About Me!
Who am I?
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My name is Dr Paul Meaney (yep, that is my real name). I come from Lancashire in the North West and I've been living East Berkshire for the last 8 years or so.
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I started out as a Biologist...
I studied for my Degree and PhD in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a fabulous time, although rather cold. I took a job at the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, working for Oxford University. After a few years I realised that a career in academic research wasn't for me.
I then was bitten by the programming bug...
I returned to Edinburgh to study for a Masters in Software Engineering at Napier University where I graduated with distinction. I returned to Oxford to gain valuable practical experience programming in industry. I spent the next 10 years working as a first a programmer, then a Senior Programmer and finally as a Technical Architect at a variety of software companies, including Cherwell Scientific, Solarweb, QA Plc and finally Motors.co.uk. During my career, I ended up providing custom software solutions for a range of Clients including DeLaRue Holographics, Lloyds Bank, DeutscheBank, Global Beach and Loughborough University. I also achieved my Microsoft Certifications, obtaining my (deep breath) Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), Technical Specialist (MCTS), Application Developer (MCAD) and Professional Developer (MCPD) qualifications.
And then came the calling into teaching...
I decided to move into teaching to follow in my parents footsteps, where I discovered that I had a real knack for it. After training at Wallingford School, I took my first position at Icknield Community college, where I was one of the first teachers in the country to introduce the GCSE in Computing. I also introduced programming in Scratch, SmallBasic and Kodu to Key Stage 3. I also received my first three Outstanding lesson observations. I moved to the Henley College to teach A level Computing, where I pushed the college to join the 21st century and stop teaching Pascal and start teaching C# for A Level and VB.NET for BTEC. I achieved a 100% pass rate in the five years that I taught there, and most of my students got their best marks in Computer Science out of all of their A levels. I switched to the OCR syllabus in 2016, but then back to AQA in 2017. I picked up two more Outstanding lesson observations, and became a 'Lead Practitioner' - also known as an Advanced Skills Teacher - where I would go and help mentor other teachers to help them achieve Outstanding lessons. My proudest achievement is that for the last three years of my teaching, all of my A level students went on to study a degree in Computer Science at Universities all over the country, from Cambridge, to Warwick, Durham and Imperial College London. I became a teacher to inspire students at all ages to take up Computer Science and to see 100% of my A level students doing just that, I couldn't ask for anything better!
What am I doing now?
I decided to put my extensive skills and experience in both education and business to good use by starting my own business. TheComputingTutor is now one of the most popular sites providing 1:1 tutoring and writing educational resources for teachers. My specialties include providing online learning support in A Level Computer Science and Level 3 BTEC IT and Engineering for students at The Henley College in Oxfordshire as well as providing online support to students all over the world. I also specialise in providing 1:1 GCSE Maths Tuition for students looking to retake their GCSE exams. I also provide high quality written teaching resources for Schools, Colleges and www.knowitallninja.com, the premier BTEC IT Revision site in the UK. I also work with Pearson Education Limited, writing their assignment resources and providing expert review services for their Level 4 BTEC IT, Computing and Engineering courses as well as their new Esport courses. I also run HeadStart courses for students who are new to programming, exam revision sessions and all day workshops at The Henley College specifically for A level Computer Science and BTEC Level 3 IT. These courses are also available to students in the Reading area.
