Nayela

In terms of my educational career, I recently read for a Master's in Creative Writing Prose Fiction at the University of East Anglia and graduated with Distinction. Prior to that I read for a BA in Persian at SOAS, where I achieved a 2:1. I was Head Girl at Fettes College in Edinburgh where I gained four As at A-level, four As at AS level and seven A*s and four As at GCSE.

My professional career has been richly varied. Prior to studying for a Master's, I was a software engineer for four years. I worked in Ruby and Elixir and specialised in backend roles. Before that, I was an investigator working in business intelligence and corporate investigations, focusing on anti-money laundering and financial crime prevention, litigation support and asset recovery. In that role, I recovered several million pounds worth of assets and authored reports and advice that were sent directly to the Department of Justice. I also spent two years living and working in Afghanistan as a humanitarian worker where I worked as a strategic communications expert, managing projects with budgets of up to USD 500k that were designed to engender positive behavioural change. While I was a student, I was Sri Lanka's (then) youngest ever prime time television and radio news anchor, aged seventeen.
Outside of work, I have been longlisted and shortlisted for fiction I have written and was published in an anthology by Brick Lane Bookshop.

Tutoring Experience

I have taught a range of disciplines over the course of my career. Most recently I taught software engineering to students at the coding bootcamp where I myself studied. While there, I was promoted to Lead Teaching Assistant and delivered the key lecture for each day as well as ensuring that all students were progressing well.
With regards to more traditional academic disciplines, I have tutored English and History to GCSE and A-Level students and I have also taught violin.

Tutoring Approach

The primary guidance I remind students of is that if I, or any other teacher, am explaining something to them that they struggle to understand, the responsibility for that falls on me, not on them. As the educator, it is up to me to shape the information according to students' communication styles and the gaps in their knowledge so that they can absorb it with ease.
Another technique I use to reinforce comprehension is to have students explain a concept back to me. I have found this to be the most effective way to both pinpoint gaps in knowledge and to solidify learning. It's a technique I've used in both educational and professional settings.
Finally, as someone who was subjected to rote learning, I avoid it where possible in my own teaching. Rote learning often results in information being absorbed without context, which makes it difficult to use that information flexibly. To counter this, I encourage students to draw links between new information and information they already know. Old knowledge thus becomes a unique framework upon which knew knowledge can be hung, which in turn means that students can use their knowledge to make connections between disparate data, a skill that will serve them in all areas of their lives.
I focus on creative a holistic learning environment in which students can be themselves beyond the discipline at hand. I encourage students to be open about any worries or fears they have, as the best environment for learning is one without fear.