John

If you`re looking for a tutor for A Level or University entrance exams for your child, I am the tutor who will offer real value for money and who is going to do something `different` to get your child properly exam ready.

My sessions are a combination of responding to your child`s emerging needs from school and pursuing an agenda of `exam readiness`. The former is simple; if your child just needs a bit of one-to-one input to get their head around the things they couldn`t quite get in the classroom, for whatever reason, then they`ll find my explanations succinct, clear and to the point.

The latter is where you really get value for money. I see my role as having long term oversight of my tutees strengths and weaknesses. I build a personalised program for your child made up of a few different elements, such as

1. Long term knowledge retention - re-testing topics that were taught a few days, or weeks, or months ago. Constant recall and retrieval reinforces long term memory, so I use a lot of knowledge quizzes and diagnostic questions to ensure that old knowledge doesn`t fade.

2. Probing and deepening understanding - has your child just learnt the methods taught in class as a `black box` method without any understanding of what they`re doing or why? I will probe their understanding of what they have been taught in class and ensure they can apply the knowledge to a variety of situations, including spotting links between different areas of maths.

3. Taking apart topics that are slightly glossed over in class - as a teacher there are inevitably topics that are not covered in sufficient depth, usually because they are just nuanced version of a more general technique, or they don`t feature heavily in past papers, but if they are examined would be very difficult for a student to figure out for themselves. I pick these topics apart with my tutees and ensure they are ready for anything.

4. Challenge! Whilst most topics in class are taught in isolation, the challenge is bringing two or three areas of knowledge into one question. With the help of a tutor your child can be properly prepared for this sort of problem.

Note that I NEVER teach a tutee topics ahead of when they will be taught in class; for me this just isn`t the point of having a tutor. I will let your child`s teacher get on with their job, and then I`ll get on with mine.

I am a current full time maths teacher (13 years) and maths graduate with a first class degree. I am always completely up to date with all the exam requirements, the style of exam papers, the specifics of the mark schemes, topics that are exam priorities, and the changes in the new A level (2017).

I write exam questions for university entrance exams and I am an examiner for GCSE and A level Maths.

I will set tutees additional work outside of sessions because, frankly, going through it with a tutor and doing it entirely by yourself are not the same thing and it`s too easy for children with private tutors to get a false sense of security.

I only ever take on a small handful of students at a time, so I know my students very well and everything I do is completely personalised. With me, you pay for the best. You can be assured that for every hour I spend with your child there is almost that much time again gone into preparing a personalised session for your child that fits into a personalised program of support.

If you are looking for tuition for MAT or Step papers (Oxford/Cambridge) the additional cost is for the vast amount of time it takes for me to be well prepared for these sessions - you can expect at least 2 hours prep for every 1 hour session. Please discuss with me if this is what you are looking for as I run a slightly different program for this.

I teach in a local secondary school and do not tutor students from that school. I will ask where your child is currently studying before agreeing to tutor them.

Note that CRB certificate and other ID/credentials gladly provided on request - please don`t be shy to ask if you wish to see them.

Availability: Outside school hours

Willing to travel: 5 miles

Experience: Currently working as a maths teacher in a secondary school in Cheshire (13 years experience). Also question writer for Cambridge Assessment for various entrance exam papers, and GCSE & A level examiner for Edexcel. Excellent working knowledge of the AS/A-level syllabus and assessment requirements. Currently teach Edexcel at GCSE. Currently teach Edexcel at A-level and have good knowledge of all exam board requirements. Also tutor Further Maths A Level and GCSE, and preparation for TMUA (Warwick and others), and MAT and STEP exams for Oxbridge entry.

Tutoring for 9 years.