Nicholas

Hello, my name is Nick, and I have been teaching English since 2002 when I gained my QTS.

The vast majority of my experience has been in classroom teaching in a wide range of schools across South, West and North Yorkshire. I have taught both KS3 and KS4 English to students of all abilities. I also have experience of working in post-16 training centres, tutoring students prior to retaking their GCSE English exams. In addition to this, I have taught GCSE Media Studies and Film Studies.

More recently, from January 2021 I worked as a supply teacher for a school in the Bradford area, preparing and delivering all of my lessons live and online using Microsoft Teams. This again involved working with students of all ages and abilities. The challenge for myself wasn`t just in learning to teach remotely, but also in developing a good working relationship with students I had never even met face-to-face. As things turned out, I quickly discovered unexpected freedoms in this form of teaching - such as the opportunity to provide instant written feedback to individual students even within a large group - and found myself missing these changes when the booking came to an end. On the plus side, however, I now have 60 hours` experience of teaching online.

Since April 2021, I have also been part of the government`s National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has involved working in three different secondary schools in the Barnsley and Doncaster areas, tutoring groups of up to three students at a time to help them catch up with the learning missed out on over the preceding twelve months or so. These sessions were all provided face-to-face at the schools concerned, although the agency I was working on behalf of did provide facilities and training for online tuition should it be required. Once again, this has meant working with a wide range of year groups and abilities. In order to ensure that the tuition I provided was effective, I liaised closely with students` English teachers to identify which skills and areas of subject knowledge needed to be focused upon. As might be expected, I have also worked hard to develop my tutees` self-confidence and interest in English as a subject. As each student was entitled to 15 tutoring sessions, this amounts to approximately 250 hours of tutoring in the last few months, often on a one-to-one basis with a single student.

As far as my teaching style is concerned, I`m very much influenced by my training and experience as a classroom teacher. I do prefer to start with a short task to set the tone, establish what my students do or do not need to work on, and link back to previous learning. When introducing a new skill or when a lot of new information is required, I prefer to break tasks down into shorter activities, which provides scaffolding and lots of opportunities to check learning along the way. When written work is necessary, I will always model responses first or work collaboratively with students to create an exemplar. The key to all of this is discussing the work with my students throughout a session - something which can become a distraction when working with a full class, but when working one-to-one makes the tuition much more targeted. I also learned when teaching remotely earlier in the year that prolonged periods of silent working don`t work well with me under those kinds of conditions - I need to know that my students understand the work set and are demonstrating it.

Over the years I have taught English Language and English Literature to both the AQA and WJEC Eduqas specifications. This has also been quite recent - approximately half of the students I tutored through the NTP were in year 10, with a mixture of AQA and WJEC Eduqas across different schools, so effective tutoring really did require a detailed knowledge of both specifications. Some students had essential gaps in their subject knowledge from back when they were in year 9.

It`s also worth noting that I`ve been employed by AQA to mark their GCSE English Literature exam since 2016 - initially the old English Literature (Higher) paper, and then GCSE English Literature Paper 1: Shakespeare and the 19th-Century Novel since 2017. In total, I must have marked well in excess of a thousand papers, so it`s fair to say I`ve got a good, first-hand understanding of what that particular exam board is looking for.

Availability: Weekdays 9.00-16.00.
Weekends 11.00 - 15.00.

Willing to travel: 8 miles

Experience: 29-06-21 - 16-07-21: NTP English tutor, Outwood Academy Carlton, Barnsley (Vision for Education).
26-04-21 - 28-06-21: NTP English tutor, Darton Academy, Barnsley (Vision for Education).
27-04-21 - 22-06-21: NTP English tutor, The McAuley Catholic High School, Doncaster (Vision for Education).
21-01-21 - 12-02-21: English teacher, Queensbury Academy, Bradford (Principal Resourcing).
04-10-19 - 20-06-20: English teacher, Beckfoot Oakbank School, Keighley (Principal Resourcing).
11-09-19 - 02-10-19: Post-16 English tutor, Aspire i-gen, Wakefield (Principal Resourcing).
15-02-19 - 19-07-19: English teacher, Tadcaster Grammar School, Tadcaster (Principal Resourcing).
05-10-18 - 18-12-18: Post-16 English tutor, Aspire i-gen, Dewsbury (Principal Resourcing).
10-09-18 - 17-10-18: English teacher, Hanson Academy, Bradford (Principal Resourcing).
01-09-17 - 31-08-18: English teacher, Winterhill School, Rotherham.
07-09-15 - 31-08-17: English teacher, Allerton Grange School, Leeds.
01-01-15 - 31-08-15: English teacher, Fir Vale School, Sheffield.
22-09-14 - 23-12-14: English teacher, St Wilfrid`s Catholic High School, Featherstone (Principal Resourcing).
21-01-14 - 22-07-14: English teacher, Dearne ALC, Goldthorpe (Provide Education).
01-09-02 - 31-12-13: English / Media / Film teacher, Colne Valley High School, Huddersfield.

DBS Check: Yes