Welcome and thanks for stopping by.  You’ve either found this by yourself or you’ve been pointed here by someone who cares about you.  Bravo, you’re taking the first steps towards making school, assessments and study far less stressful.  You’ve acknowledged that you might need some help.

Everyone needs help from time to time, and that’s what I’m here to do.

Usually students start working with me because a teacher has said “Ok everyone, let’s look at your mind maps of blah” and yours is trapped in your head, looks like a plate of spaghetti and you don’t know where to start to untangle the mess.  It’s frustrating because up until now you always started at the beginning and followed a direct path to the answer.  This isn’t working any more and let’s face it, you don’t know why, because you really are trying.

The problem is you are trying with the same old tools, but they don’t work as effectively as they use to.  You can’t just hit harder with the same old hammer, you have to adapt and learn some new tools.  That’s what mentors do, they teach you new tools and help you figure out how to use them.

So, are you ready to get some new tools to make learning and studying easier?

How it works

Initial meeting

The first thing we have to do is find out if this is going to work for all of us.  So myself, you and your parents/carers are going to meet for about an hour and a half.  I’ll initially meet with your parents to get their impression of what they believe is going on and talk with them about what a successful outcome might look like.  Then we’ll meet and I’ll get your impression of what is going on.  You and I will decide during this half hour if it’s going to be worth both our times to continue to work together.  Then we’ll bring your parents/carers back in and discuss a way to move forward, maybe with me or maybe with someone else.

Then what?

Usually we’ll meet weekly to work on things you are having trouble with.  In the beginning we’ll spend some time getting acquainted so that I can understand what learning tools you are using and why they aren’t working any more. We’ll then work together to solve the challenges you’re having.  Along the way you’ll gain many new skills that will help you to study and learn more effectively.  Plus, we’ll get some assessments and homework done.

Sometimes, like when there are set tasks, we may need to have additional face to face meetings or online problem solving/review of work. We’ll work it out as we approach these.

As I’m working as part of a team of people that care about you, I’ll be sending these people an update on your progress at the end of every term. Don’t worry, we’ll talk about it first – as self reflection on your own progress is really important.