Working with partners who have the same philosophy and approach as HomeMadeEducation means we can offer a wider range of courses to our valued home educating families.  Read below for more about Caitlin (English, History) and Lucy (Science) …

Ms Caitlin Kendall (our specialist English, History and Philosophy partner) … former home educator and owner of Woodland Writers:

Caitlin Kendall – is a Secondary School Teacher with 14 years teaching experience. Caitlin has taught at renowned schools in both the UK and Hong Kong and she is the founder of Woodland Writers. For the past 11 years Caitlin has also worked as a GCSE, A-level, and IB English examiner. Caitlin has recently completed her MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle University and was shortlisted for the Creative Futures Literary Award. Since completing her MA, Caitlin has been a home educator and worked as a creative writing consultant in secondary schools across the North East. She is also a regularly published author, with a new book just out by Bent Key Publishing.  She lives in Northumberland with her husband, children and three unnecessarily large dogs.

Caitlin develops and tutors our range of English, History and Philosophy courses …  KS4 Short Courses, IGCSE Courses, and A-Level courses, in partnership with HomeMadeEducation.  She earns rave reviews for her courses with us:

“You know how much G adores Caitlin. Can I just tell you how much G is enjoying lessons with Lucy too? You couldn’t ask for two partners … Honestly, we are so happy with the quality of content and the way both Caitlin and Lucy facilitate this. Thank you Kate, for making this journey a stress free and enjoyable one.”

“It’s been an …. emotional morning for our DD.  She’s just had the last ever English Lit lesson with the lovely Caitlin Kendall after two years of studying English language last year and English lit this year.  She’s grown so much in confidence and … her love of the subject and enthusiasm must have shone through at the (A level sixth form) interview she was offered a place less than 24 hours after our visit.  A massive thank you to Caitlin Kendall for your brilliant classes and enthusiasm for the subjects, DD has really enjoyed them, plus the extra literature prep course last summer and book group were brilliant. I’m sure DD will be joining in this summer with the book group after all the exams are finished mid June.”

“I just wanted to say a huge thanks! DD has just had her first Crime Fiction class which she really enjoyed.  Thankyou so much for helping us make sure Home education is a enjoyable experience.”

“Hi Caitlin, I did the English Language and English Literature GCSE courses with you, and I found your feedback on my assignments and your zoom lessons really helpful. I just wanted to say thank you, because today I got my results back and I got 9s in both language and literature … Also – I will definitely be joining some of your online book group zoom calls soon, as I enjoyed the ones I did in summer. :)”

“You are wonderful Caitlin, G really likes working with you and it’s lovely seeing him feel so inspired.”

“I really enjoyed your course and I wouldn’t have ever imagined getting the grade I got. I’m over the moon with my result and I’m so grateful for your great teaching and help over the past year! I found your course so engaging and informative, I always felt included and interested in the live classes. I also found the course notes + homework enjoyable to read and work on each week. I never really found the homework to feel like a chore, mainly since I actually found it to be something I looked forward to sit down and do each week! I’m extremely excited for English Literature next year with you, can’t wait to begin! Your English Literature preparation course was also so helpful and I’m so glad I asked about it”

“E is very happy with her results, She was 1 mark off a B for Literature! Thank you Kate, Caitlin and Lucy, it’s been a fantastic year with you all. Who knew that homeschooling GCSEs could be so straight forward!”

“L got a 7 in her history. Thanks so much for all your help this year.”

“E got a 9 in her English Language, she’s delighted! Thank you so much for all your support, E said you’re the best English teacher she’s ever had ”

“Thank you so much for your help and support! E got a 7 in English Language and is very pleased! She loved your class!”

“Huge thank you to Kate, Caitlin and Lucy for all the support and for being such amazing teachers We’re very happy we discovered HomeMade Education, M thoroughly enjoyed her two years with you! We couldn’t have asked for better support during these unusual and difficult years. M’s home ed journey is now over and she’s off to college next week, ready for an exciting new chapter in her life! Thank you again ”

“Z got a 5 and is incredibly pleased with her result. She says thank you for all the good feedback, as it really helped her. X”

“J got a 6 and is so relieved! English was his nemesis subject so thank you for helping him with it.”

“L got a 6 in English Language, very proud of her as her extreme anxiety made it very hard. She was aiming to get a 4 for her college course so very pleased with how well she did! ”

“A in English! Cannot thank you enough for all your support both academic and otherwise to C! Just goes to show that if we can work with education in school and out to forge a path for kids that need a different road they absolutely can achieve their full potential! ”

“I am going to Cambridge thank you for all you did to help me get an A in English x”

“As you know I got my results today and I got an 8 for English Language! I could not have achieved this without your help and support all along the way of my IGCSE English journey and I cannot thank you enough. I also wanted to let you know that from my exam result I have decided to continue studying English Language at A-Level starting this September. Thank you for all you’ve done! K”

“I just wanted to let you know that of the three subjects that D studied with you/Caitlin, he achieved a 9 in Geography, an 8 in Business, and a 9 in English Literature!! Caitlin might be interested to know that he also got an 8 in English Language. Overall, he achieved the best grades at the test centre in where he sat his iGCSEs 🙂 Thank you, Caitlin. He now enjoys English Literature because of you! Thank you xx”

“Thank you for teaching us, I think I can speak on behalf of the entire class when I say the lessons were fun and informative at the same time. Thank you for everything you’ve taught us, and thank you for being a great teacher.”

“everything that you have taught them and the feedback you have been giving them throughout this short course has been invaluable. They feel as though they are already prepared and are not overly worried which is brilliant position for them to be in thanks to you.”

“Homemade Education, the English tutor, Caitlin is passionate and so patient with my son. Absolutely Maths is also a wonderful provider. The support is fantastic”.

“I used to teach, so have a good idea of what is good quality teaching. They are great value for money and Caitlin is an excellent tutor. There is also a genuine sense that they do care about your child`s experiences with them.” 

“Thank you so much this whole course has been so much fun for me!”

“Thank you so much. I’ve learned so much”

 “We found the course inspiring. Caitlin had such a gentle way of guiding the group through the concepts, with plenty of time to develop ideas … We would highly recommend the course and will be signing up for more.”

“Thank you very much for the course: it has helped me so much, and I like how you structured it. Thanks for answering all my questions!”

“hi Caitlin,  i thought i would just let you know that I recently did an english language paper 2 section A as part of a mini assessment, and I used that technique you taught me when analysing texts and it worked great ! i improved up from my grade 7 to a 9 !  i would just like to say thank you very much”

“As a parent I’m so happy I found HME and know that you both run excellent courses and my young person 110% feels the same as me.”

“You are the best teachers that we have met in this country. My son first time said, that he liked the teachers!!! Thanks to you, Kate and Caitlin, he had faith and love for a real teacher!”

“Kate and Caitlyn you have been amazing, going above and beyond to help our youngsters. Thank you so much”

“Kate and Caitlin, Thank you so much for teaching me this year! I’ve loved every second of it, and am planning on continuing both English and Psychology for my A levels. Thank you so much for making all my GCSEs as easy as you can, I appreciate it so much”

“a big thank you to getting J’s feedback to him every week, he’s gaining in confidence & is really enjoying English.”

Caitlin also regularly has her poetry published in professional journals and publications, including this piece: https://www.sarahdavywrites.co.uk/caitlin-kendall

Ms Lucy Woodruff (our specialist Science partner) … home educator and tutor extraordinaire:

Hi, My name is Lucy, I home educate 3 of my daughters who are 13, 6 and 3, we love getting outdoors and exploring nature and learning about what we find. I have always had a fascination with science which I feel is the subject of exploration and discovery, about asking questions and investigating how things work and why they work. I take great pleasure in sharing my passion with others and I feel tutoring allows me to do that in a way that enables the students to be involved in the direction and structure of the sessions – I can offer direction for further learning on a subject a child expresses an interest in or can go a little off piste if a whole class sparks a curiosity around a certain concept. I have a degree in Biological Sciences with Genetics and have covered Chemistry to a high level. I love studying history with my kids as well so have made a few courses around some of the research we have done together around that as well. In my spare time if I am not out in nature I am also a massive fan of Lego and watching superhero films!

Lucy develops and tutors our range of Science courses …  KS4 Short Courses and IGCSE/GCSE Courses, in partnership with HomeMadeEducation.  She has rave reviews for her courses:

You know how much G adores Caitlin. Can I just tell you how much G is enjoying lessons with Lucy too? You couldn’t ask for two partners … Honestly, we are so happy with the quality of content and the way both Caitlin and Lucy facilitate this. Thank you Kate, for making this journey a stress free and enjoyable one.

Thank you so much for all your support, tutoring and encouragement in helping us achieve this grade As our first IGCSE we couldn’t have wished for a better result/outcome.

I just wanted to let you know i got a 7 in Biology! Im so, so pleased of this result and could not have achieved it without you and your amazing teaching!

Thank you so much for all the planning, resources and hard work that went into your lessons and homework. I enjoyed every lesson with you so much and will really miss having them. You are such an incredible teacher and I am so grateful i got the oppourtunity to study with you.

i just wanted to email to say i got a grade 8 in biology :DD and wanted to thank you because i couldn’t have done it without you. 🙂 You are a great teacher and i cant wait to start astronomy! See you in september.

I fully recommend Lucy’s classes. She puts such energy into preparing the classes for the right level and making sure that they are accessible to people online. My 13 yr old son was never that interested in science but he loves his weekly zoom science lessons. It’s so great to have an interactive class that he can fully engage with during lockdown. in his words: ‘I really enjoy it, Lucy makes the lessons so much more interesting than any other online lessons as she tries to include everyone. Its very different from other online lessons where its often just sitting there and listening

Thank you so so much for all the lessons and extra sessions you have done. You’ve been my favourite teacher to have lessons with and i have found all the resources and teaching, as well as advice on exam techniques and keeping calm with breathing and body check ins so helpful!
I really appreciate all the help and work you have put in… its made me really enjoy learning biology. I am very sad to have ended the lessons with you.
Thank you for being an amazing teacher!

My son has had a great time learning biology with Lucy this term. I can get definitely see an improvement in his knowledge and he’s always happy after lessons with her!

From my 11 year old: I love Lucy’s tutoring group. It’s so interesting and fun, I feel I am learning a lot from it. I love that Lucy has many ways in which to explain something, so if you don’t get it she explains it differently until you do get it or she shows you a video. The experiments are fun and I really like that you have a choice on what you want to do, if you don’t want to do an experiment then you don’t have to and I like that. Also the homework isn’t bad, there is a mix and it’s not tricky. Sometimes you might be asked to write a small report on a cell or just fill in a diagram of a microscope. I highly recommend Lucy’s tutor group.

My daughter really enjoys Lucy’s sessions and finds them really interesting and fun. She likes that ‘homework’ is optional and that she can be as creative as she wants i.e. decorated animal and plant cell cookies!