Maths didn't come naturally to me at school... 

 My inspiration comes from my maths experience at school. I came from what was called a ‘low social-economic family’ so I was never expected to achieve anything of a high standard. My predicted grades were often much lower than what I believed I was capable of. (Even before I started my A-level maths course, a letter was sent home to my mum recommending that I drop this subject as I probably wouldn’t pass it in the end.)

So my attitude in Year 11 became ‘let me prove you wrong!’

I was in set 4 out of 8 for GCSE maths (which meant I was in the lowest set of students taking the higher paper) so in class my teacher would only teach us topics that would be enough to get us to pass. But I wanted more, I wanted to show my teachers that I was capable of achieving more. So I spent most of my lunchtimes in Year 11 sitting in my maths classroom getting one of the teachers to teach me how to tackle the harder topics on the paper and I spent my spare time at home doing as many past papers as I could. With hard work, determination and belief in myself I got… and A at GCSE! I was overjoyed- I think I actually cried. And best of all, I could say ‘I told you so!’ 

And this is the feeling I want to give to my students. I want to be the person that believes in them so that they go on to achieve everything they want to achieve.

I always knew I wanted to be an educator. When I was younger, I would play ‘schools’ during the summer holidays with my younger brother and sister (I was always the teacher of course!) 

While at school, I volunteered for my local youth club as a Senior Member where I won a Dorset Award. This only motivated me to develop my childcare skills more by signing up to as much additional training as I could including: 'Emotional Logic' Training where I was taught how to help students understand their ‘unpleasant’ emotions and how to make a plan to get them out of their emotional turmoil and an 'Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences' course where I learned how to support young people who have had difficult experiences in life.

After achieving my A levels in Maths, English Language and Computing, I was off to university! My first choice university at that, Plymouth Marjon University, to study BEd Primary Education, where after three years of study and school placements I got an Upper Second Class Honours Degree. It was while attending uni that I chose my maths specialism and first started tutoring for an agency. 

Fast forward a couple of years and the coronavirus outbreak happened. It's actually thanks to Covid that I'm doing what I’m doing today. Not being able to go out to work and after waiting months for the 'right time' I finally took the plunge to become a tutor full-time.

3 things you might find interesting about me...

• I have 6 tattoos (one says “defying gravity” which is a song from my all time favourite musical Wicked 💚🩷 and another is a clamshell in honour of my favourite Disney character, Ariel 🧜🏼‍♀️
• After uni, I went on a 10 day holiday to Greece but I loved it out there so much that I got a job as a waitress at a holiday apartment complex, found a place to live and cancelled my flight home and ended up staying out there for 6 months 🙈 Very unlike me! I'm not the spontaneous type.
• My first name was originally going to be Alice, but after my nan reminded my mum of a particular 1977 song performed by Smokie, my mum decided my middle name will be Alice instead. Hence, Lauren Alice Tutoring ✏️