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Friendly and informal one-to-one at home computer training for beginners and older people, specially tailored to you and what you’d like to be able to do.   

In Reading, Basingstoke & Newbury. Available for Windows desktops & laptops, Chromebooks and tablets

Group of four senior citizens on laptop in cafe
Image by Dreamstime.com

Read our articles about

Computer training for older people – why we need to rethink how we tutor seniors

Meanwhile back at the grotto –Our lighthearted tales of progress – or otherwise – of our own older friends and family that we’ve tutored over the years

Q-Tips – Quick Tips for Beginners – you’ll find lots of quick hacks and answers for beginners, all inspired by real queries from our learners

Older person using laptop at home
It’s never too late to start

We believe you’re never too old or too inexperienced to benefit from having a computer or tablet

The way the world is going, soon we’ll only be able to do certain things online. Most likely there will be no other option for those situations.

You’ve no need to feel daunted, and you’ve no need to feel you have to learn everything. Most of us only use a tiny part of what is available, and that is perfectly OK.

The hardest part is taking the first step, and we’d love to help you with that. Begin with an area that interests you or that you feel would make your life easier. So just talk to us about what you’d like to do and what you need to get started. Contact Us to let us know how we can help.

Have a look at some of the reasons older people choose our at home computer training – click the arrows for the next slide

Why you should choose PC Fairy at home one-to-one tutorials

We’ll get you up and running – whether you’re a complete novice, or just want to learn a few new hacks

Friendly and informal one-to-one tutorials in your own home, specially tailored to you and what you’d like to be able to do. Available for Windows desktops & laptops, Chromebooks and for tablets.

Think of it as learning ‘Technology as a Foreign Language’

See Our Services for more details of how we can help start you off on your journey of discovery. We also offer a complete at home set-up service for PCs, tablets and Chromebooks.

Our services

Computer tutorials at home to help answer all your questions
Computer tutorials at home to help answer all your questions

We are totally flexible about our computer tutorial sessions. We only want to show you how to do (or improve) something that you want to learn!

What would be the point in eulogising about what you can do with photos if you don’t have a camera and have no interest in photography? 

For complete novices, our sessions may be the absolute first steps such as how to use the keyboard and mouse. Maybe how to open programs and apps, how to get on the internet, or basic editing. We also offer a complete set-up service to get you connected and ready to go.

If you already know a bit, your computer tutorials can be around a particular program or app that you’d like to use. For example how to use email, learn MS Excel, join facebook, enhance your pictures in the Photos app. Or a task you’d like to do using several different programs and apps, and probably the internet. Such as plan and book travel, learn how to print labels for your Christmas cards, produce an inventory of your music collection, clear out your clutter and sell or recycle it online .

Or we can give you some general broad-based computer tutorials such as how to search better in Google, getting more organised with your files, creating strong passwords and using a password manager.

It all starts with you telling us what you’d like to do

Don’t worry if it seems trivial (or even impossible) – or you don’t know the right words. We’ll sit down with you, see what you know so far (if anything), and start sprinkling our fairy dust!

The PC Fairy logo

For the complete novice

Everything you need to get up and running – from unpacking the box, setting up a printer and getting you online, to helping you find your way around your new pc or tablet – all at your own pace. Get used to your new toy for a few days, then we can come and show you a bit more

The PC Fairy logo

If you can already do a bit

Let us tweak your way of doing things to make it all a bit faster, easier – and often – safer. Maybe learn a new app or two. Let us know what you’d like to do and we’ll tailor some home training just for you

The PC Fairy logo

If you replace your pc or tablet

We’ll get your files, data and bookmarks from your old device (as long as it still works), and set up your new computer or tablet with the programs and apps you’re used to. We can also install and register any compatible software you’ve bought independently

And if you’re still not sure what you’d like to do next, have a look at some of the topics we can cover. They may inspire you to do something you hadn’t thought of … click the link below for ideas of how we can help you

Blog

For older people we really should rethink computer training

Getting to grips with technology is never easy, especially for older people. It’s almost as alien as a foreign language if you haven’t grown up with it. But almost everything today involves technology whether we like it or not.  Our cars, TVs, central heating systems, smart meters… And where would we be without ATM cash …

Contact Us

Image of computer with usb flash drive

Get in touch to find out how we can help you

When you contact us, we’ll arrange to come to your home in Reading, Basingstoke, Newbury and surrounding areas to set up your new pc or tablet and give you one-to-one tutorials to get going with most popular programs and apps for Windows pcs, Chromebooks and tablets

Our email address is:
Jane.PCfairy@gmail.com

Our phone number is:
0118 983 1843

Our mailing address is:
Cedar Cottage, Burghfield, Reading, Berkshire RG30 3SD

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About the PC Fairy

Picture of Jane - the PC Fairy

All about the PC Fairy

For as long as I can remember I’ve been the PC fairy to most of my family and friends. Whether it was setting up parents and in laws from scratch. Or just a tweak here and there for more tech-savvy friends. It was more likely than not to be a panic phone call that started each session off. Many of them working blind as the caller was using a different version of browser or software to me, didn’t know the basic terminology, and couldn’t really describe what had happened!

Screen displays suddenly upside down. Printers and scanners not working. They couldn’t open an attachment or were trying to recover an overwritten document. And of course the dreaded updates going haywire. None of it helped by hapless impatient clicking by the poor victims while I was telling them not to touch anything! It had its moments – not all of them happy – but we got them there in the end.

My first job …

I still remember what it was like to know absolutely nothing. The frustration, feeling stupid, and taking so long to do anything that other people could do in the blink of an eye. At the tender age of 18 and straight out of the school having never even seen a computer, I started my first ‘proper’ job. On Day 1 they told me someone had left, so I’d be taking over their job. Then they sat me at a MOP terminal of a GEORGE 3 computer with some ticker tape.  I was expected to just get on with it, even though it wasn’t the job I’d been hired for.  No training, no mentor, just a pile of ticker tape and some very sketchy handwritten notes.

As a civil servant working in a government establishment, there was the added complication of fairly low level security with some of the data. So at least once a week I found myself in the Head of Security’s office. Looking at my shoes and muttering abject apologies for doing something I shouldn’t – or not doing something I should – with that darned ticker tape.

They eventually decided to send me to a Computer Programming course on Day Release.  No Windows in those days, this was going right back to machine code. Lots of binary stuff and loading accumulators, which was clear as mud.  I never did make Programmer … and I certainly didn’t become a career Civil Servant!

In my subsequent ‘day’ jobs, I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredibly technical brains over the years. Consequently I’ve learned so much from other people’s experience. Many have been patient and graceful enough to mentor me from total ignorance to a degree of competency, putting up with a barrage of Hows, Whys and Helps along the way. With others, it just permeated through and loaded itself into memory.

Dance classes

For the past 26 years I’ve also been a dance teacher, running public and private classes. Initially teaching in my spare time, and for the past 9 years as my ‘day job’ (albeit mainly evenings and weekends as that is when most people have their leisure time). Although a much more physical endeavour, the similarities between the training for the two subjects are many. While my natural style is for both is friendly, informal and using plenty of humour, the content needs to be structured, relevant, and within the learner’s capabilities.

Though I also enjoy teaching more experienced students to do the whizzy stuff, it‘s always an absolute delight for me to pass on a few simple tips to get a complete novice up and running, just to see their beaming smile and such a sense of achievement after maybe only 30 minutes – whether it’s on a computer as the PC Fairy or on the dancefloor as the Dancing Queen!

Jane x

PS If you’d like to find out more about learning to dance, have a look at my TeachMe2Dance website. Click on the link below: