Kirsteen Laston

Using my knowledge and experience of having taught all ages of the Primary Curriculum - from Nursery to Primary 7 - along with my passion for working with children, I strive to provide the very best level of teaching and learning for every individual I work with. I believe that building solid basic foundations in Literacy and Numeracy gives children the tools to access the wider curriculum with confidence.
Tapping into and understanding the ways in which each individual child learns and progresses is key. Every child is an individual, therefore every lesson is tailored to the child, ensuring the right balance of success and challenge is met in each session, thus developing knowledge, skills and most importantly confidence for the child.
Getting to know children and building a rapport with each individual is paramount, as is understanding the way in which the each child learns best - through active learning, written methods, talking, listening, reading, watching, doing.

The initial tutorial session will be exploratory, consulting with parents to discuss the child’s requirements and areas needing more support and development. I use a variety of resources during tutorial sessions to aid and reinforce teaching points - for example, magnetic alphabetic letters and boards; flash cards; Dienes hundreds, tens and units cubes; Numicon; Seal Maths; Jolly Phonics; Oxford Reading Tree books; Read, Write, Inc resources; Schofield & Sims and CGP workbooks.

Each tutorial session starts with a welcoming ‘check-in’ as to how the child is feeling that day and how their day has been, so that I can gauge the expectation for the session. I usually ask if there is anything in particular that the child wants to work on during the session - for example, there may be something that has been introduced in class at school that day/week that the child found confusing or difficult and wants specific help with or further explanation. I would then suggest a plan and learning intention / goal for our tutorial session that day. Teaching would then take the form of practical, written and oral work, ensuring understanding and comprehension as the lesson progresses. The pace of the lesson is very much tailored by my professional judgement and intuition as to how the child is responding and interpreting the work we are doing. A plenary at the end of the session to recap what we have worked on during that session and ensure understanding, is always extremely valuable. In consultation with parents, some request homework for their children, which I am happy to assign and mark. Weekly sessions are most successful, ensuring continuity and progression at a greater pace.