Sam

I have been a teacher of Science specialising in chemistry for 12 years. I have a track record of excellent GCSE and A-Level results teaching in comprehensive schools in the midlands area. I have also tutored privately in this time and can provide excellent references from both private students and schools. I have also worked as a senior leader within schools helping to develop the school and staff in their practice.

Chemistry is my speciality, to an A-Level standard, but I also regularly teach physics to a GCSE level in schools. I have taught and tutored KS3, GCSE and A-Level students through all of the sciences.
Outside of teaching I enjoy extreme sports, everyday sports and playing music.

Tutoring Experience

I first started tutoring 5 years ago when I dropped down to a part time teacher for a year so I could help with the raising of my newborn. I continued to tutor once going back to full time teaching because of continued demand for my services in the local area and my enjoyment of it. I had already been a teacher for 7 years at this point so the transition was simple.

My lessons begin with finding out misconceptions and gaps in knowledge through a variety of methods from a simple chat to a quick, fun, quiz game. These gaps or misconceptions are then addressed and newly acquired knowledge applied to a new scenarios to cement it to long term memory. Where necessary this then leads to exam practice use of this knowledge.

Teaching is all about having strong positive relationships so that learners feel confident to give things a go and make mistakes. I focus on this as a concept and then couple this with the use of varied tasks, application of knowledge to new scenarios and targeted intervention for individual needs rather than teaching the same lesson over and over.

Tutoring Approach

In teaching my greatest achievement is taking a comprehensive school from below average A-Level results to being in the top 5% of results in the country for 3 years straight; facilitating 3 students in that time to reach an oxbridge university. One of my proudest moments tutoring is meeting a year 11 told by her school she wouldn’t be able to A-Level chemistry because of her ability, her parents did not agree. With tutoring throughout year 11 She achieved a grade 9 in her GCSE, up from a 6. Then with tutoring throughout A-Levels she achieved and A and now studies a Chemical engineering at university.

Teaching science allows for deeper understand of the world around us and I love linking the real world to the Science we are learning. Teaching is best achieved when it becomes a 2 way dialogue and linking to the real world achieves this. I enjoy the surprise of young people when they find out new information and gain understanding of how science links to their life. I also take great pride when students achieve what they set out to, whether that be an exam grade, or simply improving their confidence in the subject.

My favourite thing about being a tutor is taking students who are usually feeling a lack of confidence or disinterest in a subject and turning this around. Usually students come looking for a tutor because they feel they do not understand the subject or their grades are not where they want them to be and I have not had a private tuition student yet that hasn’t improved both grades and confidence and this fills me with great pride.

If I had to describe my teaching philosophy it would be that I believe every student has the capability to achieve and understand science; it is the job of the educator to find the method by which this is possible. Every student learns in a unique way and only through strong positive relationships between learner and educator can the best method for the learner be discovered.