Cian

I am 25 years old, and I did BA English and Classical Studies followed by MPhil Classics, both at the University of Bristol. My MPhil thesis was a comparative study of Ovid's poetry and James Joyce's novels in relation to the theme of exile.

I pursued Classics at university because I loved reading some of the most revered texts in their original language, and I trained as a Classics teacher because I wanted to share my (quite specialised) love and expertise with others. A lot of my work at school is focused on introducing pupils – who may not even know where Greece is on a map – to the ancient world, and teaching them to link it to our own.

Tutoring Experience

I trained to teach Classics with a London SCITT in the 2021/22 academic year, and attained both QTS and my PGCE at the end of that year. Since September 2022, I have been the subject lead in Latin at a state secondary school in South London. I have also taught English Literature and Classical Civilisation, and I now teach History at KS3 as well.

My class sizes have ranged from very small to normal sized, and my three Latin GCSE pupils last year achieved 9, 9 and 8.

Tutoring Approach

I typically identify before a lesson what new content, concept or technique my student needs to learn next. In the lesson I ask them to retrieve the relevant prerequisite knowledge, and then explain the new content to them.

I then work through examples and non-examples with pupils, and ask further questions to probe their understanding. I follow up with independent practice time, so the student can consolidate and extend their knowledge.