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. We believe this 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 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 exams too, with the same one-to-one focus.
Flexible lessons
Most of our lessons are online and have been since 2020. We have students across 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.
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Brendan Fitchew
TESOL and TEFL
Over 25 years' experience catering to adults at all levels from beginner to proficiency in the public and private sectors internationally. More recently also assisting kids with school interview and exam preparation and general skill development.
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Alice Watts
CELTA
General English, including conversation. English for exams: IELTS, Eiken, IGCSE and others. English for academic purposes, Business English, and teaching adult beginners.
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Anne MacKay
M.A. in Linguistics and English Language Teaching and a PGCSE postgraduate teaching qualification
Academic English, Business English, English for Exams and English Conversation
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Philip Manning
CELTA
Exam preparation (Cambridge, IELTS, Aptis), business English (including report writing, interview and meeting preparation), and 'British' pronunciation.
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Dana Grant
TEFL
Exam preparation, English for Business and special purposes or interests
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Emma Lauson
CELTA, DELTA, 11-16 PGCE
Business English, IELTS, one-to-one teaching, British English pronunciation
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Lucy Shakespeare
DELTA and advanced TEFL certificate (equivalent to CELTA)
General English, Business English, Legal English and teaching for exams including Cambridge and IELTS exams. Also a qualified teacher trainer (DELTA tutor).
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Jon Pettigrew
DELTA
An experienced DELTA teacher with PS English since 2009. Has work experience to deal with various foreign investors including Japanese companies. Cambridge Japanese Certificate holder.
Business and Economics
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Kim Hill
20 years teaching experience. Having civil servant work experience and lived in different countries. Taught many Japanese and foreign students.
Public sector and learning through conversation
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Bridget Grosvenor
CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults)
An experienced English teacher. Also works as a portrait artist.
Teaching English to business professionals
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Ellis Sharley-Dale
CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults)
Specialises in grammar and pronunciation
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, the language you need for a meeting, a phone call, a difficult conversation, not the English you would find in a textbook.
In 2026, that is still what we do. We don't run people through a fixed syllabus. Every one-to-one lesson is built around you, your goals, your work, the situations you actually find yourself in, and taught by professional teachers we have chosen with real care.
The best place to begin is a quick chat with me about what you would like from your lessons. There is no pressure and no commitment at that stage. Talking with you is how I understand what you need and match you to the right teacher, rather than simply the next one available.
If, and only if, you feel happy to go further, you will meet that teacher for 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.