I was fortunate enough to work as a One on One tutor in England for a short time in 2010. From this experience I realised the value of spending time working on children’s academic weaknesses on a One on One tutoring basis. I was so impressed with the amount of work I could achieve with one student in an hour and consequently the leaps they made with their learning. The Education authorities funded this program for children who fell below the National benchmarks and it provided the student and teaching with a vehicle to raise Literacy and Numeracy standards across the coountry.

The Principal at the school where I worked,  allowed me to assess the children involved and create individual programs that targeted their specific needs. The greatest joy was to see students grow in confidence and to begin to think independently. I also found new strengths in myself as a teacher and realised that a career shift would be imminent.

It was from this experience that I decided to launch into my own tutoring business – Nepean Tutoring where I tutor students in the Penrith to Blue Mountains districts. Although I could earn a great salary if I returned to the classroom, I realised that my passion lay in One on One tutoring. I enjoy the relational aspect of this work as my students begin to trust me and talk to me about their own perceptions of their learning. This provides greater insights for goal setting and understanding the learning styles of the student.

Another passion I have is to teach older students my method of good essay writing. It is not a secret that formal writing is a dying art. However the structure of Secondary school and Tertiary exams dictates that a student needs to understand the mechanics of writing and more importantly, the structure of an essay. What do I write in my introduction? How do I write a good conclusion? When do I begin a new paragraph?  What does the question mean? These are fundamental elements of good essay writing that need to be reinforced to be competetive in the academic world, For this reason I included an “essay writing” component to my business.

Well it is only a few days before I officially launch Nepean Tutoring and it is all an unknown quantity at this moment. Each time the phone rings my mind will immediately say “is that call about a potential student.”

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I spend a lot of time searching the internet for novel ideas and information so I can post the links to my facebook and website for students and parents to see. The topics range from “making organic cup cakes” to “spelling strategies”. Please visit my site or facebook page if you are interested to see some some gold nuggets for great learning.