Jessica

I am an enthusiastic and effective tutor offering tutoring in a range of subjects including Maths and English. I have over 300 hours of admissions tutoring experience as well as tutoring in other subjects including Politics, Philosophy and Economics. I have an extended TEFL qualification and have taught English in Spain. I graduated from Oxford University last year with a high 2:1 in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. I specialise in tutoring university admissions, this includes: supporting students in writing their personal statements, helping to prepare students for Oxford entrance examinations (specifically the TSA), interview coaching and mock interviews for subjects relating to Politics, Philosophy and Economics. I achieved 68 in the TSA in 2017 and was accepted to all the universities I applied to using my personal statement (Oxford, Durham, Warwick, Manchester, York). As a student I volunteered as a student ambassador for Mansfield College, Oxford and participated in Q and As for prospective students.

Tutoring Experience

2021-now Admissions Tutor
• Over 180 hours of experience tutoring university admissions including personal statement help, TSA preparation and interview preparation.
• Through the tutoring I have done for UniAdmissions I have built up a bank of resources including a range of varying mock interviews for Politics, Philosophy and Economics and adjacent subjects.
• I have run two full day courses and one half-day intensive course preparing students for the TSA.
2021 Live-in tutor, Madrid
• Tutored English to three Spanish children aged 9, 11 and 13 for 10 hours a week and to their mother (aged 39) for two hours a week.
• Prepared activities to work on areas that each of the children wished to improve upon and kept them engaged with games and subjects that they found interesting.
2017-2021 Part-time tutor, Richard Hemsley, Leeds
• Tutored GCSE and A-level Spanish to my brother.
• Focused on improving his conversational Spanish and expanding his vocabulary through themed conversations, role-play and debates in line with the syllabus.
2019-2020 Student Ambassador, Mansfield College, Oxford
• Completed training in access work, safe-guarding and child protection.
• Participated in Q&A sessions with prospective students and increased my own knowledge of the admissions process.
2019 Au Pair, Madrid
• Tutored English to three boys aging from age 6 to age 15 for 15 hours (an hour a day to each child) a week for a month.
• Kept the boys engaged in their lessons with a range of activities such as role playing, creative story-telling and charades, focused on improving grammar and vocab through frequent testing and incorporating common mistakes into activities.
• Looked after the boys in the afternoons.
2018 Volunteer teacher, Sexpression, Oxford
• Completed training to become a volunteer sexual education teacher.
• Did not end up doing any lessons for Sexpression because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but gained valuable insight into teaching and safe-guarding through the training.
2018 Volunteer, KEEN, Oxford (a charity which organises inclusive activities for children)
• Worked with children with various learning difficulties and disabilities.
• Worked as part of a team to ensure that activities ran smoothly.
2017 Volunteer teaching assistant, Prince Henry’s Grammar School, Leeds
• Supported struggling students and helped the teacher to deliver engaging history lessons at GCSE level

Tutoring Approach

My teaching approach depends on both the student and the subject, I tailor my lessons as much as possible to the needs and interests of the students.

When supporting students in their university applications I get an understanding of the student's strengths and weaknesses as well as their interests in relation to the subject they are applying for. This allows me to prepare sessions and provide recommendations which focus on deepening their interest in those areas or even finding areas that they find most interesting (which is crucial when building a personal statement and preparing for interview). I also create sessions which specifically focus on improving their areas of weakness and ensure that I provide in depth feedback following every session so that the student knows what they can do to improve. My first session when it comes to interview preparation will involve understanding where the student is at in terms of their preparation and confidence surrounding the interview and then running a mock interview with feedback. I allow how the student did in this mock interview to guide the following sessions.

When teaching English this involves taking time to understand the English level of the student, the reason they are learning English and their hobbies and interests. With this knowledge I am able to create engaging lessons and activities which help the student to progress in their learning. English lessons tend to focus on speaking activities including a lot of discussion, debate and story-telling games.