Tuition

Group classes

Small classes, and everybody else is stuck too.

Scheduled classes at Warners Bay for people who would rather learn alongside a few others than one-on-one. Between four and eight people, pay as you go, and no experience assumed.

Book a place Call (02) 4081 9511

Current timetable

What is running.

$25 per person, per session

Saturdays 9:00am to 10:30am

Computer Basics for Absolute Beginners

Seniors and anyone starting from scratch

A gentle six-week introduction covering the mouse and keyboard, getting online, email, and finding things again afterwards. No prior knowledge assumed at all.

  • 6 weekly sessions
  • 90 minutes each
  • Maximum 6 people
  • Warners Bay
What we cover
  • Getting comfortable with the mouse, keyboard and screen
  • Getting online and searching for what you actually want
  • Sending and receiving email, including attachments
  • Saving files somewhere you can find them again
  • Making everything bigger and easier to read
  • What to do when something goes wrong
Book a place
Sundays 10:00am to 12:00pm

Staying Safe Online

Everyone, but written with seniors in mind

A single practical session on recognising scams, choosing passwords you can actually remember, and what to do in the first hour if you think you have been caught.

  • One session
  • 2 hours each
  • Maximum 8 people
  • Warners Bay
What we cover
  • The six signs that give away almost every scam
  • Fake bank texts, parcel messages and support phone calls
  • Passwords: what actually matters and what does not
  • Turning on two-factor authentication without the confusion
  • What to do in the first hour if you have already clicked
  • Bring your own suspicious messages and we will go through them
Book a place
Thursdays 6:00pm to 7:30pm

Introduction to AI

Working adults and anyone curious

Four evenings on what AI tools genuinely do, where they confidently get things wrong, and how to use them for real work without getting caught out.

  • 4 weekly sessions
  • 90 minutes each
  • Maximum 8 people
  • Warners Bay
What we cover
  • What is actually happening when you type into a chatbot
  • Why it invents things, and how to spot when it has
  • Using it on your own real work, not toy examples
  • What must never be pasted into one
  • Workplace policy, copyright and academic honesty
  • Building it into your week without losing your own skills
Book a place
Saturdays 11:30am to 2:30pm

Home Lab Bootcamp

Teenagers and career changers

Four Saturday sessions building a working home lab from ordinary hardware. Hypervisor, virtual machines, networking and Linux. You take the lab home with you.

  • 4 weekly sessions
  • 3 hours each
  • Maximum 4 people
  • Warners Bay
What we cover
  • Choosing and preparing hardware without spending much
  • Installing a hypervisor and creating virtual machines
  • Real networking: addressing, DNS, firewall rules
  • Linux from the command line up
  • Running services other people in the house actually use
  • Breaking it deliberately, then fixing it
Book a place
Mondays 6:00pm to 7:30pm

Excel That Earns Its Keep

Working adults and small business owners

Three evenings on the parts of Excel that save real hours: formulas that stop the retyping, tables, lookups and charts that make sense.

  • 3 weekly sessions
  • 90 minutes each
  • Maximum 8 people
  • Warners Bay
What we cover
  • Formulas that remove the manual copying and pasting
  • Tables, sorting and filtering properly
  • Lookups, explained so they finally make sense
  • Charts that communicate rather than decorate
  • Shortcuts that add up to an hour a day
  • Bring your own spreadsheet and we will fix it
Book a place
Sundays 1:00pm to 2:30pm

iPad and iPhone Basics

Seniors

Four gentle sessions on the tablet or phone you already own. Photos, messages, video calls, and making everything large enough to read comfortably.

  • 4 weekly sessions
  • 90 minutes each
  • Maximum 6 people
  • Warners Bay
What we cover
  • Getting around without tapping the wrong thing
  • Text size, zoom and contrast so you can read it
  • Taking, finding and sharing photographs
  • Messages and video calls with family
  • Turning off the notifications that keep startling you
  • Keeping it charged, updated and safe
Book a place

How classes work

Nothing to sign up to and nothing to pay in advance.

You pay for each session as you attend it. There is no block booking, no term fee, and no deposit. If you come once and decide it is not for you, that is the end of it and you have lost nothing.

Classes are deliberately small. Four to eight people means I can get round to everybody several times in a session, which is the entire point. A room of twenty is a lecture, and nobody learns to use a computer by watching a lecture.

The pace is set by whoever is finding it hardest, not by the timetable. If half the room needs the same thing explained again, we explain it again. Nobody is left behind to keep to a schedule.

One thing worth saying to anybody nervous about joining a group: the single most common reaction in the first session is relief. People arrive convinced they are the only one who does not understand, and discover within ten minutes that everybody else thought exactly the same thing.

Classes

Choose a class if

  • You are starting from the beginning
  • You would rather it cost less
  • You like the idea of company
  • Your questions are the ordinary ones
  • A fixed weekly time suits you

One-on-one

Choose a private lesson if

  • Your problem is specific to your own setup
  • You would rather not ask in front of anyone
  • You need somebody to come to your house
  • You want to go at your own speed entirely
  • You need help now rather than next Tuesday

$65 per hour

Plenty of people do both. A class to get the general idea, then one private session to sort out the thing that is specific to them.

For community groups

I will come to your group.

Clubs, retirement villages, libraries, church groups, workplaces and community centres across Lake Macquarie & Newcastle.

If you can gather the people, I can bring the class to you, and we can build the content around whatever your group actually struggles with rather than a generic syllabus. Scam awareness is the most requested by a distance, and it is the one I would push hardest for any group with older members.

Ring (02) 4081 9511 and tell me roughly how many people and what they need. It costs nothing to discuss.

Straight answers

Questions about classes

How many people are in a class?

Small on purpose. Between four and eight depending on the class, because beyond that I cannot get round to everybody and it stops being teaching. The home lab bootcamp is capped at four since everyone needs their own hardware.

What if I miss a week?

Let me know and I will catch you up at the start of the next one, or go through what you missed by phone. You are not penalised and you do not pay for a session you did not attend.

Do I need to bring anything?

Bring your own laptop or tablet if the class is about a device you own, because learning on your own machine transfers straight home. If you do not have one, say so when you book and I will have one for you to use.

Is a class better than one-on-one lessons?

It depends on you. Classes are cheaper, and a lot of people find it reassuring to discover that everybody else is stuck on the same things. One-on-one is better if your questions are specific to your own setup, or if you would rather not ask in front of anybody. Plenty of people do a class first and book a private session afterwards for their own particular problem.

Can you run a class for my group?

Yes. Community groups, clubs, retirement villages, libraries and workplaces are all welcome to ask. If you can gather the people I can come to you, and we can build the content around what your group actually needs.

How do I pay for a class?

Pay as you go, session by session, rather than the whole block up front. If you decide after week one that it is not for you, you have not lost anything.