LoginLaura - Dronfield tutor
Information About Laura:
Personal Description:
In June 2009 I will qualify with a Bachelor of Arts in Primary Education and will have received Qualified Teacher Status. I am having a year out once I have graduated in order to do some travelling and gain some other relevant work experience before starting my career.
I have spent 3 years learning about all the primary curriculum areas and my knowledge is current and valuable. I will happily tutor in any curriculum areas needed and I can guarantee that the work I do with your child or children will be creative, enjoyable and will help your child go even further with their learning. I am committed, reliable and trustworthy.
Experience working with children out of school contexts:
Babysitting - I am lucky to have a young niece and from her being a baby I have looked after her. She is now 4 and I like to provide her with enjoyable learning experiences as well as play. She is on the Gifted and Talented Register at her current Nursery so it is nice for me to encourage her with her reading and writing in particularly. I have also helped out with her birthday parties which meant managing the behaviour of groups of children in games and in general.
Toddler Group - I volunteered at a toddler group in the summer of 2007 which a friend of the family runs in Chesterfield. Here I read stories and planned Numeracy and Literacy activities through play. I have also run stalls at fairs for fundraising and helped with some of the general running of the group.
Infant Choir - During my second year placement I helped run a choir for children between the ages of 4 and 7 every Thursday after school for one hour. I helped to plan and run the sessions and prepared the children to sing at the Summer Fair.
My interests and hobbies:
I am a keen photographer and any opportunity I have, e.g. travel, visits, or extreme weather such as snow (see below for some examples) or really sunny days I am always inspired to capture interesting and unique images. I take great pride in my photos and I try to be as creative as I can with them.
I am also a keen artist, I regularly buy activities (such as glass painting, canvas and acrylic paints, copper foil) to complete when I have time. I particularly enjoy drawing with pencils and painting with acrylics and I like to find new mediums to use them to keep me occupied! I also like to visit galleries. I often go to the Tate when I visit Liverpool and I love sculpture so I enjoy going to Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
I enjoy reading biographies and finding out information about the lives of people, famous or not.
I enjoy music and pride myself on having a wide variety of taste. I attend gigs, concerts, plays and operas as often as I can and I am a keen singer and play keyboard which I would like to develop into piano one day with some instruction, though I feel I have the basics. I also play bass and treble recorder well and can read music.
I have a thirst for knowledge, particularly things which I would like to teach and Historical things, so I enjoy visiting museums and houses which are made to look like they are from different time periods.
Other relevant work experience:
I worked in a Newsagents shop for a year and a half (part-time) during my course and although it was not directly linked to teaching I did serve children and formed good relationships with the shop regulars, both the children and adults in my local community, which I still have. I took full responsibility for the shop on a Saturday night which involved a lot of trust and dependability but I proved that I was conscientious enough to cash-up two tills, clean up, lock up and set the alarm all correctly. I also took charge of the safe and all of the takings from that night, which involves a lot of trust. I feel my manager learned that I was very trustworthy and a hard worker in a very short space of time. I put good care and effort into all of my work regardless of what it is and dealt with the computer and paperwork when necessary (missing newspaper or a holiday error for example). I formed very good relationships with a variety of people from very different backgrounds which shows that I am adaptable, I am still in strong contact with them all.
Teaching Experience:
I have volunteered in schools in the Derbyshire and Sheffield Local Authorities. Here is my information in chronological order.
Dronfield Infant School - Year 2.
Voluntary work for one afternoon per week for 2 years during my A-Levels.
I had good experience of designing activities to support children with Special Educational Needs with Numeracy and Literacy. I also had opportunities to work closely with parents in "Open Afternoons" where children could display their work.
Birley Community Primary School - Year 4.
I worked closely with a group of children in order to develop their grammar and punctuation skills with kinesthetic activities. I designed a purposeful and intensive sequence of activities for a focus group.
Stonelow Junior School - Year 5.
I used a series of engaging and valuable ICT activities in whole class, group and individual Numeracy work.
Prince Edward Primary School - Year 3.
I worked with a full class and taught all curriculum areas. It is an area of high poverty, deprivation and unemployment. 75% of the children in the class were on the SEN Register. I developed a wide range of behaviour management strategies and my skills of differentiation very well here. I also taught 2 children with English as an Additional Language and gave them particular help with their reading and writing of English. I was also involved in a junior production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat", helping with rehearsals and making costumes and stages. I helped to plan and went on 2 educational trips, one to Bishops House in Sheffield to support a Tudor's topic and to Sheffield United Football Club's home ground to encourage high achievement, fitness and healthy eating.
Gleadless Primary School - Reception and Nursery.
I attended seminars held by teachers who were implementing an innovative Phonics Programme to assist reading. Based upon this I then designed a series of lessons for Reception and Nursery children. I observed and learned about really good phonics practice and then implemented it myself.
Sir Harold Jackson Primary School - Year 1.
I took control of a class of 28 children for full days and one full week whilst the class teacher was working at another school. I had to deal with all general admin and with parents on a day-to-day basis when the class teacher was away and this was great practice. I helped to plan and went on a class trip to Conkers - an adventure centre, based around a Nature topic. I then designed lots of lessons to follow on from the trip and make the learning meaningful within a classroom context.
Brimington Junior School - Year 5.
I have worked with 2 classes of 38 children for 8 weeks - 76 Year 5 children in all. I have planned lessons for all 76 children, but also worked with them in groups of 38 and 28. The school is a beacon in cross-curricular learning and the children take part in a completely innovative "creative curriculum" which the school runs courses on for other schools to take part in and which I fully took part in too. I have designed an entire topic of Science about materials under the theme of Costume and took part in an end-of-term production. This was a fashion show and parents and the other classes in the school were invited. The topic has been heavily D&T themed so has offered good practice for me in this area, but I have also taken full control of a Shape and Space middle ability class of 32 in Maths. I have led and marked an assessment of 38 children's writing and was lucky enough to work very closely with the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator and I have learned enormous amounts about SEN and differentiation.
Tutoring Approach:
I have undertaken modules at University which will enable me to provide outstanding service to you and your child or children. For example, I took an elective in Creativity which developed my ability to use a creative approach to all my teaching involving children in active learning and linked to areas across the whole curriculum.
I have learned how to adequately provide for children with Special Educational Needs and remove the barriers to their learning with personalised learning. I have been fortunate enough to observe such good practice and have worked in whole classes with a high percentage of children with additional needs.
I have developed my subject knowledge in all of the curriculum areas but I do feel I have strengths in Numeracy and Literacy and the use of ICT to support both. I have passed all of the skills tests required to receive Qualified Teacher Status and I have been trained at a time where significant changes are taking place in education. I feel this is particularly what I bring to tutoring.
Subjects Taught:
Qualifications:
- BA Hons in Primary Education with QTS (Pending)
- A Levels - English Language (A), English Literature (B), Psychology (A), Sociology (A), General Studies (D)
- 7 GCSE's - Including Maths (B) and Science (BB - worth 2 credits). I also specialised in Graphic Product Design and Photography.
Further Information:
| Availability: | Weekends / Weekdays (all times) |
| Types of Tutoring: | Travels to you / Online |
| References Supplied? | Yes |
| Current DBS/CRB Check? | Yes |
