When you have been tutoring a student for a while, we all revert to a default style of tutoring. It may be our normal mannerisms and behaviour, or may be our standard ‘teaching’ persona. Nevertheless, it comes naturally for us as tutors to sometimes become complacent with our tutoring sessions. This is especially with tutors who have a large number of students, or who have been tutoring for a long time with repetition that habits can form.

As a result, it is important to practice self reflection, whether it be about a job, personal relationships or emotional self-reflection. This can be a difficult thing to passively achieve, and as such we may need to gain a new perspective in order to progress as tutors.

I have realised this with some of the students I have been tutoring in the past year. There have been many large life-changing events I have had to overcome, and as a result I have noticed myself getting more laid back with the job. Whether it be arriving on time, filling in the calendar correctly, following up with homework, I have realised that maybe I need to do some self reflection to get back on track.

I believe a good way to initiate this process of self-reflection could be for a new form of tutor observations.
Similar to what we already have, a tutor will sit in and observe another conducting their lesson, but in this case it will be an experienced tutor doing the observing. The experienced tutor should observe and make notes in the form of questions about why a tutor made a teaching decision, why they structured the lesson in the way it was, questions about how the different needs of the particular student influenced their tutoring style, and perhaps many more.

After this observation, the observing tutor would take the observed tutor out to lunch, similar to the current format, but in this case ask the questions they noted during the observation.
This could hopefully be a great ice breaker to a conversation about specific aspects of their tuoring that the observed tutor may not even have thought about.

Structuring the observing tutors notes being questions instead of observations or suggestions can help mitigate the possibility of the observed tutor feeling too harshly critiqued or micro managed, and instead initiate a positive environment where they can reflect on the questions introduced.

I believe this could be a useful way to help all tutors, and foster positive discussions between colleagues.

Sebastian Zois

The beginning of a new school year always feels full of possibility. As a tutor, I see this season as one of the most important opportunities to set students up for long-term success. Those first few weeks are about building habits, confidence, and trust, not just about getting straight into reviewing the material.
One of the first things I find is important to focus on is connection to the students. Every student comes in with a different view about school. Some are excited and motivated, others are anxious or already feeling behind. Taking time early on to listen and learn how they feel about their classes, what worked and what didn’t in the past year, and what their goals are, helps me tailor our sessions in a way that truly supports them.
Structure is another key piece. At the start of the year, students are juggling new schedules, expectations, and workloads. Tutoring is the perfect place to introduce organisation strategies, consistent routines, and effective study habits before things get overwhelming. When students learn how to learn early, the academic content becomes much more manageable.
I also like to set small, achievable goals right away. Early wins matter. Whether it’s improving a quiz score, completing homework more independently, or simply feeling more confident participating in class, those successes build momentum. Confidence is often the missing ingredient in academic growth.
From my experience, students who begin the school year with tutoring don’t just perform better academically, but they also feel more prepared, supported, and empowered. And that’s what starting on the right foot is really all about.

Katreen Diab

Hey everyone!

I got the opportunity to observe Sam and his student Ned learning about simultaneous equations, functions and trigonometry in advanced maths. I liked that Sam also included a brief introduction to matrices and how they could be used to solve simultaneous equations. It made the session less tedious on the brain while adding a bit of fun to the session. When explaining functions, Sam started with a quick review of the basics to check Ned’s knowledge and made good use of verbal encouragement to increase his confidence. He also used examples that utilised skills that overlap different topic areas to help Ned consolidate his knowledge of maths (e.g. using examples from trigonometric graphs when teaching concepts about functions). Sam took the time to answer Ned’s questions in detail and used a variety of multiple-choice, short-response and verbal explanations to supplement Ned’s learning.

A highlight of the session for me was that Sam linked graphical and algebraic meanings very well, and it was clearly beneficial for Ned to be able to visualise the meanings of what he was working out on paper. This is something that I will aim to include more purposefully in my future sessions, as I have noticed visualising is an extremely effective tool that I use often, but is not something I have systematically taught to my students.

It was amazing to see how much they achieved this session, thanks for letting me observe!

Derus Kung

The academic demands of the HSC places adolescents under sustained physiological and psychological pressure, often leading to elevated anxiety. During assessment blocks, students commonly show an increase in cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, alongside faster resting heart rate and heightened sympathetic nervous system activity shifting the body into ‘flight-or-fight mode’. These physiological changes can disrupt sleep, intensity emotional reactivity and reduce the ability to concentrate for long periods, factors that directly affect exam preparation.

As workload and academic pressure increases, exercise is typically one of the first routines to decline. Most students already begin year 12 with limited movement levels, as only 11% Australians adolescents aged 15-17 meet physical activity guidelines, meaning further reductions during exam periods only amplify the body’s stress response. With lower movement associated with anxiety, poorer sleep, and greater physiological tension. In contrast, adolescents who maintain regular movement show more stable emotional and physiological responses during high-pressure academic periods. Studies involving students under school-related stress have shown that those engaging in consistent exercise report lower daily anxiety and more reliable performance on tasks involving memory and attention. Further, Aerobic exercise has been shown to reduce cortisol within 30-45 minutes of completion, contributing to a calmer physiological state during subsequent study periods This highlights the critical role of exercise in managing anxiety during exams. Maintaining regular exercise during these stressful times helps to offset the physiological stress rather than adding to it.

Daniella Antoun

If you asked any Year 12 Physics student which module keeps them up at night, the answer is almost always Electrodynamics. It is the point in the HSC syllabus where intuition usually packs its bags and leaves. Unlike projectile motion, where you can watch a ball fly through the air, this unit demands you visualise invisible fields, wrestle with the abstract concept of “flux,” and trust that a changing magnetic field really does create a current.

The complications are real. You are asked to mentally rotate 3D axes, apply Lenz’s Law to hypothetical coils, and calculate forces that don’t seemingly come from anywhere. It feels frustratingly theoretical until you realise that without these specific headaches, modern life effectively stops.

This unit isn’t just about passing exams; it is the manual for our entire power grid. Every time you flip a switch and the lights actually turn on, you are witnessing the direct application of electromagnetic induction. The precise interplay between stators and rotors in our generators, the step-up/down transformers sending power across towns, and the motors spinning in our electric cars all hinge on the laws we scribble down in class. Isn’t this exciting?

Studying this forces a strange kind of humility. When you finally grasp how Faraday or Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism (after decades of thinking, and trial and error with experiments), you realize the sheer intellectual horsepower required to discover these things. They didn’t have sensors or simulations, but raw logic and obsession.

We often take the hum of a refrigerator or the charge in a laptop for granted. But once you struggle through the content of Electrodynamics, you stop seeing them as abstract. You start seeing them for what they are: the product of human brilliance taming the fundamental forces of the universe. This is the point of Electrodynamics.

Phillip Preketes

Hey everyone, I had the amazing opportunity to observe Airi’s high school maths session.

It was great to see how friendly her student was and how well they got along. Her student was very comfortable with Airi! They had a great relationship and they got along really well. They started the session by going through the Cambridge maths textbook. They went through some trigonometry content before they did some practice questions. Airi explained to her student how to find sine, cos and tan in right angled triangles. They applied trigonometry to an unknown length on both a long and short sided triangle. Airi started with some easier trigonometry questions and once she thought her student really understood the concept and how to apply it she then started to give her student some medium and then harder questions. They eventually ended up doing some extension textbook questions.

Airi then made sure she gave her student some trigonometry questions for homework, so her student can practice what they went through in their tutoring session at home. Once her student had finished each question Airi marked it. She then went through any mistakes her student had made. She then explained in detail the correct solution. She also would write out her working out and draw triangles and diagrams to help her student visually understand the solution. Airi told her student that if she had any questions she should bring them in next week and Airi will explain the correct solution.

Airi and her student then went over some school homework questions that her student was stuck on. They went through different ways to approach the question. They also went through some trigonometry word problems.

Overall, Airi did a great job helping her student. It was a great session and a pleasure to observe. Keep it up!

Ashley Cohen

Exam season is extremely nerve-racking and has a way of turning even the most organised students into late-night snackers powered by caffeine and instant foods. When deadlines pile up like crazy and revision notes blur together through the non-stop studying, choice of food often becomes an afterthought. But what you eat during exam season can seriously affect how well your brain performs, how steady your energy feels, and even how well you sleep.

Healthy eating during exams isn’t about strict diets but rather about giving your brain the fuel it needs to work at its very best. Your brain uses a lot of energy, and it relies heavily on glucose from food. The key is choosing foods that release energy slowly, rather than causing sharp spikes and crashes like typical enjoyable snacks and drinks. Whole grains like oats and whole-wheat bread help keep concentration levels stable for longer study sessions.

Protein is another excellent choice. Foods like eggs, yogurt, beans, nuts, fish and chicken help keep you full and support brain function. Pairing this with things such as hummus with whole-grain crackers or peanut butter on toast can help you stay focused and avoid constant snacking.

Fruits and vegetables are often overlooked when stress levels rise, but they’re filled with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that support memory and immune health. Berries, greens, bananas and oranges are especially helpful and easy to grab between study blocks. Even adding a side of vegetables to meals can make a difference.

Moreover, hydration is just as important as food. Dehydration can lead to headaches, fatigue, and poor concentration which all are quite unhelpful during exams. A great tip is to keep a water bottle nearby while studying, and try to limit excessive caffeine. While coffee and energy drinks may feel helpful in the moment, too much can increase anxiety and disrupt sleep.

Finally, it is essential not to skip meals!! Skipping breakfast or lunch might seem like a time-saver, but it often backfires by reducing focus and increasing irritability (and it feels terrible to be constantly starving). Simple, quick meals are enough such as smoothies, overnight oats, soups, or wraps!!! ☺️

Amanda Susanto

In the world of tutoring, we often obsess over metrics: marks on a practice paper, the number of vocabulary words memorised, or the speed at which a student solves a quadratic equation. However, the most profound moments in a session rarely involve a grade. Instead, they are the moments of realisation after a mistake when the student pieces it all together.
True learning isn’t a linear climb; it’s a series of plateaus followed by sudden leaps in understanding. As tutors, we are often tempted to bridge that gap for the student by providing the answer. But if we give the solution up so quickly, we rob them of the cognitive struggle required to own the knowledge.

A successful session is less about being an encyclopedia and more about being a scaffold. When a student is stuck on a maths question, the goal isn’t to tell them the answer straight away. The goal is to backtrack, and ask heaps of questions to guide them through their difficulties to then be able to answer the rest of the question by themselves. When a student finally connects the dots themselves, their brain undergoes a visible shift. Their posture changes, their eyes brighten, and suddenly, the “impossible” task becomes a puzzle they’ve solved. This builds academic resilience.
To foster these moments, we must as tutors embrace the “Comfortable Silence.” Giving a student ten extra seconds to process a prompt can be the difference between them relying on us and them relying on themselves. Our value isn’t in how much we know, but in how effectively we guide a student to realise how much they are capable of knowing.

Nicole Stamatelatos

Hey everyone, today I had the opportunity to observe Airi’s year 7 maths sessions.

It was great to see how friendly her student was and how well they got along. Her student was very comfortable with Airi! They had a great relationship and they got along really well. They started the session by doing a maths NAPLAN test. Airi got her student to do the test under timed conditions and under exam conditions. Once her student had finished the test Airi marked it. She then went through any mistakes her student had made. She then explained in detail the correct solution. She also would write out her working out and draw graphs and diagrams to help her student visually understand the different ways she ca solve each question. Airi then gave her student some NAPLAN style maths questions to complete for homework. Airi told her student that if she had any questions she should bring them in next week and Airi will explain the correct solution.

Airi told her student tips for completing tests under exam conditions. She spoke about having self confidence, trying your best and the importance of not putting too much pressure on yourself. She also explained how the NAPLAN maths exam used multiple choice questions and that if she got stuck, she should not spend a long time trying to solve that question. Instead she should move onto the next question. She said to always put an answer down as her student has a twenty five percent chance of getting the right answer. Airi also spoke to her student about using the elimination method to remove incorrect answers as often a couple of the answers are very wrong and a couple of the answers are close. She also said to pick the best answer.

Overall, Airi did a great job helping her student. It was a great session and such a pleasure to observe. Keep it up!

Ashley Cohe

As a new school year begins, there’s always a noticeable shift in energy among students. Fresh notebooks, new teachers, and unfamiliar routines bring a mix of excitement and hesitation. I’ve found that this period is less about jumping straight into intense study and more about turning the excitement into motivation in order to set the tone for the months ahead. How students approach the start of the year often shapes how confident and consistent they feel later on.
One thing I find that is extremely important is to start off small. After a long break, expecting yourself to be instantly productive can feel overwhelming. Instead, easing back into learning with manageable goals, such as revising one topic a week or setting aside short, focused study sessions, helps rebuild momentum. These small wins remind students that progress doesn’t have to be dramatic to be meaningful. Another key part of finding motivation is reconnecting with purpose. At the start of the year, I encourage students to reflect on why they’re studying certain subjects and what they hope to achieve by the end of the year. Whether it’s improving confidence, reaching a specific grade, or simply feeling more organised, having a clear reason makes the effort feel worthwhile. When motivation dips, coming back to that “why” can be grounding.

I’ve also noticed that mindset plays a huge role during this transition. Many students worry about being “behind” before the year has even properly started. I try to remind them that everyone begins at a different pace, and that learning is not a race. Consistency always outweighs intensity. Showing up regularly and putting in steady effort is far more powerful than short bursts of stress-driven study.
Ultimately, the start of a new school year is an opportunity to reset. It’s a chance for students to build habits, confidence, and motivation gradually, without pressure. When they focus on progress rather than perfection, the year ahead feels far more achievable.

Katreen Diab