My specialist experience of working with children with SEN in developing a trusting relationship.
Working at the same secondary school for my teaching career, I very soon realised that my specialism was in teaching students with a wide variety of additional needs. From pupils that needed support with reading, writing or specialised equipment to those who were at risk of exclusion, I have always managed to build up good relationships with pupils enabling them to feel at ease to ask for the right support they need to succeed in every lesson.
My experience of teaching autistic young people
Throughout my time as a teacher, I have worked with many children with Autism, each presenting different behaviours such as taking things very literally, the need to be spoken to in a calm and clear manner, requiring short breaks in tasks and needing support with writing to avoid sensory overload to name a few. Getting to know the student prior to teaching, their likes and dislikes and showing a general interest in them, goes a long way to getting the maximum out of the learning.
My experience of teaching students with PDA
As with all SEND needs the relationship between student and tutor is the key. When working with students with PDA, I find hiding a task in another subject can get a similar outcome and also enable reference to the activity when doing work. A good example of this would be baking, this would involve several topics including reading scales, metric units along side ratio and proportion.
My experience in teaching young people with Anxiety
As a teacher of the lower sets in school most of the students I teach have some form of anxiety often linked to maths. A lot of the worry comes from thinking they aren't any good at the topic. To overcome this, I would teach a child a topic and then do weekly recaps so they retain the information and hence slowly turning them into confident and independent learners.
My experience of teaching with pupils with ADHD
I have worked with a wide variety of pupils with ADHD, both medicated and un medicated but very individualised to the child. Keeping activities varied to increase focus and engagement will help the young person however building a good relationship with the child will maximise the learning outcome of the session.
My experience of teaching students with working memory difficulties
Repetition is crucial in order to keep taught skills in the working memory, to support this I always include an element of retrieval at the start of my lessons. As weeks progress and the topics covered increase the recall of the topic become less frequent, this can be supported with a little extra work away from a tutoring session.
My skills and experience supporting young people to develop their independence
Supporting a young person's independence means giving them space to try things, make choices, and learn from experience while still offering steady encouragement. By offering small responsibilities, clear boundaries, and celebrating progress, I help young people build confidence and trust in their own abilities.
My experience of teaching students with Dyscalculia
Strategies I use to support children with dyscalculia, in a face-to-face lesson I would use manipulatives and break questions down into smaller steps. For online lessons, using bar modelling to support understanding and encouraging them to use a ruler to break down long wordy GCSE questions.
My experience of teaching young people with SEMH/ behavioural issues
The key behind teaching pupils with behavioural issues is the build up a positive relationship with them. The behaviour is often used to mask a lack of understanding of the topic in a classroom environment, but on a 1 to 1 basis I would be able to use a variety of explanations or methods, so, the pupil gains a good understanding of the topic.
My experience in teaching young people with challenging behaviour
I have extensive experience teaching young people with challenging behaviour, both in mainstream settings and now as a one-to-one tutor. Many of the students I worked with were placed in lower Maths sets not because of low ability, but because behaviour-related barriers had disrupted their learning. My approach focuses on building a strong, positive relationship from the start, restoring confidence in their abilities, and reading the moment—knowing when to push, when to redirect, and when to pause and explore their interests. This balance helps students re-engage with learning and make meaningful progress.
My experience of teaching Maths
I came into teaching after completing my Maths degree as a mature student and quickly found my place in secondary education. I know the Foundation GCSE syllabus inside out and can confidently pinpoint individual gaps in understanding. Over the years, I've specialised in supporting students in Years 7–11 who find Maths challenging, helping them grow in confidence through engaging lessons with plenty of key-skill repetition. Now, as a tutor, I work across all major exam boards, teaching both Foundation and Higher GCSE Maths as well as KS2 and KS3. I make learning visual where needed, identify misconceptions quickly, pace lessons appropriately, and can seamlessly connect topics when a student's understanding allows, even without prior planning.
My experience in supporting young people in the community
As a tutor, my working environment has significantly changed from being in the classroom. Tutoring in the student's home has now become a familiar environment, arriving on time with the right equipment is paramount to getting the start of the session right.
My specialist experience in providing engaging lessons and inspire a love of learning
Being an experienced teacher, I can move learning on to the next step or explain the topic in a different way in order for the pupil to feel successful. If a child feels successful, they will be engaged in their learning. My ‘tool kit' will enable the use of hands on or visual resources when needed without pre planning. Children love to learn, learning new things and getting things right will build their confidence, building their confidence will inspire a love of learning having said all that having the right tutor that can quickly build a positive relationship with the young person is the key!
My experience working with young people to boost their confidence and self esteem
I've taught many students over my 15 years of teaching, and all have a love of learning Maths. I give them praise when they have got something right and find a way to praise when it is wrong. Quickly finding where errors have been made is easy in a one to one tutoring session so a child can't repeatedly get questions wrong. If a child is getting things right, they feel successful which builds their confidence. By recapping each week it builds their working memory and when they get something right week after week their confidence slowly increases.
My experience in teaching young people with sensory and processing needs
When working with a child with sensory needs, it is crucial to identify what the need is as soon as possible. Building a positive relationship initially would help identify when a child is having sensory difficulties during the lesson. As a teacher I have a ‘tool kit' which is full of hands-on resources and various fidget toys which I take to every session. To help processing needs, again, knowing the young person, understanding when they are processing things and when they need extra support is key to getting the most out of the learning experience.
My experience of teaching executive functioning/ study skills
My lessons contain elements where a student will have the chance to verbalise what they have learnt and the steps they have taken to get there. This will then be written into instructions to help them read back what they have learnt and repeat the task at a late time, aiding independent learning.
My experience of teaching young people with Dyslexia
A positive relationship with the young person will enable them to feel comfortable to ask if they don't understand. Giving them more time to write things down, making sure they have read and understood the question being asked and allowing them to verbalise an answer before putting something into their own words are some of the strategies I use within a lesson.
Supporting young people with speech and language needs
Whatever subject you are teaching, ensuring young people speak in full sentences, using pictures or hands on resources to support learning, speaking slowly, using new language repeatedly and encouraging them to speak and write down thoughts and explanations with help build their confidence and ability.
My experience in teaching study/ effective functioning skills
Teaching in a mainstream school with large classes it is vital that practices to develop these skills are used daily. Building reputation of prior learning into each lesson, encouraging students to annotate their work to build independence and finishing the lesson by independent writing of step by step explanations of their understanding of the learning covered. These all help to develop a young person's effective functioning skills enabling them to become confident independent learners.
My experience in teaching Maths and English
Every teacher has a responsibility to teach both Maths and English as part of their subject. My main subject is Mathematics at Secondary school level however my specialism is teaching those who find Maths a challenge. Ensuring a calm and supportive environment, having lots of hands on resources and building a pupils confidence ensures you get the maximum out of the child's learning. Encouraging students to read explanations, discuss what they have learned and then allowing them to write instructions down is how I would add a literacy focus into a lesson. Whist I have not taught English as a subject on it's own I am more than happy to work with a child on areas that they need support in, whether it be reading, writing, spelling or punctuation.
My experience of teaching social communication and language skills
Encouraging peer and team work into a classroom helps to build both social and language skills. In a one to one tutoring session that would be difficult however the young person will be interacting with a person they have never met which brings in the social element.
