Alveena

Experience

* 11+ Science

* 13+ Science

* GCSE/IGCSE Chemistry (AQA, CIE, Edexcel, and OCR)

* GCSE/IGCSE Physics (AQA, CIE, Edexcel, and OCR)

* GCSE/IGCSE Biology (AQA, CIE, Edexcel, and OCR)

* AS/A Level Physics (AQA, CIE, Edexcel, and OCR)

* IB Physics

I have been teaching Physics and Science for over 20 years to students aged 11 to 18. I am a qualified Physics teacher, IB Senior Examiner, IGCSE Examiner and have held numerous posts of responsibilities at different schools around the world throughout my career.

My experience includes working in Singapore, Houston, Dubai, and Scotland. I am currently teaching IB, A Level, IGCSE Physics, Middle School Science (KS3 - Year 7 to 9) and have previously taught National 5 and Highers in Scotland.

My IB experience includes teaching HL and SL Physics, supervising the Extended Essay, delivering the internal assessment (IA). As an IB Examiner, I supervise a team of ten examiners and oversee their marking as well as marking HL Paper 2 and the Internal Assessment.

I am an experienced A Level Physics teacher and have been teaching the Edexcel specification as well as the International A Level. At IGCSE, I have been involved in teaching the Edexcel, Cambridge and AQA specifications both at triple and double science for Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

At Middle School Science, Key stage 3 (Year 7 to 9), I teach all three Sciences and can help students prepare for the 11+ and 13+. Having studied in Scotland, I am very proficient in the SQA Highers, Advanced Highers, and the National 5 curriculum.

I also have extensive experience in one-to-one tuition and have tutored a range of high school students in Dubai, Houston, and Glasgow.

As a Sixth form tutor, I have always been involved in UCAS and University applications both for the UK and USA. This has involved helping my students with their ACT and SAT examinations along with writing references for their applications. My role also includes helping my students prepare for Oxbridge, Ivy League, MIT and CalTech interviews.

Biography

After obtaining five Highers from St. Ninian’s High School, I went on to complete my BSc (Hons) from the University of Strathclyde in Laser Physics and Optoelectronics. Following this my first graduate position was at IBM (Scotland), however I have always enjoyed working with young adults and decided to change my career path as I had previously tutored whilst at university and participated in mentoring younger students at school. This decision led me to complete my PGCE in Secondary Physics and Science teaching; and this is where my educator journey began.

After teaching for a few years in Scotland, I sought out a challenge and decided to expand my career options and moved to Dubai. Firstly, teaching at Jumeirah College as Head of Physics and then moving onto Jumeirah English Speaking School (JESS). At both schools, I gained extensive experience teaching IB, A Level and GCSE Physics. This is also where I started working as an Examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organisation and Pearson Edexcel.

Living in the UAE for nine years, I decided to move back to Scotland and started teaching Physics at the prestigious St Aloysius’ College. This then led onto my next international endeavor to the United States when I was offered a job at the British International School of Houston as Head of Physics teaching both IB and IGCSE Physics.

After experiencing what America had to offer and travelling to 43 States, we decided to move to Singapore for a diverse cultural and educational experience.

I would like to use my plethora of experience in IB, A Level and IGCSE Physics and tutor students so that they can thrive during their educational journey and flourish in their future careers. My aim is to create the excellent learners who have the best outcomes.

Personal Approach

My educational belief and philosophy stem from this quote by Nelson Mandela; ‘Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world’

My career in teaching and tutoring has led me to believe that excellence must be nurtured for all students, and I always try encouraging students to be curious and ask probing questions and motivate them to embrace challenges, and to be ambitious learners within an inspirational and creative environment.

Each child is an individual and will learn at their own pace, the love of learning must be cultivated and developed using different learning techniques. I believe that an all-encompassing and holistic approach to education provides this and allows students to build on their skills and widens their professional aspirations, thus preparing them for the future.

I encourage an accumulative learning approach by promoting deep learning rather than a shallow or strategic understanding and place great emphasis on transferable skills.

All students who collaborate with me will be provided with detailed lessons and resources, exam questions with step-by-step solutions, individualised learning plans, exam technique and revision strategies, positive reinforcement, and encouragement along with innovative learning techniques and a collaborative environment where we work together to achieve our best outcomes.

What I do when I am not tutoring

I am currently working full time in Scotland at a well-known independent school.

After working in international schools for most of my career, the last few years have provided me with an in-depth experience in teaching online via Teams and Zoom, and in creating suitable resources for remote teaching.

Beyond my teaching spheres, I am a part-time baker and enjoy sharing my bakes with friends and family. Occasionally, I take on projects such as wedding cakes and seasonal treat boxes.

Testimonials

“Alex and Alveena have had 3 meetings now and all have been extremely helpful to Alex and he absolutely loves Alveena's feedback and the way she is guiding and helping him. Amazing result!!!” (Keystone parent - IB Physics)

“Alveena is an excellent and passionate teacher, she really cares about seeing her students succeed, which motivated me to study even more. Her classes were always engaging as she was able to make any topic interesting. She’s very patient as she was willing to explain difficult concepts several different ways until I understood it.” (IB HL Physics student)

“Alveena is one of the greatest teachers you could ask for. Not only does she always find a way to make new and complex topics surprisingly tangible, she takes the time to make sure everyone understands, whilst providing opportunities to challenge yourself. She's incredibly caring, motivated, and talented, which always made it a delight to attend her classes.” (IB HL Physics student)

“I really want to thank you because I wouldn’t be where I am right now without you. Even if you were my teacher for a single year, you managed to have a great impact on me and I’ll always be grateful for that. After all it was during year 12 that physics went from being my favourite subject in school to my first ever true passion in life.” (IB HL Physics student)

“Alveena is an extremely devoted and passionate teacher - her support throughout high school physics led me to studying engineering today. Alveena's enthusiasm for physics rubbed off on us in class and encouraged us to be more keen to learn. We improved quickly thanks to the great feedback and additional resources she provides. Even when I have questions outside class hours, she is always responsive and willing to help. Beyond being a great teacher, she is very friendly and truly cares for us students - we have all had a great relationship with her.” (IB HL Physics student)

“I studied IB Physics with Alveena from 2017 to 2019. And to be straight to the point, I feel incredibly lucky to have had her during that important period. At the beginning of IB, I was leaning towards studying engineering and possibly mechanical engineering but I knew I needed good grades in physics to do so. Alveena always made sure that we could feel like we could approach her with our doubts or for advice and her classes were always engaging. I believe it was because of this that I was able to achieve a 6 in Physics HL. I’m now studying mechanical engineering in Germany.'' (IB HL Physics student)

“Alveena was one of the teachers who have made a lasting impact on me and my career choice. If not for her, I think I would've abandoned physics entirely. She manages to engage quiet classes and make them interactive; lends a listening ear to physics and non-physics type problems and she is incredibly patient. She is the best physics teacher I had and I'm glad I was in her class.” (IB SL Physics student)

“I had Alveena as my IB physics teacher for 2 years. She’s very knowledgeable about what she teaches, very caring towards her students and wants to make sure that they thoroughly understand the course content so they can successfully apply it when necessary. Overall, very kind, engaging, and encouraging instructor.” (IB HL Physics student)

''xxxx is really happy with your lessons, he says he can understand everything that you explain and that you are a great teacher, I never heard comments like this after just two hours!'' (Parent of an IB HL student)