St Paul’s Juniors School Entrance Guide

We met Shu nine months before our son sat the 8+ exams. He has a curious mind, and we felt he had the potential to do very well, but his school were ambivalent about his chances of getting into one of the leading London Junior schools, and the daily fights to get him to do any extra work were extreme, often involving tantrums, slammed doors, shouting, and the rest. When Shu walked through our front door, in March 2023, we thought she'd last two minutes - she seemed strict and we expected the tantrums to escalate. How wrong we were! Shu has a magic learning flute, and even our son was unable to resist it's tune. From the get-go, she 'got him'. After the first few sessions, she gave us a more acute assessment than the teachers who'd known him for years ever had. And while our son still complained constantly about doing anything extra with us, over the following nine months he accepted Shu's word as gospel - sometimes calling her himself to ask whether he should do A or B as we requested! More than that, he really enjoyed his lessons, and I'd often look in to see them both roaring with laughter over a shared, private joke. Shu believed in and enjoyed our son in a way no-one had before, and as a result I think he started to believe in himself. She was also an invaluable sounding board for us, often calming us down when we worried that he was not up to it, or that his confidence would suffer, at all times reminding us that she believed he had what it took, whether it was this round or the next. And her belief in him was contagious. By the end of January 2023, our son had an offer from his first choice school, Westminster Under, as well as from other top London prep schools, and I'm 100% confident that this would never have happened had we not met Shu!

Shu is a fantastic tutor. She has years of experience as a qualified teacher and tutor, which made a huge difference to our son’s 7+ preparation process. From the first lesson we could see that Shu has a very structured deeply thought approach to teaching- she always focused on starting with concepts and building foundations. We really appreciated this, and so did our son, he enjoyed learning with her. Shu made very astute judgments on our son's potential and was able to ascertain very quickly the areas where our son needed to work on. She worked with us to create a plan for approaching the exams. As parents, she gave us a lot of assurance throughout the process and managed our expectations, limiting our stress. Although she was strict with our son, she knew where to push and how to get results out of him, being mindful always of where his limits were. We saw a great chemistry between them. She has a great way of dealing with children, making them accountable for their work and creating an inner motivation for excellence. We were amazed that he was happy to sit for as long as 2 hours with minimal breaks, and I think he looked forward to her lessons sometimes, which is a miracle! We really got the sense that teaching is her passion, and this makes all the difference to the child’s learning experience. We supplemented our work with Shu with research on exam formats, techniques etc. Shu is very collaborative, flexible and pragmatic in her approach, but also unafraid to be direct and transparent. We worked really well as a team, and in 7 weeks of working together, our son got into the top school of our choice. It was an absolute pleasure dealing and interacting with Shu, and we would highly recommend her to any parents looking for additional support for their child in the school examination process. Thank you Shu!

I can't thank Judith enough for helping my son get a place at SPJ. Judith was amazing. We had her since June. She was very professional and shared her tutoring plans with us each week. She managed to keep my son focussed and motivated throughout. My son was always looking forward to have the lesson with her. Every session with Judith was an enjoyable one! We would highly recommend Judith!

Meredith helped our son prepare for his 7+ entrance exams to a few competitive schools in South West London. The focus was on creative writing and reading comprehension along with some work in Maths and interview prep. Meredith is a brilliant teacher who prepares very hard for every class and gets the best out of a child through engaging classes and excellent feedback that she gives for the homework she sets. She works not just with the child but also with the parents by taking any feedback from them very seriously and sets her lesson plans and goals around any gaps in learning. We’ll recommend her wholeheartedly to anyone considering getting extra help with their child’s work.

Meredith did an amazing job with my son for the preparation of 7+ exams for KCJS and SPJ. We had Meredith from September as my son was struggled with his writing. Within two months time, my son’s writing improved immensely, as well as his English and comprehension. She also helped for the interview practice. She is very patient and professional, and got on very well with my son. She prepared well for each session, and managed to keep my son focussed and motivated during the session. My son always looking forward to have the lesson with her. My son has received the offers for both schools, we would highly recommend her to other families.

We have absolutely loved Laura as a tutor!

Rachel was fantastic in building a strong rapport with our slightly quiet boy from the get go. Her primary focus with our son was to help him improve his creative writing skills for his 7+ assessments and she very patiently helped him with several frameworks and toolkits that really helped him structure his already very imaginative mind. We could certainly see a stark difference in how his stories were structured once he started with Rachel whilst completing them in the given timeframe - in fact one of the top school’s feedback was that his story writing was most impressive compared to his peers (and I would attribute that to Rachel’s guidance and help). She was also quite willing and flexible to give us further guidance on what we needed to do home to complement her sessions, and on various other queries about which schools to apply, their process, where our son fit in his peer group and what would be most suited to his personality. Finally, she ran a mock test which really helped my son build further confidence for the assessments and the interviews that would follow. Thank you Rachel!

Claudia is very good

We put our son for St. Paul’s 8+ entrance exam at the last min of registration, basically left us three months till the actual exam. As we have no any previous knowledge or experience for these type of highly competitive exam and interview to the elite school. We approached Owl Tutors for some advice and they recommend Gary. Gary was absolutely fantastic! Not only he is so good with teaching and our son loved him very much, but also nothing is too much trouble for him, he always there ready to help, answer our all kinds of questions, give advices, so supportive and helpful! At the end our son overall did well on the exam and successfully gained a treasured place at this top school! We can’t thank Gary and Owl Tutors enough, they are really fantastic!

Rosie was very thoughtful and interested in our objectives, my son’s interests and way of learning, and provided a flexible and tailored programme carefully designed to avoid overwhelming him but seeing great results. Cannot recommend highly enough- she’s fantastic!

Hannah is a great tutor. She has a really nice balance of being firm and working to achieve the objectives set, with a warm and accommodating manner that puts the child at ease. After school tutoring has been easy and fun, with significant strides made in concentration and focus alongside the academic progress.

Hannah was great and quickly engaged with my son. He looked forward to his sessions with her and she kept the curriculum varied and interesting. Sounds like she know how to prepare kids for the 7+ as she’s been doing this for awhile.

Hannah is wonderful and my favourite teacher.

Claudia was a wonderful tutor working with my son (year 2) and my daughter (year 4) in two separate sessions. She was firm but always had a smile on her face and was bubbly. The children were really focused during her sessions. I highly recommend her. She was very good at her tutoring job and will be missed. Good luck at Med school!!

Very professional and helpful using tutors of a very high standard. You really do get what you are paying the extra for.