Clever Naomi Norman and Stephanie Wilde have come to the rescue of panicking GCSE and A-level students.

The two qualified teachers have founded Classy Tutors, a tutorial, non-profit-making agency set up to help pupils from state schools revise subjects before exams.

The set-up will also help pay the tutors, who have left teaching jobs to go back to studying themselves.

The friends came up with the idea because they are both doing a PhD in educational studies at Oxford University and noticed many of the teachers had gone back to studying.

"In our department, a whole wealth of teachers had returned to their books. They're qualified teachers but have come out of teaching to study.

"Because they were studying again they needed extra money and their skills were being wasted," said Naomi, who lives in Bridge Street, on Osney Island in Oxford.

So Naomi, 26, and Stephanie, 27, decided to set up the agency using these teachers to help pupils.

"We thought it was crazy and there seemed a gap in the market for this. We are firm believers in equal opportunities and in education, so we couldn't afford to run it as a charity but wanted to make it as cheap as possible and pay the tutors," said Naomi.

The pair called it Classy Tutors and started running it six months ago. Since then they have been inundated with desperate cries of help from students who desperately need extra tuition to give them the confidence they need to face their exams. Classy Tutors has also entered into a joint project with the Phoenix Picture House in Oxford, to show screenings of film adaptations of books studied for GCSE and A-level.

The screenings combine basic revision activity involved in watching a film version of a text, with encouraging reflection on both the text and the film through worksheets.

Although Naomi and Stephanie, who is currently away in Berlin looking at education there, aren't making money for themselves, they enjoy the fact that they are helping so many students who need extra help.

"We offer one-to-one tuition with qualified and experienced teachers at reasonable rates for a confidence boost, extra help or pushing potential.

"If we start making money from it, we hope to start a charitable trust in the future to help people with things like dyslexia," said Naomi, who has a degree in maths.

Student Emma Nobes, 18, was struggling to improve her German before her A-level exams so had help from Classy Tutors to give her the confidence she needed. Classy Tutors gave Emma a German tutor who comes from Berlin and the pair spent weeks talking in German which gave Emma the confidence she needed.

"It did improve my speaking and has given me a lot more confidence. I had my listening and oral exams on Wednesday and I was really chuffed with it!

"It made me less stressed and I felt better about the exams," said Emma, who had 12 hours of tuition before her exams.

Naomi is off to New York in September to work on the children's programme Sesame Street. She also does work for the BBC, evaluating GCSE revision for the maths programme, Bitesize.

NAOMI'S TOP TIPS

1. Plan your revision timetable well ahead

2. Always read the questions properly

3. Don't panic when you first see the paper

4. Make sure you always have the right equipment

5. Make sure you get a good night's sleep the night before

Revision should never be left until the last minute, but any pupil who would like to contact Classy Tutors for help before an exam should call Naomi on 0958 478 692. Prices are £15 an hour for GCSE students or £18 for A-level.

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