Effective Education

Description

CV for Norman Wilson - March 2025
I graduated from Manchester University in economics, statistics, and psychology in 1976.
1976 to 1978: I moved to London to do a Post-Graduate teacher-training course. I also read widely on the subject of education, to improve my teaching over and above my
teacher-training course.
1978 to 1984: I taught Maths to GCSE and A-level and English Language to GCSE level at my old school, Abbeydale Grange Comprehensive in Sheffield. My students achieved good results and loved my lessons. I also coached members of the school chess club and tutored infants and juniors at weekends in English, Maths and 11+ preparation and chess to members of the school chess club, which had about 60 members attending at lunch times.
1984 to 1986: I moved back to London and trained as a computer programmer. I subsequently worked for Dixons (now Currys PC World).
1986 to 2005: I ran a software house with my new wife. We took on trainee software developers from a local college, and a couple of maths graduates, and I helped to train them. Our trainee-built systems were specified by my wife and I project-managed their development.
2005 to 2010: I again taught Maths and English back in Sheffield, till Abbeydale Grange closed in 2010. I also coached members of the school chess club; and again, did tutoring at weekends in Maths, and English, to all ages, and Science to GCSE level as well as 11+ preparation (and, of course, chess).
2010 onwards: I then returned to London and focussed more on 1-2-1 tutoring. During this time I also developed my system of teaching writing - letter-recognition and letter-forming - and reading - like phonics on steroids.
Overall the subjects taught have included:
• Maths and science from pre-school, to infants and juniors
• Maths and science up to GCSE level
• Maths and science for Scottish National 5s
• English Language from pre-school to GCSE level
• 11+ preparation
• Creative writing
• Chess
• English as a second language
• How to learn any subject.
The pupils have been from a great variety of ethnic backgrounds and I have also taught people from ages 3 to 80-odd.

Examples of Tutoring Successes
I have:
• given about a dozen lessons to a young man who had scored an ‘F’ in his GCSE Maths and helped him to get a C/D equivalent on his re-take
• taught maths to an autistic young lady with a mental age of about 8; this was succeeding well but had to be stopped due to unforeseen circumstances
• taught English to a young Brazilian man – nearly a complete beginner; he made visible progress each week, till he had to go back to Brazil
• I have helped several people overcome dyslexia; maths phobia (two student handled in three lessons each); and dyscalculia
• taught reading and writing to children from the age of 4 onwards
• taught maths from age 5 up to GCSE level
• helped many students pass the 11+, to get to the school of their choice
* I taught maths to a pair of twins who were 'average' and 'below average' in maths. After a few months the average one came top in a class competition and the other one came about 4th
* I helped a border-line autistic young man with physics - he literally wouldn't show his face in Zoom for the 1st few lesson and then, when asked a question, he would pause for 5-10 seconds before answering, if at all. I didn't have much hope of success but after about 5 months he took his National 5 exam and scored a percentage in the high 80s. Everyone was amazed.
• Had and given a lot of fun teaching chess. Even after a few lessons people generally report that they can now beat people they used to lose to regularly. I do this using standard chess software integrated with the Zoom screen share facility.

I most commonly get asked for help teaching Maths and English. Sometimes it’s the ones who are having trouble at school but I have also taught children who are being home-schooled, adults and high-flying children and every level in between. I just find the level that they are at and continue from there.
My Approach
I am versatile and, although I specialise in maths and English, I can basically teach anything that I understand. What I am good at – very good – is teaching.
The way I teach is based on understanding. If the pupil understands the concepts in a subject, it gets a lot easier, more fun, and remarkably, any anxiety also normally disappears. Of course memorisation is also important and I have some special drills for helping with this. All this normally produces big improvements quite quickly.
I can also teach children or adults how to learn.
I am most often asked to teach the school syllabus and this is what I normally do. Most people naturally just want their child to do better at school or pass their exams; I am very good and very experienced at helping with this.
If the parents have a different priority, I can also teach a different way, to give the child a broader perspective and love of the subject. But, if you just want your child to pass the 11+ or GCSE maths or whatever else, I can, of course, do that very well.
When you understand something fully it gets a lot easier and you get much better retention. It's like riding as bike - people don't do this in a partial way they do it till they at least don't fall off; this is why they don't forget. Similarly, full understanding leads to much better retention. If you just 'sort-of' learn something you are liable to forget, no matter how many times you 'sort-of' learn it.
I have been teaching via Zoom since March 2020.

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