Jonathan F.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

Dulwich College Shanghai Pudong
International GCSEs: Extended Mathematics (A*), Additional Mathematics (A*), English Language (A*), English Literature (A*), Geography (A*), Computer Science (A*), Economics (A), Physics (9), Chemistry (9), Spanish Second Language (9)
International Baccalaureate: Mathematics AA HL (7), Physics HL (7), History HL (7), Geography SL (7), English Language and Literature SL (7), Spanish B SL (7), IB/TOK (3/3)

London School of Economics and Political Science
Bsc Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Philosophy (1st Class), Microeconomics (1st Class), Mathematical Methods (1st Class), Political Science (Not yet assessed), Macroeconomics (Not yet assessed)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Love Learning Tutors
GCSE: Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Physics, Geography, English
A-Level: Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Physics

DebateMate: 2025-present
Taught debate to secondary and key stage 3 students

SteppingStones: 2023-2025
Taught elementary school English to disadvantaged children across China

SKILLS & INTERESTS

My sport interests include tennis, table tennis and badminton. I frequently go the gym, I love cooking, I love playing chess and other strategy games like Avalon. I also enjoy playing computer games of all kinds, like shooters (CSGO, Fortnite), Sandbox games (Minecraft) and Simulation games like (City Skylines). I also enjoy debating and having healthy conversations about important topics. I speak Mandarin fluently and am somewhat proficient in Spanish and Cantonese.

WORK EXPERIENCE

The Expatriate Centre Shanghai (TEC) Volunteer
Yunnan, China June 2022 & June 2023
• Supported TEC’s outreach branch through constructive education in rural communities in China
• Led language and character training in small seminar-style groups to 12 to 18-year-olds
• Supervised and fostered a safe environment for children

PERSONAL STATEMENT

I grew up realising something so important it would shape the way I think about life. I noticed that when I did something I enjoyed, like watching cartoons on the television in my grandfather’s room, that time would pass so quickly. My grandfather would always negotiate a time with me and my sister, usually it would be 4pm-5pm. One hour a day, after school, where we get the television, and that would always feel like 20 minutes to me. But then when I sat in class listening about how to spell words, 45-minute lessons would feel like 3 hours. Then my 5 year old self realised something, something that could let me game the system, let me defeat the all-too-common first grader complaint of school being long and boring; I would find a way to enjoy school, enjoy learning and enjoy the subjects I studied. My approach to learning has always been to find the enjoyable parts of it, to like it. This doesn’t change the fact that there are some subjects I dislike, it’s about finding some part of it to like, and I can assure every person on this earth that every subject has something that you would enjoy. I remember speaking to my grandfather when I was 6, just entering year 2. I told him about how I had just learnt addition in math class and my teacher told me about multiplication and how that is something we won’t understand just quite yet, and I asked him about how multiplication worked. He told me that think of five times four as five fours added up together. And that got me immediately excited. It felt like my grandfather had just revealed something that my teacher was gatekeeping. I immediately went and started multiplying all sorts of random small numbers together. And within an hour, I had understood the basics of multiplication. This is a core memory of mine now, a story I tell to everyone who asks why I enjoy math. Math always starts off like some puzzle that seems impossible to discern, but when you get it once and you take your time to put it to practice and it works again and again, you realise just how beautiful math can be. This approach to learning, of thinking of it not as a chore but as a journey of discovery is what has kept me not just as a conventionally good student, but as a student who enjoys learning way too much. I recall walking into year 9 physics class which was, for me, a taster of GCSE Physics. We got a copy of the formula book where most of the formulas were to be covered later in year 10 and 11. I would ask my teacher about all of the most complicated looking ones after class time. When he had the patience, he would give me a brief outline of them. When he didn’t, he made it my task to go home and look it up online then come into school to explain it to me. Then when year 10 and 11 rolled around, and slowly every single equation on that booklet made sense, it felt like a box gradually opening itself up to my brain. I remember in IB History, when I saw the initial syllabus. 4 different topics from 4 different parts of the world. A part of me thought I would never be able to get through all this. Yet slowly, maturely, my whole class did. I want to share my vision and approach to learning with other students. I believe that loving learning is something so sorely missing today in a world where all students think of getting good grades as a chore rather than the natural result of loving the learning itself. My approach will never be to think that any student is unable to grasp something, rather I would always find a different approach to a topic that is more suitable for the student. The best example of this was how I helped many of my high school friends through complicated math topics through visual aids. Some students work better visually, some work better abstractly. I am also fervently against the all-too-common modern art of mark scheme milking, where tutors spam students with relentless questions and mark schemes, forcing students to memorise how to solve specific types of questions. Though this is important, it fails to develop the broader ability of critical thinking that a student will truly benefit from heading into university, where challenges and problem sets are no longer about repetition, they are about utilising every part of the brain to find ways of solving problems. My approach to tutoring will emphasise allowing the student to enjoy the subject they are studying, but more importantly to understand it rather than to remember it. The combination of enjoying a subject and understanding it will not just improve a student’s current grade, it will benefit their ability to think and their happiness when studying, ensuring a long term path of academic success.