Testimonials

Michele's passion for maths shines through and is infectious....

Sally Barker

Primary Mastery Specialist

Feedback from experienced voices

Maths Mastery Specialist

I had the pleasure of working with Michele for 11 years (2010 - 20) whilst I was maths lead at The Wroxham primary school. We were one of the first schools in the country to introduce a 'teaching for mastery in mathematics' approach and she has always been an advocate of this.

Whether planning and delivering lessons to whole classes, creating bespoke 1:1 and small group interventions for 'slower learners', devising a whole-school scheme to support fluency in times tables or deepening the understanding of 'rapid graspers', Michele's passion for maths shines through and is infectious.

She has very strong subject knowledge and always focuses on teaching her pupils conceptual understanding. As a consequence, she is setting them up for long term confidence and success in mathematics.

Sally Barker

Primary Mastery Specialist

Assistant TfM Lead, Matrix Maths Hub

Music Parent

We knew Michele Combes through school where she was working as a maths and music teacher. We knew how committed and focused she was, so when we approached her about preparing our kids for music theory grade 5, we did this with full confidence and high expectations and we were not disappointed. My kids understood the subject and enjoyed their lessons as well. My 11 year old achieved a distinction and my 9 year old daughter achieved a merit.

Parent

Music Teacher

Michele has taught nearly 40 of my violin and viola students, and now that she is setting up online I'm delighted that I can still send pupils to her even though she has moved away from our area.

She is patient, respectful, thorough, easy to approach, clear and efficient and my pupils actually look forward to their lessons even if they originally thought theory was "boring"! Each child is thought of as a different person with different learning needs rather than "one size fits all" so the success rate is extremely high.

The students are encouraged to work hard so they do not spend years to get to the Grade 5 ABRSM Theory exam. They properly understand the concepts and can apply them afterwards; I am able to use this knowledge with understanding their higher grades repertoire. For this reason I think a good knowledge of theory is essential, even if they don't have to take an exam.

I cannot recommend Michele Combes highly enough.

Pamela Moutoussi

ARCM Dip.RCM(perf)

Class Teacher

Michele is a very experienced maths tutor who has supported maths lessons in primary schools as well as providing private one-to-one tuition. She has wide ranging experience of tutoring students from primary to GCSE level and always develops and implements effective programmes of study to support children who struggle to grasp basic mathematical concepts right through to really stretching confident mathematicians.

Michele works incredibly hard to develop programs of study which are highly targeted to support each child as an individual. Her own knowledge and understanding is second to none - knowing the correct terminology and using manipulatives to support learning is a particular strength of hers that allows children to make consistently good progress, reduce gaps in their knowledge or to really engage and challenge the thinking of high attainers. I couldn't recommend her enough - she really does go above and beyond!

Thomas Ritson

Year 6 & 4 Teacher

Maths Parent

Michele was an excellent and extremely well organised tutor for my daughter helping her prepare for her Maths GCSE (2019). Michele engaged well and gave her confidence, she made lessons fun with relevant examples and checked that she understood everything at the end.

Michele was also very patient and understanding of the level my daughter was at, she explained problem solving in clear and logical manner giving gentle reminders of what topics to recall when answering questions. My daughter was hesitant about having Maths help as she felt so overwhelmed with what needed covering but Michele made her feel at ease and together they worked out a plan.

Margaret Rhodes, Parent, Hertfordshire

July 2020