Teaching English as people really speak it. Since 2001.
PS English is a small London-based English school with one big idea: that the best way to learn English is one-to-one, with an experienced British teacher who builds every lesson around you.
Meet our teachers
A London school that grew up teaching one student at a time
PS English began in 2001 in London, teaching English to the Japanese community who had moved to the UK for work. For the years that followed, that is what we did, and we did it well. Our students included businesspeople, lawyers, bankers, executives, journalists, scientists, diplomats, medics, teachers and trainee students, together with their families. Many stayed with us for years. Some are still with us now.
Over that time we learned something simple but valuable: the English that helps people most is not the English in the textbook. It is the English that comes up in a real meeting, a real interview, a real conversation at the school gates. Our teachers built a quiet specialism in that kind of English, working one-to-one with students who needed to do specific things in English and do them well.
A few years ago we started hearing the same questions from people outside the Japanese community. Could we help a French engineer prepare for a board presentation? Could we coach a Polish doctor through a difficult job interview? Could we teach a Spanish postgraduate to sound more natural in seminars? The answer, every time, was yes. The teaching approach that worked for our Japanese students worked just as well for anyone else.
So we are opening up. Same teachers, same approach, same warm and personal one-to-one lessons. A wider welcome.
What makes us different
One-to-one lessons with the same teacher
Every lesson at PS English is one-to-one. There is no group, no fixed curriculum, no waiting your turn while someone else practises. Your teacher plans each lesson around what you are working on this week, this month, this year. It is the slowest way to scale a school, and it is the fastest way for a student to make real progress. From the trial lesson onwards, we aim to match you with a teacher who can keep teaching you into the foreseeable future.
Our teachers are experienced British professionals
Every PS English teacher is a native British English speaker with years of experience teaching adults. They are not students filling a timetable. They are professionals who have made a career of helping people speak English well, and most of them have been with us for a long time.
See the teamWe focus on real, functional English
Most of our students already speak some English. They come to us because they need to do specific things: chair a meeting, give a presentation, get through a job interview, follow a lecture, talk naturally with colleagues at lunch. Our lessons are built around those situations, with feedback on recurring mistakes and alternative phrasing you can use straight away. The exception, of course, is when you are being tested. We prepare students for IELTS, TOEFL and Cambridge BEC too, with the same one-to-one focus.
We work the way you need us to
Most of our lessons are online and have been since 2020. We have students all over the UK, and a smaller number around the world, who fit lessons around demanding professional and family lives. If you prefer to meet in person, our teachers also offer face-to-face lessons in London. You can do all online, all in person, or mix the two.
Where we are
PS English is based in London. Our teachers live and work here, and our face-to-face lessons are taught in central London at a comfortable, easy-to-reach location. London is where the school grew up, and our British English carries the cadence and culture of the city we teach in.
Most of our lessons, though, are online. We teach students across the UK, from Edinburgh to Exeter, and a growing number further afield. Wherever you are, you get the same teacher, the same approach, and the same personal attention.
How we teach
A good one-to-one English lesson is not a lecture. At PS English, lessons are conversations, with structure. Your teacher does a fair amount of listening, picks up on the things you do well and the things that get in your way, and gives you the corrections, vocabulary and practice you need to move forward.
We aim for at least half of every lesson to be spent with you talking. That is where the real progress is made. Your teacher is there to guide, correct, suggest and challenge, but the work of learning to speak English is done by speaking English, and we make sure you have plenty of room to do that.
Outside the lessons, your teacher will often suggest things to read, watch or practise. None of it is busywork. All of it is chosen specifically for what you are working on. If something is not working for you, we change it. That is the advantage of one-to-one teaching: the lesson plan is always negotiable.
Meet the people who teach
The teaching is the school. Our teachers are the reason students stay with us, recommend us, and come back to us. Before you book a lesson, we would like you to know who you might be working with.
Meet our teachersTeacher headshot placeholder. Warm, natural, looking at camera.
Second teacher headshot placeholder. Optional teaser only.
Strongly recommended. Relaxed, friendly, head and shoulders, natural light. A handwritten signature would lift it further.
When I started PS English in 2001, I had a simple idea: that adults learning a second language deserve teachers who treat them as adults, lessons that respect their time, and English that actually helps them in their real lives. All these years on, that is still what we do.
If you are thinking about lessons, the best thing you can do is have a quick chat with me about what you would like from them. There is no pressure and no commitment at that stage. If, and only if, you feel happy to try a lesson, I will then think about a suitable teacher for you. You meet your teacher, you have an introductory lesson, and you decide afterwards whether PS English is right for you.
I look forward to meeting you.
Ready to make the next step?
Book your free 20-minute consultation. No commitment, no pressure.