Roger

I am a full time tutor in the subjects of Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. During my early years I won an international Wolfson Foundation grant to study my PhD in the area of Molecular Biology and went to do research which in several publications in science magazines. Whilst doing research, I decided that although interesting, it was not my calling and moved into private industry consulting and selling/marketing mathematical and science routines internationally. The birth of my daughter led me to reassess my traveling career as I was spending several months abroad. In order to spend more time with her and support her growing up, I decided to move into full time tutoring. The tutoring and the enjoyment I derived from seeing my students become successful, showed me that teaching and transferring knowledge to young generations is what I really love to do

Tutoring Experience

I started teaching languages, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry at GCSE and A level nearly 20 (15 years as a full time tutor) years ago. Teaching is my vocation and I find it particularly fulfilling to transfer knowledge so that complex areas become simple and easy to understand.

I have taught students from a wide range of backgrounds and abilities (from public and private schools) studying the subjects on any of boards (AQA, EDEXCEL,OCR, MEI, IB etc) schemes. I also have experience in teaching students with conditions such as Asperger's, anxiety etc. I have taught more than 300= students all across an area that covers 20+ miles from Banbury in the last 20 years. I also provide ongoing support for students preparing for University entry examinations, scholarships or just deepening of the subjects and broadening of the knowledge base on the sciences and mathematics. I do also provide first year University support in certain subjects (please enquire)

Tutoring Approach

My approach to teaching is inclusive, this means that I spend time working on the student confidence and self-esteem, teaching them correct mathematical technique, time management and exam approach. Most time will be spent transferring knowledge and helping the student develop the necessary methodology (approaches, steps) and habits (such as study method) to become a highly successful student. The rest of the time is spent rebuilding self-esteem and confidence which usually suffers in main stream education. During the sessions, if they are in GCSE, there some discussion on what the student wants to do and if not clear, at least narrow the field so that he/she can plan for A-levels and then University.

The vast majority of students that come to me have many gaps in their knowledge, don’t know how to approach problems or lack the ability to produce lateral (out of the box) thinking which is necessary for problem solving.

When I first meet the student I will have a short discussion about what she/he wants to achieve and then perform a short test linked to the subject. Whilst the student does the test I am able to observe how she/he approaches the problems which allows me to identify gaps in technique and/or knowledge.

All above aspects are tackled simultaneously, and I will adjust to the way your son/daughter learns (visual, aural, verbal, kinaesthetic or a mixture). Once the issues are narrowed down, a learning path is designed for the particular student. The objective is not only to teach and fix weak areas but to stretch the student so that hard questions become easy. This means that students, at the end, are able to confidently solve the hard problems that define the A and A* grades.

Once students are at this level the sky is the limit and universities in the Russell Group become accessible. Many of my students have started with low expectations and have ended going to universities such at Imperial College, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Bath (number 10 in the world for architecture and civil engineering) and others.

From experience ideal session for A-level is 2 (1:30 hours for ongoing support) hours split as follows: 1hr going through the topic in detail, followed by 30 min of guided problems and 30 minutes of harder problems. For University entrance exams practice is also the same time.

For GCSE the ideal length is 1 1/2 hours split as 40min/30min/20min.

It is preferable to do fewer but longer sessions. Most of my students stay with me for the long term with me guiding them from year 9 to end of A-level.

If you have any questions, please I do not hesitate to contact me through the message facility

Results: 95% of my students end with A or A* at A-level and 8-9 in GCSE. The other 5% end with one or two Bs due to extremely late start

When possible, I will prefer to teach at your place as it reduces anxiety on students (have a full DBS). For on-line I use Zoom

Update: 2023 was a difficult year as students have large gaps from the covid time. This said all my students (bar one) got to the Universities that they wanted. Results were less consistent as the combination of harsh marking, higher boundaries and huge gaps made it hard for students to do as well as usual

My students got As, and Bs with one C in their A levels. GCSEs where much more consistent with students achieving 7s and 8s and a few 9s in the subjects that I offer