Margaret

My name is Margaret, and I live in Leven, in Fife. I am available to support learning at Primary level in all aspects of the curriculum, whether your child is struggling with a particular aspect of learning, or is challenged across all curricular areas - or whether, indeed, your child is bored, and would benefit from more stimulation and harder challenges than those currently on offer.

I am also available to tutor High School pupils through all aspects and all stages of English.
I am happy to travel (up to 50 miles round trip) and to tutor students in the comfort of their own home. I am also able to offer tutoring in my home, should that be preferred. Tutoring in my own home is offered at £5 less per hour-long session.

Tutoring Experience

I have been a fully qualified Primary Schoolteacher for 22 years. I am GTC registered, with a full P.V.G.
I have taught in a range of schools throughout Fife, including a two-year stint as a Learning Support Teacher in a Primary school, working specifically with children on the Autistic Spectrum, those with dyslexia and dyscalculia, and with children for whom English is not their first language. I also worked for a number of years at Kip McGrath Tutoring, but found the style to be too prescriptive for my liking. I am currently working in a High School as a Learning Support Teacher with particular responsibilities around ensuring a successful, safe and happy transition from Primary into Secondary.

To date, my tutoring experiences and successes have been spread fairly evenly over both the Primary and the Secondary sectors. English is my first love. Having done Higher and SYS English myself, going on to do an English degree at Edinburgh University, and having run creative writing workshops for all ages, I am confident I can help improve grades, in lessons and in formal exams, and raise justified self-confidence in my students.
Working in Learning Support in both Primary and Secondary schools enables me to assess and identify learning requirements across the curriculum quickly and easily, and to plan effectively for maximum success.

Tutoring Approach

My approach to tutoring is to make the learning fun. If something is interesting, we are much more likely to pay attention to it. Every student needs to feel relaxed and comfortable in the learning environment, or nothing worthwhile will happen. The dynamic of one-to-one teaching allows you to tease out any issues that are tricky, that confuse, that have not been understood, perhaps for years, and to put those right. Once this happens, tutor and student are then well-placed to move forward, working together as a team, to take on new challenges and learn new skills, tucking them safely away for later use. This approach is the opposite of spoon-feeding: it is giving the student a spoon and teaching him/her how to use it, not just in the tutoring session but anywhere, and any time. Successful tutoring produces independent, confident learners, who will pass, when passing is required, and pass well - because they believe, and know, that they can.