I’ve spent more than 16 years specialising in one thing: getting students better at maths.
In that time I’ve taught hundreds of students, from children who were struggling to keep up to very strong mathematicians aiming for 9s, As, scholarships and the most competitive schools in the country. It is common for my GCSE students to improve by around two grades, and at A Level I regularly help students move from Bs to As and A*s.
My biggest GCSE turnaround was from a G to an A*. Last year, one of my 11+ students received offers from all nine schools he applied to, including St Paul’s and Westminster 13+, and was awarded the highest academic scholarship at King’s College School.
Another student started with me in the bottom set in Year 9. By Year 11 she had moved into the top set. She continued with me through A Level and eventually achieved an A* in Maths, finishing top of her school.
I have prepared students successfully for most of the leading UK schools, including Eton, Harrow, Westminster, St Paul’s Girls’ School, King’s College School, Sevenoaks, North London Collegiate and Godolphin & Latymer. I have also worked extensively with scholarship candidates and very able students who need to move beyond standard classroom maths and become genuinely strong problem solvers.
Earlier in my career I worked in a London secondary school. I began by teaching a relatively small number of students, but their progress caught the attention of the Head, who asked me to build and lead the school’s maths tuition programme.
I went on to recruit and train 45 tutors, with a clear focus on raising GCSE attainment. The programme became a major part of the school’s maths provision and helped produce the strongest GCSE results in the school’s history.
I was later approached about taking on similar leadership roles elsewhere, but chose to stay focused on one-to-one tuition. That is where I think I am most effective.
Part of what experience gives you is the ability to recognise very quickly what is actually holding a student back. Sometimes the issue is knowledge. Sometimes it is confidence, careless errors, weak problem solving or simply years of being taught methods without ever really understanding why they work.
I am very strong mathematically, but the skill I value most is being able to see the subject from the student’s side. If something does not make sense to them, repeating the same explanation more slowly is rarely the answer. I will find another route into it until it clicks.
I also care a great deal about independence. One of my most satisfying GCSE students began Year 10 with a G and was extremely resistant to being taught. Two years later he achieved an A*. When his family asked me back to help him prepare for the SATs, I realised my job was basically done. He had become the sort of student who could sit down, work out what he did not know and teach it to himself.
That is ultimately what I want. Not a student who can do maths because I am sitting beside them, but one who becomes increasingly capable without me.
Lessons are fairly relaxed. I am not very schoolteacher-ish and there is usually a lot of humour. Students are welcome to give me some stick provided they can cope with getting some back. My rule is fairly simple: we can have as much fun as we like as long as we are still getting where we need to go.
Underneath that, though, I am demanding. If I think a student is capable of a 9, I will not quietly settle for a 7.
Over the years I have taught whole families, sometimes all three siblings from Year 5 through to A Level, and have been passed around entire networks of friends through word of mouth. Recently a parent contacted me after hearing about me in a hair salon near Sloane Square. I still have no idea who recommended me.
After 16 years, that is probably the best endorsement I can ask for.