Online English tutoring for Years 1–10: reading, writing, grammar and spelling
A live teacher reads with your child, writes with your child and marks what your child writes — one-to-one, on a shared whiteboard. We cover the English your child does at school and the reading and writing that the OC, Selective and NAPLAN tests ask for.
What we teach
The Australian Curriculum organises English into language, literature and literacy; the NSW syllabus into outcomes for reading, writing and understanding texts. In practice a child needs four things working together: reading with understanding, organised and accurate writing, a grasp of grammar and punctuation, and spelling that does not slow everything else down. We teach all four at your child's level; families in the USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand and India get the same one-to-one format matched to their own curriculum.
Years 1–2: reading and first writing
Phonics and decoding, sight words, reading aloud with expression, retelling a story in order, writing full sentences with capital letters and full stops, and spelling common words by sound and pattern.
Years 3–4: comprehension and paragraphs
Finding the main idea, inferring what a text does not say outright, vocabulary in context, narrative and persuasive writing in paragraphs, paragraphing, dialogue punctuation, apostrophes and the spelling rules behind common errors. NAPLAN reading, writing and language conventions are sat in Year 3.
Years 5–6: reading critically, writing with control
Reading a poem, a report and a story and answering the same four kinds of question on each; recognising an author's purpose and technique; planning a persuasive or narrative piece under time; editing one's own draft. This is the reading and writing the OC and Selective tests ask for.
Years 7–8: analysis begins
Reading novels, non-fiction and media texts; writing analytical paragraphs about how a text creates an effect; essay structure with topic sentences and evidence; formal and informal register; grammar at sentence level — clauses, agreement, tense consistency.
Years 9–10: towards senior English
Extended analytical and creative responses, comparing texts, quoting and explaining evidence, argument structure, editing for precision, and reading more demanding texts with a teacher who asks the questions a senior examiner would ask.
Vocabulary and spelling, every year
Word families, prefixes and suffixes, Greek and Latin roots in later years, and a short personal spelling list drawn from your child's own writing rather than a generic list.
How a one-to-one English lesson runs
English lessons alternate between reading-led and writing-led sessions, so that neither is neglected. Every class is live, one teacher and one child, on a shared whiteboard with voice and video.
A reading-led lesson
- The teacher puts a short text on the whiteboard — a passage, a poem or an extract chosen for your child's level and interests.
- Your child reads it (aloud in the younger years), and the teacher listens for fluency, skipped words and self-correction.
- Questions follow a pattern: literal (what does it say?), inferential (what does it mean?), vocabulary in context, and structure (why is it written this way?). Your child points to the line that supports each answer, so "guessing" becomes "finding".
- New words go onto a running list, with the sentence they came from.
A writing-led lesson
- A prompt is set, and your child plans on the whiteboard for a few minutes before writing — audience, purpose, three or four points, an opening line.
- Your child writes while the teacher watches the draft appear and comments at the paragraph level, not after every word.
- The teacher marks the draft on screen: structure first, then sentences, then punctuation and spelling, with one or two things to fix next time rather than twenty.
- The piece is finished or redrafted as homework in the parent portal, and comes back with written feedback.
How progress is tracked
- Marked writing you can read. Every homework piece comes back in the portal with the teacher's comments. Over a term you can look back and see the drafts getting longer, better organised and cleaner.
- Comprehension sets. Short reading tests are set in the portal by question type, so you can see whether inference, vocabulary or structure questions are the weak spot.
- A WhatsApp note after each class saying what was taught and what to practise, plus a reminder before each class in your own time zone.
- Personal spelling list. Built from your child's own errors and retested until each word is secure.
What to expect in the first month
The demo class usually includes a short passage with a few questions and a short piece of writing, so the teacher can see how your child reads, infers and writes. You then receive a suggested plan on WhatsApp. Typically the first few weeks concentrate on one thing — often reading for inference, or paragraphing — because improving one habit shows quickly in everything else. By the fourth week there is a small pile of marked writing in the portal that you can compare with the first piece.
Common difficulties and how a one-to-one teacher handles them
| What you notice at home | What is usually underneath | What the teacher does |
|---|---|---|
| Reads well aloud, but cannot answer the questions | Decoding is fine; the text is not being pictured or questioned while reading. | Teaches stopping to summarise each paragraph in one line, and finding the line that proves each answer. |
| Writing is a single long paragraph | No plan before writing; no sense of when an idea has changed. | Plans every piece in dot points first; paragraphs are built from the plan, one point each. |
| Good ideas, poor punctuation | Sentences are run together with commas; speech marks and apostrophes were never taught as rules. | Short, explicit grammar lessons on the whiteboard, then edited in the child's own writing — never worksheets alone. |
| Spelling is unpredictable | Words are learnt by sight only; sound and pattern rules are missing. | Groups the child's own errors by pattern and teaches the pattern, so one lesson fixes many words. |
| Freezes under a timed writing task | No rehearsed routine for the first five minutes. | Practises the same plan-then-write routine until it is automatic, with the time shown on screen. |
English for the OC, Selective and NAPLAN tests
The NSW OC test, sat in Year 4, includes a Reading paper of multiple-choice questions on several short texts. The NSW Selective High School test, sat in Year 6, includes Reading and a Writing task. NAPLAN, sat in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 each March, tests reading, writing and language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation). The reading questions in all of these come in the same four kinds — main idea, inference, vocabulary in context and text structure — so the skills above transfer directly. See OC and Selective English preparation for question types and a practice poem, OC exam preparation, Selective school preparation and NAPLAN preparation.
Free to try now: NAPLAN-style reading and language conventions tests, OC reading mocks and Selective reading mocks, all marked online the moment your child finishes.
Also taught one-to-one: maths, science and coding. For year-by-year pages, countries and exams see the online tutoring index.
Questions parents ask
What does an English class actually cover?
Reading comprehension, writing, grammar and punctuation, and spelling, following the Australian Curriculum or NSW syllabus for your child's year. Lessons alternate between reading-led and writing-led sessions so both are taught.
Is my child's writing marked?
Yes. Writing done in class is marked on the whiteboard, and writing set as homework in the parent portal comes back with written comments on structure, sentences, punctuation and spelling.
My child reads a lot but scores poorly on comprehension. Can you help?
This is common. Reading fluently and reading for meaning are different skills; the teacher works on summarising while reading and on finding the line in the text that supports each answer.
Do you prepare for OC and Selective reading and writing?
Yes. The OC test (Year 4) includes a Reading paper; the Selective test (Year 6) includes Reading and Writing. We teach the four question types and a timed writing routine, and set practice papers in the portal.
Is it one-to-one?
Yes. Every class is live, one teacher and one child, on a shared online whiteboard with voice and video. Nothing is pre-recorded.
How do you handle time zones?
Classes are booked in your own time zone with the teacher's time shown beside yours, and daylight-saving changes are handled for you. A WhatsApp reminder arrives before every class.