11+ specialist with a fantastic track record teaching Maths and English for entrance to top schools. Encouraging and supportive tutor, tutoring since 2014.

Find out more about Timothy

• When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

  I teach English, specialising in Pre-test, 11+ and Common Entrance preparation.
  
  I've been tutoring since 2014, and I really love it! While studying at school and university, I got so much from one-on-one study, finding it a really intuitive process, where I was able to feed my curiosity. This in turn made me curious about tutoring myself, and through this process, I've learned that no one student is the same. It's always a rewarding journey helping a student improve through the style that's best for them.
  
  Since I can remember, I've been naturally gifted at Maths. I find that working with numbers, geometry, problem solving and algebraic language comes naturally to me. Learning new tricks to solve everyday problems is endlessly fascinating, and it energises me. It goes without saying that there are many people that find Maths to be a struggle; I find deciphering the most effective way of communicating mathematical concepts to those that do find it difficult is a challenge I greatly enjoy.
  
  At school, I enjoyed the depth of conversation and debate had in my English Literature GCSE classes given by an engaged past teacher of mine. As I got older, I began to delve into classics, modernism and new writing, and found a level of empathy and intellectual discussion that enticed me. As any enthusiastic reader does, I tried my hand at writing. I've since written scripts throughout my twenties, winning a BAFTA scholarship to study Screenwriting at Columbia University, New York. Writing informs a fair bit of my current day-to-day work: making radio programmes for BBC Radio Four. Often I'll write scripts and pitches for these programmes.

• Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  I love teaching creative writing. I have a background in storytelling in film and radio, and I always find it fascinating hearing each student's unique way of voicing their inner world, through stories. Whether students have a natural ability with written communication or not, I find they always have one aspect of creative writing that they're good at. Some students have a natural sense of structure, and others need more help with fleshing out stories, or structuring their writing. In the latter case, it's always rewarding helping a student build a rounded story out of a single idea. How we analyse stories tells us a lot about the way we think, and I enjoy exploring different interpretations of stories with students, giving them the opportunity to receive a new point of view.

• Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  While studying Architecture at university, a design tutor was particularly inspirational to me. His focus was primarily aiding me to achieve what I was interested in, where other tutors were less flexible. He'd feed me design ideas around my interests as well as great literary resources, and we'd often have in-depth conversation around various architectural topics, regardless of whether I was knowledgeable on them. His approach encouraged me to treat each student as an individual, to never patronise and always meet them at the level they're at, focusing on their personal growth.

• What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  Kindness and encouragement: In the learning world where we often consider what's right and what's wrong, it's most important to encourage effort (and the science backs this up!). Learning should be engaging, fun and meaningful, and too often I see children beating themselves up for not getting things right, as opposed to enjoying the process of building their skills over time. I find that quite quickly through encouraging effort and complimenting children on their strong suits we can change the narrative of learning to one that feels rewarding, which yields better results.
  
  Flexibility: No one student is the same. While similar learning materials work for an array of students, they will need to be delivered differently for each student, and at a helpful pace. Some students are aural, visual or kinaesthetic learners, moreover, each student has their own behavioural habits and their own relationship with focus. Some students can work steadily over the course of an hour, others need intense bursts with breaks. To me it's most important to build an understanding of a student's habits and then build realistic expectations.
  
  Resilience: Not every method of learning works first time and sometimes students have bad days. It can take a few weeks of trial and error to build steady habits with students.
  
  Verbal communication: Being able to communicate well is central to what I do. Even if a student is not an aural learner, clarity is key to understanding our objectives.
  
  Boundaries: As above, every student is different. Sometimes students need their learning to be rewarded with play or breaks, but being clear and firm about what behaviour is accepted and what is crossing the line during a period of learning helps establish the right attention on learning. I believe this understanding of when is the right moment to learn and when is the right moment to play translates to many other facets of life.
  
  Teaching soft skills: A good tutor teaches their students soft skills! In every period of learning it's an opportunity to build a student's understanding of how to self-study. Beyond their work with me they'll take exams for which they'll need to revise, or they'll write essays at school and university. In every class I give I hope to help students develop techniques that build their learning capacity for use beyond their time with me.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  The first time I tutored someone was in Year 13. I taught Maths A-level to a boy in the year below me. He was a very popular boy, who'd been in some trouble recently for his jack-the-lad antics. Being young and headstrong myself, I thought the way to teach him was to contend with his brashness, and set a zero tolerance policy on bad behaviour from the offset. So I tried this, and saw that quickly he shut himself off and didn't seem to be particularly receptive to the learning. I quickly realised that away from the crowds he had no interest in misbehaving, and had other layers to his character: he quite enjoyed learning Maths and was gifted at it. We got to know each other well. We built a friendship and each lesson was peaceful with no particular effort on my part to enforce discipline. It taught me a lot about making assumptions about people before engaging with them, which translates to life beyond teaching.

• What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  One challenge I've faced over the years whether teaching Maths or English is how to most effectively get information into a student's long-term memory. Though cramming is effective, I aim to build knowledge that lasts. Some students' working memories are great - we'll discuss a topic and they'll find it easy and breeze through it. Come to it two weeks later and they may have completely forgotten it. We all remember things in different ways depending on our learning styles, and some of us need to see information more frequently for it to go in. Typically, we study some new topics and revise some old ones in each class, which creates a stimulating balance. Moreover, I find employing memory techniques to be an excellent way of helping students remember. For example, I fairly commonly see children preparing for the 11+ that are good at Maths but struggle with creative writing. Taking information from educational psychology papers, I've designed a method for these children to develop their creative writing in step-by-step mathematical stages, utilising mnemonics.

• Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  I make radio programmes for the BBC alongside tuition. Most recently, I made a programme about the music that informed Nelson Mandela's life for the BBC World Service. Storytelling, social issues and music are all passions of mine, and I love getting stuck into a project like this. In this programme, I retold Mandela's life story for a modern audience through meticulous research, and sourced a rich musical archive predominantly profiling the Black South African artists Mandela was surrounded by. Weaving the narrative and music together in a soundscape is a challenge, but very satisfying, and is greatly influenced by my studies of storytelling so far.
  
  Storytelling across different mediums shares fundamental principles that I've loved learning about. Whether writing an essay, a short story or a film script, there are rules, and there are opportunities to break them. I studied Screenwriting at Columbia University after winning a BAFTA scholarship, where I learnt a great deal about narrative storytelling. In radio, I apply those same ideas, even though I'm dealing in non-fiction. I love exploring storytelling ideas that I'm teaching students about through their favourite books, films and plays.

• What makes you a Superprof (besides answering these interview questions :-P) ?

  I haven't mentioned two things so far. Firstly, I have a fantastic track record. I've helped a great number of students achieve their goals, whether that be admission into really competitive independent schools, or achieving a particular exam grade at GCSE.I am able to achieve this by building a realistic plan around a child's individual ability and learning style. There should be no great surprises come exam day, and I am particularly good at helping students peak at the right time.
  
  Secondly, I have a great sense of humour! It brings me joy to laugh with whomever I'm around.