I’m Kate Coldrick, a literacy tutor based near Exeter, offering personalised English tuition for primary and secondary students, adult learners, and those preparing for GCSE or Functional Skills qualifications. I specialise in supporting neurodivergent learners – including autistic students, those with ADHD, dyslexia or processing differences – through clear explanations, structured learning sequences, and highly tailored lessons.

Exeter is at the heart of my teaching. Many of my students live, study or work in the city, and I use its landscapes, buildings and stories as inspiration for writing tasks and reading comprehension. This “place-based learning” makes English more meaningful, more memorable, and more connected to everyday life.

Place-Based Learning in Exeter

Exeter is a rich environment for literacy. From the Cathedral Green to the Quay, the medieval passages to the red-brick terraces, the city offers endless sensory and narrative detail – ideal for developing descriptive and creative writing.

In my lessons, we often work with:

– images of Exeter’s streets, river, architecture and skyline
– short factual texts linked to local places
– prompts based on real sights, textures and sounds
– writing tasks shaped around journeys through the city

This approach helps learners anchor abstract writing skills in something concrete, familiar and evocative – particularly helpful for autistic and ADHD learners who thrive with structure and specific detail.

Exeter scenes used in my lessons – from the Cathedral to the Quay – supporting place-based learning and creative writing.

GCSE English Language – Creative Writing with a Sense of Place

For GCSE English Language, particularly Paper 1 (Explorations in Creative Reading and Writing), students need to:

– describe a scene with precise sensory detail
– create atmosphere
– choose vocabulary intentionally
– structure a narrative or description effectively

Exeter offers the perfect starting point. We might use a photograph of the Cathedral at dusk, a quiet corner of the quay, or the bustle of Sidwell Street to explore:

– how to zoom in on detail
– how setting influences mood
– how to structure paragraphs to guide the reader
– how weather, light and movement shape atmosphere

Using familiar places reduces cognitive load and increases confidence, helping students focus on craft rather than inventing settings from scratch.

Functional Skills English Level 2 – Using Real Places to Build Real-World Writing Skills

Many of my Functional Skills learners live or work in Exeter, so we use the city to explore audience, purpose and clarity.

I’ve created a complete Functional Skills English Level 2 Writing Pack (Audience and Purpose) that uses Exeter as an example throughout:

👉 TES Resource: English Functional Skills Level 2 – Audience and Purpose Writing Pack

The pack includes:

– clear explanations of audience and purpose
– matching tasks to identify text types
– leaflet-writing tasks for different audiences
– images of Exeter to inspire ideas, with guidance on selecting useful details
– a learner checklist mapped to Level 2 criteria
– clean, uncluttered formatting for neurodivergent learners

I frequently use this pack in 1:1 lessons and adapt the images or tasks to each student’s context – whether they’re writing for work, study or everyday life.

Tutoring for Neurodivergent Learners in Exeter

My approach is especially suitable for autistic students and those with ADHD, dyslexia or processing differences. Lessons are structured, predictable and designed to reduce cognitive load:

– step-by-step explanations
– clear visual scaffolds
– uncluttered resources
– explicit modelling
– relational, person-centred teaching
– flexibility in pace and processing time

Place-based learning is naturally supportive for neurodivergent learners because it grounds ideas in something familiar, specific and sensory – a foundation for strong writing.

About My Exeter Photography

Alongside my tutoring work, I also run Elswyth – my personal photography journal that focuses on Exeter and the wider Devon landscape. Elswyth is part of my wider creative practice as Kate Coldrick – a way of documenting local places that often become prompts and resources in my English lessons.

My Exeter gallery on Elswyth includes recent series such as:

• St Martin in Exeter – sanctuary and craftsmanship
Photographs of St Martin’s Church on Cathedral Green, capturing texture, light and quiet detail. This series reflects the style I bring to both my photography and my writing teaching – attentive, structured and rooted in place.
View the photographs on Elswyth.

• Exeter Cathedral Grotesques – endurance and expression
Close studies of the carved faces on the Cathedral’s west front. I use these images to help students describe mood, atmosphere and subtle details in creative writing tasks.
See the full post on Elswyth.

• Going the Distance – a milestone near Exeter
A photograph exploring time, travel and shifting meaning across generations. This kind of image often serves as a writing stimulus in my GCSE and Functional Skills lessons.
Read the post on Elswyth.

Elswyth is an important part of my online presence as Kate Coldrick, connecting my photography, writing and tutoring. The images I create there shape the place-based learning approach I use with students, especially those who benefit from visual, sensory or structured prompts.

Work With Me – English Tutor Exeter

I offer:

– GCSE English Language support
– Functional Skills English (Entry Levels to Level 2)
– Writing confidence and structure coaching
– Support for neurodivergent learners
– 1:1 tuition online or in person near Exeter

If you’re looking for an English tutor in Exeter who combines academic expertise with a calm, structured, and student-centred approach, I would be very happy to help.

Find out more or make an enquiry:

Contact form: click here to contact Kate Coldrick

Email: katecoldrick@gmail.com

Phone: 01395 232472

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Learn more about Kate Coldrick, my background, and my work in inclusive education.