Steve

I am a qualified secondary school Maths teacher who has been teaching and tutoring for over 20 years. I particularly excel in helping students to gain greater confidence in Maths and have many excellent references (about 40 in total) from delighted parents and I always achieve excellent results. I specialise in GCSE but have also had great success with younger secondary age children.
I am a people-person, easy to get along with, with a good sense of humour and a relaxed manner.
I have 2 daughters, one of whom is also a teacher, and one grandson, whom I adore and see regularly. I keep active, regularly playing badminton, cycling on and off road, swimming, dancing and walking in the countryside. I take an interest in current affairs, politics and environmental matters.
I generally have a positive outlook on life coupled with high levels of energy and, of course, an infectious enthusiasm for Maths. I am extremely organised, a fastidious time-keeper and have a high degree of integrity.

Tutoring Experience

I am new to this area and new to this website so have no reviews on this site. On my first visit to you however, which is free, I can show you over 40 excellent reviews, 15 from another tutoring website, and others in hard copy and as texts, from parents who have come to me directly as a result of recommendations.
Since making a career change from accountancy into teaching, I have taught in secondary schools, state and private, for 9 years from 2005 to 2013. Since then I have been tutoring, as well as spending one year (2022/23) teaching part-time in a special school and more recently working back in state schools on a temporary basis.
I was also a GCSE Examiner for 2 years, in 2017 and 2018.

Tutoring Approach

My first priority is to put my students at ease. I do this very naturally as I seem to have an affinity with young people, treating them with respect, showing them my sense of humour and explaining the main differences between tutoring and classroom learning, which are (1) one to one teaching is done exactly at the student's pace, and (2) there is absolutely no judgement, without the worry of what the rest of their classmates think of them, so creating a completely safe place to learn.
My main objective for most students is to build confidence. That has to come before knowledge and understanding can come through. Without confidence, there is the biggest obstacle to learning - fear; fear of getting it wrong, fear of criticism. I get beyond that through: showing them respect and making it clear that I am completely non-judgemental; endless patience; a good sense of humour; gentle encouragement to have a go (even if you're not sure); and by giving positive responses whatever answer is given. Thereby, the student moves from "I can't do Maths", "I hate algebra" etc. to that Eureka moment of understanding, often accompanied by "Oh, it's not that hard is it".
We learn most by making mistakes, so I encourage students to take risks; risk getting it wrong, risk giving it your best guess even if you're not sure. As much as possible I try to get students to work things out for themselves, and even if they get it wrong, the fact that they have really thought about it means that they are likely to be able to correct it with just a little help. They thereby gain a good understanding and are more likely to remember it next time.