Sophie Marsden

Sophie teaches pupils aged 7 to 11, and she has a rule for her own lessons: nothing sits still long enough to go cold. Reading and number work take turns, usually in four or five short bursts, because a nine-year-old who has just wrestled with a column subtraction is often ready to read a page aloud, and a pupil who has just finished a chapter is often ready for fractions.

Her lessons are short by design. Nothing drags. She reads with pupils who stumble on longer words, and she does the times tables out loud, back and forth, until the answers arrive without a pause. Younger pupils bring a favourite book; older ones bring the homework that caused the argument at the kitchen table the night before.

Lessons run online or at home, and the notes from each one are written up for you afterwards, which matters when a parent is helping with homework on a wet Wednesday in February and cannot remember how the method was taught. Progress reports follow at the points we agree when you book.