Guy

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.
Martin Luther King Junior.

I am a conscientious, enthusiastic and friendly tutor offering one-to-one tuition in English and History to GCSE and A level in the student's home or online.

My teacher's motto is LIGHT THE FLAME AND KEEP IT BURNING!

Tutoring Experience

I have nearly forty years' varied teaching experience in both the Primary and Secondary sectors. I have also undertaken home tuition with Primary, Secondary and adult students.

My experience includes twelve years teaching English and History to GCSE and A level in the UK secondary system, eight years teaching the same subjects to the same levels in international schools in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Between 2000 and 2015, I taught in Primary schools.

I am now a full-time tutor. I offer home tuition in Primary English and Maths as well as English and History to GCSE, A and university level.

In recent years, my A level History students have achieved outstanding results, obtaining A*-C grades and places at highly-rated universities, such as Oxford Brookes, Exeter, Royal Holloway and Birmingham.

My 2016 GCSE English candidates achieved A* to C grades in their Language and Literature exams and are now all moving on to study for their A levels. In 2017, one of my students achieved a Grade 9.

Tutoring Approach

LIGHT THE FLAME AND KEEP IT BURNING

In my experience as a teacher over 40 years now - I always seek to discover that one SPARK or special talent that ALL pupils have. Once I know what that SPARK is - my job is half-way done already because I know that I can guide that pupil down the path to fulfilling his/her personal destiny.

I really think one-to-one tuition is the best way to educate pupils. It brings them to the realisation that the whole point of education really is to SET US FREE. It's not easy for a student to discover this when confined every day in a class of 30 or more others! Once the student is enthused and inspired by a tutor there is only one way forward.

I like to encourage independent thinking and logical analysis. Too many schools are teaching the children WHAT to think when they should be teaching them HOW to think. Naturally, many pupils become disengaged and even some of the most talented are simply going through the motions rather than actually studying. This lack of motivation together with highly inflated grades mean that many of our youngsters are leaving school with minimal reading and writing skills. Indeed, few now have the aptitude for doing much reading, thinking or writing at all.

I like to build up the student's confidence by establishing their strengths first. Thereafter, I identify weaknesses and gauge the student's awareness of them and motivation to put them right. Above all, I encourage my students to read widely and with full concentration. My best students learn to read closely and publish their reviews on Amazon. Aside from the huge adrenaline rush, the boost in confidence and proficiency students get from seeing their writing in print is awesome to behold!

To put it simply, if they're NOT READING they're NOT SUCCEEDING!

Homework set by me will always involve reading, thinking and writing. My feedback will always concentrate on reinforcing the idea that the writing process never ends with the last full stop. I expect students to read their work back to ensure that their writing communicates their meaning clearly and fluently. Editing with the focus on making the right word choices, organising sentences with the words in the right order and structuring longer writing assignments into coherent paragraphs are all priorities schools are increasingly neglecting thereby greatly hindering the life chances of their pupils..

Once the student and I have agreed which areas need improvement we use lesson time to extend the student's competence and skills by undertaking thinking and writing assignments that allow the student to develop these.

Any homework set will advance and reinforce the skills the student has been encouraged to bring to the lesson.

It has become increasingly evident that parents are now turning to tutors because the feedback on their child's progress that they get from school, especially at secondary level is minimal and increasingly meaningless.

"Your child is meeting his/her targets in English" often actually means that they still cannot read a simple passage on their own and understand it properly!

With this in mind I now write full reports on each child's progress the end of each term.