Ilona van Dantzig

I am the tutor and remedial teacher for primary school and early secondary level in my practice: Illumnify Tutoring.

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I grew up attending international schools, so my background is probably not vastly different to your child's in that I come from an expat background. My parents are Dutch but I moved around a lot as a child and went to International Schools in each country we lived in. I am bilingual - English and Dutch, and also have a good level of German. 

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I have my International Baccalaureate (IB) and initially studied Pyschology. Later I continued my studies and became a teacher. I have worked in UK as a primary teacher and 16 years at Rivers International School Arnhem with which I still have strong connections. While there, I was a class teacher, maths coordinator,  learning support coordinator and remedial teacher.  From this time, I have 8 years of experience of Maths remedial teaching and tutoring as well as supporting Literacy with children when needed. In total, I have taught in primary schools for 20 years. 

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In October 2023, I set up Illumnify tutoring, ready to move on to a new challenge and enabling me to focus on tutoring. I love working with children and young people. I enjoy getting to know them, helping them see their own potential and experiencing the a-ha moments with them. The key to good tutoring (and indeed any teaching) for me is building a relationship with the student. Getting to know all sides of them (their strengths, needs, interests, character) and slowly gaining their trust are the corner stones to being able to connect. That connection and trust is what allows for the deep learning and a willingness to take risks in their learning. And also it allows me to work out what works for them and help them increase their confidence, shift their mindset and thereby realize their potential.

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About my love for maths teaching 

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As you may also have experienced (and/or your child is experiencing), as a child I did not love maths and wasn't very confident in my maths. I was able to do it and follow what the teacher had shown me. However, I did not really always fully understand: I could follow the recipe/method I was given. I longed to gain the underlying understanding but was not fully aware at the time that this was why I did not enjoy the maths. This was particularly so with fractions for me.

 

Once I became a teacher, I got to understand maths at a very different level, and see why things were the way they were, how you could play with number and different methods; and the progression of understanding needed. A whole world opened up and I was really drawn to go deeper in to how to teach maths for understanding. Now I understood why I had not enjoyed most of the maths teaching I had had myself.

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Therefore, I feel an affinity with a child like yours if you they need maths support. Once I had understood the maths and had unpicked the nitty gritty and psychology in teaching it, I looked into problem solving and investigation - increasingly appreciating the beauty of maths. So now my view of maths has changed completely, and I very much want to help students also experience it in a more positive way; and show them what they are capable of. Everyone is capable of maths, they just need to right methods and support for them to understand it (not just be able to replicate a method), see its value and gain their confidence.