Lewis

I am a fully qualified, experience Biology teacher in one of Scotland's top ranked secondary schools. I am a GTCS registered teacher will a fully disclosed PVG.
I have over 10 years teaching experience working within secondary schools, the University of Glasgow and in Adult Education.
I have a strong Biology background and hold a B.Sci with Honors in Parasitology from the University of Glasgow. I also have a Teaching English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) certificate, a PGDE in adult literacy and numeracy and a PGDE in Secondary Teaching Biology with Science. I also hold a Masters degree in Educational Studies.

Tutoring Experience

I have experience in successfully teaching both the new Higher Human Biology and Biology courses, as well as National 5 Biology. I have worked at Hermitage Academy and Clydebank Academy and I currently work at Larbert Academy (top 40 in the Herald's Schools League table). I teach general Science but i specialise in Biology and currently teach 4 Higher level classes and 2 National 5 level classes. I also have experience in preparing for and writing National 5 and Higher biology Assignments which are worth 20 marks towards the qualification.

Before working within secondary schools, I gained over seven years experience training volunteer literacy and numeracy tutors, and delivering or supervising one-to-one and small group tuition for East Ayrshire Council.

Tutoring Approach

During my time training tutors I emphasised the need for personalised, differentiated learning. No two learners are the same and the starting point of all tuition should be the individual learner; what they already know, what misconceptions that have which need to be addressed, what they need to know and which strategies they find best for learning. To achieve this I ensure that I am professional, approachable and flexible at all times.

Learning should be engaging, even when exams are around the corner! I prefer to use a mixed methods approach so that learners don't become bored of the same activities being repeated endlessly.

To successfully gain qualifications in biology requires consolidating solid knowledge and understanding of a range of topics, developing the correct terminology and key SQA marking terms to successfully describe and explain these topics. This can be achieved through various paper based activities, the structured working through of example questions and invaluable feedback. Biology also requires the development of analytical and numerical skills so that problem solving questions can be successfully understood and answered. I can also offer online learning tools and apps to further support learning between lessons.