Andy

I am experienced teacher and tutor. I am married with three grown up children. I am interesting in sport particularly football. I used to play but now I am just an avid fan and follower. One of my passions is playing the African drums and the cajon(drum box) and I run drumming workshops and drum circles for community groups. I am a trained child counsellor and have done a lot of mentoring and youth work.

Tutoring Experience

I have been a qualified Business Studies teacher since 2002 teaching at GSCE and A Level. In recent years I have been working as a full time tutor. I have been tutoring young people who have been excluded from mainstream education getting them back on track for school. I also specialise in tutoring GSCE students at Maths and English on a one-to-one basis and I have experience of getting students passes in both Maths and English.
UPDATE: I am now only available for teaching Maths up to GCSE level.

Tutoring Approach

My approach is relaxed so that the student is put at ease but focused. I believe it is all about understanding concepts and then being able to apply them to different areas of the same subject.I will initially access the student to find out their areas of strength and the area where they need extra support with. Then the next objective is to focus on what needs to be achieved by devising a path from where they are at to achieving the objective. My approach is based on “building blocks”, which means I teach concepts in small chunks then I build on them so that the concept is easier to grasp as they get more difficult. At the end of each session, I check the students understanding. I believe in using regular formative assessment (ongoing feedback) and summarise assessment ( more formal end of topic assessment). What is most important to me is that the student is encouraged to believe that they can do it as their past experiences can be a major block for many students. So I focus on inspiring the student so they have the ability to achieve at least a pass grade and a large part of this is helping the student enjoy the subject and to change their perception that it can be fun. I use a range of teaching styles tailored to the learning style of the student. So whether they are a visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learner, I will adapt my teaching style to get the best from the student.
UPDATE: All tutoring sessions will be online through an online portal specific for tutoring.