Peter

I have 20 years of experience teaching History and Politics to A level and Undergraduate students, currently teaching these subjects at a sixth form tutorial college in Oxford. In this time I have designed my own bespoke student-centred approach in guiding students through their courses and then excelling in their exams. As a professional exam coach I have helped students gain entry to their first-choice university including Oxford, Cambridge and the Russell group. I also offer tuition to year 12 students, helping them make the step up from GCSE to A Level and improving their marks for the crucial end of year 12 exams. In my work as a Councillor I have taken on a mentoring role with students in my local area, initially to assist in them returning to mainstream education but also helping to build confidence and academic abilities in the run up to exams. I also am responsible to school outreach in the area giving talks to classes on the role of local government and the politics of sustainability.
I specialise in modern history from the 16th century to the present day with particular focus on British, European, American, Russian, Indian, South African and Chinese history. I also assist students with their NEA, exam practice and developing revision schedules with targets for improvement. My experience as an examiner has given me insights into what is required to gain the highest marks possible.
For Government and Politics I teach Ecologism, Nationalism and Anarchism as non-core ideologies and both the politics of the USA and Global Politics. Given the three summer exams I specialise in exam techniques, essay writing and syllabus revision for this subject.

Tutoring Experience

My 20 years as a professional exam coach and personal tutor have involved working with a wide variety of clients. I have extensive experience with both private and public sector clients (currently Oxfordshire County Council and before this several London boroughs) and I currently work for a sixth form tutorial college in Oxford. I previously worked at a number of schools and universities across in London and in Oxfordshire. I have taught many home-schooled pupils, those taking resits, as well as high achievers looking to get into elite universities and students looking to improve their grades to open up a wider choice of university options. While teaching at university I taught undergraduate and sixth form pupils writing techniques and exam coaching and how to build confidence in their abilities so as to successfully make the step up from A levels. In addition to my tutoring work I am active in political research and outreach to schools for my local council where I focus on environmental issues, especially climate change and sustainability - as well as the energy transitions that are required. I also consult with local schools as part of a curriculum enhancement programme for the council.

Tutoring Approach

I offer clients my personalised, student-centred approach to tutoring so as to help students where they most need it and in a way that is most effective by playing to their strengths. This has been the result of 20 years of tutoring and is something that I am constantly been improving on. In order to undertake the student centred approach I conduct full assessments of each student’s interests, strengths and weaknesses and where they are with the curriculum in the introductory session. This then allows for planning out topics for future sessions. (This session would last only half an hour so be 50% of the quoted rate.) Through completing a thorough analysis of each student's ability I can then utilise their strengths to help neutralise their weaknesses. Each tutorial will be filled with subject matter that serves as content delivery or revision and I always ask for input from the student as to what they are interested in and would find relevant. I attempt wherever possible to ground the tutorial in a contemporary setting for politics bringing in examples from everyday life and current events and using the most recent developments in research for history, including orthodox and revisionist interpretations as well as those with unique political or social focus, and for politics I focus on tracking the trends and the signal rather than the noise of contemporary debates. I focus on ensuring the learning aims are achieved (as well as the examination's assessment objectives) and that all revision topics can be easily committed to memory. I do not have a designated writing technique that I try to teach pupils, instead I opt for an approach that assesses the student’s current aptitude and works on making small improvements incrementally over time to peak at the critical moment in time for exams to begin, so as to deliver the best possible results.