Stephen

Although I have passed the official retirement age, I am young at heart and enjoy working. I hope that I can pass on my experience to others making their way in the world.

After a long career in journalism, I have worked in the education sector for the last 11 years, first as a Cover Supervisor/Learning Support Assistant in a secondary school and a Learning Mentor in a primary school and then, for the last five years, as a private English tutor.

In that five years I have tutored around 40 pupils, most of them in GCSE English but also at KSE 3 and some adult learners. During that time all my GCSE English Language pupils except one passed the exam aftet starting from a low base.

I am a good communicator and get on particularly well with young people - I am also a qualified football coach and have trained a number of school and youth teams.

Although I have passed retirement age, I want to carry on working and have proved that I can be of signicant benefit to students wishing to top up or revise their learning...or who are just plain struggling.

I have a recent Enhanced Certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service, clearing me to work with young people.

Tutoring Experience

English and French to GCSE Level as a Cover Supervisor, English and Maths to SATS level at primary school, plus French as a Learning Mentor. Five years as a successful private tutor

Tutoring Approach

My approach to tutoring is the same as the one I used as a Learning Mentor - get to know the student, find out what makes them tick, and adopt my strategies to fit. Everyone has their own way of learning - my job will be to seek it out and utilise it. I have found that the main problem with under-achieving pupils is confidence and understanding exam techniques. All my English Language students sitting their GCSE in June 2016 had got a D grade or worse in their mock exam. By results time in August all had achieved at least a C - and one even got an A!