Jayden

I excelled at A-level Maths and Further Maths (A* and A) and have experience volunteering (both in-person and virtually) for the charity Action Tutoring, teaching maths to year 6, 7, and 11 to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds (currently doing this for 3hrs/week).

The resources Action Tutoring provide are great as they have structured templates that include diagnostic questions (to assess what misconceptions a pupil has), fun problem-solving questions to mix up sessions, and exercises that introduce a new topic slowly. This has given me a fantastic insight into how to slowly boost a pupil`s confidence in a subject that they might not particularly enjoy!

One example was when I was teaching fractions, decimals, and percentages to two year 6 pupils. Converting between these 3 representations of numbers can be difficult and overwhelming as converting from (say) a fraction to a decimal requires a different technique when doing it the other way around. It is a fantastic feeling when I can help a struggling pupil get their head around this!

This example also helps with struggling year 11 pupils who might`ve forgotten what they learnt 4-5 years ago. Going back to these types of questions definitely improve their confidence as well since mathematics is a very linear subject (i.e. if you struggle with one area of maths, chances are you will struggle with many other areas - this explains why `I can`t do maths` is a common conclusion amongst pupils).

I was also a pupil who didn`t enjoy maths (until around college). I think maths is presented as an arbitrary list of rules to follow, rather than being an expression of pure logic. I believe almost all children enjoy problem solving and puzzles - if maths can be framed as interesting and logical, then that would go a long way into getting children interested and engaged!

Helping children reach their potential (by boosting their confidence and thinking of interesting ways to frame questions) is the main reason why I have (successfully) applied to do a PGCE this September.

Availability: Quite flexible: available Monday-Thursday mornings/early-afternoon, and Friday + Saturday all day.

Willing to travel: 1 miles

Experience: A* and A in A-level Maths and Further-maths, University of Bristol graduate (studying BSc Economics). I have previously offered voluntary GCSE maths tutoring for Action Tutoring for a full term.