James

I have been a teacher since 2009 and am now a Senior Leader at a school in Essex. I have been employed as an AQA Lead Expert in GCSE English Literature and remain a Senior Examiner (Team Leader) for English Literature Paper 2 (Shakespeare and Unseen poetry). I am aware of the curriculum changes as and when they occur. I pride myself on knowing my stuff irrespective of the qualification and exam board being used and have an excellent track record of results in teaching and tutoring.

I have a young family of three daughters who keep me busy! I enjoy reading, playing and watching football and eating out. Prior to being a teacher I worked as a Senior Client Manager for a PR/Reputation Management firm in the City of London, so I have knowledge of the world beyond academia/education.

I really love English Literature and think it's the best subject in the world - of course exams must be passed to aid whatever it is that a young person wants to do, but I firmly believe in knowledge for its own sake. Literature is worth knowing. I hope to enable excellent exam grades (and am confident of doing so) at the same time as encouraging a love of learning. Perhaps this is a touch idealistic and I accept others may not feel the same, but it is a foundation of why I enjoy teaching and tutoring.

Tutoring Experience

As previously mentioned, my experience as a teacher, senior examiner and role as Lead English Expert mean I am uniquely qualified to help students understand the demands of the exams. This, tied in with my role as a day to day classroom teacher, means I appreciate the current educational climate. I have further qualifications in Education, including a Masters of Teaching from the Institute of Education, London. I have tutored for a significant period of time with excellent success, which my references reflect.

Tutoring Approach

Approaches to tuition depend on the student but an hour will typically include discussion and questioning, me modelling/demonstrating possible approaches and then allowing a tutee time to deliberately practise what we have been working on.

I will have something prepared for a lesson but am more than happy to change things altogether if it is required by a tutee and help in whatever way is most useful. Early lessons are spent ascertaining areas of strength and development and then tailoring things further from thereon.

I am friendly and engaging and find that building a rapport with students is helpful. This is best done, in addition to just generally being an 'all right' person, by getting a tutee to feel confident, achieved by them knowing their stuff and allowing for lots of practice.