Adam

NOW OFFERING INTENSIVE GROUP CLASSES FOR THE UPCOMING GCSE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE EXAMINATIONS: PLEASE MESSAGE FOR DETAILS

After over a decade of being a qualified English and Drama teacher, I am still as energetic and committed to getting my students the best possible grade now as I was from day one... I just have a lot more experience to actually get the high levels now than I did 10 years ago!
I'm willing to go the extra mile to make sure that happens, by making sure that I find a way to relate to all of my students as I teach them, and inspire them to understand why English is so important in the first place: it's the cornerstone of all of our communication and I feel that students today aren't always given a clear understanding of why they should care about English or why it is so relevant to them, no matter what career path they will embark on in the future.
My Drama teaching also makes me more creative than your average English teacher - I like to help students learn in unusual or unexpected ways which they remember (and enjoy!)

Summer 2023 update:
I’m so proud of my GCSE and A Level cohorts this year- every student achieved high levels and got into one of their top choices for further study: congratulations to you all and the hard work paid off!

Raison d'etre:
I often feel like a lawyer for my students! Sometimes we must face some hard decisions and truths together in order to really achieve the best results possible - this may mean having to change sets or have some frank conversations about the provisions that you are receiving from your school - but this vital information has meant that many students that I teach achieve their potential and get their schools to do what is best for them, rather than the conventional 'cookie-cutter' methods that, sadly, prevail and fail many of them.

Background information:
I attended Dr Challoner's Grammar School for GCSE and A Level study before reading Drama and English at Loughborough University in 2006. I received my BA Hons Drama and English Degree from Loughborough University in 2009, securing a high second class upper honours (2.1).

Tutoring Experience

I have been teaching for over a decade and consistently delivering the highest value add and outcomes for my students.
I qualified as an English and Drama Teacher at Dr Challoner's High School before completing my NQT year at the prestigious private school, The Royal Masonic. I then gained further classroom experience with a broader range of student needs at Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School. Since then, I chose to move away from classroom teaching and have since been tutoring students on a small group or one on one basis. I have experience teaching students from the age of 4 all the way up to adult learners but I specialise in GCSE and A Level English Literature, Language and Lang/Lit examinations and have helped thousands of students through every single exam board in this field: I have a very strong knowledge of AQA, OCR, EdExcel, Cambridge and WJEC syllabi for GCSEs, IGCSEs and at A Level and I have spent over a decade creating the best possible resources for all of these different exam specifications, too. Your student will get access to study guides for the texts and examinations that they are sitting; a crucial resource in my opinion -- especially when it is time for revision!

Tutoring Approach

The most important thing for me is to identify areas for development to help progress students. It is usually clear quite to me within the first few lessons as to what is most important to improve, whether it be the creativity of responses, the structure of the work, firming up subject knowledge or understanding the examinations themselves (or all of the above!)

In most cases, I will spend most of the first hour assessing the student's current abilities through reading some passages and discussion and looking through school work (if available). I usually then debrief the parents and student with my verdict of what needs to be done and a structure is put in place of how we will achieve the target in the time that we have together.

Tutoring sessions will cover key skills needed depending on which examining body they will be sitting. I am a very experienced tutor, having helped thousands of students succeed and I am fully confident that I can help you, with completely tailor made lessons that match how you learn best but grounded in scaffolding and structure which I have created for each part of the language and literature courses to maximize every student can achieve their potential.

I am highly experience in using assessment for learning and making sure that students walk away from every session with a clear understanding of how they can improve and progress, which helps them feel very positive about the whole process.

I will use a series of strategies including exemplars, unseen and seen texts, examination papers and (where appropriate) media and ICT based learning, too.

I also have a growing number of online videos to offer to students at no extra charge to help them sharpen up key skills, and I often offer small group sessions (particularly for reading key exam texts) as an additional resource for students to ensure that they are getting the most out of their learning time.

Thanks for taking the time to read my profile and I hope to hear from you soon!