Information About Paul - Crewe trainer

Personal Description:

Married for 24 years, with three grown-up children. I worked in London for 17 years, commuting weekly, but as our children have now left home I agreed with my wife that it was unfair for her to be home alone all week. My London job entailed lecturing in the evenings, which limited my availability to tutor, otherwise I could have had 3 or 4 pupils every night. I was promoted several times, and contributed to strategic developments. I now teach locally, and we enjoy a normal life-style. I enjoy chess, geneology, and dog-walking. I am a qualified First-Aider.

Training Experience:

I have taught in secondary schools for seven years, and a Further Education college for 17. I have provided tuition for over 25 years, often working with the same family for the duration of a child's schooling, and for several siblings. My services in London were so well appreciated that I did not need to advertise, parents would recommend me to their friends. I have averaged 4 pupils per week for over 20 years, but on occasions have worked with many more. I have also tutored small groups, and offer great rates for 2 or 3 children at a time. I encourage pupils to record their queries/confusions in a small diary, and we discuss their list at the start of the lesson.

Training Approach:

My mission is to plug the gaps. First teach the topic, then clarify it. So often, the difficulty is not the actual topic, but the underlying knowledge, which was not learned years earlier. For example, a pupil struggles to cope with algebra because they have not learned times tables. It is important to have specific, measurable, achieveable targets. Close scrutiny of the syllabus, reference to the pupil's progress, and identification of the weaknesses is the first step. Then we agree a series of stages to be reached, and a realistic time-frame to achieve them. I provide easy-to-follow explanations & examples, pupils complete further exercises to cement the learning (homework!). Finally we test that the mission is accomplished, with a short test. The pupils contribute to their progress by monitoring their own learning, and completing a progress chart or skills record.