Clio

Experience

• Oxbridge Maths interviews

• A-Level/AS-Level Maths and Further Maths (AQA, OCR & Edexcel)

• IB Maths (AA/AI, SL/HL)

• GCSE/IGCSE Maths (AQA, OCR & Edexcel)

• OCR FSMQ (Additional Maths GCSE)

• 16+ Maths: public school entrance exams (including Westminster)

I have delivered over 800 hours of 1:1 tutoring, as well as running multiple Keystone courses. I specialise in Maths, particularly GCSE, A-Level and IB, as well as preparation for Oxbridge interviews and assessments. I also have experience in supporting university students both with Pure Mathematics and Actuarial Science.

In addition, I love to teach financial literacy courses. This not only provides children with essential life skills, but the courses are also an excellent demonstration of some of the practical uses of Maths. My students are particularly impressed when we apply compound interest to their future savings and investments!

Prior to teaching, I spent 10 years in the City working as an Actuary. This involved using Maths on a daily basis to analyse and understand financial risks. It required critical thinking, strong problem-solving skills and, most importantly, the ability to explain one’s findings to audiences with varying technical backgrounds. My City career is a great example of the power of Maths and I always strive to show my students just how far-reaching the subject is.

Biography

I attended James Allen’s Girls’ School in South East London where I enjoyed studying a wide range of subjects. This led me to take the slightly unusual combination of Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and German at A-Level, as well as an AS-Level in Biology. I achieved top grades in all my subjects but I was particularly drawn to Maths and decided to continue my studies in the subject at Merton College, Oxford.

After finishing my Masters in Maths I started a career in the City and qualified as an Actuary. I worked for almost 10 years in the life insurance industry, specialising in investment strategy. Whilst my time in the City was challenging and rewarding, I realised that my real passion is in education and so I decided to start a new career with Keystone as a Professional Tutor.

Personal Approach

Maths can be a particularly challenging subject for many young people as it can often seem alien and unintuitive. I believe one-to-one tutoring in the subject is therefore particularly valuable. I focus on understanding what the specific blockers are for each student and find different strategies to help them overcome them. It is also very important to me to show students how powerful Maths can be and how it shapes so many aspects of their lives.

What I do when I am not tutoring

When I'm not teaching, I love to dance! I can usually be found at some salsa social in London, dancing Argentine tango or in a studio trying out my latest dance curiosity. I also have a small toddler who keeps me very busy!

Testimonials

''Hi Clio, I got my results today and received a grade 7(A) in Maths which I could never have got without all your support. Last year I was getting grade 5s and was worried if I was even going to pass but you helped me regain my confidence in maths which I never thought would happen.'' - (GCSE Student)

"We just found out my daugher has been accepted into Westminster on a scholarship! She is over the moon. Thank you so much for all your time and consideration with her." (Mother of 16+ student)

''My son loved being taught by you and you truly demystified most topics he was struggling with.'' (Mother of 13+ Maths student)

''My son enjoyed being taught by Clio. She has certainly been the best Maths teacher from Keystone.'' (Mother of 13+ Maths student)

''I have an interview for Maths at Cambridge next month. Thank you for all your help and advice during my application.'' (Cambridge Maths applicant)

''[My son] is a happy young man today with his GCSE results, and yes, he got the 9 you predicted. I wanted to thank you for coming in to support [him] with your knowledge of and enthusiasm for maths that got him hooked from day 1 - and for your partnership with us as parents. [My son] is aware of how fortunate he has been to be taught by you and to have had you as a role model.'' (Mother of GCSE student)

''The lessons were enjoyable and I will definitely miss them! I found them really helpful and I think that I was beginning to improve in certain areas. I think that the in depth explanations that introduced each topic was also really helpful and enjoyable'' (A-Level student)

''[My son] was very happy after the session and mentioned to us the Fermat’s theorem, very nice one. He also likes a lot maths applied to finance. I think the session helped him to be a bit more confident for the interview, as he has to push himself to talk openly with adults and develop his views.'' (Father of 16+ candidate)

''I just wanted to say thank you for all the help you have given me on maths so far and for organising homework for me. It made a significant difference in my work at school and really cleared up some areas I was struggling with.'' (GCSE student)

''I found today's class extremely useful and it really jogged my memory on binomial distribution. You have really simplified the whole process of binomial distribution and I really appreciate that since it can be quite complicated.'' (A-Level student)

''We appreciated the engaging, gently probing approach to encourage an element of thought to draw out responses (especially as we could hear that [X] was initially rusty)... And the history snippet at the end is a lovely way to wind down and promote a wider interest of the topic.'' (Mother of GCSE student)

''Having our lessons had clearly helped me immensely with maths. I think this is because of the way you condense the many techniques and methods into simpler steps so it seemed less daunting for me—as a language student who doesn’t seem to operate very well mathematically—to solve.

For me the trickiest part of the entire syllabus would definitely be mechanics. I always struggled with physics back in the earlier years when I did combined sciences so when it came to mechanics I obviously struggled. But through your lessons, I realised it wasn’t that tricky after all, and soon enough I learnt to identify the pattern in questions thanks to our lessons. I started off A-level maths (mechanics in particular) without being able to answer (or start off) lengthy questions. With our lessons I was able to finish most the questions in my final paper.'' (A-Level student)

"[I enjoy the lessons] very much, because Mrs. Hickman makes hard topics easy to understand while also keeping lessons lively. She has done what I initially thought as impossible by making hard maths fun and interesting." (IB Maths student)

"I do enjoy our lessons very much, I think in terms of what works well - your way of explaining things and finding methods are that are easy for students to memorize works perfect... Thank you so much for educating me throughout the year, I’m thankful to have you as my maths teacher, making maths all the more enjoyable." (GCSE student)

"We would like to thank you for all your help and outstanding level of teaching. [X] enjoyed every single lesson and learned so much from you. There is no way [X] could have achieved such results without your teaching, support and guidance!" (Mother of 16+ student)