Joanne Taylor

I’m a History and Politics teacher and GCSE History examiner with well over a decade of teaching experience, including 9 years teaching at one of the country’s most successful grammar schools. I left the classroom after having my two children but have moved into tutoring as I love teaching and I love my subjects. I have tutored students online for History GCSE (including teaching the Edexcel GCSE course as a sole teacher to home educated students, as well as providing additional support outside of students' regular lessons), as well as History A level and A level Politics.

As a teacher I believe I have the right balance of being professional and approachable; I want my students to achieve to the best of their ability but I want them to enjoy lessons too! I can help with subject knowledge, exam technique and building confidence in these challenging subjects.

HISTORY
I have a History degree (2:1) from Durham University and a PGCE in Secondary History.
I teach History from Key Stage 3 to A Level. I am also an examiner for Pearson/Edexcel History GCSE and have experience examining across all three papers, so have an invaluable insight into the examination process and know what a top level answer looks like.

At GCSE level I have most recently been teaching the Edexcel specification including Medicine in Britain, Early Elizabethan England, American West, Weimar and Nazi Germany and Russia and the USSR. I am however familiar with many of the other topics covered at GCSE across Edexcel and the other exam boards.

At A level I have most recently been teaching the AQA specification (German History), and have taught modern American and Russian History at A level in the past. I have also been involved in delivering and marking the NEA (coursework) component for the AQA A Level on a wide range of different topics. I do have some experience of tutoring the OCR A level in addition.

I am of course happy and able to teach other topics as I have taught a number of different things in the past and my degree covered many other areas of history. Success in History is not just about subject knowledge and I can teach essay and source handling skills relating to any topic.

I can also offer tutoring of History at Key Stage 3 or younger if you have a keen historian who would like to explore topics beyond the classroom - I am happy to tailor sessions around their topics of interest!

POLITICS:
I have taught A Level Politics in addition to History for most of my career, and most recently followed the Edexcel A level specification, including UK Politics, Ideologies and US Politics. US Politics is definitely my main area of interest, particularly the presidency and the Supreme Court. I very much enjoy teaching politics and love a good discussion of current issues with my students!