Finlay

Hello, I'm here to help you with your academic goals and interests. I specialized in quantum and experimental physics so, if you are interested, we can spend time after the lesson discussing that. Lessons are fun with me. If you've read what I've done so far, you'll see it involves a wide range of people and the common ground I've found with them all is they want to have fun and so do I. Interesting about me is that I'm an ultra-endurance athlete. I've walked the length of Wales, Ireland and New Zealand solo and carrying ALL of the equipment I'd need. I also hunted for and foraged about half the food I ate. I met some pretty interesting characters out in the wilds of those countries and have been approached to write a book about my journeys so far. Next is walking the length of Australia!

Tutoring Experience

500+ hours tutoring physics and maths to 5 different students aged 7-18
1 year teaching SEND and rehab groups horticulture
1 year teaching primary school children basic medical knowledge (Teddy bear hospital)

Tutoring Approach

Your student's academic development is the priority. Lessons take an individual student-centered approach, designed to optimize engagement. Experience: 500+ hours tutoring all levels of physics and math to 7 different students. 1 year teaching SEN and rehab groups horticulture. 1 year educating primary school children on basic medical knowledge. The trial lesson I use to assess where your student is and would like to be academically. After that, lessons will be focused on building enthusiasm for studying the subjects and improving on the weaker spots of the student's abilities. I will encourage them to do extra preparation/revision if necessary but that is not the primary goal of our lessons. We will also develop methods specific to your student which help them at their subject. The lesson structure varies. For example, one past student was having lessons during summer holidays to get ahead on the content for the final year of high school. So, in lessons we would approach new topics and consolidate on them but the most important thing for this particular student was building confidence and problem-solving skills. Within the first lesson, we established that they could easily repeat a method after seeing it done 10 minutes beforehand but struggled to remember the method longer-term. After three lessons, he had the confidence to begin using one method, the ability to assess whether it was going in a favorable direction and then either stop and change the approach or carry on. He'd even find himself getting excited when a formula he knew appeared out of the algebra and the rest of the problem was like the end of a solitaire game - just putting things in the right place. Another student needed to ask lots of questions about the intricate details of why things are the way they are so rather than move from topic to topic according to a lesson plan, I had to learn how to guide the answers to his questions in a way that brought up all the necessary learning outcomes. Teaching SEN, rehab groups and primary school children gave me lots of experience teaching a very wide variety of people and developed my skill of quickly assessing how someone learns and how to make the process enjoyable for them. Ways I achieve this can be asking them seemingly impossible questions with frustratingly obvious answers, pushing them far out of their comfort zone to do things they are very much capable of, maintaining an enthusiastic approach to the content and not pushing the student too far every single lesson.