We’re Proud to Announce Our Award Nomination!

by Georgina | 2 Jun, 2025 | Uncategorized

It’s not every day you get a nod from The Tutors’ Association, but today’s that day! We’re absolutely delighted that Green Tutors has been recognised for our commitment to making STEM education accessible, inspiring, and downright brilliant. We’re shortlisted for Tuition Business of the Year for the second year in a row.

This nomination isn’t just about us. It’s about every student we’ve helped, every tutor who’s gone the extra mile, and every parent who’s trusted us to guide their child’s learning journey.

So here’s to all of you: thank you for helping us get here. We can’t wait to keep pushing boundaries, smashing goals, and making a difference—one lesson at a time.

People’s Choice Award – Get Voting!

As a shortlisted candidate, we’re now also eligible for the People’s Choice Award, where the public can vote for the individual or organisation they’d most like to see win.

 Here’s your voting link:

https://forms.gle/uFEj53CZbh8yX8pv8

We’d very much appreciate your vote, but there are lots of excellent businesses, partners, and collaborators on this list.

• Lucy Oldershaw, our outstanding pillar of admin at Green Tutors, has been shortlisted for Outstanding Team Member in Tuition. I thoroughly recommend a vote for Lucy. She’s been working with us since 2023 and we couldn’t cope without her.
• NavigatEd Tutor, sponsor of the STEM Stories podcast, and a training provider for our tutor team, is shortlisted for Tuition Partner of the Year, as well as Professional Services for Tuition.
• Tutorbird, our administrative platform for the past four years, has also been shortlisted for Tuition Partner of the Year and Technology Tools for Tuition.
• Elevated Support Ltd, who have provided Green Tutors with excellent administrative support for the past few years, are shortlisted for Professional Services for Tuition.
• Pedagogical Tips for Tutors, the fantastic free CPD community that is part of our tutor onboarding training, has been shortlisted for Professional Services for Tuition.
• The Maths Hub for Tutors, which was part of our CPD in 2024 and 2025, has been shortlisted for Professional Services for Tuition.
• The Education Hotel, our referral partner for services we are not able to directly support, has been shortlisted for Private Tutoring Provider.
• Pencil Spaces, our tuition platform of choice, has been shortlisted for Technology Tools for Tuition.
• Education Boutique, who Georgina has worked with for AP tutoring, has been shortlisted for Alternative Provision Provider.

Alongside this, many of our friends and collaborators are listed for awards. With such excellent support, it is no surprise that we’ve made our way on to this list. We take what we do very seriously, and so we only work with others who feel the same about delivering quality education and reliable service.

Whatever the outcome of the awards, we’ll be celebrating our nomination in style at the awards ceremony. Photos to follow!

Why doesn’t revision work

by Georgina | 14 Dec, 2024 | Uncategorized

It’s frustrating to spend time on revision that doesn’t work. Its understandable to lose motivation. And as you get further through the calendar year and closer to exams, the pressure and the procrastination guilt builds, and it gets even harder to see where to start.

What’s the big secret to why revision doesn’t work?

Here’s the secret – it isn’t your fault. Let’s come at it from a different angle. 

Do you ever feel like there’s a secret trick that everyone is keeping to themselves, that makes life easier?

The secret that they are keeping to themselves is that they do things wrong way more often than they do things right. 

Even the simplest of daily tasks, like brushing your teeth, had to be learned and went wrong a lot before it went right. Just ask your parents! 

There’s absolutely no reason for revision to be any different to that, and so the trick is to expect it to go wrong a lot, before it starts to go right. 

So what doesn’t work in revision?

Don’t be disheartened – we can speed up the process a bit by sharing best practices. Just like your parents supported you to learn how to brush your teeth well, you can be supported to learn how to revise well. 

So if there’s a right way, then there’s a wrong way. 

Unfortunately that means less of the ‘fun’ polished notes, pastel highlighters, washi tape process of revision, and more of the thinking and doing. 

What really matters when revising is building clear, retrievable memories that match your learning goals. 

So if you’re learning about Pythagoras’ Theorem, you are aiming to understand what it is, when it is applied, and how to apply it. And that understanding needs to find a secure spot in your brain where you will be able to find it again. 

The ability to find it again is based on how often the path to its door is walked. Which practically speaking means how often we are using that information. Which is, I’m afraid, the reason for repetitive homework. 

But that homework is much more effective when it isn’t all done at once. Spaced retrieval of that information – reviewing it daily for a few minutes – is much more effective. 

How do we put that into practice?

Making your notes to revise from is the least effective and yet often most time consuming part of the process. The good news is that you can shrink the time needed with ready made notes, like the ones we provide in our online drive for students. 

You can purchase great notes from CGP Books, or from online libraries like Save My Exams. That means you have all of the information to hand in a clear format, and your task is to get your brain working with it to keep hold of it.

For example, having a pile of flashcards can be part of a daily retrieval practice for information (that you already understand but need to recall). 

Using the Leitner system, with stacks of flashcards, is something that you can build into existing daily routines with very little effort. But it will make a big impact on your progress towards your learning goals.

What are the key requirements for revision to work?

There is lots of brain science around how to make learning more impactful. I’m happy to have a chat about it if you’re interested, but that’s probably not what you came here for. You already have enough to learn!

So let’s focus on specific actions you can take that will make your task easier.

Your learning, whatever you are learning, follows a few key steps:

1. Understand the content
2. Apply the content with support (e.g. textbook, tutor, teacher)
3. Remember the content
4. Apply the content independently (from memory, with understanding)
5. Build on the content with new learning.

This is the way that school curricula are built. There are essentially the same topics each year from reception to A level, but the content each year builds on the content from the previous year.

Lots of learning activities don’t complete this journey. You can read and understand something, but if you don’t remember it well enough to apply it to exam questions, you haven’t really learned it.

Ultimately academic learning is demonstrated with exam performance (unfortunately), so we have to bear that in mind when we are making study choices.

So to work towards learning, we have to actively follow the steps.

What might this look like in practice?

Let’s say you’re aiming to learn about photosynthesis. You first need to understand the process of photosynthesis.

To understand, I would watch a video on photosynthesis. I would also read some notes on photosynthesis.

While all of that information is fresh in my mind, I would think of a way to document the key information on a single page. In order to do that, I have to understand it and organise it. That is the first step in organising the memories in my brain, making it easier to recall them later.

Having done this, I would apply the content with some exam questions on photosynthesis. This is the best way to apply our learning as it mimics the assessment we are preparing for at school. But there’s all sorts of ways you can apply the content, and show how well you remember it.

In doing this, I would identify how often I can answer from memory and how often I need to reference my notes. That shows me what I am remembering and what I am not.

I can repeat this process, or else I can try different things like flashcards, quizzes, or anything else that requires me to recall and apply the content.

If you’re still feeling stuck, we can work on this together with a revision workshop. It will help you to break the mountain-sized task down into manageable steps, with specific, simple actions you can follow.

I’d love to have a chat about this with you. Send me a message at Georgina@GreenTutors.co.uk with any challenges you’re facing in revision.

Improve Your GCSE Performance with These Essential Sleep Tips

by Georgina | 1 Aug, 2024 | Uncategorized