Qualified international Geography teacher, online tutor, PGCE - Geography tutor with Sophie

Dear Sir/ Madam,
I am very happy to provide this character reference for Sophie Auton in her work as a tutor.
I had the pleasure of working alongside Sophie whilst we were training as teacher’s on placement and she has been my friend ever since. I can recommend Sophie as a person for many reasons. The first of these reason’s is Sophie’s dedication and commitment to her job, Sophie has persisted in her work in a consistent manner and remained dedicated to teaching the entire time that I have known her. Sophie is especially fascinated by her subject specialism and shows great enthusiasm when discussing this and I am sure that this is a great feature to pass onto students. It is also worth noting that the entire time I worked alongside Sophie that she was punctual, her attendance was fantastic and she always seemed prepared.
It must also be said that Sophie is an incredibly caring person who has helped me through many a personal crisis and never made any job seem too big, offering her help to me even at times when it was probably difficult. She is always there for people and is a fantastic person to work with.
Sophie is a very goal driven person and always performed fantastically to deadlines, as I remember working alongside her planning lessons on our placement. She also always offered great practical and creative solutions to problems I was having with my planning.
I am confident that Sophie will provide the same level of commitment and passion in her work as a tutor.

Yours Sincerely,
Amy Sims

Academic Achievements

Miss Auton has successfully completed a one year PGCE course in Secondary Geography at Sheffield Hallam University. She obtained a first class degree in Earth, Energy & Sustainability from Leiden University, in The Netherlands, in the summer of 2017, and has an excellent academic background with the IB diploma and international qualifications. She has excellent subject knowledge for teaching which has been demonstrated through academic submissions and teaching, particularly with reference to teaching A Level students.

Miss Auton’s academic background is relevant to the content of the geography curriculum at Key Stage 3 and 4. She has developed her understanding of the English geography curriculum, which has been demonstrated through university subject training days and teaching undertaken during both of her School Based Training Placements. Where gaps were identified in aspects of subject knowledge for teaching, she was able to accurately identify these gaps through her subject knowledge for teaching audit and made excellent progress to address these areas. Miss Auton contributed to group sessions in geography subject days held within university. Her contributions to subject days were always insightful, highly intelligent and showed a developing awareness of teaching and learning in the geography classroom. Miss Auton has also successfully participated in a university weekend residential to the Cranedale Field Studies Centre in the Yorkshire Wolds, in order to better understand how to lead and manage geography fieldwork. During this weekend Miss Auton further considered how to risk assess, lead and manage fieldwork and consider effective models of delivery at both the planning and teaching stage to support independent learning. Further development of coastal geography subject knowledge up to A Level was also developed, as well as opportunities to incorporate practical enquiry and investigative teaching and learning activities through GIS and the use of apps for classroom use.
Miss Auton has submitted two academic assignments where she was able to critically analyse and evaluate effective teaching and learning practice in the geography classroom, drawing on a wide range of subject and wider educational academic literature to inform developing practice and next steps. For her second academic submission, Miss Auton was able to identify barriers to learning for some students and planned and undertook an intervention in order to support teaching and learning practice in the classroom. Miss Auton achieved level 7 (distinction) for both of her submissions. Her academic submissions were amongst the best I have had the privilege to read. As a result of her high quality academic submissions, Miss Auton has been awarded a Post Graduate Certificate in Education.

School Experience
Miss Auton has successfully completed her two school based training placements at Dronfield Henry Fanshaw School, and Winterhill School, an 11 – 16 Academy in Rotherham. Whilst undertaking her school based training placements, she gained experience of teaching students across the full age and ability range, including teaching students who are studying GCSE and A Level Geography. By the end of these placements school based colleague’s commented that Miss Auton has very effective and secure subject knowledge for teaching, across a range of both human and physical geography modules (TS3). This was particularly evident when Miss Auton was teaching GCSE and A Level Geography. School based colleagues commented that her deep subject knowledge inspired a love of learning for students who were highly motivated by classroom discourse, particularly within A Level groups (TS1, 3). Observations of classroom practice indicated that planned learning opportunities were appropriately structured for students; with clearly planned elements of teaching to support a range of students make progress within lessons. A developing awareness of how to meet the needs of different groups of learners have been demonstrated, with students being supported to access learning, particularly when students have identified learning needs (TS4, 5). Based on two successful training placements, identified next steps for Miss Auton are to ensure that sufficient pace is maintained throughout lessons in order to maximise learning opportunities for all (TS4). In addition, there is a need for Assessment for Learning to be used more strategically within lessons to check and assess student learning and progress (TS6). Timely detailed marking was also identified as a next step in order for the assessment process to inform planning and further teaching (TS2).

Personal Attributes
Miss Auton was a conscientious and hard working trainee teacher. She worked hard and desired the best outcomes for her students. She was keen to build positive working relationships with students, colleagues and parents. She has supported placement departments in school with examination group interventions and was keen to become more fully involved in extra curricular opportunities in school as she progressed through her SBT2 placement. Prior to beginning her PGCE year, Miss Auton was actively involved in a number of mentoring, community and youth projects whilst studying in the Netherlands. She has a clear commitment to working with young people from a diverse range of backgrounds and to support marginal groups and communities back into wider society. Her punctuality and attendance record has been excellent. There are also no safeguarding issues that I am aware of.