About Me and What I Offer

Back in 2017, I decided to move forward from my job as a classroom teacher, feeling that my skills would be better spent helping young people, who struggle to learn in the school environment, on a one-to-one basis.

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During my time in schools I have observed that the ‘one size fits all’ approach often fails those who are differently able. The needs of every young person are unique and, as a result, my approach is very much pupil-centred. First of all, I get to know not only a learner’s challenges, but also to discover their strengths and interests. I do this by talking to parents, the young person, their current teacher at school (if appropriate) and also by administering, at the outset, a series of formal and informal assessments. In this way, I can build rapport with my learner and, between us, we can put together an effective personalised learning plan.

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I cater for a young person’s learning needs by using engaging, memorable and age-appropriate multi-sensory teaching / learning strategies and resources. My aim is to intervene at the point where learning has broken down and to remediate any needs by using a learner’s strengths, giving him or her the optimum chance of success. The desired result is that of a young person who is more independent, self-reflective and confident in applying the strategies they have learned when back in the classroom.

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During lessons I place significant emphasis on the fact that making mistakes is part of the learning process and I promote growth (rather than fixed) mindset attitudes. When teaching I give choices, wherever possible, in order to encourage ‘buy in’ to the learning process and to increase the level of engagement. I also allow short movement breaks within a lesson if I feel that this is necessary or helpful for the individual learner.

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In terms of Literacy teaching, you will find that my approach is slightly different to that in most schools in England. Although (where appropriate) I teach Phonics, I do not teach this in isolation. It can be so hard for many of the young people who come to me for remediation in Literacy to learn and automatically recall the abstract individual 'letter patterns' (i.e. single graphemes, digraphs and trigraphs) and their corresponding sounds, found in the English language and which are explicitly taught in Phonics. It is precisely because of this that I teach Phonics alongside Morphology, which refers not to the units of sound in a word, but to the units of meaning.  These units of meaning always stay constant and can provide a hook on which to hang the units of sound which, in so many cases, do not. This approach is called Structured Word Inquiry (S.W.I.) and is the brainchild of an inspirational former elementary school teacher turned researcher who lives and works in Canada. I have had significant success teaching pupils in this way.

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It is important to realise that, as a specialist teacher, I do not teach the curriculum. This is more a job for mainstream tutors. What I do is find out why learning has broken down, adopting a 'forensic' approach and teaching the child specific multi-sensory strategies (which they can take back into the classroom) to help them to learn more effectively in their areas of weakness.

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Teacher Registration Number: 0957540

PATOSS Registration Number: IA8118

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I hold a full enhanced DBS certificate., which can be viewed on request.

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