Zora

Academic History

2016 – 2018 MA Special and Inclusive Education with Distinction, UCL’s Institute of Education

• Dissertation topic: The perspectives of adolescents and their parents regarding executive function skills

2013 – 2014 PGCE with Distinction, Canterbury Christ Church University and United Learning Academies

• Trainee teacher (Mathematics), working on full time year-long placement at North Oxfordshire Academy

2010 – 2011 MSc in Biomedicine, Bioscience and Society at London School of Economics with Merit

• Recipient of an Alf Waddington Scholarship
• Dissertation topic: Reform of the Welfare State and Public Policy

2007 – 2010 BSc (Hons) 1st class in Human Genetics at University College London

• Recipient of a Harold and Olga Fox Scholarship
• Nominated for Dean’s List
• Includes 4th-level German, a continuation of A-level studies
• Includes Maths and Statistics-based modules

2000 – 2007 Ashmole School

• GCE A level Grades AAAB in Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and German respectively
• GCSE Grades 5xA, 5xA*

About Me

I am a qualified teacher, specialising in secondary Maths and the Sciences. I teach these subjects to GCSE and A-level, but also have tuition experience with KS3 and KS2 students. At KS2 and KS3 I can also teach English. My primary strength is in producing interactive lessons, using tools from poly dice, to multi-timers, to kitchen scales, building sessions that are both entertaining and educational. I promote an environment in which pupils feel free to question and to contribute to guiding the lessons, solidifying foundations and encouraging extension work.

Recent Tuition

I have been tutoring private students since the completion of my Masters and have taught for over 100 hours in this academic year alone. This includes ongoing support, exam preparation and short-term catch-up work for pupils transitioning from across school systems. Below, I describe a selection of the clients who I have worked with previously, and who I work with currently.

KS1

Bi-weekly Maths and Sciences sessions with an extremely able 7 year old student looking for extension work outside of a school environment.

KS2

Intermittent tuition for an 8 year old boy who is keen to learn non-curricular Maths. His sessions are focused around strengthening his foundations, and emphasise toys, games and enjoyment of the subject.

KS3

Ongoing Maths tuition with a 13 year old girl who suffers from low self-esteem and has a great fear of making mistakes, which means she can easily fail to work to her full potential. Sessions are light-hearted and humorous, so that she is at her most comfortable when confronting new topics. She is a relatively new client, but is already starting to report improved test results.

11+ Maths

Year 5 – ongoing preparation for Belmont School, 11+ Maths. He has covered a range of topics, from probability to shape and space. I also extended this to include logic and reasoning, in order to increase the breadth of his mathematical understanding. We are currently focusing on word questions, relating this to both the 11+ and to his current school scheme of work.

13+ Maths

Year 7 – short-term preparation for 13+ Maths for entry to Mill Hill School. This tuition focused solely on Maths and primarily involved the completion of past papers. We covered tests which had previously been set by a range of schools, as well as the sample available on the Mill Hill website.

Intensive holiday tuition, preparing two boys for 11+ and 13+ exams respectively in Maths and English. Both students eventually gained places at Aldenham school.

GCSE and IGCSE

Weekly tuition for two girls, both 14, who attend day schools in North London. Both girls excel in English and Humanities, but find Maths challenging. One in particular, struggles with concentration, so her sessions are tailored to promote a continued focus. She is already starting to show much improved grades, with the percentage on her most recent test shooting up to 65% (from 17% before tuition began). They are studying for the syllabi of Edexcel and AQA exam boards respectively.

Ongoing preparation for upcoming exam with a 16 year old student who is aiming to improve his grades from a predicted C/D to an overall solid B. J has weekly tuition, with daily revision during school holidays. His exam board is OCR.

Intensive preparation for Edexcel Biology IGCSE with a 16 year old student. She has two-hour sessions every fortnight, to both improve her knowledge of the subject and improve her exam technique. She is aiming for an A* grade, with the exam period due to begin in May.

Weekly classes in Biology, Chemistry and Physics with a 15 year old student who has just moved up a set from Double Sciences to Triple. S is a visual learner, and tuition must involve diagrams, photos and videos, to help him connect what he is learning to the everyday world.

A-Level

Short-term Biology tuition for high achieving 17 year old student who is at boarding school. His primary concern was having missed some sections of the curriculum, so targeting these was the main objective of his sessions. His school prepares for the less-common WJEC exam board, so specific knowledge of this syllabus was a must.

SEN: EBD

This student has mild behavioural difficulties and problems with concentration. Her Maths sessions are interactive, involving a series of short activities, each of which uses different aids (poly-sided dice, chess timers, measuring jugs and the like).

Homeschooling and SEN: EBD

This student has been excluded from both mainstream education and a Pupil Referral Unit and he and his sister are currently homeschooled. They have joint bi-weekly sessions in Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics, to prepare them for sitting iGCSEs during the January exam period.

Residential tuition:

Short-term tuition with a 14 year old girl revising for her first Science GCSE modules. Four hours per day, split into hour-long sessions, and covering Biology, Chemistry and Physics topics from the AQA syllabus. Full exam preparation, including specific topic trouble-shooting, exam technique and past paper practice.

Hobbies and Interests

In my spare time, I figure skate, bake cookies and cakes, and read from an eclectic collection on my Kindle, which ranges from Jane Austen, to Margaret Atwood, to James Patterson. I also love to travel, whether it be to volunteer on charity projects or to participate in adrenaline sports. Thus far I’ve been skydiving, blackwater rafting, canyon-swinging and Tarzan-jumping, and my next target is bungee-jumping – watch this space!

Client Testimonials

“Zora is a very devoted and conscientious tutor who prepares well and tries to get her tutee’s attention with various methods. She is very polite and discrete.”

Residential 13+ Tuition in France