Built on close attention, classical foundations, and agile thinking. One practitioner. Taught personally, page by page.
Twenty minutes, free of charge — and the trial lesson that follows is free too.
Taught by
Callum Hay
My students have been admitted to Victorian Select Entry schools, including Melbourne High School and Suzanne Cory. I’m a writer and educator who has tutored for six years, across thousands of hours of one-to-one English tuition. A graduate of Elizabeth Blackburn Sciences, I hold a Bachelor of Arts (Film, Literature) from Monash University, and my studies at the University of Melbourne (Master of Public Policy and Management, exp. 2026) consider what high-stakes testing costs a young writer’s development.
I teach every lesson personally. The student’s writing meets one reader, who learns how they move through a problem, what kinds of thinking they trust, and which pathways will carry them furthest.
One practitioner.Each engagement opens with a careful assessment of student standing, ability and the shape of their thinking. From here, I propose a trajectory that meets students where they are, and equips them with the bearings to navigate it themselves.
Every session is documented and kept inside the portal, so the trajectory remains legible and the work of the year holds together.
Most feedback stops at the correct answer. A student learns what to write without learning why it works, and that gap doesn't stay small — it compounds, quietly, until it shows up as a mark that doesn't move. Writing is taught at the level of habit, judgement, and voice. Teach those, and the marks follow.
A twenty-minute conversation. You tell me what your child is working on and where you would like it to go. I tell you how I teach, and we work out together whether it's a fit. Any past reports and assessments feed the diagnostic I prepare before we begin.
Sixty minutes with the student, at no cost. The diagnostic frames the hour, locating present strengths and the work ahead within the curriculum.
A full lesson report follows. You confirm the slot and the length — a weekly direct debit handles the rest. Pause, adjust, or stop whenever you choose.
Both the call and the trial lesson are free of charge. Weekly lessons begin only if you choose to continue.
A single considered view of the practice — every lesson held, every channel open, the whole trajectory legible. Switch between the student’s and the parent’s view.
Every session carries a curated record: full transcript, written summary with tasks completed, homework set, and the next steps. Each lesson is held in full.
Structured forms where parents request meetings, where I receive feedback and return it, and where students submit work and receive debriefs.
Marks across lessons, in dialogue with both school teachers and my own annotations. The record holds as a working diagnostic, charting progress and shaping the work that follows.
Ideas arrive faster than they land on the page. We're building the habit of getting a full draft down before editing, so the thinking survives to the reader.
This month Vivian focused on getting drafts down without over-editing mid-sentence, and on noticing how word choice carries attitude. Persuasive analysis is clicking — the language of tone is now familiar. Reading stamina on longer texts is the next thing we're building.
Last sessionSlowed down on a short opinion piece to notice how Vivian can use word choice to signal attitude, not just content.
Monday 7 July · in 3 days
Take one persuasive article apart: label three techniques and write a sentence on the intended effect of each, so analysis leads with why before what.
Upload your work, or paste a link to your Google Doc so it’s ready for your tutor before the session.
Confident identification of technique and tone. Next step is connecting each technique to the writer's intended effect on the reader rather than describing it.
Vivid imagery and a strong voice. Watch sentence length — a few run long and lose their punch. Read it aloud to hear where to cut.
Noticed how word choice signals attitude, not just content.
Topic-sentence control and the move from claim to evidence.
Ten-minute free-writes to beat mid-sentence editing.
Real student writing, constantly turning over.
Billed weekly by direct debit. Pause, adjust, or stop at any time. You only pay once the work is underway and you have chosen to go on.
Twenty minutes to set expectations and shape the trial lesson that follows — both free of charge.
Each term carries a limited number of writers, chosen as much as counted. I teach every lesson myself, so the list is short by design.
I am the only tutor. Your child is taught, every single week, by the same person — never handed to a rotating cast of casual tutors, and never worked through a franchised script. One reader holds the whole year, learns how your child thinks, and teaches to a standard I can show you on the page.
Then we'll say so. The discovery call and the free trial lesson exist to find that out honestly, before either of us commits to more. If it isn't right, no one is worse off for having looked.
Online, over Google Meet. That means families anywhere in Australia can enrol — lesson times are simply arranged around your state's clock.
The practice that teaches writing shows its own. Fiction, criticism and essays.
