Susan

I am a graduate in Civil Engineering who, after a 20 year career break to bring up my 3 children and 3 stepchildren, retrained firstly as a playgroup supervisor, and then as a teacher. This career path was fuelled by the fact that my middle child struggled during his early years at school with hearing problems and mild dyslexia, so having supported him during his primary years, decided that I could do the same for others.

Tutoring Experience

I trained initially for primary education, but actually ended up working in secondary schools, probably because that is where a maths specialist is more in demand. I have worked in three of the local Horsham secondary schools ( as a maths teacher in two, and as the more able pupil co-ordinator in a third). I have also taught adults GCSE level maths and Basic Numeracy
via the WSCC Adult Education programme. I began to offer private tuition when I was asked by some pupils that I covered once (for maternity leave) if they could possibly have some help from me after my time at that school finished. My last full time teaching post was within the private sector, where I taught maths at KS3, GCSE and A Level. I now work on a part time basis, and mix my school work with private tuition. I like this way of working, as I find that my class work informs my individual work, and vice versa - you gain a real insight into how different people learn by working one-to -one. I have been offering private tuition for ten years now, and have many satisfied clients on my lists. I am often approached by parents to help with younger siblings of those I have already taught, which must mean satisfied customers!

Tutoring Approach

This varies from pupil to pupil. A level pupils mostly want to focus on exam type questions, with additional explanation of topics they haven't grasped at college - they do have to charge through the syllabus! But if a pupil is struggling with the whole subject, then I approach it much more how I would in class, by starting at the beginning!
GCSE pupils can generally identify their own weaknesses, then we take those topics back as far as we need to. It's a case of identifying at what point they began to lose the plot, and then building on from there. Younger children find it harder to explain what they don't understand, and so I often use a written/verbal assessment exercise to establish the weaknesses. My lessons are as varied as my pupils!