Steven

I am a 43 year old maths teacher with nearly 20 years of experience in teaching, education and tutoring. I have wanted to teach from a young age (weirdly!) and see it as a way of giving something back to the local community, as well as having a keen knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject I teach.
I undertook a 3 year teaching degree at Liverpool John Moores University at their IM Marsh Campus in Aigburth between 2000 and 2003 and graduated with a 2:1 with honours in Key Stage 2/3 Mathematics education. My teaching qualification means that I am fully qualified to teach maths between the ages of 11 to 18, in addition to being able to teach upper primary pupils, although it had been nearly 10 years since I last taught in a primary classroom! I also have A Levels in IT, English Language & Literature, Pure Maths & Statistics, General Studies and French in addition to my teaching qualification. I am also a trained exam marker for OCR, marking GCSE Maths exam papers since 2015.

Tutoring Experience

After graduating in 2003, I began my teaching career by doing supply teaching with Select Education (Liverpool), working in a number of short term posts in different schools in Knowsley and Liverpool. I also worked voluntarily for 2 days a week in Prescot Primary school in Knowsley teaching mathematics to a whole class of Year 5 children as well as working with small groups. I also ran booster classes in maths for Year 6 pupils who were Gifted and Talented in the subject (Working towards level 6) in preparation for their National Curriculum tests (SATs).
In September 2004, I began my first full time teaching role at Holly Lodge Girls’ College, passing my NQT induction year in the summer of 2005. Between 2005 and 2006, I was given responsibility for creating a transition unit based on government documentation to help Year 7 pupils to settle in to life in secondary school before they were setted in the subject. During my time there, I gained experience of teaching a wide variety of schemes of work (Key Stage 3, Modular GCSE, Coursework, Linear GCSE) and also taught sixth form GCSE resit classes for 2 years. I was also a form tutor for 5 years carrying my form through from Year 7 to Year 11 and participated in the school PSHE programme where I was involved in designing a unit of work for year 7 pupils with regards to financial management and calculations.
I left Holly Lodge in July 2009 due to my father becoming seriously ill and his subsequent death and took a year out of teaching to begin a family history research project before returning to the profession in September 2010 by working for Celsian Education (Liverpool) as a supply. However work was few and far between so by September 2011, I moved to another agency The Education Specialists. But once again work was far from plentiful. In October 2013, I joined Our Whiston Library Group (OWL) as a campaigner/volunteer with the initial aim of opening in April 2014 in partnership with Hugh Baird College of Bootle, but they withdrew at the last minute leaving our group to make a bid on our own to take over the building. I became vice chair of the group in October 2014. I am also a GCSE exam marker for OCR marking GCSE maths papers since the summer of 2015.

Tutoring Approach

I have been tutoring for nearly 10 years now and my aim is to provide the same approach to tutoring as I did in the classroom. A firm but fair approach with an easy going manner and reasonable expectations of what pupils can do. Recent Ofsted and media reports have heavily criticised the standards of numeracy and maths teaching in the Knowsley and Liverpool areas. My aim is to give something back to these communities. And also to provide support for pupils in my subject during the current COVID19 pandemic. I also have a vast electronic collection of resources as well as books, at my disposal that I have collected over my teaching career.
My tuition rates are lower than the average due to my main target area of Knowsley (Mainly Prescot and Whiston) being a deprived area. I can offer tutoring via Microsoft Teams. Face to face only at short distances & subject to availability.