How I Teach
Firstly, I will create a safe and comfortable learning environment for you. Once this has been established, we can assess the challenges you face in your day-to-day learning and how I can help you with this. Secondly, it is your learning journey, and I am simply there to guide you and facilitate this the best way I can. Finally, please do not be afraid to make mistakes! Learning can be overwhelming at the best of times and be secure in the knowledge that it is ok to fail. I build my relationships based on respect, empathy and understanding and will harness this to help you move forward in your learning.
Learn about “what i teach” by clicking here.
Read My Case Study's
Olivia was in year 6 when her parents contacted me for extra tuition. Olivia’s confidence was at rock bottom and she was finding the stress of her SATS overwhelming. Olivia was academically bright and often performed well in school assessments. There was a steep decline in her progress at school as the stress of exams was becoming a burden. When I met Olivia, I could tell she was finding it all a bit overwhelming. We spent time getting to know each other and I took her through some mini assessments to identify her learning needs. Olivia was extremely hesitant to suggest answers unless she was 100% sure she was correct. When sensing her anxiety around this issue, I assured her that if I ask her what 1 + 1 is and she forgets…it’s ok! This approach relaxed Olivia and whenever she was unsure, I said it was ok. This is a philosophy I apply with all my students and it underpins the work I do. Olivia’s parents were encouraged by the improvement in her confidence and we continued progressing through more challenging year 6 problems. The most important thing was that Olivia got herself to a place whereby she felt little to no anxiety around her SATS tests and was able to complete them all with minimal stress. Olivia also performed very well in her SATS and had a successful finale to her primary school education.
Tom was a troubled individual with a fairly extensive history of offending. He struggled with a range of mental health conditions and ultimately found it very difficult to cope with the challenges of everyday life. A lot of the work I do varies greatly, and one thing that never changes is my approach: a positive, understanding, diligent and respectful ideology designed to put people at ease and enable a strong working relationship to form. Tom had ambitions to be in regular work and wanted to reconnect with his family. The work we did was all around routine and ways of dealing with conflict, both internally and externally. Things will never be straight forward for Tom and he now has a number of coping mechanisms to deal with some of the everyday scenarios that most of us take for granted. Tom now has regular work and is able to adapt more freely to societal norms.
James was 15, in a difficult personal situation and living in care. The local authority contacted me and explained that James had ambitions to take on a college course and needed to pass his Maths GCSE examination. James has complex needs, which contributed to the difficulty he had coping in a school setting. Upon meeting James, we got to know each other and developed a strong working relationship. Trust is something that underpins all the work I do, and developing this was vital when helping him progress. Regarding his education, James was unaware of the qualification he was studying for, when the exam would be, the conditions under which the exam would be taken…basically there was ambiguity at every juncture.
The first thing I did was to talk to him about his experiences regarding exams and any particular triggers that can affect how he responds when in that scenario. After the first session, we developed a plan together which centered around developing an understanding of what James needed to learn, techniques to deal with stressful situations and an agreement to take one step at a time. Often, these discussions and meeting new people can be overwhelming for young people and therefore developing a safe and positive learning environment is essential. James applied himself brilliantly throughout the whole process, and it’s important to be clear that there were a lot of challenges along the way. James managed to pass his GCSE examination and went on to study his college course.
Please be aware that the names used have been changed to maintain data privacy.