Paul

I have taught Biology at KS3, GCSE and A level in HMC schools for over 25 years. Currently I am head of department at a boarding school in Warwickshire and I live near Northampton. I have enjoyed tutoring on an ad-hoc basis throughout my career in addition to my regular classroom teaching. I love Biology as a subject and enjoy sharing my enthusiasm and passion with young people.

Tutoring Experience

I have been a full time Biology teacher in continuous employment since 1993 and so I have gained experience teaching a wide range of KS3 Science, GCSE, IGCSE, A level, IB and PreU Biology courses. I have most teaching experience in EdExcel IGCSE and AQA Trilogy GCSE and in the post-16 age range in Biology Higher Level IB, PreU, EdExcel, OCR and WJEC A level.

Throughout my career, I have acted as an advisor for candidates applying for medicine at university. So I can offer expertise and guidance for medical applicants.

I can also offer practice Oxbridge interview sessions.

I spent the majority of my teaching career so far working at Eton College and so as well as the GCSE/A level years, I also have experience as a common entrance and scholarship paper examiner. I would be delighted to offer sessions to help prepare Common Entrance or Scholarship candidates for upcoming exams.

Tutoring Approach

I am a kind and empathetic teacher and tutor so my approach is based around gradually increasing a young person's confidence in the subject. Biology is a subject with a great deal of complex terminology and in tutorials I would start by focusing on building a deep understanding of the key ideas required, step by step with a focus on the language needed to master the subject.

If we are preparing for particular exams, I would focus on using the past paper resources available to help a student target written answers to the requirements of a mark scheme.

I have written a GCSE Biology blog with posts related to all IGCSE Biology specification points (https://pmgbiology.com/) and you can see something of my style in explaining Biology on this website. I am experienced in teaching/tutoring using Teams/Zoom/Skype as preferred and I have a graphics tablet and iPad as well as my main computer in my set up at home to allow me to draw diagrams and aid explanations.

I am happy to offer a first lesson without charge to chat to the student about what topics and areas they want to address and to see if they believe I could help them with their Biology.

I have found that a weekly tutorial works best to build a student's confidence, knowledge and understanding, but I am equally happy to offer a fortnightly or monthly tutorial if that better suits your needs.