Brocklehurst Academy exists to help students in Years 7 to 12 become genuinely good readers, writers and thinkers in English, and to do well in their school assessments and the HSC because of it, not instead of it.
We work with students one-on-one and in small groups, in person around Burwood and online. Whatever the format, the aim is the same: a student who leaves us able to do more on their own than when they arrived.
English is not a memory subject. It is a thinking subject that happens to be assessed in writing.
The students who do best are not the ones who have collected the most quotes or the most polished pre-written paragraphs. They are the ones who have read their texts closely, have something real to say about them, and can say it clearly under pressure.
We believe:
Some arrive struggling with sentence control; others are chasing a Band 6 or an E4. Both deserve teaching that starts where they actually are.
Good writing about texts grows out of careful, curious reading. There is no shortcut around the text itself.
Proven structures help students organise their thinking and give markers what they are looking for, so we teach them deliberately: PETAL with our younger students, and IQTVEVE with our older students. But a structure is there to carry an argument, not to stand in for one. Students should be filling it with their own ideas, not with a memorised script.
Clarity, precision, sentence variety and a confident voice are learnable skills, not talents some students simply have.
Literature, film, poetry and persuasive writing are not obstacles between a student and an ATAR. We want students to find something in their texts that they actually care about, because that is also where their best writing comes from.
We teach students to slow down and look: at word choice, imagery, structure, form, perspective and context. A good lesson often spends more time on one paragraph or one stanza than students expect. The goal is for students to notice things for themselves, so we ask more questions than we answer.
We teach writing explicitly, at the level of the sentence, the paragraph and the whole response. That includes analytical essays, creative writing, discursive and persuasive pieces, and reflections. We model, we write alongside students, and we have them rewrite. Strong writing is usually rewritten writing.
We want students to develop their own interpretations and defend them with evidence. We push past generic thesis statements (“the composer explores the human experience”) towards specific, arguable claims about how and why a text works. A slightly rough but original idea is worth more than a smooth but empty one.
Feedback is only useful if the student can act on it. We aim to give a small number of clear, specific priorities rather than a page of corrections, and we check whether the next piece of writing shows the change.
Our teaching is guided by the NSW English syllabus, the HSC modules and the way school assessment tasks are actually set and marked. In the junior years, that means building the reading, writing and analytical foundations that senior English depends on. In Years 11 and 12, across English Standard, Advanced, Extension 1 and Extension 2, it means teaching students what each module is really asking, using the rubrics and marking guidelines as tools rather than mysteries.
Students need different things at different stages, so we teach in two ways.
Years 7 to 10 are when the foundations are laid, and foundations are best built in a deliberate order. Our approach for these years is a set course, taught in small classes, that moves step by step: from the building blocks of grammar and expression, learnt through real texts rather than drills, up to the kind of analysis students will meet in Stage 6. Each lesson is carefully prepared with clear goals, and tasks can be offered with or without scaffolds so every student is stretched at the right level. The aim is that by the time students reach Year 11, the skills are already there.
In Years 11 and 12, the texts, modules and assessment tasks are set by each student’s school, so that is where we work. One-on-one, we help with whatever a student needs for their schoolwork: understanding a text, planning a response, preparing for an assessment or improving a draft. What we will not do is the work itself. The help is real, but the writing stays theirs.
We want our students to get the very best bands they can, and we won’t pretend otherwise. Marks matter to students and families. Developing real reading, thinking and writing skill is hugely important to us, but we also know students need the best marks they can get. So we balance the two. When a task calls for it, we play to its expectations and make sure students hit the criteria they are being marked against.
There are concrete things students must do to reach the top bands, and we teach them explicitly:
These techniques sit on top of genuine skill rather than replacing it. A well-built paragraph only shines when there is a real idea inside it, and an insightful reading only earns its marks when it is expressed the way markers are looking for. Students need both, and we teach both. Learning how to build a strong response is very different from learning one off by heart, which is why we teach structures and techniques but not memorised essays.
The best measure of our work is how little a student needs us by the end of Year 12. We want students to leave able to read an unseen text, plan a response and edit their own writing. A student who can only write well with a tutor beside them has not yet been helped enough.
Many students arrive believing they are “bad at English”. Confidence comes from real, visible progress, so we make that progress visible: comparing earlier and later drafts, naming specifically what has improved, and setting achievable next steps. We praise effort and improvement truthfully, and we do not flatter.
We will never write a student’s assessment, essay or creative piece for them, and we will not “polish” submitted work to the point where it is no longer theirs. We help students plan, we give feedback on drafts, and we teach the skills they need to fix their own writing. This is a matter of integrity and of school rules, but it is also simply better teaching: a student who did not write the essay did not learn from it. It is how we work every day: our tutors guide and give feedback, but they never write a student’s essays. The same principle shapes our approach to AI, set out below: students learn to use it intelligently, and some spaces stay AI-free.
Model essays and study notes have a place. Seeing what a strong response looks like is useful, especially when a student is new to a text type. But a model is something to learn from, not something to copy or memorise. We use models to discuss choices (“why does this paragraph work?”), and then students write their own. Study guides can support understanding of a text; they cannot replace reading it.
We tell families the truth about where a student is, what is realistic and what it will take. That includes good news, and it includes the harder conversations: when a student is not doing the work between lessons, when a goal is unlikely in the time available, or when tuition is not what a student most needs right now. Parents can only make good decisions with accurate information.
AI tools like ChatGPT are here to stay, and they can do remarkable things. We don’t think the answer is to pretend they don’t exist or to ban them outright. We think students need to be taught to use them well, and that is part of our job.
Used intelligently, AI can be a powerful study partner. We actively teach students how to use it to:
There is a time and place for AI, though, and we believe there are important spaces where it doesn’t belong:
EdexiaAt the academy we use Edexia, an AI program that gives feedback on HSC essays and is built on HSC rubrics and texts. It is a good example of AI doing what it should: helping students see where their writing stands and what to work on next, while the writing itself stays theirs.
The line we draw is simple: AI can help a student practise, check and reflect, but it should never do the thinking or the writing for them.
Good exam preparation starts long before exam week. What we encourage every student to do:
Regular reading, regular writing and steady revision across the year beat cramming. A little writing every week does more than a lot of writing the week before.
Read prescribed texts more than once. Know them well enough to choose fresh evidence for an unexpected question, rather than relying on a short list of famous quotes.
In senior years especially, students need to understand what each module values and how their text speaks to it.
Writing well in 40 minutes is its own skill. We build up timed practice gradually as exams approach, using past and practice questions.
Before exams, students should write, get feedback, rewrite and then write again on a new question. Improvement happens in the redraft.
Pre-writing a full essay and hoping the question fits is risky and usually shows. Markers reward responses that engage with the actual question. We help students prepare flexible material (strong ideas, well-understood evidence, practised paragraphs) that can be adapted on the day, rather than a script.
Sleep, exercise, time with friends and realistic expectations are part of exam preparation, not distractions from it. We would rather a student arrive at the HSC rested and prepared than exhausted and over-rehearsed. If we notice a student is struggling beyond English, we will raise it gently with the family.
When your child learns with us, you can expect:
We take time to understand your child’s strengths, gaps, school and goals.
In junior classes, that means a carefully sequenced course pitched at the right level; in the senior years and one-on-one, lessons follow your child’s school texts and assessment schedule. Either way, we focus on what will make the biggest difference.
We will tell you what is going well, what needs work and what you can do to help.
Your child’s work will always be their own.
Many of our families speak Chinese at home. We want every parent to understand clearly how their child is going, and we will work with each family to find the way of keeping in touch that suits them best.
Tuition works best when students, families and tutors are pulling in the same direction. We will ask for your support with routines at home, and we welcome your questions at any time.
We know many families come to tuition hoping for a particular mark or band. We share that goal, and we take it seriously, which is why we teach the concrete techniques that earn top bands. And we believe the surest way to a strong result is a student who also reads well, writes well and thinks for themselves, and that is what we set out to build.
Group class or private tuition? In-person or online? Tell us about your student and we’ll help you choose.
