Fiona

Free First Session! I am Cambridge-educated with a masters degree, an experienced qualified private school teacher and a professional marker of exam papers. I am new to the FirstTutors website but have been carrying out private tuition of Biology for over 14 years. I am stepping away from teaching in the classroom, so am looking to gain more tutees at the moment.

Tutoring Experience

I attended the University of Cambridge, obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Natural Sciences, before gaining a Master’s degree in Cardiovascular Science from UCL and becoming a fully-qualified teacher with a Biology PGCE and QTS. I have taught for over 8 years at several independent schools including Godolphin and Latymer School, Queen’s College London and Latymer Upper School. I also have 14 years of tutoring experience; I became a tutor following the completion of my A levels, after achieving straight A*s myself in Biology, Chemistry and Maths. My experiences over the past decade or so mean I collectively have 9000+ teaching/tutoring hours under my belt.

I am now a full-time tutor. I have a very thorough teaching approach; I have had several academic years go by with over 90% of my Year 11 students achieving an A* (level 8/9) grade in their GCSEs, and one year where 100% of my Year 11 students achieved an A* grade. I have also had individual tutees progress from achieving Cs to achieving an A*.

Additionally, I also mark exam papers professionally for multiple different exam boards, so am fully aware of how a student can be most successful when answering exam questions.

Tutoring Approach

I am an enthusiastic, organised, and approachable tutor. I plan, prepare and deliver all of my sessions to a high standard. I use various forms of verbal and written assessment to identify a student’s areas of strength and weakness early on and monitor their progress throughout our time together. I have excellent subject knowledge and am able to break down, explain and simplify complicated content into a digestible form for my students, whilst getting rid of misconceptions. I ensure that my sessions are tailored to the student’s specific exam board (Edexcel, OCR, AQA, WJEC etc.) and create a shared doc of the specification in order to mark off statements together with my students as content is covered - this allows students to take ownership of their learning and ensures parents can keep track and feel confident in their child’s progress. I make use of repetitive recall of content and frequent exam question practice to consolidate information into the student’s long term memory. I also focus on exam technique to ensure my students feel confident walking into their exams with the knowledge that they understand not only the
content but are able to demonstrate their mathematical, analytical, graph and experimental skills. I also provide detailed notes that students can use independently in their own time to further consolidate the information. In addition to raising student attainment I re-instil interest in the subject of Biology resulting, in many cases, in my students choosing a Biology-related course for their higher education.

I have taught and tutored remotely countless times over the past few years and have been told that my online teaching is excellent. I have a 2 camera set-up so that students are able to see me and a close-up of the whiteboard that I use to explain content. I have lots of experience explaining difficult content to students online, marking work using a shared doc during sessions and going over the content so that all misconceptions are fully understood. I am quick and efficient, so that all my online sessions run smoothly.

No matter a student’s initial ability, I will provide them with the knowledge and tools they need to allow them to progress towards their desired grade.