David

Both my parents were teachers and my late uncle (mother's side of family) was a professor of Maths and Physics at Newcastle-upon-Tyne University.

I've studied Maths as part of my degree, and achieved an A-grade at A-level, in: Maths, Further Maths and Statistics (the A* grade wasn't available at the time). My understanding of the subject has proved to be as good or better as the teachers associated with those I've tutored.

For me, helping a student achieve a high grade, provides a degree of job satisfaction unobtainable elsewhere. As an older person, I've benefitted from the very high standard of teaching prevalent in UK at the time, and was fortunate enough to have had Maths teachers who really understood the subject and knew how to put it over. This motivated me into wanting to do the same. I have an enhanced CRB disclosure which, bearing in mind my age, provides strong evidence of being trustworthy, working in this capacity.

Tutoring Experience

I've tutored students from 14 to 45 years-of-age, in their own homes for over twenty years, and helped them achieve excellent grades. As an example, in 2017, two of my students, both achieved grades A, B in A-level Maths and Further Maths, by the OCR exam board.

In 2019, I helped a student with A-level Maths, for a period of about 4 months. They succeeded in getting their target grade, and were accepted for a medical degree course, at the university of their choice! Both they and their parents are delighted. Without such help, the outcome might have been very different!

At A-level, I cover all aspects of the course, both in pure and applied mathematics (mechanics and statistics). I can also provide help with some of the topics at Further Maths level. I've helped students mostly at A-level and am familiar with the syllabus requirements of AQA, Edexcel and OCR exam boards, in this respect.

Tutoring Approach

I am aware of the difficulties many students face at A-level. In my experience, however, good tutoring goes a long way to restoring any confidence and ability lost in getting to grips with the syllabus requirements.

I see my primary role as enabling students to grasp the concepts they're struggling with asap, so they can move on, and also to provide general revision for exam preparation, and to encourage a metacognitive approach in line with modern teacher practices, so that they learn better unaided.

The overriding concern most students have is to pass the exam with the highest possible grade and I've proved very successful at this. The fee I charge is such that many students opt for a two-hour tutorial, and this really does help in this respect. It enables a good range of questions to be gone through with the approach adopted and techniques used, adequately discussed, together with recommendations for further reading, and homework questions set where necessary. In my opinion, enthusiasm is conducive to success and this often follows as the tutees gain confidence and mastery of the topics they initially found difficult.

Sometimes, I'll introduce them to techniques not covered in class, but which may offer an easier and more elegant solution; an obvious example would be use of the vector dot product, for finding angles between vectors, and the cross-product for an area of a vector triangle (modern-day calculators offer these facilities, and they're much easier to use than the laborious approach based on the Cosine Rule, etc).

Modern-day technology is important, but many schools fail to exploit it, with regards to A-level Maths! I ensure myvtutees really do get the most out of a graphical calculator, and many are amazed when they see just how useful they are. The difference with or without, can be worth at least a grade (possibly two) and have put together a training manual, fully illustrated with worked examples based on past paper questions, where I also show solutions without the use of them.

I have an honest approach and am 100% committed. I am quick to comment on positive aspects of a student's work, but never give 'false' praise and let them believe they are doing well when they are not! Maths is a difficult subject for some and I never lose patients with those who struggle! If a student has a highly negative opinion of their ability and lacks confidence, I’ll do my very best to put it right. I always provide feedback to tutees and their parents, when asked.

I usually work within a 20-mile radius of home, covering towns such as: Aspatria, Cockermouth, Maryport, Wigton and Whitehaven at no extra expense. By negotiation, I may cover places further afield such as: Carlisle, Keswick, Penrith and Appleby, but after 20 miles, one-way distance, I'll require 45p, per additional mile.

A free, first tutorial, of 45 minutes, is offered to anyone, within a 6-mile radius of Workington and are unsure. This offer will be subject to adequate notice and other committments.

Overall, the amount charged is based on a tutorial for a minimum period of one hour, where the one-way distance is no more than 10 miles from my home.

In other circumstances, the minimum fee charged may be based on a tutorial of 1.5 to 2 hours. I would like to stress, however, that there is no obligation, whatsoever, to continue tuition after the first session and no offense will be taken if you decide after this to use another tutor instead. After the first session, I will consider online tuition instead of face-to-face, should the tutee or their guardian prefer.

For those worried about Covid-19, I'm happy to wear a mask and use sanitising gel with wipes. I've been vaccinated and consider it highly unlikely that, as an older person, I'd be asymptomatic. Most people my age are made ill by it; even those who've been triple-jabbed. I'm happy to submit to a lateral flow test