Andrew

I am an experienced schoolteacher and tutor. I am calm, patient, very clear with targets and have high expectations of myself and the students I work with. During my career, I have also worked extensively with students who have addition needs – learning difficulties. This has been refined with much recent experience in 1:1 tuition/support, of school-aged children as well as adults.

Over the last 10 years my students have had great success with hitting targets and exam results, and over the last 5 years, ALL my students achieved at least 2 grades higher than their school predicted grades. I am immensely proud of this achievement , in particular because many schools, teachers, tutors and students have struggled making the transition to changed syllabuses and issues arising from Covid. Closing the gaps in learning caused by Covid, and poor responses by some schools during that time, are still a key priority.

All this has meant me developing specialised skills in preparing students for exams, and improving not just their knowledge set, but their confidence and exam technique.

Maths is a subject which builds knowledge up from year to year. In each topic, there is a foundation set of knowledge and skills which needs to have no gaps. This means identifying early and quickly, any basic errors or misunderstandings, so they can progress quickly to harder Maths problems. I have therefore developed many diagnostic tests and learning materials to help students with short and medium length revision programmes across all years, particularly formal exam years. Some of this material is very appropriate for last-minute exam revision sessions.

My students’ recent exam results have demonstrated tremendous success here. So, If your child has had recent disappointing scores in school tests or mocks, with exams coming soon round the corner, please don't hesitate in contacting me to provide that last push for better grades.

I will quickly design a personal, individual revision plan to fit your child's strengths and weaknesses. This will be much more effective at helping them to achieve their target in the exams ahead than general sessions run by schools.

Tutoring Experience

35 years teaching experience at a variety of levels - from primary age up to degree level. My main teaching subject has been Maths at all levels up to and including GCSE. My main disability expertise is over 10 years in the areas of Dyslexia and Autistic Spectrum disorders, eg Asperger Syndrome. I have 11 years experience teaching students with these disabilities. As a Home Tutor I have 10 years experience teaching Maths to all levels from Primary Key Stages 1 and 2 through KS3, KS4 (GCSE's) and Adult Maths courses.

Tutoring Approach

My approach is to start with what a student might know - using patient questioning to ascertain the knowledge and the knowledge gaps. This verbal questioning would be supported with written assessed work which I would give detailed feedback on by the next week. I would operate by designing a scheme of work as soon as possible after the first meeting, and trying to keep to it. This scheme would be a balance between covering the Maths the student is doing at school, plus any catch-up necessary to fill in any gaps in previous knowledge. At times, learners bring homework to my sessions, which is fine, but my policy is not to simply do it for them. My priority is to help them answer the questions themselves by patient questioning, re-teaching and helping with planning of work. I am flexible according to student needs, and believe continuous dialogue/reporting to parents on progress is essential.