Why have private tuition?
Homeschooling students can benefit from support from a qualified teacher. Whether they are part of a distance learning college or doing it alone, having a private tutor can take the pressure off the supporting parent/guardian.
Students in a traditional school can benefit from consistent instruction from a subject expert . Due to the national shortage in maths teachers in the UK, many school lessons are taught by a different supply teacher each week, or by non-subject specialists who may not challenge the higher achievers.
Comfortable Environment: A good tutor-student relationship can create a safe space for asking questions and making mistakes, leading to a more positive learning experience.
Learn at your own pace. Students can learn at their own speed without the pressure of keeping up with a classroom.
Lessons tailored to individual needs. Maths is a subject which builds on previous knowledge. By focusing on areas of weakness and reinforcing strengths, I can help fill in any gaps in your knowledge, to give you a firm foundation to build upon.
About me
My name is Heidi Watkins and I live in a village in Nottinghamshire, England. I am a mother of three and always treat students with the same level of patience and respect that I would wish my own children to be treated with. The way I see it, if a student does not understand something in maths, it means that it has not been explained clearly enough to them yet - and that's exactly why I am there to help!
How did I end up teaching? Well, one of my earliest memories is playing “schools” with my younger sister when she was a toddler, teaching her about numbers and letters! My favourite subject at school was maths, so it was no surprise to anyone when I went on to study maths at Birmingham University and then qualify as a teacher in 1999.
After my first child was born in 2004, rather than rejoin the classroom I became a private maths tutor, so I could fit my love of teaching maths around my family life. In 2012 I also started working for a UK distance learning college, where I tutor maths from Year 7 through to A-level, in addition to writing the Lower Secondary (Years 7-9) maths courses. I am also part of the Senior Leadership Team, where I am involved in the training and supporting of other tutors.
How do online lessons work?
This photo demonstrates a typical set-up for an online lesson. We have lessons via the Zoom platform, where we share a virtual whiteboard. This means that the student will be able to see me whilst I am writing and explaining things as clearly as they would if they were sitting next to me. Headphones are not usually necessary, but this will depend on the device the student uses.
Ideally, the student will have a graphics tablet which can directly connect to Zoom (such as an iPad, as shown here), or a drawing tablet that they to connect to their computer, so we can share the same writing space. If a tablet is not available to the student however, they can work on paper and hold their answers up to the camera throughout the lesson. Either way we can be as interactive as we would be if we were physically next to each other!
