Ciaran

I provide maths tutoring for secondary students up to and including GCSE. I work face to face and online.

Feedback from parents show that I am particularly effective with students who struggle with maths - perhaps because they could not learn in a large class or had an additional learning need. I have been giving private tuition locally now for over 8 years. I believe I am a friendly and thorough maths tutor.

"Ciaran is a calm, patient tutor who was able to empathise with my son who struggles with maths. He prepared for each lesson and always had practical methods to try to help my son understand the different aspects of maths. He is reliable and flexible and I would highly recommend him as a tutor." Mrs Caroline June 2017 Redhill

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Tutoring Experience

My experience of students struggling with maths has led me to a concrete approach to introducing the subject to students, when appropriate. For example, to introduce fractions, I have used a bar of chocolate with 10 divisions - this gives a student a concrete feel of what 1/10 means. I avoid rushing to words such as numerator and denominator but check and build up their understanding of the maths areas. There is no point in just repeating words and formulas the student has failed to grasp at school. I also take my lead from the student, when they get an incorrect answer, I find out their thinking, how they got to that answer and help them unpick their error and hence be successful.

I have tutor online successfully since Covid. I use a specific tuition software called Bramble for this- it maximises student privacy if required by blocking video contact. Most maths topics can be taught online- geometry is a bit tricky so i prefer face to face for that area.

For 3 years I was part of a team working for Surrey County Council. I taught English and Maths to reluctant students, year 10s and 11s, who had been excluded from school. In 2015-16, I taught year 11 students in a secondary school in Kent. There, I worked with the students 1:1 or in pairs on their GCSE foundation maths content. I work for Edexcel examining board as a marker for their GCSE foundation maths, i marked paper 3 this summer, 2024. This has given me valuable insight into how students gain or lose marks in their exams. I share this insight with students as strategies to gain most marks

I have worked in education all my career I started teaching in a comprehensive school in Kentish Town, London. I have worked in Adult and Further Education colleges I worked as manager for Additional Learning Support- this has given me insight and experience in a wide range of learning difficulties and disabilities. I was Head of Department for English and Maths in our local college, East Surrey, where I also taught Foundation GCSE maths and Functional skills at all levels.

My experience is that it takes time for a young person to learn maths, practise it and hence be confident that they can perform well in formal assessments. The sooner we can start the tutoring , the better chance a young person will have to be successful in their exams.

Tutoring Approach

"Nina was very excited when she learned that we do not have to suspend tuition and that she will start having the lessons online. You managed to bring joy of doing mathematics back to her. It is so nice to see Nina's smile when she is doing mathematics including school homework."

Dad of year 5 student March 2020 Reigate