Dr Karen O'Rourke

Teaching skills, subjects and focus of Dr Karen O'Rourke

Birmingham's best-kept secret

I am a female tutor with over twenty-seven years’ teaching experience in the U.K. and overseas, and have been established in Birmingham since 1997.

I am not associated with any tuition centre, and therefore don't work for any other person or organisation.  To guarantee quality and consistency of results, I don't employ any staff. 

My services consist of:

• 11+ English, mathematics and reasoning for independent and public schools’ ‘common entrance’ preparatory tuition (for fee-paying schools. Individual tuition or tuition in a group of five students or fewer.)

• GCSE English (OCR and AQA syllabi) There are currently no vacancies for individual or group GCSE tuition before 2015. Please do not call me about GCSE tuition. I do not keep a waiting list for GCSE tuition. 

• AS- & A-level English & English Literature and English Language and Literature for the International Baccalaureate (‘IB’)There are currently no vacancies for individual or group AS & A-level tuition before 2015. Please do not call me about AS and A-level tuition. I do not keep a waitings list for these subjects. 

When and where does tuition take place?

• I teach in my home during term-time for three evenings each week. (The days vary each term, but always exclude weekends).
• I usually offer tuition in the mornings for a limited period during the independent and state schools' summer holidays.

How many children do I teach at one time?

• Nearly all the teaching I undertake is for individual (‘one-to-one’) students, but
• I also offer highly structured courses of tuition to small groups of five students (or fewer) for grammar school examination preparation for the highly-competitive foundation grammar schools in Birmingham, Warwickshire and the West Midlands.

How successful is the tuition?

• Between 1997 and 2012, all but one of my 11+ students who attended a three- or four-term course with me gained a place at a foundation grammar school.
• Between 1997 and 2011. each one of my GCSE English students achieved a grade A* to B at GCSE.

What is the secret of my students' success?ž

• I take care to select families who are well-organised and willing to devote quality time to their children's educational and wider emotional, intellectual, social and aesthetic development.
• I undertake a careful initial assessment and before offering suitable tuition for your child.
• I propose, and parents agree, a personalised, written scheme of work, which we review together at the end of each term.
• I take great pride and care in preparing resources, which I prepare and adapt according to children's individual needs, to help my students develop and flourish.