William

Experience

- 11+ Maths: ISEB and public school entrance exams

- 13+ Maths: ISEB and public school entrance exams

- (I)GCSE Maths: AQA, CIE, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC

I taught mathematics at Southfields Academy, a South London mixed comprehensive, for six years. It is a challenging school, with students of all levels and from all different kinds of backgrounds - I quickly learnt to differentiate effectively and plan engaging and well-thought out lessons for these students.

I also worked on creating exam papers with PiXL, and as such am very familiar with the format and challenges of the GCSE 9-1 exams. In fact, my most recent GCSE class achieved an average P8 score of +1.4, so an average of 1.4 grades higher than predicted!

Biography

I attended Wilsons School in South London, where I obtained top grades in my A Level studies in Maths, History, Latin, and Music. I subsequently studied for a BA in Ancient History and Egyptology at UCL, achieving a 2.1. Deciding on a change in specialty, I studied for a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics at the Institute of Education, and became a maths teacher, working at a school in South London for 6 years before moving into private tuition; I have now been tutoring for several years, and have helped my students to achieve great grades.

Personal Approach

Years of teaching in a challenging school environment have taught me that the best way to teach maths is to hook students in - make lessons engaging, relate them to real life situations and the students' interests, and create good working relationships with students. I teach with enthusiasm and energy, and also leave room for students to direct study too; it's very important they understand what they are working towards, and where their strengths and weaknesses lie.

Underpinning this is a thorough understanding of the curriculum. Having recently left full-time teaching, I am very familiar with the assessment criteria, exam boards and how to get the best results possible from each student.

Practically, I like to teach using a mix of mini-whiteboards and printed resources. I have a vast bank of resources from my time in school teaching to draw on, and like to stay on the pulse when it comes to new ideas in mathematics teaching through literature, and keeping in touch with my colleagues still in the profession.

What I do when I am not tutoring

Outside of tutoring, my biggest passion is music. I play guitar in a metal band; we've recorded several EPs, will be releasing our second full-length album this year, and have toured across the UK and Europe.