Andrew

I grew up in Southwest London and attended St James Independent school for Boys from 4 - 18 years of age. During this time I obtained 11 GCSEs grade (A* - B), 4 AS-levels (grade A) in Maths, French, Music, English Literature and Philosophy continuing with the first four of these to obtain 3 grade A's at A2. I then moved to Manchester for University to read Maths with French for two years and then to Paris for a year where I attended the University of the Sorbonne reading comparative literature and film. I then returned to Manchester to complete my undergraduate degree in Maths in 2008 and graduated in July 2009. During my time at Manchester I began performing and writing music and back in London I went on to study Composition with Jazz Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Since then I have worked as a freelance musician and have kept up tutoring both privately and through musical educational projects in schools and community centres.

My personal approach of course differs from pupil to pupil since each pupil is an individual and the dynamics of a tutor-pupil relationship depend upon the tutor finding the best way to bring his or her pupil to understanding. My personal approach is based on the philosophy of the sociologist Edgar Morin who is against the idea of rigid separation of academic subjects. Knowledge, he claims ''should not be compartmentalised in our minds'' but rather we should enrich our knowledge by learning of the relationships between the things we know. For example, when explaining basic geometry to a first year A-level student who was also taking Art, I found that explaining how artists in 14th century Italy first began to use geometric principals to introduce perspective to their paintings. This is of course a somewhat idealised view and I am well aware of the necessity of learning exam technique simultaneously. In mathematics, the difference in results obtained between two pupils of similar capabilities of which only one has learnt the strategies of exam technique can be drastic and particularly close to exam time I would seek to focus my teaching on the papers in question. In my own study as a mathematician I do not consider myself to have truly grasped a topic until I am able to transmit something of the central ideas to a non-mathematician so I would hope to always find a way of explaining things to a student of mathematics.

I currently work as a backend software engineer for a company specialising in hydraulic energy production.

For more information about my other projects and teaching please visit my personal website at: https://www.andrewgorman.art