Tom

Hi, I'm Tom. I'm a teacher and writer living in Sheffield.

Tutoring Experience

I have more than ten years' experience of teaching and tutoring in further, higher and adult education. In my current job at Sheffield College, I work 1-1 with students to help them with their GCSE Maths and English. I also work with the College's Access to Higher Education students to help them improve their study skills before they enter university.

Before working at Sheffield College, I was a tutor in adult education, teaching short courses on literature and culture to adult learners for CityLit and the WEA. And before that, I was a English lecturer at Oxford University.

I am therefore able to support students in a range of topics and levels, including GCSE and A Level English and university-level academic skills. Thanks to my experience of the Oxford admissions system--including interviewing applicants and assessing their entrance materials--I can also offer sessions on preparing Oxbridge applications.

Tutoring Approach

A lot of the time, students feel like education is something being done to them, rather than it being an open-ended and collaborative process. It is always important to focus on the requirements of a course and any upcoming assessments, but my approach to tutoring is also rooted in a belief that learners should have meaningful control over what and how they learn, and that all the education we engage in can be beneficial to our lives in multiple ways. It is vital to me to get to know each student and their interests, in order to find ways to engage them and help them to be proactive and enthusiastic learners.