Our 1 Week Intensive Holiday Courses are suitable for children aged 9+. We also welcome families e.g. parents and children learning together.

They take place from 9am – 11am, Monday to Friday. Courses take place in the school holidays, so Easter, Summer (July and August), October half term and Xmas. As well as on Zoom we also run face to face lessons at our typing centres in Harrow and Sutton. Check on the website for more details.

If your child is dyslexic or has another SpLD, we would recommend that you give us a call first so we can discuss their needs in more detail and work out whether an intensive course with group lessons is going to be the most suitable option them. We may recommend some face to face lessons on Zoom with a tutor in advance of the course starting so that they can learn the basics. Just give us a call to discuss.

On the first day we all meet on Zoom (we have up to 15 students in total), and after a brief intro, we move into our smaller breakout rooms with one tutor to 3 students. Each student goes at their own pace working through learning all of the keys on the keyboard. The tutor is on hand to guide the students through the course, demonstrate the finger positioning as well as offer support and advice throughout the week.

At the end of each day our tutors will send you a daily voice note on WhatsApp letting you know how your child got on and what they need to do for practice.

If your child is absent on one of the days, we will set them some additional practice to do at home. Unfortunately, this missed lesson cannot be made up on Zoom with their tutor.

At the end of the course, we will send you a written report letting you know your child’s average accuracy and speed and where they got up to as well as some details of ‘next steps’. We will also attach a copy of their certificate and details of our ‘carry on typing’ courses. Access to the programme will last for a few months, giving your child plenty of time to continue with their practice.

All of our touch typing tutors are lovely! They are ‘real’ human beings – not bots! Our tutors are all ages and nationalities and come from different backgrounds and are all DBS Enhanced checked. All of expert tutors can touch type proficiently – some over 100wpm! Some of our tutors are teachers, some work in business and others are university students that learnt how to touch type with us many years previously. The one thing we all have in common is that we are passionate about teaching children this wonderful life skill. We really care about what we do and go out of our way to ensure your child gets the very best out of the course.

Our tutors are there to offer support and encouragement to your child throughout the week. They will show them how to make the keystrokes using their on screen cameras so that your child can copy and follow along. They will be checking their accuracy and giving tips on how to remember the keystrokes. They will ensure that the children in their group are enjoying the lessons, modifying and adapting their lessons where necessary. They will also facilitate fun games during the breaks.

Your child’s tutor will keep a close eye on their progress and with our years of experience, we can tell if a child is finding it too difficult, or they are getting frustrated. Occasionally we may change the programme and lesson plan we are using to make it a little easier for your child.

For the first few days of the intensive course, the emphasis is all about accuracy – maintaining an accuracy of 95% or more. Towards the end of the week, if your child is feeling confident, we will start working on some speed exercises. Final speed will depend on a number of factors, the main ones being natural ability, age and also how much practice your child does outside of the lessons. Speed will increase naturally the they practice and so the speed they finish on at the end of the week is just the beginning. Most students will need to carry on practicing after the course has finished to help increase their speed further, although some students do achieve amazing speeds in just one week. Speed can be enhanced further by signing up with one of our popular follow on courses.

Our aim is that your child finishes the course with a great accuracy and enjoys their week with us. Most students will have learnt the home row keys and the top row keys by the end of the week with many students learning the bottom row keys as well. Our older students usually finish learning all of the letters including shift and punctuation. How far they get will depend on their age and natural ability and any extra practice they may have done in the week. They can carry on using the programme after the course to increase their typing confidence and speed so that they can use their wonderful new skill to help them get through their work faster at school and also use this skill for their future careers. We also offer follow on courses for students that wish to carry on learning with us.

Your child will need to have a laptop or computer with a keyboard with an internet connection. They will need to have Zoom installed. We will give you details of how to install the programme. We also ask you to buy some Velcro stickers from Amazon and also to make a cover from a cardboard box so that they are not peeking at their fingers. All of this is detailed in your starter pack which will be sent to you in advance of the course starting.

We always recommend that parents take an interest in what their child is learning because encouragement from a parent always helps. We highly recommend that you are there for the first session to help with any technical issues and just to help check for finger positioning. Once they are confident and they know what they are doing, you probably don’t need to be present for the remainder of the lessons. We will ask your child to call you if there are any problems.

We encourage all of our students to carry on touch typing with us. We know from experience that once the course has finished, students may forget to carry on practicing. For students that have finished the course but would like to increase their speed further, we recommend our ‘Carry on Course’. This is a 3-month lesson plan, focusing on speed work, dictation, symbols, numbers, with tutor feedback once a month. For students that haven’t quite finished learning all of the keys, we recommend our 8 week ‘Follow on Course,’ which includes a two week refresher lesson plan together with a tutor supported 6 week flexi-time home course, carrying on learning the keys where they left off. These courses cost £99.00.