Caroline

I’m an experienced SEN teacher and Bristol University graduate with a wealth of experience in teaching and facilitating. I have a specific focus on working with children and young adults who are neurodiverse or have additional needs.

I love to write and have written plays for the stage and screen (so of which have been performed at regional festivals) and I spend my free time performing stand-up comedy. I am also a trained singer and multi-instrumentalist and as such my life is thoroughly infused with music and the arts.

I am practical, hard to flummox and extremely confident within the world of academia. I am a warm, compassionate person who laughs loudly and cares deeply.

Tutoring Experience

I have over 5 years of teaching experience, including targeted intervention for children who struggle within mainstream schooling.

As a private tutor I currently work with a range of children and young people with additional needs - providing support from functional skills at KS1 to advanced A-Level tuition. This, I believe is part of what makes me different to other tutors - I obviously want to help your children get the best grades that they can, but I also place real importance on their life skills, and provide support to help them to independently thrive in their academic and professional lives.

I also currently provide targeted support for English as a core subject and work with students to prepare for GCSE and A-Level examinations. Additionally I can support work for chosen subjects such as Drama or Media Studies up to and including KS5. I am particularly adept at providing essay/academic writing support and can help your child to establish the sort of good practice that will help them transition to higher education with greater ease and confidence.

I also provide regular support for young people who specifically need assistance with communication and understanding and those who might have more complex additional needs - including a number people who have a speech delays or differing speech patterns. In these sessions I build a structured personalised work plan and liaise with the parent/primary carer in order to develop a multifaceted approach to learning and build a development plan that works with, rather than against the unique personal attributes/interests that each individual might have.

Over the past two years I have also worked in the development and delivery of a range of specific art classes for SEN children and young adults, building a termly structure that would help participants develop their fine motor skills, develop their creative thinking and problem solving skills as well as focusing on building resilience.

Alongside this I provide academic support for an adult with profound Cerebral Palsy, specifically helping to enable their creative work by providing guidance and support in the development of their written english. I have also produced multiple theatre workshops in conjunction with organisations such as the Bush Theatre with the primary focus of garnering a greater understanding of both classic and modern literature through the use of dramatic technique.

Tutoring Approach

I am passionate about accessibility in education and have always strived to provide support and guidance that is specific, inclusive and mindful of each unique individual. I am also have experience of/am dedicated to developing methods of communication with those who are non-verbal or have differing speech patterns.

When tutoring I develop work schemes suited to each person’s individual needs and approach to learning. This enables me to plan a structure for our time together, whilst also providing me with the freedom to veer from my plans and adapt my approach whenever necessary. I also think that it is important to clearly communicate what our goals are for the session and work towards shorter term objectives so that is a transparency in the approach on which to build trust. I also believe that reflection is a key part of the learning process and incorporate this into the end of every class.

I believe that it is important to maintain interest and active engagement and like to use motivating factors (for example a love of animals/authors/trains) to develop larger projects that can incorporate a variety of disciplines/subjects and build exciting pathways into learning. I also utilise a range of online software such as MyMaths and PurpleMash to help create a more dynamic way of teaching remotely as well as combining research, literacy and mathematics in larger projects.

When working at GCSE/A-Level I believe that it is important to get to grips with the key texts and materials entirely - I read all of the texts, watch required plays/films and provide reading lists for further academic study to build subject knowledge and develop a pool of materials to reference and elevate work. In short I apply my subject passion to the way that I teach and think that this hands-on approach is crucial to facilitating rigorous and engaging discussion. I also utilise exam-board specific past papers/marking schemes to build confidence before examinations making sure that we are taking a robust multi-discipline approach.

I am also able to assist with practical life skills development if required and find these sessions to be extremely beneficial for young people with complex additional needs. In these sessions I work with money-handling and management, as well as planning travel itineraries and working with maps and navigation. I also provide support for the development of interpersonal skills, how to understand and communicate emotions and how to recognise our feelings. I think that it is important to take a wholistic approach to learning and am keen to support in social development as well as academia.

So much of learning is building confidence so that people feel comfortable approaching things that they don’t know or might not find easy. Resilience is so often the key to learning and as such I believe that it's essential to provide a space where resilience in the face of challenges is more lauded than instant success.

I am a creative person so strive to teach in an imaginative, interesting way and aim always to inspire and encourage. I bring humour, music and movement into my classes where appropriate and focus on rewarding good behaviour - with a firm focus on positive reinforcement and affirmation.