GCSE Maths tutor in Cardiff — diagnostic-led teaching built on the new WJEC specification

Hi, I'm Sarah — a GCSE maths tutor in Cardiff.

I enjoy tutoring because I believe a child should be given the chance to excel beyond what they think is possible. Most students who find maths hard have decided something about themselves long before they meet me: that they're not a maths person, or that they've missed too much to catch up now. Usually that isn't true. It's a handful of specific gaps, and gaps can be closed.

But I don't believe in tutoring by chance. So I work to a diagnostic framework. Before any teaching begins, your child sits a short timed assessment built on the new WJEC specification. It scores six areas of the course separately, and measures how quickly they work against the time the real exam allows — because a student who knows the content but runs out of time is losing marks for a completely different reason, and needs a completely different fix. You get the results in writing, with a four-week plan aimed at exactly what it found. Four weeks later the same assessment runs again, so you can see what actually moved rather than taking my word for it.

This matters more than usual at the moment. Wales has replaced its two separate maths GCSEs with a single new qualification, first taught from September 2025, and a lot of tutoring material hasn't caught up with it yet.

On explaining things clearly: I represented the UK and Ireland in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' Speak Out for Engineering competition, and came second in the international final. It's judged on making complex engineering understandable to people who don't work in it — the same skill as explaining a difficult maths concept to a student who doesn't understand it yet. That's the part of tutoring I genuinely enjoy.

My background is engineering: MEng Mechanical Engineering at Cardiff University, with a placement year at GE Aerospace working on the GE9X engine programme.

How a session feels matters as much as what's in it. Anxiety about maths takes up the very working memory a hard problem needs, so sessions are calm and unhurried, and there is never a penalty for not knowing something. Not knowing is the whole reason we're there.

Years 9 to 11, maths only, in person across Cardiff. And before we go further, I understand you are trusting your child with a new adult; therefore, I hold an enhanced DBS check.