Chris

I am a positive, professional and approachable PGCE qualified teacher with a background in special needs education. I have a BSc degree in Psychology, and built on particular interests in this area to gain a MEd degree in Autism through part time study, while working with children with this condition.

I have particular knowledge and aptitude in the scientific field, along with a passion for literature and a talent for inspiring enthusiasm for reading and writing in my pupils. I am also confident in mathematics, with experience of teaching this to higher GCSE level in a motivating and practical way.

Tutoring Experience

I have ten years experience working in small group contexts and one-to-one tuition, primarily with children with higher-functioning autism spectrum difficulties in special education. In this context, my teaching has previously been rated as 'outstanding' by a range of sources, including Ofsted. This has included planning and teaching science, mathematics and English to higher GCSE level. I am particularly experienced at getting results with hard to motivate or underachieving pupils, with many successes helping pupils make substantial and unprecedented progress, in many cases to upper GCSE grade boundaries.

I have worked with mainstream primary pupils and am also fully aware of the curricular needs of mainstream secondary pupils. I am familiar with the standards required to achieve GCSE grades up to and including A*, as well as those found at P-Level, KS1, KS2 and KS3, and confident in my ability to help move pupils towards any required goal along this spectrum.

I now have experience of regular private tutoring during evenings and weekends for over two years (plus intermittent experience before this point), which has included experience of Primary, Secondary and A-Level home-tutoring. All of my clients to date have been very positive and highly satisfied with the service I have been able to provide.

Tutoring Approach

I believe it is important to build strong positive working relationships with my pupils when teaching, something which I have proved very adept at doing without losing focus on the task at hand. I emphasise motivating, engaging and inspiring my pupils through creative teaching and practical involvement; where a pupil can be helped to become enthusiastic and intrinsically motivated by a subject, learning seems to follow easily. Given my background in specialist settings, I focus on tailoring teaching to the individual and their particular needs. I prefer to customise work carefully to specific individual requirements as opposed to textbooks or standardised materials, where possible. I also place particular emphasis on good assessment practices, making sure to identify the exact current abilities of pupils, to properly establish appropriate next steps and measure progress.