Pierre Gaite

I’m a qualified teacher based in Cardiff and possess a wide range of experience, from year 7 to university. English literature and language, history, Latin, critical thinking and education are all in my expertise!

Helping students become more effective at learning is central to what I do. I am a great believer in the importance of cultivating transferrable skills, and because of my wide range of subject knowledge I am very versatile about what areas I can coach students in.

I tailor my approach based on what students most want to get out of their sessions with me. This could involve preparing for or improving on assessments, developing subject knowledge or working on particular skills. In all cases, I find ‘scaffolded’ activities that steadily build in complexity, accompanied by dialogue and discussion, are extremely useful. I operate according to learning strategies proven by research to be most effective for learning, and encourage my students to adopt these for themselves.

My background: I hold a PGCE for teaching English in secondary schools and a CELTA for teaching English as a second language. In addition, I have MA and PhD qualifications in medieval history, and have taught on a range of university-level history modules. I continue to write articles for academic publications based on my research, and currently my main job involves teaching in a university department of education.

I typically plan classes in 30-minute or 1-hour blocks, but I am open to student/parent preferences about lesson length. Likewise, I am most familiar with teaching students from age 11 up to (and including) university level, but am open to teaching younger students if desired.