Tutor profile - Graham

Graham is a former Advanced Skills Teacher with many years of experience working in a comprehensive school with all abilities. His key priority is to provide a safe learning setting where the learner can feel free to ask questions and make mistakes, enabling them to make progress session by session. He has taught pupils from 11 years upwards to Advanced Level pupils heading for Oxbridge and worked as an examiner for an exam board, set and marked papers at GCSE and taught adults in evening classes.

He has recently successfully coached a pupil who sat and was awarded the Queen's Scholarship to enter Westminster School, London: a unique examination testing a whole range of traditional skills set at a relatively demanding level for this age group.

As an Advanced Skills Teacher, he has gained national recognition for the language teaching skills developed over time to support young learners. He has now retired from this role but still enjoys teaching French. The internet offers new opportunities for studying a language: long distance learning is made possible through Skype and Google docs which enable both teacher and student to see and edit each other's work as it is being written, as well as the opportunity to leave spoken feedback and model accents to improve oral fluency: all available at any time to the student.

Graham is very flexible with teaching arrangements: learners are asked to prepare tasks between sessions, likewise questions can be answered during the week as well; parents will be kept informed as to the potential success in the target exam.

When Graham isn't tutoring he enjoys all sorts of music: jazz, folk, contemporary and classical and sing with a local choir. Photography is another interest whilst keeping fit through badminton, tennis and table tennis all make their contribution to his free time activities.