Head of Science in 3 schools, examiner, Oxford Uni, 25 years teaching in every type of UK school and in 4 continents. Chair of Governors. Online learning specialist (M.Sc.) and experienced tutor.

Learn more about Jonathan

• When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring?

  I developed an interest in Physics initially as a result of a series of excellent Physics teachers at secondary school. I attended one of the worst schools in the country and in an environment of drugs, police, gangs and violence somehow they managed to keep order; I felt safe in their lessons and inspired to learn more. I have been twice shortlisted as a Future Leader. This is a government-led initiative to fast-track "high-flyers" into positions of leadership to turn around failing schools. Having been shortlisted from 1000 teacher applicants I ultimately failed at the final hurdle through dissatisfaction with the existing paradigm. I simply do not think schools are very good. They are often too big - the teachers do not know the students - and they are an exercise in economies of scale and of photo-opportunities. In my opinion, if schools want to improve they need smaller classes and well-paid teachers so that we can attract the best…
  
  This led me to realise that whilst my talents (I have achieved 100% pass success rates teaching in schools in three different institutions and achieved the best results the school has ever obtained whilst in a leadership capacity) were recognised, I would make a bad Head. I love teaching and found management decisions too often to be political rather than integral - I did not want to manage a school and compromise my ideals. So within 24 months I had a tuition business teaching 146 local students in a deprived inner-city ward at a community centre. We employed highly-trained overseas staff who benefitted from experience teaching in an English environment and the students received individual attention. For the five years while it lasted, "Learning Gym" provided, I feel, an invaluable social and educational role. Working as a private tutor now internationally, I now despair at the way institutions sometimes over-complicate the examinations systems for students. As Aristotle said: "anything that comes between a student and a teacher undermines learning". What I love about private tutoring is I get to teach, in a pure, direct and meaningful way subjects that I love and are useful and relevant. I studied at Oxford University ultimately, but it does not take anyone of any outstanding ability to be able to tutor as I do, just a lot of experience. It is the feeling of doing something successfully that is appreciated and is worthwhile that gives me the tremendous job satisfaction I now enjoy.

• Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  Physics is "the study of everything from the infinitesimally small to the infinitesimally large", so there has to be something there that interests you! I like to discuss "big" questions. I find it amusing how only 500 years ago Copernicus was too afraid to admit that the Earth orbited the moon because of the conflict with theology and now, with entanglement linking sub-atomic particles across the universe, with string theory and the idea of 10 or more spatial dimensions (we live in a world in which our own senses only inform us of 3), quantum physicists on the west coast of the US literally meditate before doing experiments in case their minds effect their results! We seem to know little more now than then and have moved towards metaphysics. We have only moved from being unconsciously incompetent to being consciously so. Physics seems, at the least, to be a wonderful puzzle that we are asked to solve. I have no specific faith myself but my subject has given me a sense of humility and awe for the universe in which we live and an appreciation of all.
  
  My first degree was a combined one of Biology and Physics but it is only recently that I have fully appreciated what a wonderful subject Biology, also, is to teach. What I first found off-putting about the subject was its breadth of content. What I have come to realise is how this gives the discipline a never-ending learning experience. I have taught Physics predominantly for 25 years, but alongside it my Biology and Chemistry knowledge has grown and grown. In terms of syllabus content, my Physics knowledge has not seen the same development; once you know Ohm's Law you know it! I have an interest in nanotechnology. Shape-shifting and immortality are but two of the potential, seemingly wild and crazy consequences of this branch of chemistry. It is a far leap to this from the EdExcel GCSE Chemistry curriculum with its focus on inorganic industrial processes, but it illustrates, just as telomere research into aging illustrates, how science now is the opposite of the dogmatic learning of facts it was when I was at school only a few decades ago. I have a simple and pragmatic approach to tutoring whereby I can lift grades easily. This affords space to motivate, engage and empower students with an understanding of what I now regard to be the most important subject on the curriculum. If we destroy the planet, the development of a potential Shakespeare is an inconsequence. When an AI can potentially produce the next piece of art on a par with Picasso, the only debate is where the boundaries of science should lie.

• Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  On my Biology and Physics degree I worked in the Biophysics department of King's College, London. My mentor was Maurice Wilkins. He, alongside Watson and Crick, developed the structure of DNA. A quiet, unassuming man, he also worked on the original Manhattan project with Robert Oppenheimer that developed the atomic bomb. Maurice led a course on the "Social Implications of the Sciences" and felt tremendous guilt about the way in which his research had led to such destruction. At Oxford, I was tutored by Richard Pring. A much-published Guardian columnist and educational theorist he moulded much of my own pedagogy in its early years. Michael Marland, author of "The Craft of the Classroom" was my first head teacher. We worked in the largest secondary comprehensive in the country at the time in central London. I revered both of these eccentric geniuses. However, probably the teacher that inspired me the most was Robert Metcalf CBE - a teacher whose passing still brings a tear to my eye. He both called me pathetic (on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition when he threw hot fish and chips into our tent because we were cold and wet and hungry) and made me cover 60 books in sticky-back plastic as a punishment. Comedically strict, he once told me I would be Prime Minister one day. I didn't make it! But he was a teacher that built character as well as taught a subject and he, above all others, gave me the set of principles and beliefs that have been the foundation for my professional standards.

• What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  A good online tutor needs to be a master of the technology. You can be the best tutor in the world, but if you cannot use Zoom or an electronic tablet-and-pen then your skills are redundant. After this, you need to be a good teacher. You need to have a good grasp of the curriculum, experience of examinations and how to pass the exams and the ability to use analogy, differentiation, target setting etc to both motivate and communicate. Just as with good teachers, your administration skills need to be highly developed since you often have a flexible timetable and a range of needs. However, especially in a one-to-one setting, you need to care about the students and their families. This caring translates into having a good rapport and time for people. You can recruit as many new students as your qualifications attract, but if you do not meet the student's needs, are dogmatic, inflexible, inconsiderate or even rude… you will surely fail. Caring about the students, their families and their success is paramount - even if it means you admit openly that your particular skillset is not going to benefit them and they ultimately would be better off investing their time with another. In a business sense it is about developing a client base through nurturing and building organically. It is about having integrity. I could have sold my "Learning Gym" business for a very large amount of money to an investor who wanted to put all the data about the way the students learned on the Cloud. I declined his offer, which would have made me rich for life because I found him suspicious and the associated Child Protection issues… the most important quality of a tutor is that they are trustworthy.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  At Islington Green school, I made the mistake of asking a class what their favourite experiment they had ever done was. They told me it was "Mr Turner's diffusion experiment." They then recounted a story of how the, since deposed, previous science teacher had hidden a stick with - shall we say - an extremely unpleasant, odorous, excretion of canine origin at the back of the class once. One by one the students complained about the smell and this illustrated how the particles had diffused across the room. Whilst I wouldn't go so far as Mr Turner, who did not last long in the profession, it did remind me that the more disgusting, exaggerated or out-of-context an example the more memorable! Or the most disgusting…
  
  I also once witnessed Saba K - a student who was a traumatised refugee - having learned basic vocabulary taught her by another student, repeating it to the class in one of my lessons. The whole class was silent and then stood up clapped. Sabah beamed, as did the student that had taught her.It was highly moving.

• What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  The challenges in my subject include that the content is constantly changing; but this is also one of the things that make it so interesting. Science is the most difficult subject to teach in my opinion - and I say this having been an Acting Head of Maths and having taught English and ICT at GCSE. It is a practical subject and has all of the risks and dangers as well as all the apparatus ordering and managing of any practical subject. However, it is also highly mathematical and requires students to learn concepts and be imaginative. There is a lot of learning. It is a core subject… Over the years, I have been through 12 (yes 12!) Ofsted inspections. I have found that Science is one of the easier subjects to get an outstanding observation on - just as on open evenings it is easy to provide the "wow" factor. However, it is also easy to mess up. If the dry ice doesn't arrive, or if a student has a previously undiagnosed allergy, the potential for calamity is high. Maths on the other hand is hard to excel in, but on a day to day level the organisation and planning required to produce good, differentiated lessons is minimal. There is also the aspect of teaching three very disciplines. Biology requires learning a lot of content and the skills required are arguably more akin to those needed to succeed in studying History or Geography than they are to Physics. There is also the colleagues. Physicists are quirky and eccentric, Chemists organised and practical, Biologists warm and friendly. Of course, these are stereotypes, but there is no doubt that a Science department has a range of characters and personalities. This makes managing it one of the most difficult jobs in the school. My stepmother was a Head teacher of a private school and my father trained teachers at a University. Having been a Head of Science in three schools, I speak from experience!

• Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  My passion is my young family and Arsenal football club. These take up most of any spare time I have. But I have a love of technology and the Arts. I see science as a creative process, but I find it hard to justify reading a novel when there is so much more to learn about the Universe… I think this makes me a geek! Nevertheless, the novels of Ben Okri, Ian McEwan and even the poems that my sister writes or the novels my father does (both are published authors)will find their way into my holiday duffle bag. I have previously worked as a professional fitness trainer and worked in the City writing software for the financial markets; so exercise and IT are a big part of my life.

• What makes you a Superprof (besides answering this interview questions :-P) ?

  I was raised in a tough estate; I went to Oxford. I have been a Head of science in 3 schools and taught in 4 continents. I have an M.Sc. in ICT and have delivered Inset to schools training teachers how to deliver classes online and myself have taught classes of over 90. I have worked in every type of school: single-sex, mixed, Jewish, catholic, Muslim, private, academies, G12 world schools, schools fifth from bottom of the league tables and (Hasmonean) ones voted by the Times newspaper as the best in the UK. I have taught the students that achieved the best scores in the world at iGCSE (and attended the Edexcel awarding ceremony in Egypt). I have taught in over 30 schools; primary, secondary, sixth form etc. Online I have taught entrance examination applicants for all the top schools in the UK …
  
  But all of this is meaningless if there is not a rapport with the student. In fact, I would go so far as to say that my positivity, humour and the fact that I care and know my subject mean almost as much of all of this. My life experience has been broad…So I think what makes someone and me, a Superprof is to have been there, done that, but to remember what it is like not to have done so and to share in the excitement and enthusiasm of attaining it. In short, to be able to empathise with the students and to care, just as much as the parents and students themselves do, about their studies. I believe I am a Superprof because I have the enthusiasm of a new recruit to the profession and the wisdom and experience of an "old hand". 😊