ADHD tutor, online across the UK
Online ADHD tuition for children who aren't lazy
— just exhausted from trying.
Bright, quick, full of ideas, and somehow it never comes out in the marks.
I'm Sophie — a qualified teacher, former SENCO and former Head of Drama. I teach every lesson myself, one to one, online.
- Qualified teacher (QTS)
- Former SENCO
- Taught GCSE English
- Enhanced DBS
Everyone keeps telling you what your child could do.if only they'd concentrate.
Six things parents of children with ADHD tell me again and again — and what I actually do about each one.
What you're seeing
They knew the answer. They just didn’t read the question properly.
What I do
Losing marks you should have had is one of the most demoralising things in school, because it looks like carelessness and feels like stupidity. It’s neither. We build a small, boring, repeatable routine for approaching a question — underline what it’s asking, decide the answer, then write — and we practise it until it happens without thinking. We stop the marks leaking out of work they already knew how to do.
What you're seeing
They learn it on Tuesday and it’s completely gone by Thursday.
What I do
Working memory is usually the bottleneck, not effort or ability. So we stop relying on it. Everything gets revisited in short, spaced bursts rather than taught once and hoped for, and we build recall in through low-pressure retrieval rather than re-reading. Things stay learned because we plan for forgetting instead of being surprised by it.
What you're seeing
They can’t start. Then suddenly it’s 9pm and nothing’s been done.
What I do
Starting is the hardest part of every task with ADHD, and it doesn’t get easier by being told to try harder. We break work into pieces small enough to begin, use timers and clear endings so there’s always a visible finish line, and do the hardest starting in the lesson while I’m there. They get going with me, so you’re not fighting about it at nine o’clock at night.
What you're seeing
Another email home. Another comment about focus, chatting or disruption.
What I do
Children who hear this daily eventually decide they’re the bad kid, and that belief does more damage than the ADHD. In my lessons movement is fine, fidgeting is fine, talking things through out loud is actively encouraged — because for a lot of these children thinking happens out loud and standing up. Nobody gets told off in my lessons for having the brain they’ve got.
What you're seeing
Deadlines, planners, coursework, PE kit. It’s all falling through the cracks.
What I do
Organisation is a skill, not a character trait, and it’s the one schools assume children arrive with. We put a system in place that actually fits how they work — what’s due, what’s next, what’s already done — and I flag anything I can see coming. You stop being the only person holding it all in your head.
What you're seeing
Nobody at school has mentioned extra time or rest breaks.
What I do
Exam access arrangements — extra time, rest breaks, a separate room — exist for exactly this, but they need evidence and someone to push for them. As a former SENCO I know what’s available and what a school needs in order to apply. I write the teaching evidence, so the conversation with school starts from facts rather than hope.
What parents often tell me
By the time families reach me, I hear the same handful of things.
- “He knew the answer. He just didn’t read the question.”
- “She learns it on Tuesday and it’s gone by Thursday.”
- “He can’t start. Then suddenly it’s nine o’clock and nothing’s done.”
- “Another email home about focus, chatting, disruption.”
- “He’s so bright — everyone says so. It just never shows up in his marks.”
- “I’m running out of ways to tell him he’s not the problem.”
Underneath all of them is the same worry: that a clever, funny, quick-thinking child is being slowly convinced they’re the problem.
They aren’t. And that’s usually the first thing we fix.
How I support your child
The things school finds difficult about ADHD are very often the same things that make a child brilliant somewhere else. The speed. The tangents. The ideas arriving faster than the pen can move. My job isn’t to flatten that. It’s to build the structures that let it out.
We work on all three at once — but in that order, because the top of the stack won’t hold without the bottom.
Confidence
A child who’s been told off daily has usually decided they’re the naughty one or the thick one — and that belief will follow them into every subject, with any tutor.
Creativity
The bit school rarely has time to reward, and where these children shine. A lot of our work happens out loud and on our feet, which suits this brain far better than a worksheet ever will.
Academic progress
None of it matters if the marks don’t move. We build the routines that stop marks leaking out of work they already knew — reading the question, planning before writing, checking before they hand it in.
Twelve weeks of that, with the same person every week, changes what a child thinks they’re capable of.
Arrange a free callTwenty minutes, no cost, and you’ll come away knowing exactly what I’d do.
What lessons look like
Built for a brain that works at speed. No sitting still for an hour, no lectures, nothing that runs longer than it needs to.
Short, fast, and never an hour of sitting still
We work in bursts with clear endings, so there’s always a visible finish line. Standing up, fidgeting, pacing and thinking out loud are all fine — nobody gets told off in my lessons for having the brain they’ve got. And if focus has gone that day, we change the task instead of pushing through it.
Built around your child’s day, not a timetable
If medication has worn off by five, or the after-school crash is real, we work around it. I’ll ask you about this on the call, because the right slot makes more difference than almost anything else we’ll decide.
Nothing gets learned once and hoped for
Everything comes back in short, spaced bursts, so what they learn on Tuesday is still there on Thursday. You get a short note after every lesson telling you exactly what we did and what’s next — no jargon, and nothing you have to chase me for.
Every lesson is taught by me. Tell me about your child on a free twenty-minute call and I’ll tell you exactly how I’d start.
Arrange a free callCommon questions
Ready to talk about your child?
One free call, twenty minutes, no cost. Tell me what’s been happening at school and at home, and I’ll tell you exactly what I’d work on, in what order, and what I’d expect to change. Send me any reports beforehand and I’ll have read them properly before we speak. You can also read how the trial lesson and twelve-week course work first.
You’ll come away with a plan whether or not you book.
I teach every lesson myself, so I take a limited number of students at a time. If you’d like a place this term, it’s worth getting in touch now.