Freya

I am the middle child (in a family of seven children) and I grew up in an old Tudor house in Kingston-Upon-Thames; rumour has it that a secret tunnel once linked the house with Hampton Court Palace! After completing A-Levels in English Literature, History, Sociology and Latin (with an AS level in Religious Studies), I went to study History and Culture and Spanish at Warwick University, achieving an Upper Second Class Honours degree.

Prior to pursuing a teaching qualification in general primary education, I worked in a secondary school as a Special Educational Needs Teaching Assistant as I was keen to understand the challenges that pupils faced. I enjoyed implementing different strategies to engage pupils and I completed Speech and Language Communication training (Elklan Level 3) to further support them. I then worked in a primary school as an unqualified teacher, providing cover to Year 6 teachers. I supported pupils through their SATs assessments, focusing on grammar and exam technique. I also thoroughly enjoyed teaching mindfulness and implementing strategies to combat exam-related stress.

I achieved Qualified Teacher Status through the Schools Direct scheme, an on-the-job training programme. Alongside teaching, I tutored privately and more recently I have been providing online tutoring for pupils aged between 4 and 10 through Keystone.

I take a collaborative approach to teaching and learning in order to provide the pupil with space to develop their own voice and confidence. I like to make my pupils comfortable with making and spotting mistakes (and then how to remedy them!) This is because I believe that teaching pupils to identify and then know how to work through their mistakes provides a key opportunity to harness the pupil's sense of ownership over their own learning. This is an essential part of training pupils to be independent and resilient in education and beyond!

Gardening and growing my own fruit and vegetables is a real passion that I've developed since having a garden. I love the outdoors and I frequently do long hikes (I walked a stretch of the South-West Coast Path from St. Ives to Penzance in 6 days). I bake regularly, everything from flatbread to Victoria sponge to custard tarts! I also really love going to art exhibitions and creating my own artwork. A couple of my favourite artists are Wassily Kandinsky and Patrick Heron.