A Past Student Becomes a Blue Tutor

By Blue Tutors

21st April 2026 9:59

Our recruitment standards are extremely high, so when someone we previously tutored becomes one of our tutors it shows that what we do really works.

Francesca Formica recently joined our ranks and during her interview she mentioned that she was drawn to tutor with us because of her experience as one of our students, so we asked to sit down with her and listen to Fran’s story.

What do you remember about being tutored?

I moved to London from Italy when I was 7 and for the first two years I really really struggled, mainly because of the language barrier. I had attended an International school in Italy but the English required wasn’t nearly as much as in the UK and the teachers called my parents in. Initially they thought I might be dyslexic and tested me, and while I wasn’t diagnosed then (although was later), it was agreed that a teacher from the school would tutor me. To be honest, it wasn’t very good so from the age of 9-10 my parents took things into their own hands.

My parents found Blue Tutors, liked the Oxbridge connection and I was tutored consistently until GCSEs. We changed tutors every couple of years as my needs changed. I think I was struggling because of my confidence and the changes in my life, and the teachers just weren’t working well for me at school. I had tutors for the 11+, got into the Francis Holland School, and then continued with tuition to GCSE because my parents wanted to guarantee those good grades.

What didn’t work with the teacher from school who tutored you?

I was 8. It felt like the teacher didn’t want to be there and was only doing it because she had to help. She got annoyed when I was distracted, but of course I was going to be distracted sometimes and look around the room, I was 8! She knocked my confidence down a lot and just said “this is what you need to do”. If anything this made me worse at school, and I don’t think this is the right way to go about tutoring for a child who has just moved and is low on confidence. I remember she would get really frustrated when I did stuff wrong and I’d be scared to try. I just remember her style being: “do this, do that”. My parents noticed the issue and decided to stop lessons with her.

Did you notice a big change once you had a tutor from Blue Tutors?

I started with Blue Tutors when I was 9 or 10. I remember them focussing more on my confidence and focussing on improving my abilities rather than just telling me what to do, my grades immediately improved so much. They seemed to care a lot more about it and not just because it was their job, they seemed to want to help.

Do you remember anything specifically about the tutors you had?

The one thing I remember is that the tutors felt more like friendships, and that’s something I try to do now. Sometimes I’d get back from school, especially when I was a bit older, and I would just talk with the tutor about my day and it was so nice. Obviously we’d do the lesson, but they would let me talk and I would describe it as mentoring as well as tutoring. I could talk with the tutors about what I was struggling with and they helped me to make decisions, for example, which GCSEs to choose. Those tutors are the ones I remember. It wasn’t just academic stuff, I would ask them about going to university and how they were finding things. One of the reasons I went into engineering is because I had a tutor who studied engineering at university and he built my confidence and told me that I’d be great if that’s what I wanted to do.

Did you notice anything about the way our tutors taught? Did you think about the way they taught?

Haha! Not really at the time, but almost as soon as I stopped being tutored I began tutoring other students when volunteering at the local library. I remember the main thing was that the tutors from Blue Tutors wouldn’t just tell me how to do things, they would let me get to the answer myself. For example they would ask “how do you think it works”, or “based on what you learnt at school, what would happen if…..”. They would help but they would really push me to try to work things out myself. Sometimes I found lessons difficult but they would always make sure that I understood the ideas, especially with physics where that’s so important.

The tutors were just really good at making sure I had understood, and asking follow up questions. They wouldn’t lecture the theory, we would do practice questions and learn from them. Sometimes we would start with a really hard question and use that to identify what I didn’t understand so we would then do an easier question to make sure I understood the basics really well. Obviously the subject dictated exactly how the lesson was taught, but every tutor’s style had an element of “get there yourself”.

What were the differences between science tuition and English tuition?

The English tuition felt more like a conversation, and I definitely struggled a lot more with English than sciences. Whereas science was much more about answering questions. It didn’t feel that different, that’s just what I noticed. I think that because there’s no right or wrong in English it allowed longer answers rather than the step by step process in science.

Were you aware that the tutors were from us?

Honestly I didn’t care. I was around year 10 before I was really aware of it, when I remember hearing my mum talking to another mum about Blue Tutors and explaining that they’re all Oxbridge graduates and that you’ll be in good hands. I think that’s when it first occurred to me. I remember also with my younger sister, when we wanted a tutor for her my mum said “ok, I’ll call Blue Tutors.” The Oxbridge thing was a big deal for my parents because, coming from Italy, they were aware of Oxford and Cambridge in a way they weren’t of other unis.

The tutors being from Oxbridge was very important for my parents, I definitely think it matters so much that they are nice friendly people as well. As I mentioned, my parents and I saw them more as mentors, and the sort of person that I could become. It’s so nice for me to feel that now when I tutor students; when I tutored a girl to get into Francis Holland, her mum said that she really hopes that her daughter grows up to be similar to me and have the confidence I have.

Do you tell the students you tutor that you received tuition yourself?

Sometimes. I haven’t a lot, but I think it’s a great confidence boost for the student to know that I was in their position once.

You had more English tuition at first and then more maths and science. Why was this?

At first I really struggled with English because I’d arrived from Italy. As time went on my parents saw that I had potential in maths and sciences and so that became more important as I got closer to GCSEs.

Why did you have less tuition at A Level?

I was doing well and realised that, to an extent, I had to figure things out myself. I had some help with my UCAS personal statement. Then I had some tuition close to my final exams which really helped to relax me because I was quite stressed about them and just wanted to make sure I had the support I needed. I think that idea of a mentor continued until then and throughout my A Levels, because one of my past tutors was tutoring my younger brother and sometimes would stay to have lunch with us, I still had the opportunity to speak with the tutor about my studies.

So you started tutoring from age 16?

Yes, I was in year 12 and went to my local library, and they asked if I would be available on Mondays to help as a tutor. I was like “yes, of course!” and it was just so satisfying to help and for the parents to be so grateful for what I was doing. Following that, one of the parents asked me to tutor her daughters privately for a couple of years.

How much did it help that you had been tutored yourself?

So much! As I began tutoring I would think back to when I was tutored, and when I prep my lessons I think about what I did with my own tutors. It definitely influenced all of my tutoring techniques.

What did you learn when you started tutoring that you didn’t know before?

Adapting to the individual students. The sisters I was tutoring had very different personalities, one being low on confidence and wanting to improve, the other not really bothered about learning, and I needed different approaches. I started by thinking that I had a good lesson structure and then realised that I had to adapt it depending on each student’s needs; I needed to get to know each student. It didn’t occur to me before, I just assumed my tutors did the same thing with everyone, and lessons were repeated, like at school. Of course you can’t do that with tutoring but I only realised that when I started tutoring myself.

When I read Tutoring Standards’ pedagogy, it really resonated with me because I realised what my past tutors had been trying to do. I felt that I had been working towards those ideas through trial and error, but wish I had read them before I started tutoring.

Why did you choose to study engineering?

I really struggled with maths and science when I was young, and set myself the target of getting to the top set for them once I was in secondary school. The tutors really built my confidence and made the subjects really enjoyable for me and realised that I was actually really interested in those subjects and became a massive nerd, watching space documentaries in my free time. My dyslexia had put me off going into English and I wasn’t certain what to do long term. I thought I wanted to do maths, but it was a tutor who really convinced me to take physics as an A Level. I loved maths and physics but wanted to do something practical and tangible so Engineering seemed like a good option. Plus, I went to an all girls’ school and they really encouraged us to go into stem subjects if we showed an aptitude for them.

Were you always interested in science or was it only once you became good at it?

I was always interested. I remember wanting to be an astronaut for NASA when I was in Year 8. In primary school I didn’t really see women in science, but that changed and one of my female tutors was doing a PhD in physics which helped me to imagine myself in a similar role. Also, male tutors would dispel the glass ceiling too and tell me that I could go into those subjects if I wanted to. Now I’m an engineer, I realise that some men are aware of the situation and really want to change the idea that it’s a man’s career.