Nick

I have worked for fifteen years as a teacher at one of the country’s most successful selective state schools for boys and at an independent school for girls. I have extensive experience in assisting young people both as an English teacher, a tutor and a mentor. I love writing as much as the analytical process of deconstructing and disassembling texts, and my many students’ outstanding academic results are a testament to my skill in teaching these techniques. My main aim has always been to create fun, amusing and engaging lessons, whilst fostering a sense of keen intellectual curiosity in my students; I will give your child the confidence to scrutinise texts with a wide range of technical approaches at whatever stage they may be at in their secondary education or beyond.

I’m available for face-to-face tutoring Monday-Thursday between 10am and 3pm in Tolworth, Surbiton and Kingston-upon-Thames. I have various online slots available during weekday evenings.

Tutoring Experience

As a full-time teacher and Subject Leader for English at Tiffin School, I was privileged to work with a cohort of students from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, many of whom did not speak English as their first language. My students’ results, as with those of my colleagues, were outstanding, and GCSE results for the 2017 academic year were excellent, especially in the light of the challenging new syllabus (96.45% achieved Levels 9-5 in English Language, and 97.16% achieved Levels 9-5 in English Literature). Only 3.2% of Literature papers were awarded the top Level 9 nationally, and just 2.2% for Language, so I am particularly proud of how several of my students achieved this remarkably rare and prestigious result.

I have taught A-Level throughout the course of my academic career, and most of my students have gone on to top Russell Group universities including Oxford and Cambridge. I have a high degree of expertise in teaching literary theory, and I thoroughly enjoy teaching my students how to apply critical perspectives to texts in a scholarly and inventive manner.

I really like teaching students at Key Stage 3, and I have always found that pupils aged 11 to 14 are brimming with imagination and creativity – and these are some of the special qualities that I will always try and harness and refine whilst tutoring your child. In my role as Subject Leader of English at Tiffin School, I monitored student attainment, and strove to ensure that every KS3 student had the help they needed to flourish – and this is reflected in the ‘outstanding’ rating that my last school achieved via the government’s new Progress 8 measures.

I have extensive knowledge of teaching students with Special Educational Needs, and I have worked fruitfully with many young people with autism. In addition to this, I am very effective in helping students who speak English as an additional language, and I have always endeavoured to make them excellent and technically robust communicators.

I was also a sixth form tutor for ten years, so I have a detailed knowledge of the UCAS procedure, and I am very happy to help your child form, revise and perfect their personal statement so that it gives them the best possible chance for success when it is submitted to the admissions tutors.

Tutoring Approach

The core of my approach to tutoring is about giving the student the skills and confidence to analyse texts thoughtfully and independently whilst enjoying the challenge for its own sake. I am a friendly and good-humoured tutor who will always be working on your child’s ability to speak and write with clarity, decisiveness and academic rigour. The best writers, literary critics and analysers of texts have always been those students who are courageous and bold enough to mesh their own ideas with the wisdom of others, and it will be my pleasure to encourage your child to achieve this too.