Mary

My specialist experience working with children and adults with additional needs including dyslexia, working memory challenges, visual impairment, ADHD and autism: my experience boosting confidence and self-esteem: I have 16 years' accredited experience working with children and young adults to develop confidence and self-esteem through providing carefully planned opportunities for the student to take responsibility for organising and planning their own learning activities, for example, through study skills, positive feedback and working through mistakes positively through encouraging forward-planning and thinking through the 'bigger picture'. Examples of building confidence and self-esteem: improving handwriting exercises; touch-typing training; training in diction and speech intonation for performing (e.g.) monologues. I have taken 'continuing professional development' classes in drama for English at the Globe Theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company education department, and used the drama exercises with visually impaired students in mainstream and SEN schools.

My specialist experience preparing pupils with dyslexia and other SEN for 11+ and school entrance exams: I have prepared pupils successfully for 11+ entrance exams to major public schools and grammar schools in London and the Home Counties. I tutor patiently and with an emphasis on developing close reading skills, and harnessing the pupil's creativity to develop their own writing style, in preparation for the creative writing segment of the 11+ and public school entrance exams. I work holistically with individual pupils to foster an awareness of planning their written responses, through mind-mapping and developing an awareness of the contexts which surround words. I have trained with PATOSS (the well-known and reputable dyslexia charitable body), most recently in fostering pupils' etymological awareness, and improving confidence and self-esteem. I provide detailed practice and guidance in verbal reasoning tests, and can also provide tutoring in numerical reasoning. I am well-acquainted with many 11+ tests, including the GL assessments and the University of Durham's CEM tests which are increasingly popular with public schools, as well as grammar schools. The structured literacy approach which I adopt to preparing pupils for 11+ exams can be of particular benefit to pupils diagnosed with dyslexia, improving the pupil's self-esteem and confidence to the benefit of their results.

My specialist experience using a variety of tools and strategies to improve independence and unlock potential: I have extensive experience in developing strategies for individual pupils, which are skills to improve independence and are adaptable to new students' particular teaching and learning phases:

- Revision strategies to improve confidence in reading and writing: scaffolding for essays; 'chunking' for reading; planning strategies; mind-mapping;
- Verbal and non-verbal prompting to develop focus and independence when approaching school curricular tasks
- Structured lessons which integrate movement, music and dance for improved focus and memory retention, for example, to express to an audience particular interpretations of words and phrases through performance which involves movement as well as pronunciation and expressive intonation when speaking the words;
- Social stories;
- Social communication strategies to develop confidence, including practising social scenarios, e.g. meeting friends and fellow students for coffee;
- How to develop a personalised and targeted learning routine, e.g. study timetable, to enhance confidence and independence in setting own targets;
- Coaching in I.T. skills for effective learning: Read and Write Gold; typing classes to improve computer keyboard use;
- Communicating with school colleagues and family;
- Strategies to improve receptive and expressive language skills;
- Time management coaching;
- Direct teaching of planning techniques for developing organisational and time management approaches;
- Tailored individual strategies for developing working memory;
- Planning educational visits and carrying out Risk Assessments for short educational trips, for social and intellectual development, e.g. trips to the V&A or the Globe.

My specialist experience teaching social skills and communication: I work with students to build knowledge and understanding of different social situations, through conversational practice, language modelling and role play. Studying how to present oneself and perform during different social interactions is an integral part of any high level Drama course, and I plan and develop individual learning programmes for students with this in mind. I can provide context, and guidance on research, to develop the student's understanding of a particular dramatic monologue, to enhance their spoken performance of it, and I can offer guidance on how to learn lines, and develop confidence with a huge variety of communication strategies in social situations, e.g. ordering coffee in a central London cafe, or performing a dramatic monologue as part of an assessment for a tertiary Drama course.

My specialist experience using learning technologies to unlock potential: I have expertise with learning technologies, for example, speech to text, audio text readers and tablet computers with visual or video magnifiers. I can incorporate dance and movement into lessons, too, with the view of improving the speed of learning lines (for example) through kinaesthetic approaches, and I have done that successfully even in the mainstream classroom with BrainGym, and when improving pupils' understanding of Shakespeare's 16th century language and imagery (for example).

My specialist experience working with children who are visually impaired: I have worked actively with visually impaired students in 'outstanding' educational settings, through developing interactive and engaging lessons which involve music and dance, particularly singing and piano and are tailored towards the student's own aspirations. I have tutored speakers for debate and performance, for the Mace and the English Speaking Union, with careful attention to intonation, modes of expression and understanding in full the emotional range of the words and how to impart that to an audience for the purposes of argument and persuasion. I have trained pupils for speaking qualifications and competitions including the MACE debating competition and speech performance for the English Speaking Union. I have helped pupils prepare for touch typing and computer proficiency tests online. I develop students' knowledge of the latest computer assisted learning (CAL), to suit their interests and circumstances.