Alan E.

I have had a long career moving back and forth between teaching and working in software development. Over my many years’ experience as a teacher, I have taught on many Computer Science and coding courses. For the last 6 years I have worked exclusively in sixth forms and focussed entirely on the OCR Computer Science A level. I have taught a wide range of students from those needing significant additional support, to those already performing well but wanting a bit of extra help to make it to the top grades. 

I have also spent 15 years as a professional software developer working in many programming languages including C, C++, Java, C# and SQL. I worked in different types of organisation from a tiny startup in Silicon Valley to major multinational corporations in London and New York.

I eventually made a permanent switch into teaching simply because I enjoy it so much and find it deeply satisfying helping students to overcome barriers and meet their potential.

I try to make my lessons as varied as possible, usually with a mixture of theory and practical skills such as programming. I generally stay very close to the curriculum but am happy to extend topics when it feels like it will motivate the student. Ultimately I always bring it back to how to answer specific types of exam question as I know that grades are usually foremost in a student's mind when they decide to start tutoring. I have experience using and teaching a number of different programming languages, but for tutoring generally now use Python unless a student requests a different language.