Description: A graduate from The University of Oxford, Head of English and Head of PBL at a private Montessori elementary and junior high school, Phillipa L’s tutor profile.

Growing up with several teachers in my immediate family, I was witness to the rewarding nature of the teaching profession from childhood. This was the first of a number of teaching and leadership roles that I held throughout my years in education. For instance, at secondary school, my enthusiasm for and ability to guide others was recognised in my appointment to the prestigious position of Head Girl by the school’s senior management.

My leadership skills were further developed within an entirely new context when at eighteen, I was promoted to the position of manager in the company I was working for during my gap year. In this role, I also delivered instruction through the training of new employees up to management level.

When at university, in spite of the heavy workload inherent to degrees at Oxford, I seized any extra-curricular opportunity available to teach or lead, establishing and managing musical ensembles in addition to serving as president of two university societies. Throughout this time, I continued to tutor privately and began to deliver music instruction on behalf of the Berkshire Youth Jazz Orchestra at Reading University and at Beaconsfield High School.

After graduating, I expanded my teaching practice and developed an innovative teaching system that facilitated playing ‘by ear’ – a technique for which there are few resources on account of the dominance of the musical notation system – creating a book’s worth of resources and exercises as well as publishing a website of information on the practice.

Thereafter, my desire to experience and learn from living in another culture led me to move to Taiwan, where I started work at an English immersion program teaching the K-12 curriculum along with traditional language skills. My passion for this job galvanized me to conduct further research into pedagogy during my free time and create my own educative resources. Several of my techniques and materials were subsequently adopted more widely by the school, and I was asked to contribute to the development of a new teaching program.

During my pedagogical research, I explored alternative methods of education, and feeling a particular affinity for Montessori-style teaching, I found employment at an elementary and junior high Montessori school in Taiwan. There I established an original English curriculum from scratch, one which emphasized speaking and listening – language skills all but overlooked in other language programmes in the country – but at the same time allowed the freedom of choice that is incumbent to Montessori education.

Although designing a curriculum and teaching the school’s entire study body was a challenge in and of itself, my innate drive for pursuing professional development had me working concurrently at a language centre for professionals and people preparing to study abroad. My success in this role is evidenced in the results of my students – by way of example, most of those who took IELTS scored Band 7 or over.

After over three years in Taiwan, I decided to leave last November in order to continue my tutoring career in other locations. As well as working online helping students in Taiwan and the US with their university applications, I have worked as a residential homeschool tutor in Dubai, Lisbon, and London for preschool and primary school students.

I am now looking to expand my private tuition practice. I am highly interested in applying my educational skills to new subjects and having taught and worked in a variety of fields and contexts, I have the flexibility and capability to do so. My education, experience, and accomplishments in all I’ve done serve as testimony to my abilities and enthusiasm as a tutor.

My Teaching Style

I am an enthusiastic teacher dedicated to offering the best service possible for my students. Consequently, I have put a lot of work into researching and developing a unique teaching approach, which I constantly update and improve.

I am passionate about finding the most effective way to develop students’ skills. That’s why my educational approach is highly-interactive encouraging students’ active participation in the learning process. For example, rather than supplying material to be memorized, I aim to guide students to deduce the answers for themselves through the use of increasingly specific questions. By identifying one’s own mistakes, spotting patterns, and deducing rules, a much deeper understanding and internalization of material is facilitated.

My varied working background and teaching experience has made me highly flexible, and as a result, I can adapt my teaching to fulfill each students’ specific learning needs and interests. I am not one of those teachers who just stick to a book. Instead, I deliver personalised lessons that are different for every student. As a former Montessori teacher, I support student-directed learning (although my experience in curriculum design enables me to create well-structured lesson plans as well). Every lesson, I consult with my students and regularly evaluate their level so that I only teach what they need or want to learn.

I also provide my students study tips and techniques that aid comprehension and memorization. I am skilled at making teaching and learning material simple and organized, and I can show students how to do this for themselves so that they can master independent learning. Whilst I take my job very seriously, I nonetheless understand the importance of lessons being enjoyable. Therefore, I create a learning environment that is patient, motivating, and interesting.

My teaching career has encompassed students of all ages and abilities (from preschoolers right up to postgraduates and other adult learners). I have taught both one-on-one and in groups within a number of different settings including both public and private primary and secondary schools, adult learning centres, cram schools, businesses, in the home (both privately and as a residential homeschool tutor), and online. I also have over four years of experience teaching abroad and currently have online students all around the world, and thus I am familiar with and can accommodate for the particular needs of and challenges faced by international and multi-lingual students.

The subjects I have taught are: GCSE Maths, English, Media Studies, & Business Studies; the British National Curriculum at Early Years and Primary School levels (Numeracy, Literacy, etc.); the American K-12 elementary school curriculum (Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, etc.); Admissions tests (11+, 12+, 13+, 16+, etc.); LNAT & Cambridge Law Admissions; the American SAT and GRE; EFL (including English proficiency tests IELTS, TOEFL, and Cambridge YLE); Functional Skills; Study Skills; Academic/Essay Writing; University & Job Applications and Improvisation.

I have also served as an Academic/Assistant Director at a test prep centre and provided educational consultancy in EFL instruction to Oxford’s oldest tutorial college in addition to training other tutors on their behalf. What’s more, I am experienced in curriculum design and lesson writing having established academic programmes in Music and English from scratch for a number of online schools and whilst serving as Head of English and Head of PBL at a private Montessori elementary and junior high school.

To register your interest in working with Phillipa, contact us today.