Steven

I received a 1st class honours degree in Mathematics in 2009, but despite some tempting options to continue into academia, I had my sights set on playing squash professionally. In 2010 I began competing full time on the PSA World Tour. I made positive strides in my first three years competing, but in 2013 I started accruing injuries, which plagued me for the rest of my career until I decided to stop playing in 2016. I took a working holiday visa to Australia in 2016-17, where I spent half my time tutoring and coaching squash, and the other half cycling around Victoria and Tasmania. I continued journeying about somewhat aimlessly in south-east Asia, arriving back in the UK for Christmas 2017. I continue to play and coach squash alongside tutoring, but not to quite the same level as before, but I would describe myself as strictly a fair weather cyclist these days!

Tutoring Experience

It seems relevant to begin with a post-pandemic preface that I have experience teaching online, initially with English language for Thai children over Zoom, but latterly with several of my face-to-face pupils who have made the transition over to exclusively online.

I have been tutoring one-to-one for 12 years now. I always found time after school to tutor pupils around my training bases, going around the houses after I had finished my own squash training sessions. I tutored Maths and Science at first, with pupils ranging in age from 8-18. Whether they were prospective medical, law or Ivy League undergraduates preparing for their final exams, or younger children whose parents were simply looking for a helping hand with homework, I got to work with a broad mix of students of varying personalities and capabilities. In Australia, I worked for two companies. In particular, I really enjoyed working with Tutorbright, who focused as much on student mentoring as they did tutoring.

It is perhaps worth noting I have also assisted students taking A-level Economics for those looking to pair Maths with Economics in 6th form and have a first aid in the workplace qualification as well as a safeguarding children course with the NSPCC.

Tutoring Approach

The memories I have of all my favourite lessons were ones in which there were no books and no writing. Whether there was a hands on element to the lesson, a captivating story told by our teacher, or group activities and discussion, the common denominator was that the teacher peaked our curiosities (mine at least), and had us completely engaged from start to finish. It didn't feel like normal learning, and yet those lessons I can still remember well, 10-20 years later. Clearly not everybody learns in the same way, and certainly without the right tools, it is difficult to make sense of information, let alone build upon it or have any personal insights. My approach to tutoring involves balancing those types of lessons in which pupils feel they have complete freedom to explore a topic according to what they find interesting, diving down what rabbit holes they will, against developing a disciplined practice of the core concepts of the subject at hand. Whether that is the scientific method, sentence structure and vocabulary, or arithmetic, these are the foundations upon which pupils can start to really enjoy learning, and ultimately begin to direct their own learning. As much as possible I try to refrain from providing answers, electing instead to guide my students through the use of questions so that the discoveries made are their own.