Today, I observed Thomas with his secondary Maths student, Alice, focusing on revision for an upcoming examination. The lesson involved working through a past examination paper, allowing Alice to identify gaps in certain topics and develop effective strategies to complete multistep questions.

The session began with a focus on factorisation of algebraic fractions, an area that Alice previously encountered, but required further navigation in approaching those questions. Thomas guided her through the process of identifying common factors, factorising algebraic expressions, and simplifying fractions by cancelling common terms. He encouraged Alice to explain her thought process for each question, helping her develop a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts, rather than relying on pure memorisation of protocols.

As the lesson progressed, Thomas and Alice worked through a range of questions from the past paper, including algebraic word problems and probability. Thomas used effective questioning techniques to prompt her thinking and encouraged her to identify suitable strategies independently, before offering support. When mistakes were made, he used them as learning opportunities, guiding Alice through the correction process and helping her recognise where errors have occured.

Throughout the session, Thomas maintained a positive and supportive learning environment. He regularly provided constructive feedback and encouragement, helping Alice stay motivated and engaged,particularly when working through challenging questions. She demonstrated greater confidence and independence in solving questions across multiple mathematical concepts, as the lesson progressed.

This session highlighted the importance of developing both protocl fluency and exam techniques in Maths. By working through past paper questions, Alice was able to identify areas that require further revision while practising the application of mathematical concepts in an exam context. The focus on algebraic fractions reinforced foundational skills required for senior years. Additionally, the session demonstrated how guided questioning and targeted feedback can help students build confidence and improve accuracy.

Tira Rustom

Blue are my walls, whiteboards line my side,
Knowledge and learning I happily provide.
Students arrive with questions to share,
And leave with confidence, skill, and care.

What place am I?

Sophie McGrath

My student didn’t show up to our session so i got the chance to observe toby’s maths tutoring session. As soon as his student showed up, it was obvious that there was a strong connection between him and his student which is so important for effective tutoring, as the student needs to feel comfortable enough around their tutor in order to learn best. They had great rapport throughout the session and were often laughing and joking around, which was nice to see the student was so friendly with his tutor and not scared or anything.

Toby did a great job at maintaining a balance between fun and productivity, as the student would get carried away with the jokes at times and he would remind the student to lock in and do his work, and he listened pretty well which shows he has respect for Toby. His student also asked for toby to check his work as he was completing the maths worksheet, which Toby was more than willing to do and offered him help when the student was confused on particular questions. Overall it was a lovely session to observe.

Daisy Brenac

We’ve all been there, staring at an exam question that feels more like a riddle than a clear prompt. Wordy or tricky exam questions are designed to test more than just content knowledge; they challenge your reading comprehension, critical thinking, and ability to apply what you’ve learned in unfamiliar ways. But with the right strategies, you can break them down and respond with confidence.

1. Read the question carefully, twice.
It’s easy to miss key details when you skim. Always read the question slowly, then read it again to spot hidden cues, command words (like explain, justify, or compare), and constraints (like “using only data from the table above”).

2. Highlight or underline keywords.
Pull out the most important words or phrases. What exactly is the question asking you to do? Are there multiple parts? Is it referring to a graph, scenario, or formula? This helps keep your answer focused.

3. Rephrase the question in your own words.
Before answering, try putting the question into simpler language. This ensures you understand it and helps reduce anxiety caused by complicated wording.

4. Plan your response.
Don’t just start writing. Take 20–30 seconds to jot down key points or steps, especially for extended responses. A quick outline can save time and help keep your answer structured and relevant.

5. Don’t overthink it.
Sometimes tricky questions seem difficult because they look different — but they’re still testing familiar concepts. Trust your preparation and focus on applying what you know logically.

Finally, practice is key. The more past papers and unfamiliar question styles you expose yourself to, the more comfortable you’ll become with handling complex wording under pressure.

Julian Podgornik

Today, my student Hudson didn’t show up, which gave me time to reflect on my experience tutoring so far and how I want to improve and further my tutoring skill set.

Through my past experience of tutoring externally I have definitely learnt a lot and adapted my teaching techniques. This includes understanding that attention span varies from person to person so making sure to keep them engaged and having fun is critical to their learning process. Additionally, I have learnt that tutoring distinctly relies on building up each individual’s confidence with each topic and area that we cover. For example, using encouraging and reinforcing dialogue such as “Well done!” or “Fantastic job!” makes a great difference on the students willingness to continue learning and positive attitude towards each new challenge. I have found that my students often know the answer or understand how to find the answer to a question but just need a final little push by supporting them to take these given steps.

During my time at First Education, as I am still quite new, I have had two students so far who have both worked consistently with positive attitudes to attempt to correctly fulfil their work. If my students don’t understand or answer correctly on the first try I feel this is the most critical time to be encouraging as saying “You’ve got this!” or explain it in a different way could mean the difference in them giving up on themselves or building up their confidence. The initial observation lessons I completed prior to my first lesson were all immensely helpful to me understanding and applying the positive and friendly element of this learning environment.

At the end of the day, I have found that supporting and genuinely caring about my students’ school career is the most effective way to get them to feel motivated by their own education journey.

Rhianna Mendes

It seems daunting to begin studying for the HSC and trials. The length and breadth of the exams is completely uncharted territory. However, by breaking down the syllabus, studying for the HSC and trials will be a breeze!

There are four topics in the modern history syllabus: the core topic, ‘Conflict in Europe,’ the national study, peace and conflict, and change in the modern world. Each topic has its own set of syllabus dotpoints which outline the content which may be assessed in the HSC exam. For example, the Conflict in Europe topic’s syllabus dotpoints are:

SURVEY:
● Growth of European tensions, including:
– the collapse of collective security – Abyssinia, the Spanish Civil War
– Britain, France and the policy of appeasement
– significance of the Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
FOCUS OF STUDY:
● German foreign policy, including:
– aims and strategy of German foreign policy to September 1939
– impact of Nazi ideology on German foreign policy to September 1939
● Course of the European war, including:
– German advances: the fall of Poland, the Low Countries and France
– the air war and its effects: The Battle of Britain and the Blitz, the bombing of Germany
– Operation Barbarossa, the Battle of Stalingrad and the significance of the Russian campaign
– Battle of El Alamein and the significance of the conflict in North Africa to the European War
● Civilians at war, including:
– social and economic effects of the war on civilians in Britain, Germany and the Soviet Union
– the nature and effects of the Holocaust in the Nazi-occupied territories
● End of the conflict, including:
– ‘D’ Day and the liberation of France
– Russian counter-offensives 1944
– final defeat 1944–1945
– Nuremberg War Crimes trials

The survey is the context which students must learn before studying the rest of the topic but cannot be assessed for an essay question. However, the dotpoints under the ‘focus of study’ heading are likely to be assessed and will be worth 25 marks – a detailed essay response.

While studying for the HSC, I printed out a copy of these dotpoints for each of my four topics and wrote essay plans for each dotpoint (including the survey to ensure that I could reference the context confidently). For example, if I were to work on an essay plan for the end of conflict, my four paragraphs would be exactly what the syllabus outlines: ‘D’ Day and the liberation of France, Russian counter-offensives 1944, final defeat 1944–1945, and the Nuremberg War Crimes trials. I made these headings on a piece of paper and wrote down dotpoints for each one, each of which included aims, strategies, outcomes, and at least one scholarship quote. I have uploaded a sample essay plan!

Once I had written detailed essay plans for each dotpoint of the syllabus, I converted these into condensed flash cards which I referenced daily. Each day I rotated between my four topics – rereading and revising a different topic each day and writing a practice essay under timed conditions for the relevant topic.

With dedication, the modern history HSC becomes a very approachable subject which every student can ace! Good luck!

Shahaf Liraz

A common question of our time is “Why study history?”
What is the point of learning history? What is its practical value in someone’s life or for society?

When compared to mathematics, this makes perfect sense. Maths is timelessly relevant and is used for absolutely everything across all contexts. History, on the other hand, is not “timeless” or universal in the same way. It is contextual and involves the study of past events and people, and doesn’t appear to hold any value for future problems or circumstances.

This is a common misconception. History has been an object of study for millennia for a reason, alongside English, Maths and Science.
In fact, science has the same justification as history for being studied. Why is it important to understand how the universe works, and to be able to see the reasons behind cosmological phenomena?

These are the same questions as pertaining to history. Why is it important to understand how human societies, nations, states, governments, economies, and communities work? Why is it important to know how decisions can be felt in the future, and how certain spheres like economics and geography can be linked to others such as military and politics?

History is not concerned with trying to figure out exactly what happened in the past. Rather, it is about using evidence to both approximate the events of the past and to understand their underlying reasons.

By learning the reasons behind the start of the World Wars, or why we use certain governmental systems, or how certain economic policies have impacted a nation, we can apply this knowledge to our own times and beyond: we can predict the future of society.

History allows us to see where we could be headed, depending on what is observed during our times. That is the reason why people criticise the decisions of our leaders – because they try and analyse the impact of these decisions using the same reasoning as historians use.

We should encourage more people to learn history; as a human you are obliged to know about your ancestors and your world!

Raphael Dokos

High school has a compounding problem. Miss one concept in Year 9 maths and Year 10 builds on it. Miss that and Year 11 becomes genuinely difficult through no fault of current effort. By the time a student sits down with a tutor, the presenting issue is rarely the real issue.

This is what makes tutoring different from just re-explaining the current topic. A decent tutor figures out where the gap actually is, which is sometimes two years back, and works forward from there. It’s slower initially but it’s the only approach that actually sticks.

The other thing worth knowing is that most high school students who struggle aren’t struggling because they lack ability. They’re struggling because something wasn’t explained well the first time, or they were absent, or the class moved too fast, or they were too embarrassed to ask. One-on-one tutoring removes most of those variables. There’s no social cost to asking a basic question when it’s just you and one other person.

Subject-wise, maths and sciences tend to benefit most from tutoring because the content is genuinely sequential – you cannot skip foundations. English and humanities are more about developing a skill set around argument and analysis, which improves steadily with good feedback over time.

The students who get the most out of tutoring are usually not the ones furthest behind. They’re the ones sitting in the B range who have a specific goal and a specific gap. Targeted work on those tends to move marks faster than general revision.

That;s why good tutoring asks diagnostic questions before jumping into content. That’s usually the difference between tutoring that works and tutoring that just adds to the weekly schedule.

Oliver Fletcher

Motivation is a main driver for learning, especially at the younger levels, as a tutor, I have learned that my job isn’t just to teach students the information they need to know, but to do so while maintaining an engaging, enjoyable comfortable environment that hopefully encourages or keeps their motivation for the topic. If a student isn’t motivated, even the most basic information might feel difficult to process or understand. Thats why I value motivation to such a high extent.

Before getting straight into the content of the topic, I always make sure to revise the topic itself, explain specific concepts that might come up, allow for the student to familiarise themselves with the topic to the best extent they can without actually starting to learn it yet. This helps keep the content as digestible as possible, which helps with minimising frustration and confusion, all emotions that hinder motivation.

One of the quickest ways I’ve seen a student lose their motivation is when they look at their assessment notification, all those expectations and content to learn had the student stressing out, feeling upset and lacking motivation. To counter this, I simply broke down the requirements into smaller, more manageable loads for the student to start working on, which made them feel a little better, I threw in some comments like, “See, you couldn’t do a question like this even just 10 minutes ago” to mark their progression on the topic. This method seems to help students maintain motivation, feel comfortable with their ability and overall, succeed!

Now I understand motivation is very conditional, it varies based on many factors, but the important thing to think about is to work with what you have, if they have a bad day, that doesn’t mean if they can’t focus to get frustrated with them, it means lighten the workload, help get their motivation back, don’t pile onto what was likely causing it in the first place.

Motivated students show up, prepared (often with work in hand), they ask questions and they celebrate little wins. When you do that, the results come flooding in.

Lishai Rubinstein

During this tutoring session, I observed a Julian working with a Year 12 student on Financial maths. The session focused on compound interest, loan repayments and interpreting financial data, all of which are key concepts within the senior mathematics curriculum.

Julian demonstrated strong subject knowledge and was able to explain complex financial concepts in a clear and accessible manner. He began by reviewing previous content to assess the student’s understanding before introducing more challenging problems. This approach helped establish the student’s confidence and ensured any misconceptions were addressed early.

One of the tutor’s strengths was his ability to connect mathematical concepts to real-life financial situations. For example, when discussing compound interest and loan repayments, he used practical examples involving savings accounts and mortgages. This helped the student understand the relevance of the mathematics and increased her engagement throughout the lesson.

The tutor encouraged active participation by asking the student to explain her reasoning and work through problems independently before offering guidance. Rather than simply providing answers, he used questioning techniques to prompt critical thinking and problem-solving. This allowed the student to develop a deeper understanding of the processes involved and build confidence in applying formulas correctly.

Throughout the session, the tutor maintained a supportive and positive learning environment. He provided constructive feedback, acknowledged the student’s successes, and patiently clarified areas where she was unsure. The student appeared comfortable asking questions and was willing to attempt challenging problems without fear of making mistakes.

By the end of the lesson, the student demonstrated improved accuracy in calculating compound interest and greater confidence in interpreting financial mathematics questions. The session was well-structured, engaging and effective in supporting the student’s learning goals. Overall, the tutor displayed strong communication skills, subject expertise, and an encouraging teaching style that contributed positively to the student’s understanding and progress in Financial Mathematics.

Demee Georgas