to her encouragement, professionalism and extremelly helpful approach and attitude, my daughter passed her 11+ exam and got her first choice of grammar school. We were thoroughly delighted and my daughter is very happy in her new school. Hiring Stephanie turned out to be one of the best things we have done.
I would highly recommend Stephanie to anyone looking for a 11+ tutor.
Mr & Mrs Wallace, South Woodham Ferrers
“My name is Alice Evans and I am 11 years old. This is about my experience of the 11+ and all that my parents and I have learnt from it; I hope that you will benefit from reading about it…
I am nearing the end of my primary school years and will soon be starting year seven. We did not know very much about the local schools- only that they had a bad reputation. So we went to look at them. The first one was a Specialist Performing Arts School; it was quite rough and the standards for work were not very high. It also seemed as if the child council was in charge of everything. The second one was a Sports college- and it was easy to tell (as every inch of the school had something sporty on it). The children had no discipline and no respect for the teachers or the property – the floors inside the school and all of the playground were covered in chewing gum even though there were notices on the walls saying that chewing gum was not allowed in the school… Again, it was very rough and had poor exam results. Finally, we looked at the third school. It was a technology college and it was a slightly more popular choice this year. The students were better behaved than they were at the sports college, but they showed off all the time. The headmaster was liked a lot by the children, but did not seem to be respected very much. We had a look at the Ofsted reports and the league tables for all of these schools and were not surprised to find that they all had very bad results. You can see why we decided against these schools!
There was one school, which we have admired for ages, but we are not in its catchment area and so very few places are available. I have taken the entrance exam for it and placed it second on my list of schools. It is a Specialist Language and Music college- I am very good at both those subjects. The school is a mixed comprehensive school, but there are some selective places. We are still interested in this school, but it is no longer our first choice.
It was decided that I should look round some Grammar Schools- the closer ones were Colchester County High School for Girls, Westcliffe High School for Girls and Chelmsford County High School for Girls.
When we looked around Colchester, the atmosphere did not quite feel right for me. When we looked around Westcliffe, we were quite impressed. It seemed like a very caring school as well as a school good for education. It is also near the sea; that would be a fun place to move to! But when we looked round Chelmsford, the same spark appeared in all our eyes. The atmosphere was brilliant, the girls were friendly, the old building was a little scruffy – but that made it feel cosy. Chelmsford was where I wanted to go!
But of course, I would have to take the 11+ exam to get in…
My parents sent for some test papers right away. We received them a few days later and when they arrived my parents handed me a comprehension: Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. I still shiver when I think about it. I was 30 minutes late finishing and I came out with 40%! I tried the maths – around the same. The verbal reasoning was about 60%. I was good at all these subjects, but there was just so much in the papers that I had not been taught at my school.
My father gave me a few more papers and we noticed no improvement. He tried to explain the techniques to me, but ended up calling my mother at work and then my grandfather to help him with a tricky maths question! We needed help and fast. We needed a tutor.
We phoned an agency to find us a suitable tutor. They left messages with three different tutors – but the tutors never called us. Eventually, after a worrying week or two, we found a tutor on the 11+ website and got in touch with her. She made an appointment with us that very Saturday, actually. This tutor was Stephanie Williams.
My mother and I drove to Billericay on Saturday. We were greeted by a little dog and a blonde-haired lady. We sat down and got to know each other first, and then it was serious work time. I was given a maths, an English and a VR paper to do. Stephanie looked at my results and told my mother that we were a bit late for tutoring and that we only had two months till the exam. She told me that my English and Verbal reasoning were quite good, they still needed work though, and that our main focus would be Maths. She gave me an oatmeal cookie and sent me home with a little red maths book.
The weekly lessons that we booked went rather well. Stephanie is also a maths teacher, so she could really help me. Almost every week she sent me home with a paper and a few pages of maths to do each week, plus some new vocabulary (I found the new vocabulary in newspapers and classic literature). But the work began to get harder very quickly…
I had never at school experienced so much hard work. At first I hated it; I was tired, fractious and worried. My parents got tired, fractious and worried too, so the house was one big “fluster box” (as my sister described it). Sometimes I came to Stephanie with only half the work done, or sometimes even less. And all the silly mistakes! On some pieces of work, we made a tally of how many silly mistakes I had made and it was shocking! But I some how managed to eliminate those. But after about a month, I began to enjoy all this pressure, and if I concentrated then I could thrive!
Now I must speak about my school as it played a big part in all of this. I have two main teachers and a teaching assistant, because one teacher is the deputy head and is always busy. My main teacher did the 11+ herself, but she had something against the fact that I was taking it. My other teacher was very quietly encouraging me, and my teaching assistant said good luck with it a few times. But on the whole, they didn’t cope very well! I was told off by the main teacher for even mentioning grammar schools and for trying to bring 11+ work to finish in school time. Also, when we were asked what we did in half term, I said, “Maths! I did go to a restaurant for a treat, but I mainly did maths.”
The teachers phoned my mother and said that they were “concerned” about me. The main teacher built up a huge story to tell my mother on parents evening as well about how my work was “slipping” because I was under pressure. But every week I was getting 22/22 for Spelling, 20/20 for Maths, staying awake, being kind, I got the best marks in the school in a Primary Maths Challenge and I did one of the “best Peter Pan projects in the class” according to my teachers. So I don’t see how my work could have been slipping!
After I had properly got used to my weekly lessons with Stephanie, things began to look a lot more hopeful. We also found out that I was really good at maths – I had always assumed that maths was not my strong point because I never used to enjoy it, but now it is my favourite subject! I was beginning to get bored with VR papers, as I kept getting 93%. When Stephanie told us that we had covered two years of work in just over a month… we were amazed! We took a photograph of all the books that I had worked through; there must have been over 50! I have them all now in a big blue bag, tucked away ready for when my sister takes the exam.
It was time to start the mock exams. I drove to Billericay feeling nervous, but when I arrived I felt relaxed. I did a paper about “The Snow Geese” which I enjoyed, a VR paper and a maths paper. Stephanie added up the scores and gave me 88% on my first mock. I did one more mock – Stephanie made it slightly harder for me. I managed to get 84% that time. We had one more lesson with her, and that was it.
Near the exam, as the school weren’t helping me much, we took some days off school. We are not the kind of people who would do that, and I have only ever had four or five days off sick, but we felt that we had to.
On the 5th of December, I took the exam (I was taking the test for the specialist language and music school on the original date). I woke up, had a hearty breakfast and drove off to Chelmsford with my mother in the pouring rain. We were welcomed by a nice girl with an umbrella, and taken in by an older lady. By this time I was actually feeling a little less nervous than I was before. I sat down at my desk and got rid of my clinging mother! After a few minutes wait, several ladies began to hand out the English Papers – Lord of the Flies. Unfortunately, I really don’t like this book; but it was a fascinating passage. The questions on it were not very very hard, and it explained some of the old-fashioned words. Next came the Maths paper. To my horror, I found no algebra, no loci and almost NO FRACTIONS! I found it quite hard, but easier than I thought it would be. Finally Verbal Reasoning, which is my strongest subject. In both Maths and English I finished with 10 minutes to spare, but in VR I only had 5 minutes to spare. I think it was because I was concentrating really hard. I left the hall feeling at least twice as confident as I did when I entered the hall. To add to that good feeling, the sun had come out and I had received a cookie!
About a week after this, I found myself not quite knowing what to do; I didn’t have any more work to do and nothing that I knew of (at the time) was coming up. But we did like the look of an independent school in Cambridge as well (The Leys), so I took the entrance exam in January. I actually did so well that I got to come back for a scholarship interview! At the interview, I spoke to the head of Mathematics (he said I had done very well in my Maths), the Head of English (he said that I had received the best marks out of the 90 applicants,) and the Headmaster (he said that I had done incredibly well and that I have an “interesting mind”). I felt afterwards that it had gone rather well, and it had; I have been awarded a scholarship there! We would still prefer to go to Chelmsford, but this is very comforting to know. It could also be a good barometer for the 11+ results!
I will always remember and treasure this experience, and I would say that a reasonable amount of pressure is good for you. And now we must wait for 3rd March.
My 11+ Experience © Alice Evans, Harlow
I have known Stephanie Williams in a tutoring capacity. She was my son’s English and Mathematics tutor for almost an academic year.
Stephanie is organized, efficient, dependable, extremely competent, and has an excellent rapport with students of all ages. Her communication skills, both written and verbal, are excellent. As a parent I found her approachable and was able to spend time discussing my son’s progress. The use of constant praise and step-by-step support meant my son’s confidence grew and therefore so did his ability. This was reflected with his final grades far exceeding his original predictions.
Mrs Parsons, Basildon
Grace found Stephanie a very good tutor and fun to work with. Stephanie was very professional and knowledgeable about the 11 plus examinations and was able to provide lots of help and support. I was very impressed with her preparation, Grace was regularly tested and went into the exam full of confidence, and passed with flying colours, Stephanie must take some of the credit for this great achievement We both wish you good luck in your new venture.
Mr & Mrs Vaughan, South Woodham Ferrers
“Stephanie is friendly, professional and reliable. Our son enjoys his lessons and has grown in confidence and ability with her help. Her lessons are well planned and resourced and are tailored to meet his individual needs. I have no reservations in recommending her as an excellent tutor.
Finally a tutor who teaches for understanding first and because of this the children grow in confidence and easily pass exams. My son has gone from set 2 maths to the top at set 1 in six months.
Stephanie is fantastic. She is patient and hard working. She works the children really hard always leaving with lots of homework set.
Mr & Mrs Jackson, Shenfield
We first found Stephanie through the 11 plus exams website in August 2007. At that time our son was about to join year 4 at school. We decided it would be best to start with an 11 plus Tutor early to ease the pressure and get him used to a more focused way of working. We felt he was not being fully extended at school and were concerned he would not attain the level needed to pass the 11 plus examination.
We contacted Stephanie via email and she responded within the day. Stephanie was reassuring and clearly focused on the goals our son needed to achieve. We felt we had finally found someone who understood our concerns and was committed to helping us address them.
We arranged a time for Stephanie to visit us and meet our son and she explained her plans. She supplied all the study books he would need and a recommended reading list. We agreed on a 2 hour lesson per week as we felt that it would help our son to learn to focus for a longer period of time than he was used to which would help when sitting the exam.
Our son has responded well to the extra work and although we have times when homework feels a chore on the whole he is enthusiastic. I have been asked “don’t you think you are pushing him too hard?”. My answer is a resounding ‘no’, he is a bright child who wants to learn new things and be stimulated. He likes to show you he is clever and enjoys the challenges Stephanie sets each week. He is learning subjects within maths and english that we would not be seeing in Junior School and understanding them. He has covered some of the maths in school, such as fractions, but only how to express them not add, subtract, divide, and multiply them as he has with Stephanie. He takes great pleasure in reading, as she has introduced us to books and authors we hadn’t heard of and widened his reading experience.
In year 5 we have had a more positive response at school and they have acknowledged a marked improvement not just in maths and english, but in his confidence in all subjects. As a result he is in top groups in all his school subjects, which I feel is the true testament to Stephanie’s educational methods, enthusiasm and unbounding energy.
Mr & Mrs Alexander, Billericay
It must have been our lucky day! Quite by chance I picked Steph’s name and e-mail address from the list of tutors offering tutoring for 11+. She contacted me within 24 hours and later that same day provided full details of her methods of tutoring, lists of recommending reading and the syllabus to be covered for the exam. We met shortly afterwards at our home. Instantly Rebecca and Stephanie ‘clicked’. Not only did they click but during the ten months of tutoring Steph became part of the family. The enthusiasm for learning was infectious and soon Rebecca was flying through the work set during the lessons, not to mention the homework. I have to say, there was lots of homework! There were times it would have been easy to take the easy option and give up, but Stephanie produced ever increasing methods of teaching to enthuse Rebecca. There is no doubt it was very hard work, the good thing I think, was the passion for learning and improvement in the overall standard of numeracy and literacy/grammar, not just tutoring to pass an exam. The improvement was definitely noticed at school as Rebecca’s confidence grew – she was working way beyond KS2 levels and knew she could easily and quickly do the work set. Despite the actual nervousness of approaching this sort of exam for the first time, Rebecca was so well prepared that she could overcome this and I am happy to say our daughter is going to grammar school in September. I would recommend Steph to anyone.
Mr & Mrs Heywood, Ramsden Bellhouse
As parents we all want the best for our children and when it comes to tutoring Stephanie is truly the best in her field. Stephanie is very professional, energetic and committed to her students and their parents and encourages them to get the best from their individual ability.
Stephanie was recommended to us by a friend whose daughter was studying for her 11+ and now has a place at Chelmsford High school for girls. Our son was preparing for his 13+ and needed someone (besides us) to encourage him to work to his full potential and give him some direction. Stephanie worked with him for a few weeks and he successfully achieved the place he had prepared for.
Stephanie is currently working with our son, preparing him for his Maths GCSE Higher paper in May (3 years early) as she was able to access that he had the ability to sit this paper early and felt confident that she could work on the topics that he had not covered so far to help him achieve a high grade. He also enjoys working with Stephanie as she is very approachable and is happy to explain things that he is not clear about in a very relaxed way.
It is no surprise that Stephanie currently has a 100% success rate with all her students as she is one in a million and we are planning to use her to prepare our other 2 children for their 13+ and 11+ exams in the near future so comes highly recommended.
Mr and Mrs Jordan, Brentwood
When our daughter decided that she wanted to sit her 11+ exam our first step was to research all the tutors in our area. The information on the S6 website was by far the most comprehensive and following a phone call to Stephanie we made the decision to start Phoebe’s tutoring right away.
Phoebe was understandably nervous about having a tutor but the moment she met Stephanie any worries that she had quickly disappeared. Stephanie’s bright bubbly personality, friendliness and constant positivity immediately gave Phoebe the confidence to give any of the work topics a go. Her teaching methods are outstanding, and the lessons were delivered in a way that gave Phoebe the skills to continue revising each topic area independently. The feedback and praise that Stephanie gave Phoebe meant that she was more than happy to complete the homework set each week. Phoebe could clearly see the progress she was making and this gave her the enthusiasm to work even harder. She was delighted to see the impact tutoring was having on her day to day school work and rapidly moved up in to all the top ability groups.
The combination of the weekly lessons, the 11+ club and the online platform gave Phoebe a breadth of understanding not only of the topics but also the format of the exam and of the techniques needed. On the morning of the exam Phoebe was calm and relaxed. Infact, she was looking forward to actually giving the “real thing” a go! This attitude towards the exam was a result of all the excellent preparation and training Stephanie had given her.
This was the first time we have been through the 11+ process and as parents it was a steep learning curve for us too! It could be said that Stephanie tutored us in addition to Phoebe! The advice and support she gave us was invaluable, she expertly guided us through the minefield of selecting schools, exam procedures and the all important results day. We were delighted when Phoebe passed her 11+ and was allocated her school of choice.