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Work with us · Academic consultants

Join the Collective.

The Russet Collective is a practice of academic consultants, led by our Academic Director, Mrs Leah Burgess. We are growing, and we are looking for subject specialists to mark, teach and advise one to one, online, to a single standard.

Apply to join

The shelves of a library, seen down a long reading room

The work

Three kinds of work, all of it one to one.

A printed examination paper held over a desk

The Exam Consultation

A full paper, written to the student’s board and set texts, is sat at home to time. You mark the script by hand and write the analysis of every question, the learning plan and a top-grade example answer. The written work is what the family keeps.

See what families receive
A fountain pen writing on a page

Teaching weeks

Blocks of six, twelve or twenty-four teaching weeks. Each week is a live one-to-one hour online, practice set against the paper the student sits next, and that practice marked by hand and returned before the next session.

How a week works
A written analysis of a marked paper, open on a tablet

The 1:1 consultation

Where a family has chosen it, a live session on a shared screen with the consultant who marked the paper: the two or three things that cost the marks, and what to do about them.

The two tiers

One standard

Many consultants. One way of marking.

A family should not be able to tell which of us marked their child’s paper, except by the name on it. Every paper is marked by hand against the mark scheme the examiner will use, and every mark is explained in writing. The standard is set by our Academic Director, and a new consultant’s first work is reviewed by her before it goes to a family.

Apply to join

Mrs Leah Burgess

Mrs Leah Burgess

Academic Director. Modern Languages, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. About her

What we look for

The consultant we want

  • —A degree in the subject you teach, and a real command of it.
  • —Working knowledge of the GCSE or A-Level specifications of at least one board: AQA, Edexcel, Eduqas or OCR.
  • —Writing clear enough to explain a mark to a fifteen-year-old, and to their parent.
  • —An Enhanced DBS certificate with a check of the children’s barred list before you teach or meet any student, as our safeguarding policy requires. We arrange the check.

How it works

Independent, and online

  • —You work as a self-employed consultant, not an employee. You choose the work you take on.
  • —You are paid for each piece of work, at rates agreed in writing before you start.
  • —Everything is online. Sessions run on Google Meet; papers and marking travel as documents.
  • —Subjects we are recruiting for now: English Language, English Literature, Spanish and French. Next: Maths, the sciences and the humanities.
Apply to join

How to join

From application to first paper.

  1. 1Apply. The form beside this. It takes a few minutes.
  2. 2A conversation. With our Academic Director, about your subject and how you mark.
  3. 3A sample paper. You mark it and write the analysis, and it is reviewed against our standard.
  4. 4Checks and agreement. The DBS check, before any teaching, and a written consultancy agreement.
  5. 5Your first paper. Reviewed by our Academic Director before it goes to the family.

Apply

Join the Collective