About Bright Spark Tuition
Bright Spark Tuition is currently an agency of one: me, Rebecca. My hope is to expand in the future, but in the meantime let me tell you a little about myself.
My specialism is English, which I read at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and which I teach up to undergraduate level. However, I also tutor 8+ to 13+ maths (my second favourite subject in school!), as well as interview skills from 8+ to university entrance. My main focus is preparing students for the 11+ and 13+ (Common Entrance) exams held by grammar and private schools, and over the years I have helped students gain entry to almost every leading competitive school in the Greater London area. While I cannot guarantee results, I am yet to have a student who failed to receive an offer from one of their top choices.
When I lived in London, I conducted all lessons in person. However, my family and I recently moved to the North Devon coast, so I now work solely as an online tutor.
When I'm not teaching, I work as a journalist and writer. My main area of interest is the Middle East, and in 2022 I had my first book published: The Slow Road to Tehran, based on a year-long solo cycle ride from London to Tehran. It has since been published in Germany and Russia, and in 2023 was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year award.
As a journalist, I have written for the BBC, The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Evening Standard, The Independent, The Economist, IranWire and HuffPost, plus a wide range of travel publications. I was previously the senior reporter at the International Bar Association, where I wrote about issues concerning the rule of law and human rights, and prior to that I worked for a series of Newsquest newspapers across north London. In 2018, I contributed to the adventure travel anthology The Kindness of Strangers: Travel Stories That Make Your Heart Grow, and in 2019 I was accepted as a Fellow at the Royal Geographical Society.
My education began at Hamilton Primary School in High Wycombe (now Hamilton Academy), where I took the 12+ to gain entrance to the local girls' grammar school, Wycombe High. I was a highly motivated and conscientious student, and had a particular love for English (indeed, I wished to be a writer from the age of five, and never deviated from this wish – although I'm sure my parents hoped my career might take a more lucrative turn at some point!).
At Wycombe High, I was awarded the WHS Benjamin Cup for achieving the top GCSE grades in the school, along with the SEG Sony National Curriculum Award for achieving the highest English language mark in the country. At A Level, I was awarded the school's top prize, the WHS Marie Christie Scholarship, before going on to win an English Speaking Union scholarship to study in Dallas, Texas, during my gap year. I subsequently read English literature at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, before being awarded a full tuition scholarship to study for an MA in journalism at Stanford University, California.
I currently live in a small village in North Devon with my partner and two young daughters, spending my days juggling teaching, writing and childcare, and enjoying blustery walks along the coast while dreaming of my next adventure.
Please contact me via the contact form if you have any questions or would like to enquire about availability. I look forward to hearing from you.
I have been a private tutor for more than fifteen years: from 2005-11 and again from 2016 until the present day. I'll be honest with you: at first I did it because it was a useful, flexible way to earn a little extra money alongside my full-time job as a journalist. But I soon discovered it was something that brought me a great sense of fulfilment. The students and families I work with are not just clients to me but people with whom I form close and enduring relationships, even long after my duties as a tutor have concluded.