Helen B
Tutor in Shacklewell, East London

I am writing this letter of support on behalf of Helen Black who I have had the privilege of working with at Mubarak bin Mohammed Cycle One School (MBM) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. I have worked as her Inclusion coach at her assigned grade level her entire teaching career in the UAE and have assisted her in developing strategies and modifying/adapting her instruction for students with special needs.
Helen began teaching grade three boys in the spring of 2012, which in the UAE is an immense challenge. Helen rose to the challenge and worked hard. She differentiated assignments, implemented successful behavior plans and adjusted to teaching and living in the UAE simultaneously.
Upon joining the staff of MBM, Helen quickly gained a reputation of a very hard worker. She is admired and highly respected by her fellow coworkers. Helen has demonstrated competence, flexibility, and dedication when dealing with the diversity of her students. Helen’s level of patience in dealing with the complexities of the students in her charge is very impressive. She has been proactive in developing solutions to address behavior issues. She has kept accurate and precise data of student behavior and prepares data for meetings and updates parents and staff accordingly. She has incorporated total physical response into her teaching and involves drama into her lessons. This has engaged all students in their learning and I have found they have become more confident in their abilities as they are able to show what they know in a different way.
Helen has proven time and time again that she is willing to expand her professional knowledge and work on growing her abilities. She is definitely a team player and has excellent people skills. She is organized, efficient, and focused. This is evident in her teaching, interaction with students and her attitude. Her enthusiasm and philosophy of hard work extends past the typical school day as she prepared lessons and materials for her classes.
Helen was well prepared for her challenging position. It is apparent that Helen cares passionately about making the best decisions possible for the students she works with. She works hard to ensure that her students’ needs are met. This shows in her ability to be consistent, compassionate and reliable in her teaching and professional responsibilities. She is able to adapt in a multitude of situations, remaining professional and keeping focused on the best interest of her students.

My son has quite mild dyslexia but we needed a fresh approach to enthuse him and encourage him to apply himself to lessons. Helen has approached the challenge with enthusiasm, energy and a ton of exciting ideas. Gabriel loves his sessions with Helen and they collaborate on fun ways to look at maths, english, science and other subjects.

Helen is a kind, patient and efficient tutor. Her relaxed manners were ideal for my 7 year old boy who enjoys leaning in a more playful way and he felt at ease with her straight away. Helen helped him consolidate the knowledge he learnt in school . I liked her feed back after each session and her genuine interest in the progress of my son.

From the first lesson Helen has been a very committed and engaging teacher for our 10-year old daughter. Though we started late in the process of preparing for Eleven Plus, within weeks Helen helped to make our daughter confident with what was expected from her in Maths and English. Helen has a very positive attitude towards learning which makes seem some tedious exercise in the Eleven Plus process less of a difficult task. Helen gave appropriate homework as well. We have to say that we felt blessed in finding her and we can highly recommend her.