Bailey C.

I've been tutoring since November 2015 and in that time have tutored more than 50 students across a wide range of ages and abilities. I'm also a qualified teacher; I earned my PGCE in Physics and Mathematics from King's College London in 2018 and worked in London as a secondary school Physics teacher for three years after that (one year in an inner city comprehensive and two years at a leading independent day school). I have taught students at all stages, including (I)GCSE, A level, AEA Mathematics, IB, AP and Pre-U. I've also supported students with university applications, including personal statement feedback, mock interviews and guidance for admissions tests such as the PAT (for Physics and Engineering admissions to Oxford), ECAA (for Economics admissions to Cambridge), NSAA (for Natural Sciences admissions to Cambridge) and also the British Physics Olympiad (BPhO). In addition, I have helped several students win scholarships to top independent schools such as Eton and Westminster.

Whilst I loved teaching and still do, I left the profession in 2021 to pursue a PhD in physics. My research focuses on simulating turbulence in hot, magnetised plasmas (the sort that will be found in future magnetically-confined fusion reactors). The promise of nuclear fusion as an energy resource is very exciting — an intrinsically safe means of meeting the grid's base load, with fuel reserves to last for thousands of years and no long-lived nuclear waste — and I'd be more than happy to discuss it with any interested students!

In terms of programming experience for GCSE and A Level Computer Science, I have experience using Python, Fortran, C/C++ (use all three extensively for my PhD work) and some experience with JavaScript, HTML and CSS (personal projects and my website). 

I am a big fan of dialogic teaching and make heavy use of questioning in all my lessons to promote critical thinking and encourage students to voice their ideas. I encourage students to 'think out loud' as they work, which not only helps me to tease out and correct misconceptions, but also helps them to think more clearly and, over the long term, greatly improves their confidence (both academic and personal) and oracy. Ultimately, my goal is to help my students develop a deep understanding of the subject matter and refine their exam technique so they feel well-prepared for their examinations and further study.

In terms of the nuts and bolts of how I run my lessons, I typically spend the first 20 minutes or so talking through a topic to ensure the student understands the fundamentals, then spend the remainder of the lesson working through problems (e.g. from a homework assignment, textbook, or PMT). During the 'teaching' phase of the lesson, I make frequent reference to the exam board's specification to ensure the student understands what is and isn't required knowledge (it's important for them to be able to make sense of these documents as they essentially function as revision to-do lists). During the 'practice' phase of the lesson, I get students to work through progressively more challenging problems until they can tackle the most difficult problems with little to no support. As they do this, I encourage them to annotate the problems they got wrong (to identify mistakes, learn more efficient methods, and note down general tips & tricks). This way, their workings double-up as a detailed set of notes complete with model answers (rather than scraps of paper that get thrown away each week!). I find this to be an effetive way of getting students to understand the idiosyncracies of each exam board.