Sandra

I have dedicated my life to teaching and learning and still love both. As a tutor, I am gentle and encouraging, recognising the potentially vulnerable position of the student, and often needing to break down long-held negative self beliefs. I am naturally methodical and organised and I am often told I am very patient. During my teacher training and early teaching years, I learned a lot about how children best learn but I realised a lot more during my time as a home-educating parent and absorbed even more in my NLP Master Practitioner training. I have registered as a tutor prepared to travel a few miles, in case a local potential student has particular needs, but currently I teach all my students online.

Tutoring Experience

I have been a private tutor (in person and online, with individuals and groups) since 2004. Having gained an Honours Degree in Pure Mathematics and a PGCE, I went into primary school teaching. Later, I home-educated my own children from infancy, including teaching them Spanish to A* at GCSE in one year whilst teaching myself. After a year studying Spanish at a college to A grade at A level, in September 2003, I began teaching Spanish to adults at a local college, using the course that I designed. and subsequently have developed over several years. I have studied and practised NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) to Master Practitioner level, which has further enriched my learning and teaching skills. I have been tutoring children in maths and English privately since 2005 and have taught English to speakers of other languages and adult numeracy and literacy classes.

Tutoring Approach

Above all, I aim for the learner to feel good about themselves, through acknowledging every little success, and my students soon begin to trust that it is safe to risk mistakes and can move confidently into unfamiliar territory. I have a structured but non-pressured approach and like to keep the atmosphere light whilst keeping clear focus on each task. Often, my students and I find laughter comes into our lessons too. I aim to be seen by the student as someone 'on their side', building confidence and stretching the student to reach their potential. The content of any primary maths / English lesson follows the learner's individual needs. It is invaluable in private lessons to be able to explain a topic until understood and to explore maths topics in a hands-on way with various resources. Particularly in maths, topics often need frequent revision, like keeping the plates all spinning, which we can do according to the individual student. I am happy to run lessons in friendship groups to reduce the cost per student.