We’ve been working with Chenali since the first lockdown, when my daughter was 9. She’d always been reluctant about maths and was increasingly saying it was her least favourite subject – she was telling herself she just couldn’t do it. I had felt the same about maths when I was growing up so I wanted to intervene. We’ve used Chenali virtually and more recently face-to-face and the regular weekly sessions have been the best investment. On the surface of it, Chenali has been working on the maths Aisha learns at school, showing her different ways to approach topics and helping her feel more comfortable with not immediately understanding how to solve something. More than this though, I think the lessons with Chenali are tackling something deep-rooted; they are helping grow my daughter’s resilience in many aspects of her life. For her end of year report, Aisha had to add her own comments to how she’d done this year. They included: ‘Another achievement is I have actually learned to enjoy maths’. I couldn’t be more delighted! Thank you Chenali.

My son has specific learning needs, lacks self-esteem and takes time to build relationships with people. Chenali has that rare talent of being able to connect with teenagers, while making learning fun and rewarding. She is now truly one of “his people” – building his capabilities so that he went into his GCSE Biology with confidence. I can’t say thank you enough for all that you did for him (and me!)

Before I worked with Chenali, I didn’t feel comfortable with biology. She really helped me build my confidence with GCSE Biology by breaking things down and giving me different ways to learn. She is very easy to talk to.

Chenali’s positive and personalised approach has made a massive difference to our daughter’s learning. Emilia’s confidence has improved dramatically – Chenali has shifted her mindset so she now approaches maths with a can do attitude, and is able to draw on strategies that Chenali has developed with her, that stick and really work for her. Thank you Chenali!

Chenali spent time analysing my child’s responses in a recent Maths exam to understand the discrepancy between her normal level of achievement and the lower level in timed conditions. She concluded that arithmetic was not the problem – a whole summer spent dividing, multiplying etc wasn’t going to help. Instead, there were two difficulties: identifying the question type and remembering the steps of the method required. She demonstrated the strategies she suggested to improve my child’s skills in this area, in an approachable, clear way. She also made personalised recommendations regarding the most helpful ways to revise. I’m feeling more capable of supporting her now, and more confident in my conversations with the school about how best to help her through her GCSE.