Thomas

A 29 year old professional with a passion for maths, science and teaching. I am originally from Wigston, Leicester and moved back to my hometown after studying for my degrees.
I have always enjoyed helping people to learn and succeed - and my career so far reflects this. After 4 years of teaching maths and science up to A level at a mainstream school and an SEN specialist provision school, I now tutor full-time for local schools, councils and a local tuition hub.
I have availability from June until September, due to lower demand for tuition directly after the May/June exam season.

Tutoring Experience

During my A Levels I provided my college with voluntary GCSE Maths tuition for 18 months, which involved teaching students with a wide range of academic ability. I also tutored a few A Level students throughout my time at university. During this time I developed many effective tutoring techniques that I would like to share with more students.
More recently I have worked as a Maths Tutor and Teaching Assistant at The Winstanley School in Braunstone (2018) and taught secondary school Science and Maths classes at The Kibworth School and Montsaye Academy during my PGCE Course. I later returned to The Winstanley School to continue my role as a Maths Tutor (2019) and have since worked part-time for a tutoring company called The Learning Hub LFE and Overdale Infants school.
I then taught KS3 Maths and Science at Montsaye Academy, however I prefer working with smaller groups of students and feel that tuition is where I can help young people the most.
I then decided to pivot towards SEN teaching to learn more about Autism, ADHD and other SENs that can lead to barriers to learning.
The experience I have gathered over the years has honed my teaching skills and I am now very confident in my ability to guide KS3-5 students of any age or ability to obtain the grade they deserve, which is further reflected by the achievements of my previous tutees.

Tutoring Approach

I like to start by introducing each topic, giving a general outline and an explanation of its potential applications, as well as linking new concepts to familiar ones (this helps to keep students in their 'zone of proximal development' - a teaching term that refers to the correct level of challenge for effective learning to take place). After the student understands the basic concepts, I have found that using a hands on approach yields the best results. This could be through the use of practice questions and exam style questions, or even discussions about recent interesting developments linked to the topic. I also find that conversation and appropriate humour is key to ensuring that the tutee engages with the content being covered, which helps to promote understanding rather than just memorisation. This general approach can of course be adapted to suit the individual needs and learning styles of each student.