Kieran Hodgson - Tutors - Keystone Tutors

Experience

I spent 7 months working as a British Council language assistant in the Lycée Louis Pergaud in Besançon, France. Here I was engaged in a variety of forms of English Language teaching, from assisting a teacher with a full class, including planning joint lessons, to teaching smaller groups on my own to providing individual tuition and exam practice. I was teaching students aged between 15 and 20, with a large range of abilities. Some groups were beginners, working on basic conversations, whilst others had spent time living overseas and were working on lengthy personal presentations.

During this time I also provided personal private tuition to two younger students, aged 13. These sessions were an hour and a half per week and involved a variety of games and exercises strengthening grammar, vocabulary, and conversation.

Recent Keystone Work:

13+ History: Common Entrance History (Started: March 2011)

13+ Geography, 13+ French: 13+ Geography and French (Started: May 2011)

AS/A2 History : A2 History (Started: May 2011)

13+ French, GCSE French: beginners French (Started: June 2011)

GCSE History: GCSE History (Started: September 2011)

13+ French: French for Common Entrance (Started: September 2011)

13+ Geography, 13+ History, 13+ R.S.: 13+ History, Geography and R.S. (Started: October 2011)

13+ French: 13+ French (Started: November 2011)

GCSE History: History homeschooling for GCSEs (Started: January 2012)

GCSE French: GCSE French and Revision Guidance (Started: February 2012)

13+ French: 13+ French (Started: March 2012)

13+ R.S.: 13+ R.S and possibly History, Geography and English (Started: March 2012)

AS/A2 History : A2 History (Started: March 2012)

13+ French, Middle Years (Year 6 - 9) French, GCSE French: FRENCH: Oscar (year 8) and Monty (year 9) homeschooling (Started: April 2012)

Biography

I am 23 years old and grew up in Holmfirth in West Yorkshire. I attended my local comprehensive school and sixth-form college, where I obtained A grades in Medieval History, Music, French and English Literature at A-Level. In 2006 I then went on to study for a BA in History and French at Balliol College, Oxford (1st), which I have just completed. One of the course’s four years (2008-2009) was spent living abroad in Besançon, France, where I worked as an English teaching assistant in a large college.

Whilst at university I became heavily involved in comedy, and was President of the Oxford Revue sketch group for a year and a half. This involved writing and performing in many shows in Oxford and organising two runs at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2007 and 2008. Since then I have formed a group with other former members of the Revue (performing again at Edinburgh in 2009 and 2010) and hope to pursue a career as a comedian in London.

Personal Approach

I am keen to make language learning an active and engaging process, emphasising conversation and practical usages in order to stimulate interest and enjoyment in language and culture. With French, I work with a fair amount of audio and visual stimuli, of which there is a wealth online, whilst reinforcing grammar and encouraging the reading of French for pleasure from an early stage.

My approach to History is to encourage students to reflect on wider issues and approaches beyond simply learning dates. With History it is important to generate personal opinions and reflections in order to encourage debate and engagement. This is essential for developing good essay technique, defining and developing ideas and expressing them in more sophisticated ways. I also like to encourage more general reflection on the nature of history and how we perceive it, looking at historiography and historical fiction as examples.

My aim, with both History and French, is to share the tremendous amount of interest and enjoyment that both have given me in my own life.

What I do when I am not tutoring

I have recently completed my degree and spent a fourth year at the Edinburgh Fringe, performing a show that was well reviewed and which encouraged my friends and I to continue writing and performing together in London. I will shortly be moving in to a house in Finsbury Park and so am keen to find long-term work that will provide both variety and flexibility, enabling me to pursue my interest in comedy whilst providing for myself. I am looking forward to this new period in my life and the challenges it will bring.

Testimonials

16/05/2012: Kieran explained everything well, asked lots of questions and involved my daughter very much in the session. She was able to explain quite difficult concepts quite clearly to me afterwards, she was very positive about the topic even though this is the first time she has studied it. (Mother of 13+ RS student)

13/02/2012: Kieran did a fantastic job, I cannot recommend him highly enough. Academically my son has, in 2 months gone from getting 40% to 81% for his City of London French mock. (Mother of French Student)

21/12/2011: My children enjoyed the lesson with Kieran and I thought he was very nice - thank you! (Mother of History students)

21/12/2011: Kieran worked well with my son and he enjoyed his time with Kieran very much. He has asked for Kieran to come back soon! (Mother of Humanities CE student)

21/12/2011: My son liked Kieran very much and said he was excellent. Which is music to my ears as he was completely disinterested in French (Mother of CE student)

24/11/2011: I think it went very well. My son liked him a lot and was quite relieved we had found someone who fits his needs for CE 13+ (Mother of French 13+ student)

17/10/2011: “Kieran gave me two lessons and completely boosted my confidence. He somehow 'unlocked' me and taught me so simply - yet simple was the way. He taught me so much in 4 hours" (13+ CE History student)

17/10/2011: "Thank you so much for the support that our son has received from Kieran. He has started to really enjoy French” (Mother of 13+boy)

17/10/2011: “We are very impressed with Kieran and have immediately engaged him in further sessions.” (Mother of year 5 boy, French)

07/07/2011: “Kieran helped my son enormously. He thought him new techniques and showed him where improvement could be made. Kieran made the lessons enjoyable and therefore had my son's full attention.”

''Just to say that Kieran did a fantastic job. I cannot recommend him highly enough. Academically my son has in 2 months gone from getting 30 to 50%; to 81% for his City of London French mock (beaten only by a French boy). But more importantly, my son enjoyed his lessons with Kieran SO much. (and my son HATES extra lessons). He happily sat through 2 hour sessions with Kieran and said afterwards what fun it was. (that’s what you call a MIRACLE !!).''

''Kieran Hodgson has been tutoring my son in As level French over the past few weeks. I have found him to be completely reliable. He is focused, he is timely and he gives us regular written updates on where improvement can be made. He is super in actually leaving Alistair vocabulary lists to learn each night and the first thing he does the following day is test Alistair on his vocabulary.

I like his style, he pushes Alistair without being dull. He sets out work clearly and Alistair is comfortable asking questions.

I would highly recommend this young man to any family. He is impressive and equally as important my son likes working with him!''

''We are very happy with Kieran, and more importantly Toby is too! Kieran is a very personable young man, who is on exactly Toby's wavelength. He has a good balance of teacher and humour so toby enjoys working with him. His results were amazing from 56% previous exams to 85% this time - what more proof could we need!''

Passport: Keystone Tutors has a copy of Kieran Hodgson's passport and therefore can confirm that Kieran Hodgson is a UK / EU national or has the appropriate visa to be eligible to work in the UK.