Welcome
You are clearly looking for a tutor for your child if you are on here so let me tell you a little about me. I offer tutoring sessions in Maths, reading, spelling and grammar. If this is you want for your child, please read on.
I started my career as a qualified Norland Nanny, whilst I absolutely loved caring for children within their families, I wanted to develop my career path through teaching. Since completing the four year teaching degree at Reading University, I have had 26 years’ experience teaching across the primary age range from Early Years, KS1 and KS2. I successfully led an Early Years department in a thriving primary school for 14 years. Since then, I have worked part time in KS1 and KS2.
I have always been fascinated to watch how children are ready for formal teaching at different times. Some children are ready early in their school career, whereas others, (and a lot of children) are not ready in their development until later. Research tells us this, so my tutoring sessions need to reflect the stage of development different children are in, maximising their progress. This includes matching the learning style of each learner to the activities that I provide.
Children need to believe in themselves to succeed. They need to feel confident in their ability to learn. I am a believer that you need to take risks when you learn; you learn from mistakes and that is OK. Whilst tutoring, I am in a wonderful position, to be able to nurture children 1:1, in a safe place to develop their confidence to take a risk, to have a go, to make a mistake and learn from it, or just to fill any gaps in their learning.
Another vital ingredient in the mix is liaison with everyone working with the child. So, that includes, the child themselves, home and school. With parents’ permission I approach the child’s teacher and ask for their opinion about where the child is at in their learning, what gaps they may have and how confident they are in themselves as a learner.
Many of the children that I tutor have anxiety around a certain subject or just need a confidence boost during their time with me. I have seen children growing in confidence, filling gaps in their learning and children that are willing to have a go at challenges.
Some parents just want some support to encourage their child to do their homework!
How do children learn?
So, how does your child learn? By doing, listening, seeing, or reading and writing? I adjust my teaching to suit your child to enable them to succeed. Children are ready to learn different concepts at different ages, there is no one size fits all. Just as your child would have sat up, learned to walk and talk at different stages than other children, so does their learning readiness and it is essential for us to remember this.
I make sure that each session is focussed but fun. I ensure that children are at ease with my teaching style and the work goes at a gentle, confidence-building pace, but ensuring that there is some challenge in each session.
If you would like to learn more about how I tutor or would like to have a chat about your child’s needs, please do get in touch
English – Reading
Children will be assessed at school and often given a reading age. This will probably reflect how fluent they are at the practical act of reading, but also their comprehension about what they have actually just read. During reading sessions or comprehension sessions, your child will read from different genres and practise skills needed such as answering specific questions, learning how to find the answers in what they have read, but also (and what children tend to find difficult) making inferences about what they have read. The actual answer may not be spelt out, but they learn to interpret what they have read.
English – spelling
Spellings can be so tricky to learn … The English language does not really help, does it? I ensure that I practise spellings each week with children through different activities and then they can practise at home. I don’t give too many spellings as they will have spellings from school as well and we do not want to overwhelm our children.
English – Grammar and writing
Grammar is so confusing, and I bet a lot has changed since you were at school! I can support your child with grammar, teaching the parts that they find tricky and then putting it into practise during a writing session. I make these sessions fun and engaging with support to use what they have just learned.
Maths
There are so many different concepts in maths, relating to number and calculations, shape, space, and measurement. Children’s understanding of these concepts develop at different ages. For some it comes early, for others it may be later in their primary schooling. During tutoring, I ensure that children can visualise a concept through practical activities before taking them on to pictorial representations and then the abstract, written calculation. For some children, this will mean returning to the same concepts until they are proficient, each time building upon what they remember and have understood from the previous work. I support children to understand a concept and may have to try different ‘ways in’ for different learners to learn.