John

I have been involved in every aspect of education for most of my working life, and that includes bringing up my three children - all of whom I taught! Though I am a qualified teacher with a post graduate degree, I am equally happy working with much younger children. In my spare time, I am a writer and spend as much time as I can on my boat.

Tutoring Experience

Over nearly fifty years, I taught at every age level from Infants to Oxbridge candidates, in maintained and independent schools. My specialist subjects are English, English Literature, Theatre, Film and Media Studies and Classical Civilisation. I have also been a headteacher, a principal, a governor, an examiner, a teacher trainer and school inspector. I am very familar with the demands of entrance exams, SATs, GCSE, AS and A level - and I set up and ran units to help children with special learning needs including dyslexia and English as a Second Language. In recent years I have become more and more involved in tutoring undergraduate and post graduate students in subjects as diverse as Engineering Management and Education.

Skype and Zoom tuition is becoming more and more popular and I am happy to receive enquires from potential students who may not live within travelling distance. Indeed the vast majority of my students are now online and my client list covers three continents.

Tutoring Approach

I believe tutoring needs three things to be successful: a clear goal, a clear plan to get there and a determination - by the student and the tutor - to make it work. A warm personal relationship is important - because that enhances the confidence of the student - and is a motivation in itself. The sessions I run are very interactive, carefully structured to maintain interest and involvement and I provide regular updates and reviews with students and their parents/carers to ensure that the progress which we all want to see - after all this is the ultimate team game! - is being made.

I have an enhanced DBS certificate and up to date Safeguarding training and documentation can be viewed on request at the start of tuition.