Jo

The way I provide tutoring is very flexible and I aim to adapt to suit individual needs and requirements. Confidence building is one of the main reasons why people choose my service; there`s often
such a lot of pressure and anxiety around maths that many children struggle to relax and to apply their
learning in assessment situations. I use a range of techniques to build confidence and skills, some of
which are outlined below:

Learning for Recall: Lack of confidence in exams is often attributable to learning not being fully secure
and/or too much time having elapsed between learning and assessment. My session planning uses
spacing and interleaving to ensure that learning is refreshed, at increasing intervals, until it is fully secure and can be recalled several months later. An example of this is, when homework is set for a new topic, it will only be partially completed. The remaining questions will be revisited after approximately one month, and then a further task will be used to assess recall of the same topic after longer periods of time. This ensures that the learning is fixed in the long-term memory.

The Zone: This is a specific technique which prepares tutees for formal assessments. Tutees are given a
question to do, under exam conditions i.e. no reference to me or to their own prior work. The Zone starts
off very short (one minute), heavily prepared for (discussing the question and methods before it is seen) but it gives tutees a near-exam experience in order to develop their confidence in their own abilities. The Zone builds up both in terms of duration and prior support with the aim of getting students to feel comfortable with tackling any question under exam conditions. Eventually, students will feel confident to tackle full exam papers and interpret mark schemes.

Using Language To Learn Maths: My tutees’ lessons are never silent and we use language throughout to
help provide a narrative structure to the learning of maths. Often students practise maths alone, in silence; I find that creating discourse around the learning helps with both understanding and being able to respond to unseen questions e.g. in exams.

Technology: Lessons use both an audio/visual tool e.g. Skype or Zoom, plus a shared, interactive
whiteboard called Bitpaper. Students are very active during sessions and
they work hard!

Additional Work: I expect students to complete work between sessions. In order to achieve the desired
progress, it is imperative that tutees review the lesson afterwards and
• highlight any areas of which a permanent record needs to be made, for example, writing relevant
formulae on flashcards for revision purposes
• spend time between lessons learning relevant formulae/methods including practising the questions I
provide and using the resources I recommend e.g. Corbett Maths, On Maths and the Maths Made
Easy resources.
• use the answers provided to mark their work in order that they can identify problem areas at the
next lesson.
It is important that students are prepared to undertake this additional work and that they commit to this.

Availability: I can be flexible with days and times including daytimes and evenings.

Willing to travel: Home Only

Experience: First Class Honours graduate and Masters Degree in Education, both from University of Leeds. I have over 25 years of experience in secondary schools and further education. I support students following GCSE specifications from all exam boards/awarding organisations, iGCSE (Edexcel and Cambridge) and Cambridge O level. I also tutor students at Key Stage 3.

I have an excellent track record of success at GCSE and iGCSE including supporting students moving from a grade 3 to a grade 4/5 and in supporting students in achieving grades 8/9.

My strengths are in engaging with learners and being able to explain complicated ideas in a simple way. I also place strong emphasis on developing exam techniques, strategies for answering exam questions and maximising exam marks.