First Education

One on one tutoring offers an opportunity to turn primary school English learning into an engaging and imaginative experience. By introducing further creativity into sessions, tutors can help to motivate reluctant readers into enthusiastic writers and storytellers.

Story telling with a twist is a powerful tool to utilise. This can be done by simply changing voices to represent different characters which adds drama and delight. Thus, creating a more immersive experience for the student allowing them to be more engaged. This technique not only boosts the student’s comprehension skills but also their confidence whilst reading.

Themed reading activities make sessions feel more exciting. Choose a theme that aligns with the student’s personal interests, for example, a sport or a hobby. By reading about a topic of interest it allows the student to feel more inclined to complete the activity. Additionally, reading activities could be gamified through the implementation of a points system for each chapter of a book the student reads.

Spelling activities can help to motivate students during lessons. Simple activities involving the whiteboard such as hangman or writing a word incorrect so the student can correct it adds a fun twist to typical spelling activities. This engaging technique can assist in develop spelling skills in an engaging way.

By adding creativity into tutoring, English starts to become more than just a subject and more of a time for primary school students to express their imagination. By utilising these techniques, tutors can help students to enjoy the subject more as well as help improve literacy skills.

Sophia McLean

Hey everyone, so recently I’ve been assigning homework a little differently than I have in the past and it’s been working really well!!

Previously, I would print out textbook pages for my students and just tell them to note down the questions they needed to do. So, they would take an unmarked worksheet with them home and just scribble down somewhere in their books the questions that I expected them to complete, and we’d go from there.

It wasn’t a bad plan (it could be argued, the default way!!) but I’ve switched things up in a subtle way recently, and it’s actually made more of a difference than I had expected in both completion rate and motivation!!

Now, when I print off a sheet or two for homework (this is for maths, by the way), I take a green marker and circle the questions that I want my students to complete. This sets up little objectives, so that they also have something to cross out when they finish each question, helping them feel more accomplished.

I also take a red marker and cross out all of the questions on the worksheet that I don’t want them to complete. This works really well because they get to appreciate how much more homework there could have been, compared to the relative amount they actually had to do.

The more rewarding we can make the homework process feel, the more homework gets done, the better our students get at the material, and the happier everyone is overall!! Takes an extra five seconds and is literally all upside.

Something for you guys to try! Ciao 😀

Thomas Koutavas

High school can be overwhelming, with exams, assignments, and extracurricular activities always on students’ minds. As tutors, we can help by guiding students to optimise their study space. A personalised study environment can significantly improve focus, motivation, and productivity. Here are five ways tutors can support students in creating the ideal study space:

1. Lighting: Encourage students to set up their study space near a window for natural light. If that’s not possible, recommend soft, warm lighting instead of harsh overhead lights.
Why it helps: Proper lighting reduces eye strain, keeps students alert, and improves focus. It can also enhance mood by connecting them with the outside world.

2. Personal Touches: Suggest students add items that motivate them, such as a favourite photo, a plant, or a motivational quote.
Why it helps: Personalising a study space makes it feel more welcoming, boosting motivation and creating a positive atmosphere for studying.

3. Noise Control: Some students focus better with music, while others need silence. Help them find what works best.
Why it helps: The right noise level can help students maintain focus. Noise-cancelling headphones or a study playlist can block out distractions and improve concentration.

4. Comfort: Make sure students’ study spaces are physically comfortable, ensure their chair supports good posture, and their desk is at the right height.
Why it helps: Comfort reduces physical discomfort and helps students stay focused without the distraction of back pain or fatigue.

5. Clutter-Free Zone: Encourage students to keep only essential items on their desk and store everything else away.
Why it helps: A clean, organised space reduces stress, promotes clarity, and helps students focus on their work.

By helping students create a study space that fits their needs, we can make studying more effective, enjoyable, and less stressful.

Vicki Synesios

Study strategies used by senior students have become increasingly more important to academic success when facing challenging educational obstacles. Active recall, which refers to the turning of passive reading into dynamic knowledge retrieval, is one of the most effective study techniques accessible to students. Academic achievement during these last, often daunting years of schooling, can be improved monumentally by utilising this strategy and putting into practice.

Deliberately recovering material from memory without consulting notes or textbooks is known as active recall. Students push themselves with practice problems, flashcards, or questions that make their brains work harder than just rereading the content. Unlike passive review techniques, this procedure fortifies brain circuits and produces memories that are more resilient.

Active recall consistently assists students to perform better than traditional study techniques, according to a multitude of research. By testing themselves, students are able to quickly and easily dicover areas of weakness, where they may need to improve their comprehension and concentrate their efforts. Understanding one’s areas of strength and weakness (a metacognitive awareness) is critical to the effectivenss of studying, even more so when being stressed for time.

Active recall provides excellent time efficiency for senior pupils who are balancing a heavy workload and prpearing for upcoming exams. Three hours of passive rereading are significantly less effective than a concentrated hour of self-testing. When juggling the demands of academics with extracurricular activities and personal obligations, this efficiency becomes essential.

Additionally, active recollection helps to lower students exam anxiety and boosts confidence. Consistent retrieval practice allows students to get used to that awkward feeling of not knowing the correct answer immedietly. This resilience is what directly impacts exam performance, as maintaining composure under stress is pivotal.

By adopting active recall as an approach to studying, students are able to enage in a long-lasting learning strategy that will help them both during and beyond highschool, undergarduate and postgraduate studies.

Katerina Vrahnos

Now is a time where Year 12 students are looking to the future and deciding what they would like to do next. Finishing Year 12 and the HSC marks a major milestone for students. It can be a time of relief, excitement and uncertainty about what is to come to next for a person. For most, the transition from high school to university can feel like stepping into a new world or new country for the first time where everything is foreign. It is a time when routines, expectations and ways of learning all shift, yet understanding this change early can help make the process much smoother.

At school, learning is highly structured. Teachers guide lessons, set deadlines and check in on student progress to make sure you are on track. However, at university this is a different story, as independence takes centre stage. You will find more freedom in many different things such as, when to study, what to prioritise and how to manage your workload. With this freedom comes responsibility, particularly staying organised, attending lectures, and keeping up with readings without someone there to remind you. The key difference is self-management. Developing habits like planning your week, reviewing notes consistently and seeking help early can make all the difference.

The social environment changes greatly for most students. Students move from a familiar group of peers to a diverse community of students from across the country and even the world. By joining clubs, attending events and connecting with classmates it can help you feel at ease, build new networks and feel part of campus life. These connections often become a strong source of support and belonging throughout your degree.

It is also important to recognise that uncertainty is normal. Many first-year students question their course choice or struggle to balance the study of university and personal life expectations. Just like in high school, universities have resources of support. From academic skill sessions to counselling and mentoring, these help students navigate the challenges they face.

Ultimately, the transition from high school to university is about growth. It provides an opportunity to develop a world of independence and resilience. With the right mindset and necessary support, it becomes not a just a new academic pathway, but a path for someone to write their own success in the world.

Annie Bulkeley

With the 2025 HSC being right around the corner it is always daunting hearing from your teachers; “it’s subject selection time”, when your in year 10 and have no plans for the future. Here are some tips which I wish someone told me before starting year 12!

Firstly selecting subjects which you are passionate about. The subjects which you love the most and thrive the best in, are the ones which will boost your ATAR and bring you the outcome which you desire. Personally I loved Design and Technology during the junior years, and it allowed me to relax during HSC time and put my effort into my major work. Allowing me to break free from the stressors of textbooks and memorizing essay points.

Secondly don’t let the pressures of scaling get the best of you. Just because a subject scales well, doesn’t mean that it will boost your ATAR if you don’t perform well. Higher scaling subjects are much more demanding and require time, patience and energy to achieve successful results. As a student selecting subjects which may not interest you and are solely there for the scaling this may lead to you feeling burnt out, and not allow you to achieve the best possible marks which you are capable of.

Additionally, don’t select subjects which your friends are doing just so you are with someone. Your friends have different paths to you, what one person may like may not interest you or vice versa. For that reason select subjects which you enjoy, and if you find your friends there awesome, if not it is an awesome opportunity to branch out and make new friendships.

Finally, year 12 is a fun year, though it may be daunting. They are the memories which you will look back on and never forget. Education becomes a lot more challenging such as University and TAFE. For that reason, enjoying your time at school is important. Whilst prioritizing your grades it is also important to take care of yourself and make time for activities which you enjoy most.

Flora Carabitsios

When most people think about maths, they think about getting the answer — preferably the correct one. But what’s often overlooked is that maths is just as much about the process as it is the final number written in the box.

In reality, maths is a way of thinking. It teaches us how to break problems down, identify patterns, reason logically, and make decisions based on evidence. These skills are incredibly valuable — not just in exams, but in everyday life and future careers.

Focusing only on the final answer can lead students to rush, guess, or memorise without truly understanding. But maths isn’t about speed or shortcuts — it’s about understanding why something works and how different methods connect. This kind of deep thinking takes time, but it’s what builds confidence and long-term success.

That’s why in tutoring, I often ask students to explain their thinking, even when they’ve made a mistake. In many cases, the reasoning behind an incorrect answer shows far more understanding than a lucky guess. It’s not about being perfect — it’s about being curious and reflective.

Exams and assignments certainly require correct answers, but the real learning happens during the journey: exploring different methods, correcting errors, and applying concepts to new situations. That’s where growth happens.

So next time you’re working through a tricky problem, remember — the goal isn’t just to reach the answer. The goal is to understand the path that gets you there. Because in maths, as in life, the process matters.

Julian Podgornik

Hey everyone, today I had the great opportunity to observe Sienna’s primary school session.

She did a great job going through her students spelling. They started doing spelling words to prepare her for her weekly spelling test. Sienna started by reading out each spelling word and then she would put the word into a sentence and he her student to sound out each word phonetically. She would also get her student to write the word and then put the word into her own sentence. If her student got the word wrong, Sienna would explain what error she made and would then go through the correct spelling rule her student needs to follow. For example, they went through I before E.

When her student got stuck, Sienna would give her student some hints to help her. For some oxymorons the would go through both spellings of the word and which spelling word appropriately applied to the sentence.

To help her student engage more in the spelling activity, she allowed her student to write each word onto a mini whiteboard.

They looked at the difficulties of different types of sight words and depending on how her student was progressing would influence the difficulty of spelling words Sienna would give her student. This helped Sienna to pick the difficulty of spelling words she gave her student for homework. Her student will use the look, cover, write and then check method to write her spelling words. If her student makes an error she can then attempt to spell the word again.

It was great to see how friendly they were and how comfortable her primary school student was with her. They had a great relationship and they got along really well.

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

Ashley Cohen

Unseen texts can feel intimidating for Year 12 students, (Human Experiences: Section 1) however they’re one of the most powerful ways to showcase independent thinking and authentic analysis. In the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences, unseen tasks assess how well students can apply their understanding of language, representation, and the rubric to a completely new text. As a tutor, teaching this skill is about balance—building confidence in technique while training students to think critically under time pressure.

The first step is demystifying the rubric. Students must be fluent in its language: “human qualities and emotions,” “anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies,” and “individual and collective experiences.” Using these terms naturally in their responses helps them sound evaluative and conceptually aware. Encourage them to link every observation about the text—whether a metaphor or tone shift—back to these ideas. For example, if a poem uses fragmented syntax, guide them to explain how this represents the fractured nature of memory or trauma.

Teaching unseen responses also means prioritising technique over plot. Train students to annotate quickly for language devices: imagery, juxtaposition, tone, structure, symbolism, and perspective. I often use the acronym SITTS (Structure, Imagery, Tone, Technique, Symbolism) to help them organise their first read. Then, they can link each technique to a human experience, such as resilience, isolation, or belonging, to form a coherent thesis.

Timing is equally critical. In an exam, students should allocate roughly five minutes to reading and annotating, ten to planning, and twenty to writing. Practice drills with short extracts build fluency in these stages. I also model paragraph structures using PEEL—Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link—to keep ideas focused and analytical.

Eleni Nicholas

Today,  I observed Thomas tutor Lucas who is currently in year 9. Thomas tutored him maths today, in preparation to his exam which is scheduled for next Monday. In order to ensure lucas is well prepared, Thomas really focused on all the topics that will appear in his exam which included area and space, measurement and bearings.
Thomas and lucas worked on questions together ranging from more simple and straight forward questions to more complex and challenging questions based on the topic. Since this was Lucas’s first session back since the 2-week school holiday, some of the content was forgotten. Thomas focused on reminding lucas on the formulas and how to work them out by using the board to draw questions and formulas and step-by-step working out to clearly see how the answer was gotten. Thomas used the textbooks available at the centre to get a variety of questions based on the topic and challenge lucas in order to be fully prepared for next Monday.
Lucas initially struggled with understanding the sides of a triangle and understanding the reasoning of why sides are equals and how to work out the angles of the triangle and external angles. Thomas thoroughly explained the concept by breaking down the steps and drawing the triangles in a simpler form in order to be clearly recognised and not confused. By the end of the session, lucas was feeling much more confident and answering the questions more independently.
to finish the class, Thomas providing lucas with various questions to help his at home preparation, the homework included all the topics included in the exam and focused specifically on the content that he struggled with.

Daniella Antoun