Alexander

Hello!

I'm Alex, an English tutor, graduate and professional writer with a passion for language, literature and learning.

I've been tutoring professionally since 2015. Currently, I tutor for the National Tutoring Program, an initiative set up to deliver high-quality tuition to students in schools across the UK.

I graduated from Falmouth University in 2018 with a high first in English. Since then, in addition to my online and in-school tutoring, I have worked as an educational support worker and teaching assistant for schools across Cornwall helping children with a diverse range of learning requirements, including SEN.

I've worked as a professional content writer and copywriter since 2019 for clients across the world.

I'm a published creative writer, with poetry published in journals in the UK, US and Australia, and I have a chapbook of poems out with Earthbound Press.

I have a wealth of classroom and tutoring experience; a lifetime's worth of knowledge in English language and literature; and I am genuinely passionate about my subject-- and that's what makes the difference for my students.

Tutoring Experience

I've been tutoring and working in educational settings for over 8 years. Currently, I am part of the National Tutoring Program, an initiative that works closely with schools to deliver high quality tuition to students across the country. As part of that initiative, I have worked with students online and in-person across the UK, covering English language and Literature GCSE. I have worked in one-on-one settings, and I have taught groups of up to 6 students at a time.

During my time as a tutor, I've helped dozens of students improve their grades drastically, from GCSE to undergraduate level. I know all of the current GCSE, AS and A level exam board syllabuses intimately, and I make sure to keep up to date with the latest teaching innovations and techniques. I still work in schools as a TA and in-person tutor from time to time, so I know first-hand what examiners are looking for from students today.

My greatest pleasure is watching my students go on to get the grades they need to enter college, university or whatever educational or professional path they have set their sights on. I've also helped undergraduate students plan, structure and write assignments and dissertations with excellent results. I believe my student feedback speaks for itself-- I've yet to have a dissatisfied client.

Areas of expertise: Unseen poetry and poetry anthology; Shakespeare; modern prose; drama; The 19th Century Novel; modernism; literary theory; contextualising texts; understanding metaphor and figurative techniques; understanding literary form; understanding structure; creative writing; rhetoric; literary history.

Exam Boards covered: AQA; Pearson Edexcel; OCR; Eduqas

Tutoring Approach

My teaching style is friendly and person-centred. Chiefly, I'm interested in how I can make the material accessible and relevant to you, as I believe people learn best when they are engaged and having fun. Your personal response to the material matters most of all: my role is helping you develop the tools you need to express yourself -- and the confidence to use them!

I'm particularly skilled at helping students improve their understanding of, and appreciation for, poetry, being a published poet myself.

Once we have established your exam board and the areas on which you would like to focus, I will begin to assemble a curriculum. For example, an AQA English literature student curriculum focusing on paper 1 would involve the following: Understanding metaphor and figurative techniques; developing essay planning skills; how to approach an essay question; developing writing techniques, such as the PETAL paragraph; understanding form; understanding structure; understanding contextualisation; understanding the marking criteria, from Ao1- Ao4; answering past papers in a live interactive whiteboard.

I use a reliable video communication service that comes with some excellent features, like a live interactive whiteboard. We will use these tools to work on recent past paper questions, which I will provide. I also like to use interactive docs to set homework assignments as these can be edited and marked live.