Ciaran

I have availability for this current academic year 2022-23

My maths tutoring last year included upper Primary, Key stage 3 and GCSE students. Feedback from parents show that I am particularly effective with students who struggle with maths - perhaps because they could not learn in a large class or had an additional learning need. I have been giving private tuition locally now for over 5 years. I believe I am a friendly and thorough maths tutor.

"Ciaran is a calm, patient tutor who was able to empathise with my son who struggles with maths. He prepared for each lesson and always had practical methods to try to help my son understand the different aspects of maths. He is reliable and flexible and I would highly recommend him as a tutor." Mrs Caroline June 2017

Availability: I have some availability for this current academic year 2022-23.

I continue to teach online and do some face to face tuition locally.

Willing to travel: 5 miles

Experience: I have adapted my teaching organisation because of the need to reduce personal contact. With my current students, I prepare the lesson and send the plan with worksheets to the parent in advance. During the lesson -using Zoom or Bramble- we both follow the plan. I find the Zoom whiteboard great for interactive work during a lesson. Bramble provides more privacy for the students. After a few glitches- speakers muted!- my lessons are proving very successful. After the lesson, I have a short chat with the parent to update them on progress during the lesson.

My experience of students struggling with maths has led me to a concrete approach to introducing the subject to students, when appropriate. For example, to introduce fractions, I have used a bar of chocolate with 10 divisions - this gives a student a concrete feel of what 1/10 means. I avoid rushing to words such as numerator and denominator but check and build up their understanding of the maths ideas. I find there is no point in just repeating words and formulas the student has failed to grasp at school. I also take my lead from the student, when they get an incorrect answer, I find out their thinking, how they got to that answer and help them unpick their error and hence be successful.

For 3 years I was part of a team working for Surrey County Council. I taught English and Maths to reluctant students, year 10s and 11s, who had been excluded from school. In 2015-16, I taught year 11 students in a secondary school in Kent. There, I worked with the students 1:1 or in pairs on their GCSE foundation maths content. I work for Edexcel examining board as a marker for their GCSE foundation maths. This has given me valuable insight into how students gain or lose marks in their exams. I share this insight with students as strategies to gain most marks

I have worked in education all my career I started teaching in a comprehensive school in Kentish Town, London. I have worked in Adult and Further Education colleges I worked as manager for Additional Learning Support- this has given me insight and experience in a wide range of learning difficulties and disabilities. I was Head of Department for English and Maths in our local college, East Surrey, where I also taught Foundation GCSE maths and Functional skills at all levels.

My experience is that it takes time for a young person to learn maths, practise it and hence be confident that they can perform well in formal assessments. The sooner we can start the tutoring , the better chance a young person will have to be successful in their exams.

DBS Check: Yes

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