Andrew

I am an experienced schoolteacher and tutor. I am calm, patient, very clear with targets and have high expectations of myself and the students I work with. During my career, I have also worked extensively with students who have addition needs – learning difficulties. This has been refined with much recent experience in 1:1 tuition/support, of school-aged children as well as adults.

Over the last 10 years my students have had great success with hitting targets and exam results, and over the last 5 years, ALL my students achieved at least 2 grades higher than their school predicted grades. I am immensely proud of this achievement , in particular because many schools, teachers, tutors and students have struggled making the transition to changed syllabi and issues arising from Covid. Closing the gaps in learning caused by Covid, and poor responses by some schools during that time, are still a key priority. My students’ recent results have demonstrated tremendous success here.

Tutoring Experience

35 years teaching experience at a variety of levels - from primary age up to degree level. My main teaching subjects have been Maths at all levels up to and including GCSE, plus Economics, Business Studies & Politics all at A-Level My main disability expertise is in the areas of Dyslexia and Autistic Spectrum disorders, eg Asperger Syndrome. I have 11 years experience teaching/supporting students with these disabilities, in a wide range of subjects including much success with planning and helping with coursework. As a Home Tutor I have 10 years experience teaching Maths to all levels from Primary KS2 through KS3, KS4 (GCSE's) and Adult Maths courses.

Tutoring Approach

My approach is to start with what a student might know - using patient questioning to ascertain the knowledge and the knowledge gaps. This verbal questioning would be supported with written assessed work which I would give detailed feedback on by the next week. When presented with essay-type support, I make a lot of use of planning (structure/bullet points etc.) of essay answers. I would operate by designing a scheme of work as soon as possible after the first meeting, and trying to keep to it. This scheme would be a balance between covering the Maths the student is doing at school, plus any catch-up necessary to fill in any gaps in previous knowledge. At times, learners bring homework to my sessions, which is fine, but my policy is not to simply do it for them. My priority is to help them answer the questions themselves by patient questioning, re-teaching and helping with planning of work. I am flexible according to student needs, and believe continuous dialogue/reporting to parents on progress is essential.