Our customer testimonials

 

All testimonials here are provided by our customers, students and clients.

We encourage them to give an honest and truthful review of the services that we provide.

Working with Niven face-to-face or online has been a revelation.

Anonymous

Personal

Fantastic teacher. My daughter has learning difficulties with anxiety and loves every lesson. Thank you.

Not Given

Personalised Learning Support

Mr Whatley has been extremely friendly and helpful. He is talented with incredible teaching skills and very flexible. He has tailored the lessons to meet my son’s specific needs and this has increased his confidence and love for English.

I am completely satisfied with his service, and will highly recommend him.

Sandra M.

English - Year 7

Niven is a wonderful teacher! I needed someone to take my daughter through the 13+ English as she was going to sit for a Scholarship Exam at an independent school. Niven knew exactly what to teach her and get her ready for her exam. She passed and has been awarded the scholarship.

I believe in knowing a student’s strengths and helping them in their weak areas in order to bring out the best in them so was hoping to find a teacher like Niven and I was so glad I found him. Try Niven and you’d never regret it.

Nana

English - 13+

I find it very useful and great for revision

Terence

English - GCSE

I was looking for a tutor for my son who had got it into his head that he was no good at English language and had no affinity with Shakespeare what’s so ever and we were only 4 months away from GCSE,s . His predicted grades were 3/4 in both English language and literature and there was a risk he would not meet the entrance requirements for the 6th form college  he was applying for.

I had thought about a tutor but was not sure that my son would listen, respond and worried that it would be a complete waste of money . I contacted Niven who very quickly got the measure of James, how he learnt, how to motivate him. He taught him how to present information, structure an essay , how to pull out the best quotes and  ultimately  teaching him how to  pass an exam. I don’t think he will ever love Macbeth but he did learn how to answer any question that could come up.

Even after the first lesson I can remember hearing James say ” I get it now ” .

Niven was flexible with times and dates and would often stay longer than an hour to finish off a subject. The end result was a 6 ( B) in English literature 3 grades higher than predicted and 5 (c+) in English language 2 grades higher than predicted and  James did get into the school that he had applied for . I would absolutely recommend Niven as a tutor  we are extremely grateful that he gave James the confidence back around English language and literature.
We also recognised that a 1 to 1 environment with no distractions from friends or ex box  was needed for the final push before his GCSE,s

Julie Kilburn

English Language and Litrature - GCSE

I can’t recommend Nivan highly enough. He is reliable & punctual. He is an excellent tutor, extremely patient & engaging with our 5 year old. He uses lot of different learning resources which keeps her interest.

Carrie Paterson

French - private tutor for 5 year old

Learning with Niven is amazing, he has taken the time to really learn and understand both my wife and myself.  I thought that Niven would have his work cut out for him, as we are both quailifed teachers, but his methods and ability to understand our individual learning styles has been fantastic.  We have even learnt some teaching styles from him!

We decided to learn Spanish as we are looking at moving to Mexico later in our lives, Niven is taking us from the complete beginning through to “hopefully”, fluent Spanish.  We know we will get there with his teaching.

Niven is kind and patient, going at a pace he knows we can handle, and his love and excitement for teaching others really shines when something clicks with us and you watch his face light up, not only does it make us feel like we have achieved, it also brings us excitement to learn more.

We cannot recommend Niven highly enough!    ¡Él es increíble!

Dean and Teresa Sygrove

Spanish

I wanted my son to learn Spanish at school but he was unable to do this due to his timetable so Mr Whatley was referred to me.  I can say that my son really enjoys his Spanish lessons and always comes out with a smile after each lesson, I also get a verbal progress report on how my son is doing and even though he started 6 weeks late he is already up to the same level as his peers.  Mr Whatley is very patient and makes the lesson fun (my son’s words).

I would recommend Mr Whatley to any parent or individual wanting Spanish lessons.

Susan Brown

Spanish Lesson

Having worked with Niven Whatley as both a colleague and client, I would happily recommend him to any school who was looking for additional support in the tuition of MFL learners.  He is passionate about languages, and this comes through in all that he does.  His resources are creative and helpful, and his knowledge of a range of languages is impressive.

As my tutor, Mr Whatley was patient, supportive and inspiring.  He provided me with the space to succeed, struggle and then to improve.  Whether working with adults or young people, he makes you want to learn, and he makes the learning enjoyable.  My fluency in Spanish is largely down to his input.

John Kane

Adult Spanish Classes

Niven is flexible in his teaching and highly capable, everything a personal tutor should be. The quality of his teaching can be attributed to his wide range of knowledge in multiple subjects and friendly, engaging style.

Would recommend him to any learner in an instant.

Alex Oliver

A Level French

Niven is an extremely wonderful English teacher.  My 16 year old son  has a great deal of respect for him and thus wants to listen and has learnt a great deal on how to get high grades in English Language and Literature GCSE. 

We are so pleased Niven was recommended to us.

Anne Robson

English GCSE

Niven came to teach French and Spanish lessons at the Swansgate Centre, for our inaugral term of Learn Something New sessions that we offered to customers in our Community Lounge.

Each sesson lasted an hour and we had upto 12 people per session with a total of 8 sessions. Every session was completely mixed ability which was not an easy task to tutor and Niven remained very calm and patient at all times. He was able to help the complete novice but we also had a couple of nearly fluent learners and he was equally able to assist them.

Niven’s teaching style was first class and very engaging.

I would not hesitate to recommend Niven, he was a great teacher and we had a number of testimonials from customers stating how impressed they were with his lessons and how much they had learnt, in a short time.

As the organiser I found him very easy to work with, nothing was too much trouble and he often stayed longer than the alloted hour if someone needed extra help.

I am now looking to improve my Spanish with him as well!

Joanna

Swansgate Centre