Martyn

I retired from teaching 10 years ago, where I had been a class teacher and held posts of responsibility form core subject leader for English, Maths and Science, Special Needs co-ordinator and a Behaviour Manager. For the past 20 years I held Headship and Deputy Head-Teacher positions in Solihull LEA.
I have loved working with children for well over 30 years and believe there is no better job - indeed it is a privilege, to work with children. I also know, having had 7 children myself, that they can be challenging and frustrating, as well as wonderfully fulfilling. This can be more so when they are at school and you want to ensure they get the very best chances in life and you try to support them at every opportunity. Placing your trust in a school to foster the academic and social development of your child can mean making difficult choices and sometimes compromises. How to support them with their homework? When to contact school about concerns? Why do schools teach things so differently? All of these questions put parents in sometimes challenging positions. That is where a tutor can help.
As well as answering many of the above questions from an experienced and independent perspective, I am also fully aware that at school your child will get one chance to succeed and we all, at sometime, need just a little support. This can be a short or long term programme of support - a confidence boost or a more structured programme of support.
I am a very caring and supportive teacher who prides himself on preparing an individual support work activities to meet the needs of the tutee and delivered using approaches to match their learning styles and utilising approaches that support their learning.

Tutoring Approach

As a tutor I believe it is important to follow some very key principles.
1. Always start from what the tutee knows. As a tutor you need to identify what he/she can or cannot do. This can mean working closely with their school if agreed/wanted to identify areas they are working on to support school work.
2. Work in an environment where the young person feels safe and comfortable. Very often this is at home in an area to work quietly.
3. Make the learning as much fun as possible and as appropriate to their needs.
4. To create, as quickly as possible, a relationship with the young person. They need to feel safe, assured and at ease - this makes learning and teaching more effective and FUN.

Availability: Most evenings from 15:45 and Saturday mornings up to 12:30

Willing to travel: 5 miles

Experience: Teaching Experience

I have taught in secondary and primary schools for over 30 years. For the last 25 years I have a been a primary school teacher and senior leader specialising in supporting children with special needs and especially those less and more able pupils with English and Maths.
In addition, I was a mentor in local secondary schools where I was responsible for supporting pupils aged 11-16 in a number of curriculum areas. These study skills, exam preparation, as well as, curricular areas like English, maths and science - many of these pupils where tutored on an individual basis.
Over the past 10 years I have tutored over 500 young people, each, with their own individual needs very successfully.
I have successfully tutored over 60 children over the past 3 years in English, Mathematics up to GCSE and entrance examination preparation at 11 and 12.I have also taught young people and adults, English as an additional language, on an individual and group basis and have extensive experience of the 11Plus preparation and examination process.