I currently work as an Academic Mentor for Step Into Teaching, where I am recruited to teach in secondary schools KS3 and KS4 Triple Science. My responsibility in schools is to take small group sessions where I will either teach students interesting new science content or I will help them revise what they have already learnt.

My first lesson with students is focused on making the students feel comfortable in the learning environment and getting to know a little about me, before diving straight into content. Then my aim is to highlight any areas that the student may feel that they would like to focus on as a potential area of weakness and focus on those initially, this may come from the student themselves, their parents or possibly even teachers. If no areas of weakness can be easily identified, then I would utilise some personally made exam-style questions that cover each topic to test their knowledge.

Once particular topics have been identified, the student attending the tutorial would initially be run through a presentation made by me providing theoretical context to the particular topic with active participation from the student throughout as I ask them thought-provoking questions to keep them engaged. Towards the end of the tutorial, they will be tasked with an exam-style question that is designed to test what the student has learned throughout the tutorial. Depending on how the student fares in these questions, this will determine whether or not we both feel confident we can progress onto the next topic or to focus the following session on plugging potential gaps in knowledge. To be sure the student has consolidated their knowledge at the start of the following session, a question will be asked relating back to the session prior.