Charlotte

• Qualified and experienced teacher, with an excellent track record of success, specialising in Psychology AS and A2 (CRB checked).
  
• My students frequently get the maximum UMS marks in their exams.
  
• I offer a free first session over the phone to find out your particular needs and to ensure you are happy with the service I provide. This first free session will include a "getting to know you" section, but also requires you to send me some work beforehand to look over and to discuss.
• Availability: weekends and most weekdays both during the daytime and the evening. Please contact me to check my current availability.
• NB DBS checks came in very recently - and are only possible to obtain if you are a company/employer checking a potential new employee. I have an enhanced CRB certificate issued in 2010 should you wish to see it.

Tutoring Experience

I specialise in the OCR syllabus, having been a marker for two of their papers for some years. If you are doing the Cambridge Pre-U or the International A-Level from Cambridge, these are very similar to the OCR specification (or rather they are almost entirely the pre-2008 spec) and I am very familiar with their content and assessment requirements, having started teaching Psychology from the post-2000 specifications (which was when the government introduced AS exams and removed the old linear style A-level). However, I have also taught and tutored the AQA-A, WJEC and Edexcel specifications.
I have been teaching in both the state and the independent sector for 8 years, rising to being Head of Department at a prestigious all-girls independent school before taking a career break to move due to my husband's job (October 2014).

Tutoring Approach

I offer tutoring for Psychology at AS and A2 level on either an ongoing basis or for a few intensive revision sessions. Generally a typical session involves a taught section, where I go over some content, before moving on to working through sample questions and answers. Ideally, students will prepare some written work for us to go through together, mark and improve. I never schedule students immediately after each other, leaving at least 30 minutes in between to ensure that no session is ever rushed. I find that students tend to get most out of a session of 90 minutes or 2 hours in length, as one hour tends not to be quite long enough, but more than 2 can result in information overload and exhaustion. However, I have had students who benefited from 3 hour sessions, so please do reflect on your own needs and ability to concentrate before deciding on session length.

You may be aware that all exam boards have entirely different assessment requirements and cover different content for Psychology at both AS and A2. It is really important that you choose a tutor who not only knows the exam board assessment requirements you are preparing to sit for, but also has the content knowledge to explain the subject matter you need to know for you in a concise way (and not lots of superfluous information which is nice to know for university application, but not essential for the exam questions, which are frequently limited to exactly what the specification indicates as suitable content and no more).

I exclusively provide online tutoring, in one of two formats:

Essay/Exam Support: I am able to provide essay/exam support via email and skype/phone, whereby essays/exam questions are written in your own time, you email them to me (either typed or scanned), I mark them before our session, and then we discuss how to improve them over the phone. This works well as a model for students looking to receive tutoring in the two months or so before the actual exams.

Distance Teaching: I am also able to email resources and teach from my scheme of work where I email you the powerpoint and other handouts for a specified topic, and we both have these documents open on the computers in front of us while discussing the content over the phone. I will set you preparation work to do in advance of any session which may involve reading, visiting websites to read something in particular, or watching documentaries on youtube/vimeo. This works very well as a model for continuous tutoring throughout the year.

Usually every one hour of actual tutoring time includes at least an extra 30 minutes' of preparation time which is not billed separately, so when thinking about the rates I charge, factor this in to your equation. Some tutors do not prepare for their sessions, expecting students to direct the sessions by bringing their school work to the sessions to go over again, or to simply support and help out with homework. Some tutors charge separately for preparation or extra marking time. I believe tutoring is essentially the same as teaching, and will treat it in the same way that I do my own teaching practice at schools - which includes preparation, marking and communication with parents.

TUTORING AGENCIES/SIXTH FORM COLLEGES: please note that I am not looking to register with any tutoring agencies, nor am I looking for a part-time lecturing/teaching post.