Jon

1997: Graduated as a teacher from Westminster College, Oxford.
2012: Completed the CertEd in Mathematical Development Programme for Teachers from Univ. Wolverhampton.
2020: Various online courses from the Open University about online learning.

The above represents my credentials and qualifications to be here on First Tutors right now. However, I'm sure you will agree, that these only tell a small part of the story.

To me, the things that best describe me are qualities such as motivational, friendly, flexible, patient, (un)funny, genuine, inspiring. I'm also human, meaning that last paragraph was difficult to write, as I'm not comfortable 'bigging myself up'. I'm not perfect, but I have a deep and real passion to bring out the best in young people, and, I do have a track record for achieving this, both in school and privately.

I also must state that I'm a huge music fan, and like most things, but mainly guitar led rock/metal (don't worry though, I'm very housetrained). I'm also a big dog fan, and have 5 of my own (2 greyhounds, cairn terrier and two cairn/border crosses).

Tutoring Experience

10 years primary, working to support and develop maths. music and ICT in the various schools.

3 years supply teaching, working in long and short term posts covering all ages from nursery to year 6.

11 years and counting teaching maths from Year 7 low ability up to GCSE Grade 9 (and beyond, with Core Maths).

Tutoring Approach

At the moment with my tutees, I am trying to work in three main strands:

• Establish what things have been going well, and more significantly, where you have struggled during the past year with lockdown. This will be done through age appropriate check ups, as well as discussing the past few months to gauge your own feelings on the work.

• Help you to master these skills, so that you are in no way ‘disadvantaged’ by the lockdown experience. This may involve going over work you’ve tried and struggled with, or re-teaching the concepts from scratch.

• Push ahead with new material, which may involve supporting the class teacher’s work in class, or supporting with homework, helping with revision etc. Basically, I want to help you to not drop back at all.

My sessions are based on fun, and I aim to build confidence and enjoyment of the subject. They are all led by yourself, as in content, pace etc. When we work together, I am here to serve you.

If you’ve got any questions, please do ask, and I hope we can try to sort something out.