Alex

I am friendly, happy and active. I love to be outside, walking, in my veg patch, with my animals. I enjoy talking to and getting to know people. I'm passionate about psychology, and take great pride in seeing students learn and love the subject (typically around 75% of my students progress to a psychology related degree). I have always been in a secondary school/ academy setting, heavily involved with sixth form students. I recently moved to a Sixth form College.

Tutoring Experience

I have a wealth of experience in secondary and sixth form settings. I have been a Senior Leader, Director of Sixth Form and Assistant Principle responsible for teaching and learning across the academy. This experience means that I am well placed to support a wide range of students, have a bank of strategies and lots of experience with UCAS/ progression to next steps. As a previous head of department (Social Sciences) I am comfortable with different specifications, both A Level and BTEC options, year planning, interventions etc. I am also an examiner for AQA and have led and supported colleagues through moderations in BTEC/ Extended project. My passion is in the classroom - Psychology is my main subject, but I have been committed to becoming an excellent teacher in a range of subjects over the years (Health and Social Care, Law, Criminology, Extended Project). I believe that 14 years in to teaching, with a legacy of outstanding results and lesson observations, alongside year on year success supporting tutees to improve grades (recently 2 tutees improved from E grades in assessments to achieving A grades, the year before C to A*, D to A) make me a good choice to tutor you/ your child. Although I prefer face to face tutoring, Covid means that I have developed confidence with a range of computer programmes to enable interactive online tutoring, this can be with Zoom/ Skype/ Teams/ Google Classroom for video calls, but also using online tools to enable collaboration, idea sharing, quizzing, assessment etc. So I am happy to do online tutoring, if in person is not an option.

Tutoring Approach

As an experienced teacher, 14 years, with a history of outstanding results across subjects; and 8 years experience as a personal tutor, I have found a way to personalise my teaching practice to meet the needs of my students/ tutees. I spend the first session getting to know my tutee, rating understanding across the specification topics and identifying the skills that are our priority to develop. Each stusnet is different, some needing session which reteach the content, some developing strategies to select key bits of information to then build on, others have a perfect understanding of the subject and need to develop the finer skills to access the higher levels. Through the sessions, we will use a variety of learning, reteaching, memory strategies, revision techniques and practise questions to strengthen understanding. I believe examination technique is the biggest barrier for students, many understanding the basics of the subject but struggling to access the marks in assessments - so this also becomes a priority, to develop transferable skills to gain credit for understanding. Especially since the Covid disruption, confidence is also a priority - building confidence in understanding, application alongside a love of the subject is a key focus. I dint follow a one size fits all approach, instead personalising my tutoring to the needs of the student. I do teach full time, so will be available after 4pm weekdays and weekend mornings.