Melissa I

I have been a Primary School Teacher for 16 years predominantly teaching in Early Years Foundation Stage or Key Stage One classrooms, and am subsequently confident teaching all areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (Birth to Reception) and in all subject areas in Key Stage One of the National Curriculum (Years 1 and 2). In addition, I have also taught across the entire Primary age range delivering a range of subjects during class teacher?s out of class planning and preparation time, and have delivered interventions across the whole primary school.

I am extremely experienced at accelerating progress in Phonics, Reading, Writing and Mathematics in order to support children to achieve the Good Level of Development in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile at the end of the Reception year, to successfully pass the Year One Phonics Screening Test, and to achieve success in the Year 2 SATs.

I am a Literacy specialist as a result of attaining a BA (Hons) Linguistics degree (2:1) prior to my PGCE teacher training, and have also previously been responsible for leading Literacy/English teaching across a whole primary school from Nursery through to Year 6 where my responsibilities included the training of colleagues and planning interventions for target groups of children to accelerate their progress.

I consider it a huge responsibility to ensure that a child's earliest experiences of education be positive ones, and therefore strive to make learning experiences fun for the pupils I teach!

On a personal note, I have a strong commitment to using my own passion for language, literature and the theatre to foster a similiar enthusiasm for language, stories, rhymes, poetry and drama in the children I teach from as young an age as possible. I fully recognise that a strong foundation in Literacy is the key to academic achievement across the whole curriculum. 

I have extensive experience of delivering rapid assessment, developing tailor-made interventions/catch up programmes, and subsequently ensuring accelerated progress of pupils. For example, on previously joining several classes mid-year with the majority of children falling behind, I swiftly assessed all pupils and planned and delivered targeted interventions in order to ensure that they successfully achieved age-related expectations by the end of the school year. 

I also have considerable experience of teaching pupils who are learning English as an Additional Language some of whom have been new arrivals from abroad with no prior understanding of written or spoken English on arriving in the UK. 

I have taught pupils in the past with a range of special educational and care needs including pupils with speech and language disorders, ADHD, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome, Down's Syndrome, dyspraxia and dyslexia, and am confident adapting my teaching accordingly.

I am especially keen to support those pupils whose education has been severely affected by the current Covid epidemic by delivering high quality teaching that is 100% matched to their individual learning needs. 

I have taught many whole classes over the last 16 years but have always enjoyed any opportunities to work 1:1 with children to achieve their academic goals, and that's why tutoring is ideal for me. 

I am currently available to provide tutoring in the daytime, evenings and weekends including providing early Phonics, Reading, Writing and Maths sessions to help prepare pre-school children for their all-important first year of school in Reception. 

I am accustomed to planning and delivering parent workshops on different areas of the curriculum, and would be happy to discuss and share with parents any work that is being completed with their child in order that they can continue to support their child's learning outside of the tutoring sessions.

I hope to hear from you soon so that I can get started on supporting your child to achieve their full potential academically!

Thank you for taking the time to read my profile.

Melissa