A CULTURE OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
A CULTURE OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
TEACHERS AT HEART
Our FAST People
Each of our tutors have a demonstrated background of academic excellence, with distinctions, scholarships, advanced degrees, awards and prizes, or distinguished teaching service. More importantly, tutors share our guiding principles, including the passion for teaching and making a difference in our learners’ lives.
THE SHORT OF IT
Tanya and Charl met 20-odd years ago as graduate students at Yale University in the USA. Two PhDs, two kids, two dogs and two cats later, we returned to South Africa in 2006 to raise our family here.
Having taught at different institutions abroad and locally, and as older parents warned by friends that kids grow up too quickly, we oriented our working life around family and devoted our attention to our kids’ school communities and their needs. Charl still prides himself on the time when the water polo “soccer moms” invited him to the end-of-year dinner!
Situated on the “golden mile of education” in Rondebosch, Cape Town, close to several of the country’s top schools, we operate The Chapel Lane Academy, a highly bespoke online Cambridge International high school alternative. Our daughter followed this track. Our son is the quintessential Rondebosch boy.
As parents and actively engaged members of our school communities, we understand what families are dealing with. Our unique approach to tutoring with Flip A Switch Tutoring (FAST) was designed and continues to be shaped with the needs of both parents and learners in mind.
HOW FAST STARTED
We are dog people. Our Golden Retrievers (and the 11 puppies they had) are our joy, our therapy and the reason for daily park walks after early morning drop-off at school.
We have been fortunate with our children excelling at school, and we found that during our dog walks, parents with kids struggling academically would regularly approach us for advice. We jumped in, as we strongly believe that it takes a village to raise kids, and came to understand how deep the need for extra help ran. Soon, we were spending as much time tutoring as on our regular day jobs! It needed more structure, and Flip A Switch Tutoring (FAST) was officially born.
The Covid-19 lockdown had a serious effect on learners, but it inspired us to research and develop the gold standard in innovative online tutoring.
Once learners returned to school, their first test results brought the true impact of lockdown into stark relief, so we expanded our team to help parents and learners deal with this fallout. And, we’ve seen fantastic results. Nothing pleases us more than hearing of a learner who improved by 40% from one test series to another.
OUR TUTOR CENTRE
As Covid eased, more and more parents approached us for in-person tutoring. Furthermore, parents of boarders in the area also told us their children were finding it difficult to work online during fixed study hours. Hence the decision to launch an in-person facility upstairs from the iconic Michaels restaurant at 88 Campground Road.
Situated within walking distance from several schools in the area, and with the convenience of a downstairs restaurant for parents collecting their children, this site is an ideal location for our Tutor Centre.
The Tutor Centre concentrates on Math, Physical Sciences and EMS/Accounting. Private sessions are however available for all other subjects and provide parents with a practical after-school alternative.
It is our ambition to facilitate weekend and holiday outreach programmes for PDI learners from outlying areas, and several corporate sponsors have shown interest in supporting this initiative.
With a sizeable team of trained tutors available both online and at the Tutor Centre, we confidently provide learners in the area with all the tutoring support they may need.
Highly recommended by caring parents
