Englishgcsetutor Reviews 150

My daughter was really struggling with her English and getting low grades even at a top academic grammar school plus the teacher was being extremely unhelpful. She was lacking in confidence and didn’t know how to approach/answer the questions nor how to improve. If it wasn’t for the pandemic I probably wouldn’t have considered remote learning but I found Laurence on a google search and the distance was not an obstacle. Remote 2 hour long sessions on a Saturday morning worked perfectly to slot in with her weekday dancing commitments. Laurence is very personable, explains things well, gives excellent feedback, is encouraging and supportive which increases confidence without doing the work for you. He will call and explain the task set for that session and allow you time to complete and submit. He’ll then call and explain the next piece to get on with whilst he’s marking the first one, then call again to explain how it went, how you could improve etc. My daughter started with a Grade 5 and is now performing at Grade 9 and is taking English for A Level all thanks to Laurence! In addition he took on her twin sister when her grades went down and she was struggling. She’s also at a Grade 9 now and got the highest mark in an English Mock at her school with 98%!! We couldn’t be happier with Laurence and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him to anyone needing help with English. Always easily contactable and very accommodating. Thank you so much Laurence!

Laurence has worked wonders with my son. Now nearing the end of year 11, Laurence has been working with him since year 10. My son has been a real challenge for Laurence, something we have spoken of with Laurence many times and we have had ups and downs along the way. We seemed at times to be making real progress but then slide backwards again to the point he achieved a grade 2 in one of his examinations before Christmas, leading Laurence to really scratch his head as to what to do to help. He could not have been more apologetic that his methods were not working on my son, but working closely with Laurence we reviewed them to come up with a new plan. No child is the same. Laurence worked tirelessly to come up with a bespoke method of teaching to suit my son and on his last set of mocks he has achieved a 4+. With hard work and dedication from both my son and Laurence over the next few weeks we are hopeful he could achieve a 5 or 6 in his final exams if he sets his mind to it. Laurence has always given us progress updates at all stages. He is easily contactable and replies very quickly to any concerns we have. He has certainly gone above and beyond in order to ensure that my son will not only pass his English but achieve the best possible grade he can. We would definitely not be at the stage we are now without Laurence's help and dedication.

Laurence has been amazing with my son - he has improved his confidence so much and he is now able to put pen to paper! My son’s grades have improved by 3 levels in 12 months and this has helped all his GCSE subjects.
Laurence has always been accommodating and built a really good rapport with both my sons and myself. He is always quick to respond to any queries we may have and offer realistic solutions. A great tutor and kind person who really understands differing pupils needs.

I cannot recommend Laurence highly enough. My son started tutoring with him following his GCSE mock exams in January. During the initial consultation it became immediately clear that Laurence was the right fit for my son. My son had been working with a different tutor since September who was "spoon feeding" him the answers...not helpful in an exam setting.

A big plus point is the way the lessons are structured. The lesson last for two hours allowing enough time for a task to be set and completed within one lesson. One hour lessons are disjointed and don't flow. The difference in my sons ability since working with Laurence is astounding.

My son was recently diagnosed with Dyslexia - I sent the relevant information to Laurence who could not of been more accommodating in the way he structured his lessons.

My only regret is that we didn't find Laurence earlier.

A very happy parent and son (aged 15)

On his website Laurence Dalton says he can help students, studying at Secondary School, who are in years 7-9 and usually have stronger Maths skills, so when Laurence responded to me quickly, I thought I had found the ideal teacher as this describes my son.

I let him know that over a two-hour lesson (the minimum offering) my son would need some short rest breaks and that he may need to ask my son to repeat back instructions and check for understanding. This did not seem an issue. In the first lesson, we had the laptop set up, had acquired a stand for my son's phone, and opened a word doc that he wanted my son to edit - in our eyes, everything was organised.

Expecting some pleasantries such as nice to meet you, tell me about yourself. None of this happened, it was a quick hello and a short and snappy 'write 6 key points down that you will build on to answer the question on the page, then email this to me and I will call you back when I receive it!

There was no checking for understanding of the task, was my son clear on what he needs to do, no repeating back. As a parent, I asked why could he not just share a google doc rather than email, Laurence did not listen and just said email it, I rephrased and again he was curt and said just email it. At this point, I was annoyed by his dismissiveness but I just said to my son, you will have to email it then and Laurence left the call.

I just assumed Laurence was in an irritable mood and something bad had happened that he wanted to deal with. However, I wanted to address his rudeness so went to a different room and tried to call Laurence from my phone to discuss my concerns, but he ignored me so I texted and emailed, and eventually, he called back.

I asked him why he had responded rudely to me and he just said it's not working I will give you your money back. I tried to ask why, but he would not allow me to speak and put the phone down! Eventually, after I said I would write this review, he replied and said my son was too young (he says on his site he teaches his age range) and that he could see we were too unorganised for him - because my son was not sat down on the seat in front of him (I just happened to be sat there as I wanted to talk to him first - it was nothing to do with disorganisation as I had a question about emailing work), he said my son did not answer his phone straightway but he phoned five minutes early when my son was in the toilet and my son WAS ready to answer at the agreed time.

He also said we were disorganised because I had asked the question about emailing, he didn't like that as he thought we didn't know how to, whereas I was just enquiring whether he could work collaboratively with my son on google doc as it's more efficient than emailing and my son is used to Outlook and not Gmail but he would not allow me to get this point across, shutting me down each time. He also did not like that my son had twisted my hair (probably through nerves as it was his first lesson).

I had sent Laurence an earlier mail stating that my son would need some rest breaks and that he would need to regularly check that he is clear about what to do as his attention sometimes wanes and he occasionally stammers when nervous. Perhaps he thought the job of tutoring would be too much of a challenge based on this. Laurence gave the impression he is someone who is not confident or patient enough to differentiate and teach students that might even have the slightest additional needs. If Laurence had communicated his expectations more sincerely and clearly when dealing with us or been honest about not wanting to work with a year 8 in the first place, I could have spent my weekend finding a more suitable tutor and my son would not have been left wondering why a teacher had deemed him unteachable within two minutes.
Personally, I would not recommend Laurence, even though he eventually apologised and gave me a swift refund after I shared the impact of his rudeness on my son and me. He did say he was having a bad day but he should not have taken that out on us, as he made our days bad too.