The method

Six principles that govern every class.

Most teaching describes itself in adjectives. This page describes what actually happens in the room, and what each rule costs when it is followed properly. If you have ever wondered what you are buying, this is it.

Principle one

Understand, then practice

No method is taught before its meaning. Procedure follows comprehension, never the reverse.

In practice. A student arrives able to cross multiply but unable to say what a ratio is. We stop, build the meaning, and only then return to the algorithm. The algorithm survives the exam because it is now attached to something.

Principle two

Build the mental model

Every topic is anchored to a diagram, a picture or a physical example: something the mind can hold.

In practice. Completing the square is taught as an actual square, drawn, with the missing corner visible. Students who have seen the square stop losing the sign.

Principle three

Examinations still matter

Understanding comes first, but examinations reward precision. We practise exact phrasing, time discipline and calm under pressure, deliberately.

In practice. Marks are lost to unstated assumptions far more often than to bad mathematics. We rehearse the sentence the examiner is looking for until writing it is automatic.

Principle four

Track progress honestly

You receive a written summary every two weeks: topics covered, gaps closed, what comes next. No vague reassurance.

In practice. If a topic is not secure, the summary says so. A report that never contains bad news is not a report.

Principle five

Build confidence, not dependence

A successful student is one who needs their educator a little less every month. Independence is the real outcome.

In practice. Work is handed back rather than completed for the student. The measure of a good year is how much of it the student could now do alone.

Principle six

Respect the student's time

Every class has a written plan. If we finish early, we finish early. No padding.

In practice. Sixty focused minutes beat ninety unfocused ones, and a child who is tired is not learning, whatever the timetable says.

These are not aspirations. They are the reason a class sometimes ends twenty minutes early, the reason a progress report occasionally makes uncomfortable reading, and the reason a student who no longer needs me is treated as the success rather than the lost revenue.

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