“How do I get over 80% of my students into Oxford or Cambridge?”
I differentiate myself from other tutors by teaching on a retainer-style basis, so I’m available over a period of weeks or months rather than isolated hours or days, via email, messenger and live video link when necessary. Time is essential for effective teaching to take place, but at this moment in time, I’m not aware of any other tutors or teachers that work in this way, despite it being the most comprehensive and best-value arrangement for learning within the framework of online teaching.
What I recognise (that I think others don’t) is how unpredictably and somehow unreliably people function: we get sudden bursts, flights of activity and inspiration we can’t control. Part of the brutality of examinations and interviews is their obliviousness to this reality; the success of the industry of private tuition, by the same token, is predicated on bouts of rigid and expensive but not necessarily effective practice.
My model allows students to thrive by producing their best work and taking time to complete it well, rather than thinking under pressure on-the-spot. It allows greater flexibility for me to respond thoughtfully and specifically to a student’s individual needs and find the best way of making progress, and it gives us both more freedom to iron out issues and develop in real detail and depth. And perhaps most importantly, it disrupts the traditional balance of power: because we’re not working in a single hour, students have more control over how much they can achieve, and I deliberately don’t impose an upper-limit on how much work I’m willing to do with students in the time we work together.
These are the perfect conditions for determined students to capitalise on their ambition and passion to succeed, and for me to articulate and model the processes and skills that they need to develop the academic excellence & expertise that will set them apart from the crowd.
“the roots of education are bitter, but the fruits are sweet”
Tuition, in the traditional sense, is double-edged. Its inherent danger - the flipside of the coin - is its capacity to induce anxiety in the people it’s supposed to help. I'm inclined to view tuition more in the style of mentoring: I see my job as being to reduce the amount of pressure and stress that young people operate under; to grow confidence and nurture self-belief in the place of nervousness and doubt.
The difference between a mentor and a tutor, in my experience, is that a mentor is someone a child looks forward to seeing. Mentoring is not possible on a part-time basis: it takes time to get to know each other, to turn good rapport into a productive relationship, and to map out detailed, holistic plans for your child to develop their strengths and weaknesses in line with their own ideas and interests. There are no shortcuts in education.
“It is important to draw wisdom from different places. If you take it from only one place it become rigid and stale.”
The ethos and orientation of Supervisionary has always been geared towards the luminous, liminal lines of enquiry that lie beyond what is traditionally taught within large-scale mainstream education. In a short space of time spent exploring these areas students can push the limits of conceptual understanding and their ability to communicate big ideas to new heights, so that as well as encountering the big ideas and fine-grained details that they wouldn’t ordinarily come across until later in their educational lives, they begin to harness more sophisticated skills of organisation, perception and argument, and this translates to improved academic performance as well as personal individual growth. I’ve learned through trial-and-error and years of experience that academic success is a natural by-product of enthusiasm and an engaged mindset—that’s why it is always at the heart of my teaching, regardless of where I’m working, because it always delivers the best results.
In five years of teaching and tutoring I’ve developed a vast array of materials for students of all abilities and across all academic disciplines, and although I arrange and present them differently depending on individual needs, they form the bedrock of my work with all of my students. My materials grew out of the deficiencies that I saw and experienced myself as a teacher: in a classroom environment, we are always striking a compromise to include as many pupils as possible in learning; when working with individuals, success is easier to define. We set out to dispel the notion that there is any material difference between learning about one thing and another: we focus on commonality and interdisciplinary thinking, bringing the eloquence of English and the rigour of Law to bear on the surreal ground of Philosophy and Theology, or vice versa, exploring notions of criminality through Alice in Wonderland, the efficacy of psychotherapy through The Sopranos or semiotic arbitrariness through nursery rhymes. THESE ARE THE BEST RESOURCES-HAND-SELECTED etc. emphasise this point
“university and college admissions”
I have extensive experience of providing end-to-end support for both Ivy League and Oxbridge applicants. There are significant differences between the two, and support therefore differs considerably depending on whether applicants are targeting British universities or American colleges.
Oxford and Cambridge focus on academic potential. Students are invited to attend interviews at their preferred college in December if they field a competitive application – outstanding predicted grades, good references and an effective personal statement at the very minimum – and a series of interviews with the Fellows in their chosen subject area will determine whether or not they will receive an offer. The most effective strategy of support for prospective Oxbridge students therefore prioritises the skills that are required to succeed in the interview, which is by far the most important and most difficult element of the process for young people to confidently deliver. Personal statements, SAQs and admissions tests can be easily evaluated and prepared for; the interview, on the other hand, is an intensive and potentially extremely stressful event for students regardless of ability or disposition. My job is to train students academically and intellectually – to raise their standards up to the level that will make them stand out against an array of other outstanding candidates – but also pastorally, to inculcate in them the right mindset to allow their personality as well as their ideas to come through in the way they approach the interview. I have been extremely successful in this regard over the years, with over 70% of my students receiving offers after interview.
Ivy League colleges look for “well-rounded” applicants who will contribute to college life. Unlike the UK, the US system requires individual applications to each institution, and this demands an enormous amount of groundwork and management as the process develops. A committee constituted by various stakeholders – rather than a department – presides over admissions, and academic excellence is not the only indicator of suitability in the minds of these counsellors: extracurricular activities, unique life experiences, achievements in sports and “real world” experience from placements or internships are also given significant weighting in assessing the strength of a candidate’s application. I work with students to identify patterns in their lives which might form the basis of a competitive application to an elite US institution and help them to articulate their merits in their own unique voice. A young person’s visions and values form the core of their attraction to admissions committees; the blueprint for their success lies in their personality, and this is what needs coaxing out, crafting and capturing to excel within the American system.