Tola Olokuntoye

In my GCSES I was able to achieve nine grade 9s and two grade 8s, managing to achieve 9s in all of English maths and sciences included. Through my time studying and revising towards my GCSE I was able to find the best techniques towards what works best for learning and understanding that this may not be a straightforward path as everyone is different. From my previous experiences of tutoring younger years, the approach I like to take for my students is problem based learning where I teach my student the content then we work through challenging questions together. Where I can ensure that they are constantly learning new things and putting this into practice so that this new information will remain in their heads. This has been a particularly good method for me as seen by the statistics I have calculated of the result of my tuition where 90% of my students have achieved 9s in there maths and English subjects.

I have also attended a course on both peer and academic mentoring where I have learnt about the importance of planning lessons ahead in order to provide a consistent schedule for them student so that I am going over relevant topics that would actually be beneficial for the student. Through this training I have also learnt about also prioritising the mental health of the student by empathising with the fact that they must be extremely stressed from exam pressure. I have learnt calming methods and calming words that will help to alleviate stress from students as through my personal experience and from my previous students I understand that you are more willing to learn when you are under less tension

Adding on, I have experienced a difficult student before who wasn’t necessarily willing to learn and would not attend any of the sessions on time or at all. In this situation I was able to clearly state that this is unacceptable behaviour that not only disrupts their learning but also prevents them from achieving the best grades possible. Through my message to this I was able to convince my student to take her education much more seriously and there was clear improvements in her after this realisation. Due to this, I have developed the understanding that being a tutor goes beyond simply just teaching the student’s academic information but it also requires giving motivation that the students need as a push to keep working towards their goals.

I also currently volunteer in a charity shop and being constantly around people that need your help allowed me to develop my patience which is a vital skill needed for tutoring where I fully understand that the students will not understand everything the first time round. However this is only a part of the process and I need to be break things down in different ways in order to allow them to take in this information.