Jess

• My specialist experience working with young people with SEN to develop trusting and meaningful relationships;
Forming tutor/student relationships is the best part of being a tutor or teacher and the most important in terms of making progress over time. I have been fully committed to every single student that I have taught throughout my career and have been commended on this, even when working in busy schools with many students. I am proud to have made a positive impact on my students in their formative, teenage years and they often email me to tell me about how they are getting on. I have recently been teaching and supporting a student through their Art A-Level Exam project and have quickly developed a rapport. She trusts me to be kind, honest and to give her the right feedback for her work and in a way that she understands.

• My experience teaching young people with Anxiety;
Most of the children and young people that I have worked with, have been anxious or have been suffering from varying levels of an anxiety disorder. I will have approached this differently for each group or individual but have always done so with kindness and compassion. As a teacher, I am solution focussed and come up with different creative strategies to address the mental health needs of my students, which could include; considering the sensory environment, breathing/relaxation techniques, movement or yoga, mindful drawing and journaling, developing trust and using humour.

• My experience teaching young people with ADD;
The students that I have taught with ADD have required different strategies to keep them engaged, focused and able to retain information. For example the tasks need to be: personalised as much as possible, use symbols or images, created for short bursts of attention and built up progressively. Repetition, overlearning, interleaving and consolidation are vital for students with ADD and other SEN needs.

• My experience teaching young people with Working Memory difficulties;
I have lived experience of both brain injury and autism within my immediate family and I learnt about difficulties with working memory from a very young age. The need for patience and repetition is vital and it is important to explore a multi-sensory approach to learning. It is also key to consider mental ‘load’ and to be aware of the effects that stress can have on the brain’s ability to function effectively.

I ensure that the students are motivated by the tasks that they are doing and I utilise various learning strategies, such as re-learning, spaced repetition, and interleaving. I ensure that students take appropriate short breaks where needed and that I use photographs or images, to aid information retention.

• My experience teaching Executive Functioning and Study Skills;
I have been a KS4/KS5 tutor for the majority of my teaching career and my strengths lie in supporting students in and above this age range. I was promoted to a Pastoral Attendance lead during my time working with Sixth Formers/ KS5 students and specifically mentored students with additional needs, in order to support them across all subjects and their daily timetables.

I am a very visual person myself and am full of ideas to engage students with their learning and how to utilise revision strategies. For Art based courses I have experience of teaching critical and contextual analysis, as well as supporting students to be reflective and concise in their own art practice. I have worked at Masters level to complete my PGDip and can support students at University level with their studies, particularly with written work, organising ideas and project / time management and organisation.

• My experience in teaching social skills and friendship skills;
These skills are fundamental for an individual’s personal development; the ability to develop relationships and to have an enriched life. They have been a core part of my teaching philosophy, across all subjects, in schools and now into tutoring. I have experience teaching these skills through role play activities, life skills, PSHE sessions and interactive/ scenario based learning tasks. The introduction of social media has created a new way of communicating and I have experience helping older students navigate these challenges in safe and effective ways.

• My experience working with young people to boost their confidence and self-esteem;
I believe that kindness, encouragement, and enthusiasm are the most important starting points when building a young person’s confidence and self-esteem. It is vital that a tutor can adapt to the individual needs of a young person and ensure that they feel ‘heard’ and ‘seen’. To go the extra mile for them, especially when they may have been let down so much before. As a teacher, I am solution focussed and come up with different creative strategies to ensure that the student feels proud of their achievements. I have a positive and caring nature, which allows me to form bonds with students quickly and can give plenty of genuine praise.

• My specialist experience providing engaging sessions to inspire a love of learning;
I have a creative mind and this enables me to provide engaging sessions for my students. My degree is in Fine Art Contemporary Practice and I originally trained as an Art & Design teacher before I moved into SEN teaching. My specialised, Art based background will provide a relevant context for the sessions and my love for the subject matter is in abundance!

I have 12 years of experience within various learning environments and I make my tutoring sessions engaging and relevant to the needs of the student. During the pandemic I led sessions online that were well planned and interactive. I went above and beyond by sending out learning ‘packs’ of resources, I ran group lessons and 1-2-1 sessions during a very turbulent time; with a focus on re-engagement, wellbeing and recovery.

• My skills and experience supporting students to develop their independence.
I believe that developing a student’s independence is one of the most fundamental aspects of my job and it is integral to not just their learning but to their life chances and prospects. It is something that needs to be built up gradually and I have experience of doing this through writing schemes of work, delivering lessons and creating holistic learning opportunities. Revision strategies and learning logs need to be developed with the young person and they need to feel as if they have ownership of the process. The same strategies will not work for everyone, and it is about being patient and flexible.