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Qualified Teacher
DBS Checked

Simon

£40/hr

Maths teacher with exceptional success rates, and SEN experience.

Examiner Replies within 5 minutes 0 lessons taught

Sherpa's Summary

Simon is a highly knowledgeable and experienced online Maths tutor who has been guiding students to academic success for many years. His student-led lessons foster a deep understanding of Maths, enabling students to thrive and achieve their full potential in the subject.

A bit about Simon

I have years of experience teaching maths to students from all across the ability range; and formerly ran the maths provision at an SEN school for students who had often been out of the education system for years, and usually arrived with a very negative prior experience of schooling. Despite being academically behind their age group peers, and often with little confidence in themselves, I utilised creative and unique approaches to lessons, along with innovative topic sequencing - all rooted in the latest research in psychology and how people learn - to get these students through their GCSEs in roughly 18 months - with an almost 100% success rate. Almost all of my foundation-level students achieved grade 5; and all but one of my higher-level students achieved grade 7 or above. With many getting over 90% of the marks in their exams. I have also taught pre-GCSE students, some with cognitive impairments, who went on to achieve Functional Skills qualifications. So, if you want a tutor with an exceptional track record of success, who can motivate and build confidence, and who will always communicate with the utmost honesty and compassion, then please get in touch. I teach for understanding, not rote learning of methods; and reveal the connections between seemingly unrelated topics, allowing my students to re-utilise prior knowledge to reduce their cognitive load and greatly increase their understanding; ensuring that they gain the knowledge and develop the adaptability to cope with even the most novel of problems. My belief is that the difference between a 'gifted and talented' and an 'under-achieving' student is mostly down to their prior knowledge and enthusiasm for learning; and that if this difference is removed then all students can achieve to their full potential. I also believe that whilst the teaching must be thorough, the approach should be friendly, as a student needs to be able to relax before they are truly able to learn. During my teaching career I have also developed an extensive personal resource bank of questions for all ability levels; so whether a student requires a specific approach to tease out understanding, or challenging problems which blend multiple topics together in unique ways, I will be able to assist. And I genuinely feel a great responsibility towards my students, so if there is an urgent question or issue outside of our sessions, then feel free to get in touch and I will respond as soon as I can. To begin with, I offer a free 20 minute introduction on the platform, so that everyone can be clear on where the student currently is, where they want to get to, and what it will take for them to get there. I won't promise that miracles can be achieved overnight, but will give a realistic appraisal of what can be done. Lessons will then generally follow one of three paths, depending on the time available and the student's requirements: (A) Starting years out from any examinations: Almost anything is possible, and I have developed a highly effective sequence of lessons that has resulted in outstanding exam outcomes for students of all backgrounds and starting abilities. Over time, students will come to understand maths as a cohesive, interlinked whole, rather than as a disjointed group of things to try and remember; and will have nothing to fear come exam time. Lessons will begin with a recap of previous topics, to increase long-term recall, before we cover something new, that will naturally flow on from previous lessons. (B) Exams are fast approaching: With time short, by necessity the focus will be towards high-impact areas, to boost exam performance as much as possible in the time we have. (C) Focusing on specific topics: If there are specific topics that a student wants to cover, then we will. This could be for just a few lessons, to help them understand a particularly problematic topic. Or it could be long-term, to follow along with the topics being studied at school. - Diploma in Education and Training (Mathematics Specialism) from Warwick University - Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) - I also have a BSc Computing from Coventry University (I haven't always been a maths teacher) I have tutored one-to-one since 2016, and switched focus to solely online tutoring in 2024. I teach Functional Skills and upwards to GCSE level. This usually means up to 16 years old; but I also have wide experience teaching outside of the standard school system to students up to 21 years old, as well as in adult education too. Technically, most of my experience is with the Edexcel exams, but maths does not change when you switch exam boards, and my approach is built around understanding, so works just as well with AQA, OCR, or any other exam board.

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Teaches

Subject Rate
Maths
Level
KS3
 £40/hr
Maths
Level
GCSE
 £40/hr

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