Paul francis kelly

First session with Paul and my 15 yr old son. My son enjoyed the session. I could hear the interactions which which were all positive and Paul came well prepared, on time , courteous. Looking forward to continuing the tutoring. More...

We came across Paul on Bark.com and were initially drawn to his profile, which highlighted his 20 years of experience in the classroom and 18 years as a tutor. He mentioned tutoring children from years 5 to 9 and recently completing GCSE tutoring with Year 11 students. After an hour-long conversation, we felt confident that Paul could support our child, who faces challenges with ADHD, auditory processing issues, and memory retention. To reiterate, Paul was fully comfortable taking this on and had no concerns. We left the decision in his hands and respected it, all while continuing conversations with other tutors—there was no pressure, other than being completely transparent with Paul.

Our child is generally a decent and eager learner, always looking forward to tutoring sessions. In fact, every Saturday at 4 pm, our child eagerly awaits “tutor time.” We genuinely believed Paul would provide the support and understanding we were seeking, especially with his wealth of experience.

However, after working with Paul for a little over 3 months, we were shocked and deeply disappointed by his sudden and unprofessional decision to stop tutoring. His reason for leaving? Our child fidgeted with a rubber and went to the sellotape drawer. Despite the challenges our child faces, Paul chose not to address this behavior constructively. Instead, he abruptly walked away, without offering any explanation or solution, and voiced that he did not have the patience to continue.

What’s even more troubling is the impact Paul’s departure had on our child. After he left, our child was in tears, questioning if they had done something wrong and doubting their abilities. Our child genuinely liked Paul and had invested in the tutoring relationship. No child should ever feel that way after a tutoring session, and we were left to pick up the emotional pieces.

A professional tutor would have sat down with us, explained the situation, and worked with us to come up with a plan of action. Instead, Paul simply stated, “I don’t want to be here,” and left without any consultation. This was incredibly damaging and hard to understand, especially from someone with over 20 years of experience.

What makes this even more frustrating is that from day one, we made it clear that our child has learning challenges. Paul himself commented on the progress our child had made, which we could see too, along with the school. However, on the day of his departure, Paul labeled our child as “lazy” and “couldn’t be bothered,” despite fully knowing the challenges our child faces. Paul undid three months of progress in minutes, and we’re left wondering how someone with his level of experience could act in such a harmful and unprofessional manner.

We are now left feeling deeply concerned. The progress our child had made—whether learning to tell the time, improving in maths, or gaining confidence—was all undone by Paul’s abrupt departure.

This review is based purely on our experience, and we encourage potential parents to read all reviews before making an informed decision. We’re not bitter, just genuinely surprised by how someone with over 20 years of experience could handle such a situation in such an unprofessional manner. More...

Paul has helped  our oldest daughter prepare  for her 11+ test. He has been really good to her. She liked his teaching  style and now looking  forward to doing  her test with confidence.
We will be looking  forward  to using his services again next year for our oldest son.
Thank you paul for being  courteous and generously  giving our child extra  time when she needed. More...

I found him very approachable, friendly and easy to chat to. Leo was very comfortable too and looks forward to future sessions with Paul.

I highly recommend Paul. Our son has recently passed the 11+ exams for Solihull school, Princethorpe college and King henry's.
Paul tutors both our boys, he is very reliable, has a great style of teaching which the boys have really engaged with and has built a great teaching rapport with both boys. More...