Florida (FLD 0523)

The student is the youngest of three children, but as her two brothers are significantly older, she is essentially an only child. The family are delightful – the parents are hard-working, calm and intelligent, and together with her older brothers they have created a very loving and stable environment.

The young lady was adopted at two days old. Signs of foetal alcohol syndrome and exposure to drugs in vitro were not evident until she was 7 or 8, when her US private school diagnosed her with dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and ADD. To mitigate these syndromes, her family placed her in a specialist school where she spent 2 years. This school helped her overcome some of her dyslexic traits and gave her tools to better cope with the written word. However, the focus on reading and writing has significantly outweighed any attention paid to the student's mathematics ability, and as a result, she is severely behind her peers in terms of numeracy.

When she was 11, the student transferred out of the specialist school and now attends a school which is structured in a way reminiscent of Montessori classes in that it is very student-led. In some respects this has been good for the young lady, but it has also allowed her to shy away from tackling her problems with mathematics, and this may have compounded her trouble with the subject.

Unsurprisingly, the student's least favourite teacher taught maths. She reports her as being quite ‘shouty’ and lapsing into Spanish when frustrated with her students. The teacher was unclear in her instructions and explanations, and often left the class wondering if they should be working on a problem individually or as a collaboration.

She cites two tour guides as her favourite teachers. These guides were specialists in penguins – a topic about which the young lady is obsessed and very knowledgeable. However, it was not the subject that endeared them to her, but rather the way in which they modified their presentations, adjusting their pitch to acknowledge her level of expertise and made her feel valued and special. Penguins are an enduring love of the student's, and over the years the family have travelled to some exotic locations including Patagonia and Japan specifically to see penguins.

Aside from school and penguin research, she swims, rides horses and does Aikido. There is plenty of room to expand her extra-curricular repertoire – for example, she has shown an interest in paddle boarding and kayaking as well as being open to learning a musical instrument. She still has some relatively immature interests in things like Peppa Pig and My Little Pony, and is known to be a fussy eater. Introducing her to new experiences should help to develop more sophistication in her passions and expand her dietary range.

This role calls for an enthusiastic and creative Tutor who has experience working with SEND. Candidates with experience in the Davis model would be at an advantage.

The family would like the young lady to be homeschooled for 3-4 days per week and to continue attending school for the remaining time. This means that the Tutor will need to forge strong working relationships with the school to ensure the student is on track with her peers and that the curriculum is being faithfully followed. This is not to say that the Tutor should only do classroom-based learning – in fact quite the opposite is preferred, and a creative Tutor with experience in project-based learning will find the young lady to be a diligent and attentive student.

While there are certain curricular constraints at this stage of the contract, there is still great scope for the Tutor to retain their autonomy. Certainly, it is possible that this role will move to being a full-time home-schooling placement – a development that would give the Tutor complete control of the curricula and lesson planning. One of the benefits that this would bring is the ability to follow a different mathematics pathway which may suit the student's skills and abilities better. For example, the GCSE mathematics syllabus in the UK curriculum might be a better fit for her than the usual US pathway.

Homeschooling also allows for greater flexibility in terms of travel. Once the family feel secure with the tutoring, they may undertake more extensive travel to help expose the young lady to a range of experiences and learning opportunities. In any case, the Tutor will need to be highly organized and able to prepare the full range of lessons for high school subjects, wherever their tutoring is scheduled to take place. They must be an excellent record-keeper and ensure that all reports are accurate and that any requirements for enrolment on future academic courses is met.

The family have no academic goals in mind for the student – there is no grand plan for a particular College. Rather, the successful outcome that they seek is that the student be equipped with the skills and knowledge that she needs to pursue her own passions. This could be anything from helping her find a career in zoology as a specialist in penguins, to working in a creative field as an artist. The key is to ensure that the student has solid foundations in place that ensure she can cope with the demands of her daily life – and for that, she will certainly need math and some of its business applications to a reasonable level.

The successful candidate for this role will be someone who can bring the best out of the student both academically and in her wider, extracurricular life. The role will primarily be as a Tutor, but there will be elements of mentorship in this job, and the successful applicant will need to improve her confidence and change her mindset where math and numeracy are concerned. The ideal Tutor will have experience working with SEND children, and hold a deep understanding of the learning difficulties faced by children with the young lady's range of diagnoses. She or he will be patient and kind, encouraging and inspiring. Projects and lessons will be well-planned, creative, and memorable. The Tutor should make use of all resources at their disposal, planning lessons that revolve around local points of interest, historical sites, museums, art galleries, exhibitions, and theatre productions. The Tutor’s natural enthusiasm for any given topic should be infectious.

The Tutor will typically work on 5 days and have 2 consecutive days off each week as their ‘weekend’ but should not expect these to be Saturdays or Sundays. The Tutor will work with the student for an average of 35 hours each week with preparation time in addition. The Tutor will be entitled to at least nine weeks off per annum of the contract, per the Standard Terms.

The Tutor should follow a structured timetable as much as possible but should look to adjust this to fit with the student's needs. The Tutor should collaborate with the school in terms of curricula decisions.

In Fort Lauderdale. the Tutor will need to arrange their own accommodation and personal transport from their compensation. Accommodation during periods of travel will be a short term furnished let, AirBnB, or hotel, and will be covered by the Client.

The successful candidate will be able to offer more than the minimum requirements of this position and must have been raised in a socially appropriate background. She or he will not only be an excellent educator, but also a good role model: educated and polished, with excellent manners and personal values.

The Tutor should be fit and healthy, a non-smoker. They should enjoy staying active and should embrace opportunities to try new sports and activities with the student.

The family have two small dogs and often look after others belonging to friends and neighbors, so the Tutor must be comfortable working in an environment with domestic animals.

The Tutor will need to have permission to work in the USA. This is likely to mean that they will be a US national, a dual US/UK national, or a Brit who already has the right to travel to, live and work in the US.