Information About Helen - Pretoria tutor -

(23 reviews)

Personal Description:

I am a retired teacher. I enjoy teaching young children. I can teach both first language English speakers and those for whom English is a second language. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in English, and a Higher Diploma in Education. I also have a TEFL qualification (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and a Diploma in Dealing with Children with Problem Behaviour.

I have an up-to-date police clearance certificate, to set parents' minds at ease.

Tutoring Experience:

I have 17 years of teaching experience in the formal schooling sector, both high school and primary school English, but I prefer teaching primary school children. I have taught both junior primary and senior primary school English. I have also taught junior primary school Afrikaans and Maths, so I am able to tutor Afrikaans and Maths to grades one to three.

I have been tutoring privately since 2014 and enjoy being able to give individual attention and to focus on a child's particular needs.

Tutoring Approach:

I am passionate about English and about helping struggling students to understand its correct usage better, as well as helping students who are doing well to excel even more. I believe it is important to have a relaxed, friendly atmosphere for my tutoring. I find out each child's specific weaknesses in English and focus on improving those areas. The children need to be encouraged, and to be praised when they improve.

I believe that understanding what you read is extremely important. First one learns to read and then one reads to learn. An international study has revealed that 81% of South African chidren in Grade 4 cannot read for meaning. I have found that this is not only the case for children in under-resourced government schools, but in some private schools too. I teach junior primary school children to read for meaning, and I help children in senior primary school to catch up with the basic literacy skills which they should have been taught.

I also teach the grammar skills which chidren need in order to do well in English at school, and the skills needed to understand and analyse literature and poetry.