Naomi Holyoak

About

• Naomi has been part of the Save My Exams biology team since 2021, where she aims to ensure that students have access to the best possible revision notes, topic questions, and tutorial videos for exam preparation. She is committed to helping students understand the most complex biological ideas at GCSE and A Level, and enjoys designing resources that point towards the exciting, real-world applications of biology.

• Naomi has qualified teacher status, and is an experienced classroom biology teacher. She particularly enjoys teaching A-Level biology content, and has worked with many students to extend their depth and breadth of knowledge as they apply to study biology at university.

• Her favourite part of being a biology teacher has always been the opportunity to teach field work as part of the ecology topic, and she has been fortunate enough to take groups of students on field trips to Wales to study UK coastal ecology, and to Central America where students were able to work with conservation researchers studying cloud forests and coral reefs.

• Naomi is also a biology tutor and examiner, keeping her in touch with the needs of students and the demands of exam mark schemes while she creates content at SME.

• She has helped many students towards their target grades over more than 15 years of teaching, and remains dedicated to ensuring that every SME resource has the needs and priorities of students at its heart.

• Outside the world of biology Naomi loves to spend time knitting and sewing clothes in the company of her little cat, Buzz, as well as outdoor swimming and choral singing.

Published work or mentions

• Naomi has worked as an author with another educational publisher in the UK, publishing biology resources such as classroom tests, homework packs, and extended reading articles for a range of levels and exam boards.

Education

• Naomi graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Biological Sciences, before staying on to complete a PGCE in Biology.

Expertise

• Naomi is a qualified teacher with 8 years of classroom experience teaching biology at Key Stage 3, GCSE, and A-Level.

• She has tutored A-level students on a 1-1 basis for more than 7 years across multiple exam boards.

• Working as an examiner for a major UK exam board since 2018 means that Naomi understands the importance of combining strong subject knowledge and learned exam skills for achieving exam success.

• Naomi specialised in plant biology and environmental biology in the final years of her degree, completing a dissertation on conservation conflicts in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

• She especially enjoys creating SME resources relating to ecology and classification!

Top revision quote for students

“Have a revision plan that allows you to test yourself little and often, and to revisit the same topics over and over again!”