Linda

I have worked as an English teacher for over twenty years, recently retiring but continuing to work, both as a long term cover teacher working in a variety of different comprehensive schools which keeps me in touch with the changes being made in the English curriculum and as a tutor. I have tutored students of all ages,
enabling older students to get the grades they need to enter the college of their choice, and developng the confidence of the younger students.

Tutoring Experience

I have had experience of working with key stage three and four, as well as students with special needs, both as a classroom teacher and a tutor . This has shown me that I need to understand the student's strengths and weaknesses and what needs working on, so appropriate work can be prepared and adapted to the individual student; therefore I like to see a piece of the student's work ,so would ask them to write an A4 piece about themselves, and what they would like to develop. This can be emailed to me so I can have idea of what we need work on(The spelling and grammar check should not be used) I am an experienced marker so understand how important it is to ensure work is marked and the student is given an idea of how they are improving, so the student and the parents can see when progress is made.

Tutoring Approach

My approach to home tutoring is that the students should feel confident and happy to work with me knowing that they will make good progress. Most schools work hard at enabling students to meet their targets, however if a student has fallen behind, or is struggling they might gain confidence by having that extra boost. The usual weakness in English are the skills needed to structure a piece of writing, this is what they will need for both GCSE exams and end of year exams. Some students may have started comprehensive schools without these skills having been put in place, so need to learn them, some need a refresher as they may have forgotten them and need to refresh them, and some simply struggle, so need that one to one tuition to develop their confidence.